Otis Taylor's second annual Trance Blues Festival slated for Thanksgiving weekend

Len Irish

​Move over, tryptophan: Thanksgiving has found a much better bedfellow, one that will put you in a trance but won't necessarily leave you listless, laying on the couch. Behold Otis Taylor's Trance Blues Jam Festival, featuring Otis Taylor, of course, along with "Steady Rollin" Bob Margolin, Tony Trischka, Don Vappie. Slated to take place Thanksgiving weekend, Friday, November 25 through Sunday, November 27 at the Boulder Outlook Hotel and the Boulder Theater, the festival will feature workshops culminating with a trance jam led by Taylor.

Taylor founded the festival last year sort of on a whim. Finding himself back at home in Boulder for the holiday season, the lauded bluesman decided to host an impromptu blues workshop and jam at the Boulder Outlook Hotel, and with very little promotion, ended up attracting more than fifty fans, musicians, singers and teachers.

This year, he's expanded the concept by tapping other artists to help him host the workshops and participate in an all inclusive jam at the Boulder Theater, in which workshop attendees can put what they've learned into practice.

Eventually, Taylor hopes for the concept to spread to venues all across Boulder, with jam sessions being the focal point of the festival, with people creating different kinds of music together as a community rather than coming out to see specific artists.

Tickets for the event, which range from $10 for Friday night's Pre-Trance Blues Jam to $80 for the full-day Saturday pass, go on sale on Monday, August 15, at TranceBluesFestival.com.

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