Live Music

Don’t think that skiing all day means you can’t dance all night.

By Samantha Simma

MANY NIGHT CAPS in Jackson Hole cater to your sense of sound, with a range of genres presented by local musicians. Whether you’d like to twirl around the Silver Dollar’s downtown dance floor to bluegrass or dance to DJ tunes in Wilson, you can easily find a beat for your feet to follow. And while one of the Jackson music scene’s largest venues recently closed its curtain (RIP Pink Garter Theatre), this nighttime pastime will not go quietly. Times listed below are for when there is live music; for the full opening times of each bar, and current Covid-19 closures and restrictions, check out its website.

MANGY MOOSE
The Mangy Moose Saloon is the king of the music scene in Teton Village, with at least one live show every day all winter long. Some days, it will have two shows—a local artist playing for après-ski and a bigger artist doing a late show (sometimes the touring act will play both shows). It’s not just the constancy that makes the Moose the place for live music in Teton Village. The range of music you can hear here is as eclectic as its decor. (And its decor includes a stuffed moose hanging from the ceiling.) The après lineup changes each season, but, once the season gets going, it’s often the same from week to week. Expect acts to range from soloists to bands, including Major Zephyr, Whiskey Mornin’, and Canyon Kids. Touring acts have included Hell’s Belles, Trout Steak Revival, and The Motet. Après-ski is free; touring acts from $25; daily from 4–7 p.m., special acts usually start at 9 p.m.; 3295 Village Dr., Teton Village; 307/733-4913; mangymoose.com

THE MILLION DOLLAR COWBOY BAR
The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar is hard to miss and definitely shouldn’t be by music enthusiasts. The talent on stage is constantly changing but is mostly regional acts that fall within the country or country rock genres, including the Walker Williams Band, The Linfords, and Nathan Dean & The Damn Band. This commitment to country is occasionally interrupted by local groove band Sneaky Pete & the Secret Weapons. But even though the music these nights isn’t country, the bar’s interior remains very much so—with taxidermy animals displayed behind plexiglass and hanging above the bar, Western saddles as barstools, and an excess of knobby pine. From $5 for those without a Teton County, Wyoming, or Idaho ID; Sunday–Wednesday  8 p.m.–12 a.m. and  9 p.m.–1 a.m. Thursday–Saturday; 25 N. Cache St.; 307/733-2207; milliondollarcowboybar.com

WORT HOTEL’S SILVER DOLLAR SHOWROOM
Swing into the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Showroom for live music Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. Bluegrass band One Ton Pig has owned Tuesday nights here for the past twelve years, creating a tradition known as Bluegrass Tuesdays. Other evenings you’ll likely hear country or folk, but the Silver Dollar—so named for the 2,032 uncirculated 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars inlaid in its bar—keeps things interesting with the occasional jam or rock band, or even a big name band on a national tour. These “Showroom Sessions” have included Steve Wariner, Mac McAnally, and Larry Gatlin. Tuesdays, Thursdays–Saturdays 7:30–11 p.m.; 50 Glenwood St.; 307/732-3939; worthotel.com/silver-dollar-bar

STAGECOACH BAR
The Stagecoach Bar hosts two very different evenings of music. Sunday nights the Stagecoach Band plays country to a crowd two-stepping around the dance floor. Thursday nights a DJ—sometimes even former Jackson mayor Pete Muldoon—hosts Disco Night, where ski bums bring their best ’70s moves. Each night has an amazingly dedicated following of locals, and visitors looking to get an authentic taste of Jackson Hole life should hit both. If you have to pick just one though, make it Sunday night. The Stagecoach Band is believed to be the longest continuously running house band performing today in the U.S. It played its first show at the ’Coach in February 1969 and has only missed a few Sundays since (usually when Christmas is on a Sunday)—that’s more than 2,600 shows. While Disco Night’s history can’t match this, it has been a Jackson institution since the 1990s. Stagecoach Band, 6–10 p.m. Sunday, Disco Night, 10 p.m.–2 a.m. Thursday; 5755 W. Hwy 22, Wilson; 307/733-4407; stagecoachbar.net

DORNAN’S SPUR BAR
Moose Junction is quiet in the winter because the majority of Grand Teton National Park is closed, but the exception is Monday nights, when Dornan’s Spur Bar hosts the Hootenanny. (Sound like a local and call it the Hoot.) An open-mic night of sorts, the Hoot has existed since the 1950s and has been held at Dornan’s for more than twenty-five years. (In its earliest days, when it was still only an informal jam session among friends, it was held beneath the Snake River bridge in Moose.) The Hoot welcomes local musicians to showcase a song or two on a stage temporarily erected opposite the bar. Hoot cofounder Bill Briggs was originally inspired by the music making of Dick Barker, the Hoot’s other cofounder, around a Jenny Lake campground campfire. “It was, for me, a great experience, the real thing—exactly what music making should be,” Briggs says. Now the Hoot is a “traditional gathering of acoustic music makers, each trying to make it the real thing without the campfire and yet sometimes achieving just that, which is an all-too-rare privilege for both the performer and his focused listeners.” Free, 6–9 p.m. Monday, 12170 Dornans Rd., Moose; 307/733-2415; dornans.com

GRANARY
You need some pretty amazing music to tear your gaze from the views of the Tetons out the expansive windows at the Granary at Spring Creek Ranch, a cozily elegant cocktail lounge and restaurant perched on the side of a butte about 700 feet above the valley floor. Enter jazz pianist Pam Drews Phillips. Phillips, a veteran of Tony Award–winning Broadway and Off-Broadway shows who still pinches herself that she once accompanied the legendary Ella Fitzgerald as a member of the Nelson Riddle Orchestra (in Chicago), has been taking attention from the Granary’s views since 1997. Sometimes she plays solo, other times with friends. “It’s always different,” she says. “When I’m by myself, I go off on a music tangent, but when there are five or six players, that’s a different vibe.” Sometimes there’s even a celebrity appearance; Oprah Winfrey and Reba McEntire have sung with Phillips, and Bruce Hornsby pops by whenever he’s in town. 7–10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 1775 N.E. Butte Rd.; 307/732-8112; springcreekranch.com JH