Macgregor will be on the main stage of Colorado’s largest festival at 1:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday playing bass for the ’70s rock band Foghat.
At 11:15 that morning, he will switch from his musical ax to his cooking knife and demonstrate the art of sushi making at the Culinary Showcase.
“Cooking is very similar to playing music, the adrenaline rush you get when you’re in dinner rush or your lunch rush and then you’re done,” Macgregor said. “Boy, it’s about the same feeling as when you walk off the stage. You’re spent. You’re absolutely shot. You need to sit down and say, ‘OK, we’re done.”‘
Macgregor will have plenty of company this weekend. About two dozen chefs from Colorado and around the country will offer cooking demonstrations as part of the Culinary Showcase, and dozens of local restaurants will offer everything from samples to full meals. Some 500,000 people are expected to visit the festival during its four-day run. It opens at 10:30 a.m. today and runs through Monday at Civic Center.
The festival has expanded to Lincoln Street between East Colfax and East 13th avenues. That area will host the carnival and the new Coors Hispanic Stage, which brings to six the number of stages that feature continuous entertainment.
That portion of Lincoln and the other streets around the festival will be closed throughout the weekend. All of them will be reopened by 6 a.m. Tuesday.
In addition to Foghat, the main stage features Joan Osborne, Craig Chaquico, Hanna-McEuen and Kansas.
Creative passion
Contemplating his twin passions, Macgregor said he relishes the creative freedom he finds in the kitchen and on stage.
“Baking is a science. Every thing is exact,” he said. “Cooking? It’s very interpretive. What you want to put in and what you want to change. That is the cool thing about it.”
Macgregor’s father, a music teacher who cooked most of the family meals, first exposed him to what would become his two passions. He started playing drums at age 11 but quickly tired of carrying around the kit.
“And I wanted to be out front,” he said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Reading, Pa.
“I said, ‘Well, what is the next easiest thing. Guitar? Six-strings, chords. Nah, that’s too much. Bass? Single notes at a time, four strings. Yeah, I could do that.’ So I started playing bass, and I’ve been playing bass about 41, 42 years.”
High school debut
He started his first band, New Breed, before his sophomore year in high school. It was invited in 1965 to play at the New Jersey pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York.
“That was probably the first big thing we ever did,” Macgregor said. “And that’s when I got hooked. I said, ‘Aah, this is cool. This is real neat. You play music and people clap.”‘
He followed New Breed with nine years playing with a band from Connecticut called Swan, leaving in 1975 to join Foghat.
He had started taking cooking seriously a few years before he joined Foghat, spurred on by watching TV’s Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr.
“When he first came out he was pretty outrageous,” Macgregor said. “I really got hooked into cooking by watching him. That was the first cookbook I ever bought, Graham Kerr’s.”
Tired of touring
Macgregor left Foghat after the summer of 1991. Its glory years of cutting gold records were long past by then. But it remained a popular road show, and Macgregor left because of the extensive touring.
After the birth of his son, Collin, Macgregor and his wife, Lisa, began to think about what the former rock star could do to keep busy.
They decided to open an authentic New York City deli in the Reading area. He ran the kitchen by himself while his wife worked the front with two employees. It was a lot of work.
“We had it for about two years,” Macgregor said. “And it got to be 17 hours a day, seven days a week. I said, ‘Well, what’s the difference between this and the road, anyway?”‘
They sold the deli, and Macgregor went to work at a new country club near his home. “It was the first commercial job I ever had,” he said.
He did lunch and learned what it was like to work on a cooking line. Next, he went to work at a gourmet restaurant that featured American cuisine.
“The chef was one of the only two master chefs in the county where I live,” Macgregor said. “That was absolutely amazing. That is where I really learned sauces. There were only two of us doing the food.”
Eventually, Macgregor went to work at a gourmet fish store where he learned the art of sushi.
“It’s really another feather to have in your cap as a chef,” Macgregor said. “I did that for about a year and half until I came back with Foghat.”
He rejoined the band last year after a visit from Roger Earl, the drummer and only original member still with the band.
“We were just talking, and he asked me would I be interested in doing it again,” Macgregor said. “I looked at my wife and my wife said, ‘Get out.’ I said, ‘OK, I can do that.’ That’s basically how it came about.”
Foghat now plays 50-60 shows a year, not 200. And Macgregor flies to and from weekend gigs.
That allows him plenty of time to peruse his nearly 250 cookbooks and to mentor his 13-year-old son’s rock band, Comic Book Heroes.
Staff writer Ed Will can be reached at 303-820-1694 or ewill@denverpost.com.
Taste of Colorado
FOOD, MUSIC, CARNIVAL, ARTS & CRAFTS|Civic Center, Broadway and Colfax Avenue, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. today-Sunday, 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday|FREE ADMISSION|Food tickets must be purchased to buy food and beverages; $6 for strip of 10 tickets, cash only; 303-571-8200 or atasteofcolorado.com
Chevy Show, music festivals on tap for Labor Day
Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, and that means there are plenty of things to do all over Colorado during the next few days. Here are some of the highlights:
BOULDER
Downtown along Boulder Creek: Arts and crafts booths, speakers corner, beer garden, children’s area, carnival rides and live entertainment are only a few of the offerings at the Boulder Creek Hometown Fair. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday. Admission is free. Call 303-652-4942 or visit bouldercreekevents.com.
Breckenridge
Beaver Run Resort:The 2005 Western National All Chevy Show is expected to attract up to 125 cars from at least 20 states. Visitors can also dance to the sounds of Denver’s Kool Cats. A dinner precedes the dance. Dinner-dance, 6-8 p.m, adults $25 and ages 10 and younger; dance 8 p.m.-midnight, $7.50-$15; car show, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. today-Sunday, free; 303-755-4891 or rockymountainclassicchevyclub.com.
Central City
Main Street: The Great American Vintage Music Festival features a musical tour of history through the sounds of marches, barbershop, ragtime, blues, country, jazz and rock. Food and vendor booths also are part of the festival. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, free, 303-582-3345.
Copper Mountain
The Village: Lyle Lovett, Jo Dee Messina and the Del McCoury Band headline the Copper Country music festival. It also features several other country recording stars, a fine arts show, a western film festival, bull riding and more. The festival runs tonight through Monday. Get complete schedule and ticket information at 866-416-9872 or villageatcopper.com
Denver
Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle: “God & Country Big Tent Concert”: Country singer Clay Walker and Christian band Mercy Me are co-headliners of this event, which also features other musical and comedy acts. Political author Ann Coulter and former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, D.-Ga., also take part in this fundraiser for Denver Rescue Mission, Rocky Mountain Family Council and Save Our Youth. 3-9:30 p.m. Saturday; $15-$75, through Ticketmaster at 303-830-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com
Denver
Washington Park, Franklin Street and Louisiana Avenue: Carrying extra pounds from A Taste of Colorado? Run them off at the jazz89 Labor Day Race in the City. The race includes a 5,280- meter run and walk. 9 a.m. Monday; pre-race registration, $25, at 303-480-9272, ext. 37 or www.kuvo.org; race-day registration, 8 a.m., $30.
Longmont
Boulder Country Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, : You can start your Christmas shopping early at the Home, Holiday & Gifts craft show, where more than 75 national and local artisans will show and sell their works. 5-9 p.m. today, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. $5-$6. Get more information at countryfolkart.com.
Loveland
Budweiser Events Center, 5290 Arena Circle: Classic rockers Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick and others perform at the motorcyclist gathering Thunder in the Rockies. Comedian Ron White also appears. The events also includes biker daredevils, vendors, custom bike show, biker weddings, poker runs and scenic rides. 9 a.m. -midnight today and Sunday, 8 a.m.-midnight Saturday. Grounds admission is free. For complete schedule and concert ticket prices, visit thunder intherockies.com. Tickets available at 877-544-8499 or comcasttix.com.
Snowmass Village
Town Park: Widespread Panic, Loggins & Messina Reunion, Willie Nelson, John Fogerty, Alpha Blondy and Maxi Priest are among the acts appearing at Jazz Aspen Snowmass. The festival also includes food and drink, crafts, drumming circles and more. 1-9 p.m. today-Sunday and 11-6:30 p.m. Monday; $30-$55 at 866-527-8499, jazzaspen.org or at the door.
