Bar D Wranglers return to Gunnison

By Blake Gumprecht

GUNNISON—A Colorado-based band that combines cowboy music and comedy will be returning to Gunnison’s Casino Star Theatre on Saturday.

The Bar D Wranglers, who are regularly featured at the Bar D Chuckwagon in Durango, Colo., will perform at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. A brisket buffet from Hidden Oak BBQ in Fairview will be offered between shows at 5:45 p.m.

The five-piece Wranglers perform throughout the summer in Durango. Their shows feature cowboy songs, close harmonies, instrumentals and comedy. The group has performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

The band includes singer and lead guitarist Gary Cook, fiddler and baritone Matt Palmer, upright bassist Joel Racheff, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Johnson, who plays guitar, banjo, and fiddle. The group’s newest member is Hayley Victor, a singer-songwriter from Albuquerque, N.M., who sings, yodels, and plays guitar.

The Casino Star Theatre is a historic movie theater on Main Street in Gunnison. According to the website CinemaTreasures.org, the theater opened as the Casino Theatre in 1913 and was renamed the Star Theatre in the 1930s. It features a Beau Arts façade, four columns built into the front, and terra cotta decorations. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Tickets for the Bar D Wranglers afternoon show are $30 and $25. Tickets for the evening show are $37 and $32. Tickets for the barbecue dinner are $26. Tickets can be purchased on the theater’s website, casinostartheatre.com, or by calling (435) 979-9235.