When Colorado Matters came to Grand Junction in 2019, we met Curtiss O’Rorke Stedman, aka Cousin Curtiss. At the time, he was living in the small town of Placerville, outside of Telluride. Last year he moved to Montrose. Now that the show is back on the Western Slope, we thought we should check in on Curtiss to see how he's fared through the pandemic.
Despite losing his artist's residency at Telluride Ski Resort and having his 2020 tour cancelled, Cousin Curtiss still managed to get his music in front of an audience -- sometimes virtually, and sometimes at an intimate picnic in the park. The downtime of the pandemic lockdown also meant having the time to improve his musicianship.
“Honestly this is the most I have ever practiced guitar in my life,” Curtiss said.
To soundtrack the Colorado Matters road trip, we asked Colorado artists to cover the Willie Nelson classic "On the Road Again." (Check out last week’s version from Inaiah Lujan of Pueblo.) Cousin Curtiss says the song takes him back to his early days of becoming a full-time performer and touring across the country.
"Every morning when we hit the road, staring down the barrel of another 8 hour drive to get to the next venue, we’d start it off with ‘On the Road Again,’” Curtiss said.
