BLUE SKYE BARN PRESENTS
BLUE SKYE BARN PRESENTS: Music With A Purpose - A Lyons Colorado production company specializing in producing Virtual & Live Multi-Media Events.
Blue Skye Barn Presents’ mission is to provide virtual & live multi-media productions and events featuring “Music with a Purpose,” that facilitate musical collaboration and healing conversation between artists, guests, and crew members to nurture artistic expression, personal growth, and connection. The productions and events function as fundraising platforms that support partnering non-profit organizations and participating artists and crew members who have lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as providing valuable music career mentorship opportunities for younger production techs and musicians.
The Blue Skye Barn, a soundstage, recording/streaming studio is located in Lyons CO on the property of Skye McDonald, the co-owner and promoter of the Northwest String Summit, a premiere Bluegrass and Americana Roots festival that takes place annually in the Pacific Northwest. The Blue Skye Barn production team is a Collective of consummate music, video and live music event production professionals from Lyons and Colorado’s Front Range led by Blue Skye Barn co-producer's Skye McDonald and Arthur Lee Land.
The Blue Skye Barn was constructed in the spring of 2020 in response to the indefinite suspension of live performances and in-person gatherings. It was the venue for the first-ever virtual Northwest String Summit festival. The streamed event included performances by members of Greensky Bluegrass, Infamous Stringdusters, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Leftover Salmon, as well as performances by Bonnie Sims, Daniel Rodriguez (Elephant Revival), Bonnie Paine & Friends (Elephant Revival), Tyler Grant, Burle Galloway and two all-star collaboration sets: Fallen Heroes Session & Twang Is Dead Session led by Blue Skye Barn Musical Director Arthur Lee Land & Friends.
Following the success of the streamed festival, Blue Skye Barn Presents produced a Virtual Rave to the Grave 2020 the 6th annual benefit that supports the Lyons Emergency & Assistance Fund (LEAF), a non-profit organization that provides a community food pantry, basic needs support, resource matching, mental health services, and grants to support musicians and artists who have incurred losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual Rave to the Grave production included a Short-Form Documentary on the history of LEAF and Rave to The Grave that detailed how community members can access the various services provided by LEAF, a fundraising portion, and a two-hour long musical performance by Arthur Lee Land and Friends and a host of musical guests based in Lyons and the Front Range. The event raised over $30,000 for LEAF. The success of the event established Blue Skye Presents’ model of providing a platform for safe, collaborative virtual performances that support participating artists and crew members and raise funds to support non-profit organizations helping those in need.
Blue Skye Barn Presents’ next production was a winter solstice celebration that raised funding for LEAF’s mental wellness and addiction recovery services. The virtual event, A COLORADO HEART(H) WARMING 2020: Songs And Conversations About Navigating the Darkness and Light In These Times, featured performances by Daniel Rodriguez (Elephant Revival) and Emma Rose with Arthur Lee Land and Friends. Additionally, the event facilitated conversations between the artists and LEAF’s psychotherapist, Cherie Maureaux, on their personal experiences navigating 2020 and the various tools and resources they have used to cope with these uncertain, turbulent times.
A second episode aired on Valentines Day: A COLORADO HEART(H) WARMING 2021 - Songs And Conversations Navigating Relationships & Matters of the Heart featured Musical Guests: Clay Rose (Gasoline Lollipops) Mackenzie Page (Gipsy Moon) with Arthur Lee Land & Friends. Special Guest Michael Joseph Ferguson: Best Selling Author, ADHD Life Coach, Public Speaker, Workshop Facilitator, and Podcast Host will facilitate an intimate conversation with artists gathered by the Hearth fire at WeeCasa Tiny Home Resort in Lyons CO.
In January, Blue Skye Barn Presents produced a livestream benefit concert to support a Lyon’s community member and colleague suffering from aggressive stage four pancreatic and liver cancer, Perry Corn. The intention of the event was to raise funding to support his medical bills and to create a compassionate, meaningful experience that demonstrated the community’s love and gratitude toward Perry. The benefit featured Arthur Lee Land & Friends, which includes Emma Rose Finders and members of DeadPhish Orchestra, and virtual contributions by Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon), Daniel Rodriguez (Elephant Revival), and Tyler Grant (Grant Farm). To date, the benefit has raised $14,000.
In June of 2021, Blue Skye Barn was chosen as a Rocky Mtn “Hub” for recording & filming sets for The Mockingbird Sessions - a 3-night FREE livestream event celebrating 25 years of music education. A virtual fundraiser benefiting Phish’s 501c3, the Mockingbird Foundation, and was broadcast on fans.live and promoted by Relix. Sets filmed at Blue Skye Barn included from members of Greensky Bluegrass, Infamous Stringdusters, Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Sweet Lillies, The Jauntee, DeadPhish Orchestra and an all-star collaboration Twang Is Dead set led by Arthur Lee Land & Friends.
Blue Skye Barn Presents produced two LIVE events in October 2021: Rave To The Grave 2021 - the 7TH Annual Halloween LEAF Benefit Dance Party @ LaVern Johnson Park, Lyons Colorado that raised $28,000 for LEAF: Lyons Emergency and Assistance Fund and a "Colorado Music Festival Style” Wedding Ritual @ Planet Bluegrass. Blue Skye Barn also produced several live outdoor private events at the Apple Valley Island Redstone Theater, a private concert venue in Lyons on the North St Vrain River in 2020/21.
Moving forward, Blue Skye Barn Presents' goal is to partner with Colorado life-style business sponsors and non-profit organizations to produce highly curated virtual and live multi-media productions/events featuring “Music With A Purpose” at beautiful concert/wedding venues and state of the art recording studios in Lyons Colorado and in the Virtual World. We will be collaborating with artists from around the country that support musicians, crew members and raise funds for national non-profit organizations that are able to provide support services on a large scale. Specifically, Blue Skye Barn Presents platform will provide local musicians and tech crews with sustainable gig opportunities and career mentorships while raising funds for various non-profit organizations that provide crucial services, such as basic needs support and access to mental health care.
Blue Skye Barn Presents: Music With A Purpose - Created and performed on the sacred land of Lyons Colorado that has been gathering humans together in community, ceremony and celebration for Millennia.