Gabrielle Louise in Park City, Utah

High and dry in the Wasatch mountains, Park City, Utah, is a popular tourist destination in the summer as well as the winter, when it's best known for great powder skiing. A local organization called Mountain Town Music promotes live music at numerous venues around the area during the summer.

Walking uphill on my way home, in scenic Old Town last night, I was drawn to the sound of a woman vocalist singing on Main Street under the permanent stage at Miners Park Plaza. Turned out to be Gabrielle Louise, who's here from Denver with her drummer and bass player. She entranced the crowd with soulful originals, including a number inspired by her winter spent in Buenos Aires.

Here's a youtube video to give you a feel for her sound:



Beyond her potent musicality, Louise is a passionate environmentalist, who has apparently fueled her entire national tour with vegetable grease: "For over a year - 60,000 miles on the road - The Gabrielle Louise Show has toured using vegetable grease collected, for free, from restaurants. The tour van was converted to run on 100% waste vegetable oil at a cost of less than $1000.

Driving from coast to coast several times as well as to Alaska and back, The Gabrielle Louise Show has saved over $9,000 in would-be fuel costs and spared the atmosphere of over 11 tons of CO2 - the equivalent amount of CO2 release to power a 60-watt light bulb 24/7 for 20 years!"

How incredibly inspiring is that? And how does she do it? "Ridiculously simple!
Clean (filtered) waste vegetable oil, heated to 160+ degrees, functions the same in a diesel engine as petroleum diesel. Waste vegetable oil has already served its purpose (cooking!) thus this second use comes free of any manufacturing, transportation, or pollution requirement. Unlike diesel and gasoline, waste vegetable oil emits no sulfur oxides or sulfates (acid rain) and is 100% carbon-neutral (does not cause an increase in the overall amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere)."

For my part, I'm happy to be without a car in Park City this summer. There's an entirely FREE bus system here. Sturdy sneakers, a knee wrap (ouch, the hills!), and hiking boots take care of the rest.

I hope to be posting more musical finds from Park City, now that I can breathe again, after two weeks of adjusting to high altitude (7300 ft.) and walking up and down the hills and stairs. Best to all in SRQ, where the beaches are beautiful and storms never touch down.