Noticias

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NORWOOD — Hear that? Described as “If Bill Monroe and Emmylou Harris road-tripped to Burning Man and then moved to the mountains to ski, you would have Pixie and the Partygrass Boys,” the genre-bending band is the first artist announced for the 2025 Music on the Mesa Two Concert Series.

Organizer Daiva Chesonis, a Norwood local, said she’s excited to welcome the band back for a June 15 show at the Pig Palace.

“They are a five-piece band — two of them are ladies,” Chesonis said. “They all originated as ski bums playing house parties in Salt Lake City in Cottonwood Canyon, and they’ve kind of evolved into a touring band. They’ve been on the road extensively since 2018 when their debut EP came out, called Utah Made. They kind of do the festival circuit — High Sierra Music Festival, JamGrass, they’ve been to Rocky Dell Fest. And they’ve also supported lots of musical greats like Billy Strings, the Infamous Stringdusters, Grace Potter, Brothers Comatose, Lake Street Dive. They’re cutting their teeth, and I consider them — basically the first concert is sassy, fiddle, storming youngsters.”

Music on the Mesa began as an idea in 2019 and came to life last year, Chesonis said. The free concert series is rooted in community.

“I call them picnic concerts,” she said. “Like last year, for these Sunday afternoons, the gates open at 4:30 p.m. There’s food and vendors in the Pig Palace, there’s a robust kids zone — cornhole alley, yard games, cash bar. The music starts at 7, so that’s kind of like two and a half hours of leisurely pre-show picnicking, catching up with old friends, making new ones.

“Last year I just loved looking around the venue and — oh my gosh — there are career ranchers shooting the breeze with career ski patrollers. We’ve got farmers dancing with SMART bus drivers. We have grandpas and face-painted grandkids sharing blankets. One of the best compliments I heard from a lot of Telluride folk was, ‘This feels like Bluegrass Year 7.’”

The event is entirely free, thanks to support from local sponsors. Chesonis produces the concerts alongside Rob Miller of Pickin’ Productions, who helps with artist booking. But there’s more than just music at the Pig Palace, Chesonis said.

“The vendors — it’s all local offerings, from in-the-moment henna art and handmade jewelry to tallow-based health products made right there on Wright’s Mesa,” she said. “Even houseplants — and those will be offered by the 4-H kids. So you might come home with a succulent or something — you never know.”

As for the second show in the series, Chesonis said things are going to get funky on Aug. 10.

“We kind of get funky in August — it’s a little bit more down-homey, rootsy,” she said. “We kick up the dust in June, but I think in August this is going to be our pattern — we get funky.”

The August concert will feature Electro Lust, a five-piece band with one female vocalist and deep ties to Asheville, North Carolina’s Grammy-winning music scene.

“All these band members have been in other bands like Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Fritz, Empire Strikes Brass, and the Marcus King Band,” Chesonis said. “So they’ve got a lot of experience on their own and they’ve come together as this group. They kind of take us from a Miami nightclub to a Brazilian beach to the vibrant chaos of Cuban streets — all the while auditioning an eclectic hip-hop mixtape, which pretty much makes all ages just get up and dance and get funky.”

Music on the Mesa’s first concert is June 15, featuring Pixie and the Partygrass Boys. The second show is set for Aug. 10 with Electro Lust. Both take place at the Pig Palace in Norwood and are free and open to the public.

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