The Mountain-Ear Podcast

In this episode, the host reads Some Words for the Week, poems written throughout the month of October 2025 by Alexander Shalom Joseph. Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages are linked below. If you...

Denver-based folk-grass musician Mark May first picked up a guitar at nine years old. Since then, he’s developed his performance and songwriting, graduating from Fort Lewis College in 2016 with a music business degree. Playing music has helped May personally throughout his life, allowing him to express himself and find solace in his and others’ music. He was born hard of hearing in his left ear, b...

Shey is a years-long labor of love. She’s a 4-3/4 ton lion sculpture crafted by hand from Lyons Pink sandstone. What better place for her to settle than Bohn Park in Lyons? Sculptor Kimmerjae Macarus found the original 8-ton sandstone block in a stoneyard where she worked during her time in landscape design. The block has been in her life for over a decade, ever since she discovered it before the...

In a brand-new segment format for The Mountain-Ear Podcast, new team member Tyler Hickman brings us a conversation between Mountain Man's John Thompson and The Mountain-Ear's Chris Kelly about the aftermath of the Lakeview Fire. Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mounta...

When he first bought a house in Colorado, Jim Heekin built a studio in his new basement. Having played in various bands while living in Brooklyn, he wanted to build musical momentum in his new home. From there, he made connections with other musicians in the area. Slowly, a lineup of people developed, and by 2013, the group had cemented itself as the lineup of a new project, Sun Jr. Heekin provide...

A second-generation Boulderite and a resident of Gold Hill for over 40 years, Leslie Finn has a strong connection to Colorado. Her husband, Christopher, owns the Gold Hill Inn with his family, who bought the property in 1962. Christopher serves as the chief of the Gold Hill Fire Department, for which Leslie has volunteered for the Gold Hill Fire Department for over 36 years, and she works as a cle...

The nonprofit Advocates for Recovery Colorado has been serving as a Recovery Community Organization since 2001, focusing on recovery solutions rather than addiction challenges. For the last year, they’ve been developing their latest program for Colorado. In January 2025, Sean Hedden was hired as the regional manager of the new Foothills program, which focuses on Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Jefferson...

Tyler Ballantyne has always loved music, but he didn’t start playing seriously until his college years. Around that time, he became obsessed with Dave Matthews, particularly his right hand—the way he played rhythm guitar. Ballentyne bought a guitar, and he says that at the time, he learned about half of one of Matthews’ songs and otherwise strummed it to play songs like “Take Me Home, Country Road...

In this Audio Library segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast, journalist Christopher Kelley reads the fourth and final part of his account of the mining history of Nederland, Colorado! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to p...

In this Audio Library segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast, journalist Christopher Kelley reads the third part of his account of the mining history of Nederland, Colorado! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additi...

The Two Tracks has developed its sound as a band for nearly ten years now. The band recorded their self-titled debut in 2016 and is set to release their fifth album in 2026. Julie Huebner, singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist, formed the band with drummer Fernando “Fred” Serna in 2013. The band cycled through many players before recording their first album, with Julie’s husband Dave joining th...

In this episode, the host reads Some Words for the Week, poems written throughout the month of September 2025 by Alexander Shalom Joseph. Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages are linked below. If y...

In this special segment, regular correspondent Maryann Rosen takes us through the Peak to Peak region to find activities for the month of October to take full advantage of the spooky season! Also included is a mini-segment with Daisza Caldwell, market manager of the Nederland Farmers Market, talking about the upcoming Harvest Festival! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagne...

Alex Mackenzie-Low first put a band together in 2013, near the end of his time studying music business and recording arts at CU Denver. He put the band together in order to create an album of original songs, and the group grew from there. The group was originally named A-Mac DZ, a nickname Alex received in high school. Ultimately, the band rebranded to A-Mac and The Height, a name more representat...

For many, music is a way of coping with difficult feelings. The joy and comfort that music brings is generational, and Jeremy Garrett knows that intimately. That’s mainly thanks to his father, Glen, the first president of the Idaho Bluegrass Association. Around the age of 12, Glen’s parents bought him a guitar after their dog passed away. He found solace in this guitar, embracing bluegrass music a...

Join regular correspondent Maryann Rosen as she continues her journey through the Peak-to-Peak area! In this segment, she discusses the history and stories of Idaho Springs, Allenspark, Raymond, Lily Lake, and Estes Park! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, f...

This segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast contains a complete audiobook recording of the book Moonsongs, written by Jane Wodening as a way to let her "keep in touch with a big world while living in that narrow canyon" in Fraser, Colorado (quote from a Conversations.org interview). The book is read by Wodening herself in a recording that has never been heard before. Special thanks to Janet...

Brent Warren could be considered a modern-day Renaissance man. He’s a singer-songwriter, an author, an illustrator, a magician, a comedian, and a filmmaker. One of his projects spawned from a dual love – the shared love between two locals of a historical aircraft. That dual love culminated in Warren’s major undertaking as a filmmaker, the hour-long documentary Marvin’s Fly’n Boat . Warren and Nede...

Alex Randall and Theo Snead have been close friends since college. They’ve always played music together, but they initially didn’t perform as a band. That all changed when Randall decided to sell his Fender Deluxe amp after he settled in Boulder. The first person to pick it up was Casey Romeo, and the two started to jam together. Snead moved from living alone in Austin, Texas, to living with Randa...

In this Audio Library segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast, journalist Christopher Kelley reads the second part of his account of the mining history of Nederland, Colorado!  Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Addi...

During his time at Colorado State University, now having experience on the bass and on acoustic guitar, Graham Good wrote songs in his dorm room. Meeting a few friends at a local funk jam, they invited him over to jam with them on his bass. Good told his friends he had some acoustic songs and suggested playing them with the group. Once they played the songs together, Good felt an instant connectio...

In this Audio Library segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast, journalist Christopher Kelley reads the first part of his account of the mining history of Nederland, Colorado! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additi...

In this segment of The Mountain-Ear Podcast, host Jamie Lammers brings you Some Words for the Week, written by Alexander Shalom Joseph during the month of August 2025. Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additiona...

In the first podcast segment for this September, Maryann Rosen brings us local culture and history to celebrate the upcoming start of Hispanic Heritage Month! Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record  Better off Dead  here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages a...

Lindsey Wall has particularly connected with the dead nettle. Having worked with flowers since she was in high school, she saw a dead nettle growing out of the concrete during a winter walk in Nashville. Fascinated by its fierce and strong yet soft qualities, along with realizing that the name “dead nettle” sounds almost like “death metal,” Wall has since embraced Dead Nettle as her stage name. Pa...