Steamboat Pilot & Today

Grateful Dead tribute act Shakedown Street will continue its tradition of closing out the summer in north Eagle County on Friday and Saturday, though the concert location has changed.

Shakedown Street originally was scheduled to play at the historic State Bridge Lodge, an outdoor venue and camping area just south of the Routt and Eagle county borders that has been closed since a fire in June 2007. But complications with permits and logistics postponed "State Bridge Lives," a two-day outdoor music festival scheduled for July 25 and 26. The event was rescheduled for Sept. 11 to 13 and has since been canceled.

Drummer Jake Wolf said the show has moved to The Wolcott Yacht Club.

"This is for sure happening," Wolf said.

Shakedown Street plays an acoustic set at 5:30 p.m. Friday, and electric shows starting at about 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Wolcott venue. Tickets cost $10 in advance and are available at www.wolcottyachtclub.com. Founding Shakedown Street members Ted Galloway and Rick Starkey will join Wolf and keyboardist Joe Weisiger. Rob Eaton, a Colorado resident and guitarist for Grateful Dead-inspired band Dark Star Orchestra, also will play.

Wolf said he chose The Wolcott Yacht Club for an end-of-summer concert to offer a boost to the outdoor music venue, which Yacht Club co-owner Shawn McMenamy said has been struggling financially. Wolf said he's arranged affordable limo transportation back to the Vail Valley and bus transportation to State Bridge campsites after the Shakedown Street shows.

"It's a really good final push for us to generate some revenue," McMenamy said. He and some partners took over ownership of the Yacht Club, which has been in business for more than 20 years, in May. Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe starts a weekend of music with a zydeco concert and barbecue from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday at The Wolcott Yacht Club.

State Bridge under contract

State Bridge Lodge - the historic site and outdoor concert venue Wolf said hosted Shakedown Street's most recent appearance in north Eagle County, on Memorial Day weekend in 2007 - went under contract in early July.

Listing broker Mike Devins, of RE/MAX Vail Valley, said the buyer solidified that contract Friday. Doug Moog, president of Doog Music LLC, is the buyer, said Moog's broker, Bonnie Lyn Carroll. Moog's contract on the property is scheduled to close by the end of September, Carroll said.

Doug Moog is related to Robert Moog, whose Moog Music analog and digital synthesizers are a leading name in electronic musical instruments. He is involved with The Kent Stage, Carroll said; Kent Stage is a historic downtown music venue run by the Western Reserve Folk Arts Association in Kent, Ohio.

If Moog closes on the property, the proposed plan is to bring live music back to State Bridge, Carroll said. Before that could happen, the property's owner and operators would need to start zoning and permitting processes, she said.

"We have to start from square one, and the idea is to bring back music and bring life into it and resurrect what everyone loved about State Bridge," Carroll said. Any possible plans to re-establish State Bridge as a music or lodging site are rudimentary until the deal closes, she said.

"We have to go through the proper channels of going back and going through zoning and getting the proper mass gathering permits and so on," Carroll said. "It's a project, and it's a labor of love."