Everybody remembers the first time they took a trip up to The Merc.
The Jamestown Mercantile is only about 15 miles from Boulder in the mountains, but the vibe is like another planet.
“My favorite thing is to take somebody who doesn’t know Jamestown or The Merc and you get them there and they just smile and say ‘This place is amazing!’” said Chris Sheldon, a member of the band Foggy Mountain Spaceship and longtime Jamestown resident.
“I couldn’t imagine a Jamestown without the Merc. It would kill the town. It would lose its heart and soul.”
That possibility became real this year when the owner of the 134-year-old building announced that the property was for sale. The Merc, which serves as Jamestown’s breakfast table and living room, could be lost as a community gathering place, said Rainbow Shultz, chef and owner of the Jamestown Mercantile Cafe.
“Save the Merc is the informal name of the nonprofit that we formed in Jamestown when we found out that the property was going to be for sale and that our long-time community gathering place was at risk,” Shultz said. “We want to raise the money to secure the property as a community gathering place for art and culture and food and music in the mountains.”
The goal is to raise at least $1 million, but ideally $1.5 million to avoid financing the rest. So far the campaign has raised about $170,000, according to Shultz.
To help close that gap, a stellar lineup of local musicians is coming together for a Nov. 18 benefit concert at the Boulder Theater. The concert was made possible by an anonymous volunteer who donated the Boulder Theater rental fee. The event’s silent auction includes the opportunity to have musicians write custom-made songs for donors.
Building the concert lineup for the event was an easy, organic process, Shultz said.
“I started talking to musicians who are good friends of the Merc like Emma Rose and Daniel Rodriguez and Andy Thorn, plus the River Arkansas and Foggy Mountain Spaceship. And then they talked to their musical friends,” she said.
The lineup also includes Charlie Rose, Lindsay Lou, David Satori, Dave Watts Trio and The Dirty Turkeys.
Chris Sheldon is an unabashed Merc enthusiast.
“The Merc is my favorite place on the planet. I’ve lived up in Jamestown for 25 years and I just love it. Whenever I’m home, I’m hanging out at the Merc as much as I can,” said Sheldon, calling from Medford, Oregon, where he was on tour with the jamband Steely Dead.
“I play a different place across the country almost every night and there’s nothing like The Merc. That was where Foggy Mountain Spaceship played our first show.”
The Longmont-born Foggy Mountain Spaceship is a groundbreaking power trio. Sheldon plays drums on the Banjotron Acoustikit 2000. Chris Elliott plays a 5-string banjo with Kyle Ussery on bass, banjo bass and banjo synth.
“Chris the banjo player, and Kyle, have been noodling around in the garage writing tunes. They knew I had this banjo drum instrument at home. And they asked me to come play with them,” Sheldon said.
It’s a banjo-heavy ensemble, but the fusion music they play is not bluegrass, no matter how you stretch the definition.
“Bela Fleck turned me on to how cool an instrument the banjo is. We think of Foggy Mountain Spaceship as a relative of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It is an out-of-this-world music band that happens to involve instruments that look like banjos,” Sheldon said.
Foggy Mountain Spaceship is a side project and doesn’t play a lot of shows. “Most people know us from our animated videos. That’s all Kyle, our bass player. His day job is being a video guy. We shoot them all in his garage.”
The band’s animated videos have attracted comments from viewers around the world in multiple languages.
“We did get to open for Marty Stuart at the Country Music Hall of Fame last year because he saw our “Riders on the Storm” video and called his agent,” Sheldon added.
When Leftover Salmon banjoist Andy Thorn, a longtime Jamestown resident, joins the band, there will be four banjos onstage at the benefit show.
“It’s a really cool, eclectic night of local music ranging from a DJ set to bluegrass and rock,” Shultz said.
Save the Merc Benefit
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18
Where: Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder
Performers: Daniel Rodriguez, Emma Rose, Charlie Rose, bluegrass star Lindsay Lou, David Satori (of Beats Antique and Dirtwire), Foggy Mountain Spaceship with Andy Thorn (of Leftover Salmon), The River Arkansas, Dave Watts Trio and The Dirty Turkeys.
Tickets: Boulder Theater ticket sales or the theater box office.
Donations: Contributions are tax-deductible. Learn more at savethemerc.org.
