For live music, it doesn't get any better than Belly Up Aspen. This intimate (450-person capacity), smoke-free, all-ages venue provides a spot for musical talents including Ben Harper, B.B. King, ZZ Top, G Love, Blues Traveler, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Gomez, Wyclef Jean, and The Pretenders to jam. While you're there, take advantage of two full bars and a menu that offers handmade brick-oven pizzas, hamburgers, veggie burgers, fish tacos, and more.

Today Aspen's Wheeler Opera House is home to a variety of movies, lectures, concerts, and festivals-including the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival each June. Recently, big names such as The Eagles, Sheryl Crow, Jerry Seinfeld, and Oprah have entertained on the historic stage. The theater was the talk of the mining town when it opened in 1889, complete with rich Moroccan leather seats, a deep blue ceiling studded with silver stars, and a breathtaking chandelier. But then it endured tough times, including a shutdown after the 1893 silver market crash and a string of 1912 fires that left it abandoned and near ruins. After Aspen's revival, the renovated opera house opened again in 1984-and has been a premier entertainment venue ever since.

Paul Buechler has performed in the Roaring Fork Valley for years, presently as lead guitarist for Straight Shot. In addition to teaching the full range of rock and pop music, Paul specializes in jazz and classical styles. He has taught guitar for more than ten years. Paul's formal music training includes classical guitar study with Hugh Geoghegan at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts; jazz study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston; and a master's in music theory from the Yale University School of Music.

Sandy Munro has taught guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle for the past thirty years. In addition Sandy taught bluegrass and old-time classes at Colorado Mountain College in Aspen. And he's still the longest-serving teacher at the RockyGrass Academy at Planet Bluegrass, bringing his multi-instrument experience and infectious enthusiasm to bluegrass academy participants. When he's not teaching, Sandy performs with the Flying Dog Bluegrass Band and the Crowlin Ferlies, a Celtic/Old-Time Band.