DENVER—A folk singer booted from an Aspen Skiing Co. tavern for performing his critique of big money’s effects on the mountain resort of Aspen has been invited back.
Aspen Skiing spokesman Jeff Hanle said Friday that firing musician Dan Sheridan from his weekly performance at a Snowmass Village bar was an overreaction.
A ski company vice president, whom Hanle didn’t name, heard the song “Big Money” performed on New Year’s Day at the ski resort nine miles from Aspen and complained that it was inappropriate for the venue and the crowd. Another company official then directed that Sheridan be fired this week.
That was a mistake, Hanle said.
“It reminded us to think before we act, to sit down and talk things through,” he said.
Ski company officials left messages for Sheridan and plan to meet with him next week.
Hanle told the Aspen newspapers Thursday that Sheridan likely would be asked not to perform the disputed song at the tavern and other ski company bars, restaurants and events. But Hanle said Friday that such a request will be up for discussion.
The company vice president was the only person to complain about the song, Hanle added. He blamed some of the touchiness on the delicate economic climate.
“Every guest we get up here is a guest we need up here,” Hanle said. “But we need to maintain the funky, offbeat image of Aspen.”
Sheridan’s song laments the passing of a more freewheeling Aspen, home to ski bums and artists, to one defined by “trophy houses, trophy wives, trophy people leading trophy lives.”
Sheridan, a 22-year Aspen resident, sings of locals who “can’t afford to live here, they can’t afford the rent, unless they win the lottery or live in a tent.”
A recurring line is: “Big money ruins everything.”
The 44-year-old singer said “Big Money,” which he wrote in 2005, is popular in Aspen.
Sheridan said, however, that he doesn’t mind if the ski company asks him not to sing it in their venues. “It’s their property,” he said.
He praised the company’s response to the controversy, which generated angry complaints to Aspen Skiing as well as job offers for Sheridan.
“(Aspen Skiing) really went out of its way to take a small wrong that really got blown up and make it right,” Sheridan said.
The musician who has won song-writing contests at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Rocky Mountain Folk Festival in Lyons does bemoan the “mansion building competition” that has driven housing in Aspen beyond many working people’s means. He said he and his family live in town only because they got into affordable housing mandated by town leaders.
Sheridan said he is going to take a break from performing at the Snowmass bar “to give it a little while.”
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