On day two of FanX 2023, we enjoyed wrestling, met local comic book creators and artists and enjoyed the fine dining outside the Salt Palace.
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Bjorn's Brew, Pup Cups Cafe, and Tinker Cat Cafe as all brewing up for than just coffee - they are making things better for rescue animals.
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Having just returned from a tour of the United Kingdom and Europe, Nels Cline was preparing for an unusual undertaking for his band, Wilco, when he called for a mid-September interview. “We are actually going to do something very uncharacteristic, which is we’re going to rehearse for the tour,” the guitarist revealed. The reason for this abnormality is the fall tour of the states. It will be the band’s first outing in support of “Cousin,” the album Wilco is set to release on Sept. 29.
“We haven’t played these songs live yet,” Cline said, noting only one song from the new album was performed on the UK/Europe tour. “We try to avoid having a bunch of You Tube versions of the songs before anyone’s heard the album.”
While Cline noted the band has run through stripped back versions of some of the “Cousin” songs, “there’s still plenty to address and plenty of sound design in my case to address because, as we tend to do in Wilco, we want to reproduce the tones and textures as closely as possible, as faithfully as possible, I guess I should say. That’s probably going to take a little work on this one.”
One thing the band won’t do is use backing tracks to cover any sounds the six members of Wilco can’t find a way to play live. “Oh God, no, we won’t be doing that,” Cline said emphatically. Cline and his bandmates need to get up to speed with playing the songs from “Cousin” because the members weren’t together for the bulk of the recording.
With fellow artist Cate Le Bon brought in to produce the album—the first time Wilco had used an outside producer for an album since the 2007 album “Sky Blue Sky”—the plan wasn’t to record live as a band in Wilco’s Chicago studio space, the Loft. All six band members (singer/guitarist/band leader Jeff Tweedy, Cline, keyboardist/guitarist Pat Sansone, drummer Glenn Kotche, bassist John Stirratt and keyboardist Mike Jorgensen) only convened for a short initial session before the real work on the album commenced.
“Cate was really desiring to make a more layered record and not so much a live record,” Cline said. “So we came in individually after the first session. I worked for two days with Cate one on one, while Jeff (Tweedy) was there and Tom Schick, our beloved engineer, was there at the Loft.”
This instrument-by-instrument approach to the recording is readily apparent in listening to “Cousin.” Where Wilco’s previous album, 2022’s “Cruel Country,” was a rather lean, acoustic-led country-rooted affair, “Cousin” is a full-bodied work that incorporates a kaleidoscopic range of instrumentation and sounds to create a far different kind of album than its predecessor.
Perhaps the most sonically ambitious moment comes on “Infinite Surprise,” the opening song on “Cousin.” The track builds from spare guitar/vocal verses into a swirl of pillowy synthetic sounds, accented with edgy elements courtesy of Cline’s fuzzed up guitar and the squalling saxophone parts from guest Euan Hinshelwood. “Sunlight Ends” makes effective use of an echoey rhythm track, seemingly random twinkling notes and washes of synth-like tones to make what could have been an intimate ballad a grander, more colorful experience. The thwacking drum tone on the title track, coupled with shimmery guitars that dart in and out around the vocals, turn what could have been a fairly monochromatic song into a multi-hued, yet edgy, adventure.
By and large, the other songs aren’t quite as production forward, but have plenty of sonic treats built around the consistently inviting vocal melodies and steady, unobtrusive tempos that anchor these songs. “Evicted” is embellished by sparkly guitar parts and the pleasantly bent lead guitar lines, while “Levee” has a dreamy atmosphere that adds a mystical quality to the song. “Meant To Be” is enhanced by airy textures that provide a nice contrast in this otherwise driving pop-rock song.
The album’s overall feel is something a bit different for Wilco, Cline observed. “When I heard the mixes, I realized that there were certain things in the mixes, like a certain amount of reverb or certain contrasts between dry and wet that were different from the way Jeff and Tom, for example, would work,” he said. “I think that’s what people are going to kind of respond to sonically with the record and it’s kind of what people are talking about.”
“Cousin” is likely to remind long-time Wilco fans of 2002’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and 2004’s “A Ghost Is Born,” which were sonically dynamic, quite experimental albums that turned the more straight-forward roots-pop sound of the band’s first three albums on its head and established Wilco as one of rock’s most musically fearless and adventurous acts.
The recording sessions with Le Bon marked a key phase in a process that began in 2019, as Tweedy began writing and sharing demos for some of his new songs with his bandmates. It was a prolific period of writing for Tweedy – something that is not unusual for the singer/guitarist, who formed the original lineup of Wilco in 1994 after the demise of his previous band, the trailblazing alt-country/rock band Uncle Tupelo.
When the easing of the pandemic allowed all six members of Wilco to finally convene at the Loft, it became clear the band had two distinctly different albums in play. Eager to enjoy playing together as a band, the more country-oriented material was recorded first, mostly live off the floor, for the 21-song “Cruel Country” album, while the other more art-pop oriented songs were saved for what became the “Cousin” album.
Cline continues to be impressed with Tweedy’s songwriting output and his ability to unlock fresh ideas in the writing and production of Wilco albums. The songwriting, he noted, has increasingly become a solitary endeavor for Tweedy, as the last time the other band members collaborated to significant degrees on the songs was on the 2011 album “The Whole Love.”
“Especially on the last few records, it’s Jeff’s world and we live in it,” Cline said. “I mean, he wants to make records that don’t sound alike. He doesn’t use the same methodology sometimes at all as the previous record. Also, everybody in the band except for me at one point lived in Chicago. Now only Glenn and Jeff do, so that changes the way a record gets made, too. It could be frustrating for Jeff sometimes, I don’t know. But certainly, Jeff is somebody who enjoys making records and he pushes himself, I think, conceptually and even sonically to not get stuck and not do the same things again and again. Then the rest of us just try to make that work and do what makes him happy.”
For now, much of Tweedy’s focus will be on Wilco’s live shows. The band’s set lists change from show to show, as Tweedy expends considerable effort mixing and matching songs from the band’s 13 albums. Wilco shines live, as many of the songs grow more potent live and the interplay of the six musicians is even more readily apparent. Cline is not the boastful type, but he likes what he and his bandmates do in concert (double meaning intended).
“We endeavor in live performance to play 100 percent hot (good) shows. And I feel like we pretty much do, so there’s satisfaction in that,” Cline said, noting he feels Wilco is more of a rocking outfit live. “Overall, I think we go to bed after the show thinking ‘Well, that was good.’ And that’s a good feeling, to have pride in one’s work.”
Meet local authors like Kyle Shoop at FanX, held Sept. 21–23 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in SLC.
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We at Salt Lake magazine understand. Yes a cocktail is a preprandial activity. It should be stiff and assertive. It’s not some thing you drink all night. A cocktail should pack a punch. However, as you’ll see in our 2023 Farm-to-Glass cocktail contest, and when you go to taste these lovely concoctions yourself, there are ways. High-proof starter spirits from Sugar House and Beehive Distilleries and a pallet of “frontier strength” boozes imported meticulously from a curated list from nonetheless than Libations LLC’s Francis Fecteau. Here is the truth. A cocktail should be bracing. A glass of something you’ve never tasted in a way you’ve never tasted it. A cocktail ought to be the beginning of an adventure.
On Sept. 18 hosted at Market Street Grill & Cottonwood Heights, our 20 participating bartenders came together to offer tastes of their (fingers-crossed) winning creations. We’d like to thank everyone who joined us in celebrating and mingling with Salt Lake’s robust mixology community. Now, let the sipping and voting commence! This year’s contest will run through Oct. 31st, and we’ll be announcing winners at the start of November. You can find all the participants and their entries, and vote for your favorite, here!
Photography by Natalie Simpson, Beehive Photo & Video
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Thank you to our 2023 Farm-to-Glass Sponsors
Table X Sourdough is the perfect vehicle for delivering late summer veggies straight to your mouth. Or eating warm with cultured butter.
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Buddy Guy appeared at Red Butte Garden for the last time on Monday, September 11, 2023. The 87-year-old Bluesman walked out on stage in his signature polka dot outfit (his mother loved polka dots) and assured us that he could play all night. To reassure us the blues will remain in good hands, he included Christone “Kingfish” Ingram as part of his Damn Right Farewell tour. He opened with “Damn Right, I Got The Blues,” from his Grammy-winning album of the same name. For his second song, he played “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man,” an enduring classic by his mentor Muddy Waters (and written by the prolific songwriter Willie Dixon).
But, before he decommissioned his tour bus, he offered up one final lesson in blues history. The stories he told in between songs gave us a glimpse of those important moments—including one where Mick Jagger refused to do the American TV program Shindig unless they brought on Muddy Waters too. Much to Jagger’s horror, the show staffers had never heard of Waters (the Rolling Stones owe their name to one of his songs). White American audiences knew nothing about these Chicago Blues titans the British were imitating. Guy then played another Waters song “She Nineteen Years Old.”
The blues standards continued when Guy lit up the crowd with “Fever,” a 1950s hit for Little Willie John that Guy covered in 1968, followed by “I Let My Guitar Do The Talking.” It certainly did.
The music lesson was just getting started. I struggled to keep up with the barrage of blues classics he added to the mix. He jammed with “ I Just Want To Make Love To You,” yet another Dixon-penned classic covered by everybody including Waters, Etta James, and Foghat. Tucked into his guitar licks, he interjected a few bars of Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze,” before finally landing on Bobby Rush’s “Chicken Heads.”
After the thrilling ride, we still had a ways to go. Guy launched into “Drowning on Dry Land,” and moved through another medley with “Cheaper To Keep Her.” Afterward, he set his guitar on an instrument storage case, and using a drumstick as a slide, played the signature riff of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” which morphed into an excerpt of the Talking Heads’ “Take Me To The River.”
For the rest of the evening, Guy hit us with a dizzying mix of blues standards that blended seamlessly. He started with John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” which melded into Jimmy Reed’s “You Don’t Have To Go,” and ended with Junior Wells’ “Love Her With A Feeling.” I even caught a few lines from Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House” that served as a musical exclamation point.
Kingfish Ingram and Guy’s son Greg joined him on stage to close out the set with an instrumental guitar jam and bid a final goodbye to the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre. This was our last chance to see the blues legend before he winds down his life on the road. Though based on the success of his 2022 record The Blues Don’t Lie, and a recent duet with Ally Venable on “Texas Louisiana,” we probably haven’t heard the last of him.
Chicago Blues is alive and well in the hands of the next generation. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who opened the show with “She Calls Me Kingfish,” is a case in point. He played “Fresh Out,” a 2019 song he recorded with Buddy Guy, and a teaser, “Midnight Heat,” a new song from a soon-to-be-released live album he recorded in London. A full band, featuring drums, bass, and keyboards, accompanied his guitar mastery. For me, the highlight of his terrific six-song set was “Empty Promises,” with its cross-generational bluesy guitar wail that blended “60s psychedelic soul with modern Southern blues. Ingram, at age 24, is one of a growing number of young guitar masters, both male and female, who will carry the blues torch deep into the 21st century.
Who: Buddy Guy w/Christone Kingfish Ingram
What: Damn Right Farewell tour
Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
When: Monday, September 11, 2023
Info: www.redbuttegarden.org
When Repertory Dance Theatre choreographer Natosha Washington came up with the title for her two-part performance Say Their Names, she was unaware of its use as a rallying cry to bring attention to victims of systemic racism and racial injustice in the U.S. “In the past, I have stayed away from anything that was politically charged,” says Washington. But it was 2018 when every night’s top news story was about police brutality or another innocent black person killed by officers. For Washington, the danger came especially close to home. “We had a cousin in Georgia who was gunned down by police—innocent,” she says. “And I could not properly function without addressing it in my body and addressing it in the studio with the dancers—which is technically how Say Their Names came to be.”
Dance Theatre. Photo credit Sharon Kain
In 2020, while developing Part II, Washington says, compared to 2018, “I felt like my experiences, or the things that I’ve been sharing, were suddenly being valued, but it took it being publicized for people to actually hear what I had been saying my entire adult life.” She summarized the feeling with a quip to a friend, “I feel exceptionally black lately.” Washington had also become more engrossed in equity in the workplace. “I think it’s important to make sure that you are sharing space with people who look and think differently than you,” she says.
As the work continues, she’s noticed a need to also surround herself with people who do share some of the same experiences. “And I am needing that and craving that more than I ever have.”
Which brings us to I AM.
I AM, choreographed by Washington for RDT’s 2023 season, is the spiritual sequel to Say Their Names, parts I-II. In discussions with RDT Executive Director Linda Smith and Development Director Nicholas Cendese, Washington wanted broaden the idea of Say Their Names. “And this idea of sharing who I am and my experience as a black woman in the state of Utah.”
In I AM, Washington creates sections that invoke a spectrum of her experiences. The section photographed for Salt Lake magazine channels “a number of ways of loss, not just death, but loss of relationship, loss of community, loss in any way you can think of it,” she says. “Another section will play with this idea of religion.” Washington was raised Mormon in Georgia, but the section in I AM references multiple Christian faiths and nondenominational beliefs.
The section also plays with religious stereotypes, an aspect Washington collaborated on with the dancers, who shared some of their personal experiences. “I could not ask for a more exquisitely beautiful group, as dancers and human beings, to work with. I feel like the story that we are creating together is going to be that much more palatable and beautiful and tangible for the audience,” Washington says.
Washington admits, “Modern dance is weird. As a modern dancer and somebody who got her degree in modern dance, I can say, it’s weird stuff.”
Weird, yes, but not inaccessible. “We’ve got to build a community, so why don’t we create stuff for the audience that they can relate to? And for me, that is through storytelling—talking about you through dance.”
“Charcuterie was my gateway drug” is a sentence I never expected to hear. But in the case of owner and head butcher Philip Grubisa, cured meats led him to learn the intricacies of butchery and to the eventual launch of Beltex Meats. Nine years and multiple awards later, this neighborhood butcher shop offers a hands-on, behind-the-scenes look into whole animal butchery and why it is essential. After taking a break due to the pandemic, Beltex is again offering intimate full-hog breakdown classes. So, of course, I signed up.
“I’m always shocked that people want to show up at a class like this,” says Philip. “I love what I do. But I don’t think it’s some glorified thing. I’m always surprised people not only want to come to class but also that they show up with enthusiasm and energy. We might have an engineer or an architect come. People from all walks of life want to learn about butchery.”
A Slice of Education Mixed With Hands-On Butchery
Classes are small and intimate—no more than ten people, plus Phillip and a couple of other butchers there to support the hands-on portion of the class. Things kicked off with one of the Beltex signature charcuterie boards, and now I firmly believe that all things educational should start with something to snack on.
In the center of the room, laid out on the table, is half a hog, complete with the head. “We do that on purpose,” Phillip says. “It is part of educating people and showing respect for the animal. We aren’t hiding that this is an animal that was alive once. People are far removed from that most of the time. They go to the grocery store, see meat in packages and don’t acknowledge where it comes from.”
Initially, we all gave the center table and the main attraction a wide berth, forming a giant horseshoe around the butcher block. Which is pretty typical, apparently. “Everyone stands far away at first. Maybe they are nervous or haven’t seen something like this before,” says Phillip. “Then, as you talk to the class, you make it relatable. I might say,’ You like pork chops, right? You love bacon, don’t you?’ This is where that cut comes from. And people move a little closer. As the night goes on, as I’m cutting and explaining, interest is growing, and everyone moves in and encircles the hog, which is a good sign. And, by the end, they get hands-on. And people will pick up the saw and feel what it is like.”
Phillip stands behind the table to provide background and education about the decreasing art of whole-animal butchery. He starts talking about the pig itself, pointing out musculature and where different cuts of meat come from. Next, he talks about the lack of waste they produce at Beltex Meats—using everything from the fat, trim, organ meats and even the bones.
Heritage & pastured meat is seasonal
The most challenging thing to educate customers about? The seasonality and limitations of whole animal butchery. “We live in Utah. We have a high desert climate, and we get snow that will coat the ground and our grasses for months,” Phillip says. “So pastured animals aren’t necessarily eating green grass all year. If you want a great local heirloom tomato from your farmer, you won’t get it until the end of August. We have to think of pastured grass and ruminant-eating animals as having a season. They should be thought of equally as we do an heirloom tomato.”
Another frequent question is, “Why don’t you have more…pork chops/chicken today? A picnic butt or that sausage I liked?” Phillip explains, “What is in our case changes daily because we’re butchering every day. We get pork, beef, chicken, lamb, butcher it, and then start selling it all. We save the trim, and on Thursday, we make sausages. But we are a 900-square-foot neighborhood butcher shop. Once we are out, we are out. There are only so many pork chops on a pig. And when you are committed to getting in whole animals, it limits what you sell.” Sometimes people compare the experience to a full-sized grocery store, where pork chops or “pasture-raised” chickens are endlessly available and can be ordered from a large-scale production facility en masse without worrying about everything else that comes attached to the birds or the chops. “We only get local pastured chickens from June to the beginning of October. That’s it.”
A use for everything
Phillip shows us the types of fat on a pig and describes how they are used for different things in different culinary traditions. For example, the soft fat is found around the belly. It’s much softer and renders at a lower temper. It isn’t great for high-heat cooking, but it can be used in pastry dough—like the dough for the Jamaican hand pies they make in the shop. The hard fat is found along the back of the animal. Hard fat finds a home in the salami they make at Beltex Meats. Fat is needed that can hold up to the lengthy drying and fermenting process without rendering. Then there is the leaf lard found around the kidneys and loin, which gets rendered for cooking fat. Every bit is used.
Getting hands-on
Part of the class is an anatomy lesson; the other is very practical—a study in using knives. Phillip starts with key cuts—taking the hog from a hefty 110 pounds to more manageable pieces. He showed us how to find the joints and the spaces between the ribs. There was a saw involved at one point. Everything was done with complete respect for the animal. “When people walk into class, we have the head up front. I do that on purpose,” he explains. “I think it is something people should see. This isn’t just meat. It had a face. Let’s show it a little respect.”
And then we are told to step up, glove up, and get ready to help. Everyone is a little slow to the table and a little cautious with the knife. Here’s the thing, you can’t be cautious or timid when it comes to butchery. The things I didn’t think about or realize before were practical details. The biggest surprise is that butchery is a workout. It isn’t easy. You are handling 100+ pounds of *ahem* dead weight. There is lifting involved. A pork leg alone weighs around 32 pounds. The head is surprisingly heavy.
When it comes to cutting, knives dull fast. Phillip tells us that there was no point in getting expensive knives for butchery—they lose their shape and break no matter what as they constantly run into bone. We had to take breaks to hone our knives (and rest our hands, which got sore). Another surprise was that a bow saw is used for cutting through bone and between joints. It doesn’t take as long as I would have assumed.
Phillip and two other butchers, Steven and Ian from the Beltex team, are there to supervise us. They dole out assignments, showing us how to remove the skin in sheets, work around hip sockets, follow the natural shape of the muscle, and trim silverskin. The extra bits go into a bin for sausage. Cleaned bones are set aside to make bone broth. The skin will get rendered and then fried into chicharrones. After a few minutes, everyone is busy, and all the timidness is gone. But it is still hard. Physically hard. We are probably butchering things (in the other sense of the word), but the Beltex crew is encouraging and generous in answering questions. We are proud of ourselves. Mission accomplished.
At the night’s end, we walked away with several pounds of meat, a story to tell, and, more than anything, an appreciation for the care and craft that goes into the meat case at Beltex.
Beltex Meats offers their 3.5-hour whole hog butchery classes several times a year. The cost is $160 and includes food, instruction and pork to take home. Check beltexmeats.com and Instagram @beltexmeats for information on when the classes will be offered.
One of the most readily made arguments in Utah is the economic one. The pandemic took its toll, of course, but the industry began to recover in 2021. The Utah arts and culture sector represented an $8.1 billion industry in 2021, 3.6% of the state’s GDP and 65,696 jobs (according to Americans For the Arts Action Fund). But the arts in Utah represent more than just the economic contributions. A report by the Utah Culture Alliance (UCA) shows the arts are in Utah’s DNA. We attend more live cultural events and create more art than any other state. And art improves lives. There are benefits to experiencing a multitude of perspectives through participation in the arts. Performing arts, at their core, are ways to tell our stories. Sharing our stories allows us to connect and be understood and, in turn, understand others.
We could all probably use a little more understanding, connection and empathy in our lives. Plus, it’s fun! Get out there, take in a concert and enjoy a dance performance Utah!
Ballet West
Venues: Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre— Salt Lake City
Ballets: Dracula, Firebird and The Nutcracker
Tickets: balletwest.org
Ballet West is kicking off its 60th season with a ballet that is becoming a Utah favorite. Dracula (Oct. 20–28), with a musical score by Franz Liszt, is mysterious, spooky and dramatic, and—oh yeah—it features flying vampires and pyrotechnics. Ballet West follows that with magic, creativity and bombastic pomp. The program includes Firebird (Nov. 3–11), an original piece choreographed by Ballet West’s founder Willam Christensen and set to the sweeping score by Igor Stravinsky, along with a ballet set to John Philip Souza’s Stars & Stripes and the world premiere of Fever Dream, a dream-like ballet by long-term company artist Joshua Whitehead.
Repertory Dance Theatre
Venues: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center—Salt Lake City
Concerts: I AM and VENTURE
Tickets: rdtutah.org
Celebrating 58 years of revolutionary modern dance, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) presents a season with the theme of “community.” This season, RDT acknowledges diverse voices and applauds the common attributes humanity shares while respecting our differences. RDT’s season concerts at the Rose Wagner begin with I AM (Oct. 5-7) by local choreographer Natosha Washington. The premiere of a new 75-minute evening of dance expands upon Washington’s work in Say Their Names, part I (2018), which explores racial divides and human connectivity. Washington’s new iteration promises to deliver an evening of personal storytelling and inspiration through the interplay of her choreography, RDT dancers and guest performers from the Salt Lake community.
Dance Theatre. Photo credit Sharon Kain
VENTURE (Nov. 16–18) is the result of RDT’s commissioning three artists who were part of its past REGALIA choreographic competition events: Rachel Barker (Regalia 2020 competitor), Shane Urton (Regalia 2022 competitor) and Ruger Memmott (Regalia 2023 winner). Additional premieres include a new work by internationally acclaimed Katarzyna Skarpetowska. Special guest performers from RDT’s Prime Performance Workshop will present choreography developed by Meghan Durham Wall, who explores movement and the aging body.
Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company
Venues: The Jeanne Wagner Theater at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center— Salt Lake City
Performances: Groundworks
Season Tickets: ririewoodbury.com
Individual Tickets: saltlakecountyarts.org
Groundworks (Sept. 21-23) launches the Company’s 60th Anniversary performing season. The special performance celebrates the Company’s co-founders, Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, in a retrospective tribute. The program also celebrates Alwin Nikolais, whose groundbreaking choreography played a pivotal role in the formation of Ririe-Woodbury. Guest dancers from BYU’s dance department will join the Company dancers for Nikolais’ Liturgies and Tensile Involvement. Additionally, Artistic Director Daniel Charon will restage his elegant, On Being (2021), which highlights the beauty of the Company dancers. The performances boast dynamic visuals that explore multimedia dances created over many eras of dance-making.
We have even more fall arts previews for the Utah Opera and Symphony, here!
