Hailey A Hotbed Of Music

Time was in this tourist colony - where unpretentiousness is highly esteemed - that glitzy entertainment only meant that the bass guitar was plugged in.

No more.

The lights burn brightly at actor Bruce Willis’ Mint in Hailey (population 5,200), home of marquee musical acts and celebrities in mufti.

In the 15 months since Willis opened his bar and restaurant on the site of the blue-collar Mint Bar, the likes of Charlie Daniels, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, War and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band have come to Hailey.

Funkmaster George Clinton, of Parliament/Funkadelic, is due in November, and Willis’ own band, The Accelerators, appears frequently.

Though there’s no longer live music in every bar in the Wood River Valley, local musicians and innkeepers generally welcome the rising tide of talent that The Mint has generated.

“It’s business as usual,” said Bob Royce, who owns Whiskey Jacques, a popular downtown Ketchum nightspot, with his wife, Karen.

Even Willis, a Hailey resident since 1987, played Whiskey’s in his pre-Mint days. The Royces think The Mint gives music lovers broader entertainment choices.

“There is room enough for everybody,” Bob Royce said. “Plus, it’s 12 miles down the road.”

Ask Brant Cooper, a regular customer of both The Mint and Whiskey Jacques, to pick his favorite hangout. “You can’t compare them,” he said. “We go to The Mint for concerts, but Whiskey Jacques is a get-up-and-dance kind of place.”

Both clubs book local and out-of-the-area talent, but “We have a much smaller budget than The Mint,” Bob Royce said.

Whiskey’s has two acts going for it that The Mint supposedly can’t claim: The Bobos, a popular local five-piece band, and The Vuarnettes, four local women who poke fun at everyone, including Willis.

“Bruce ignores us,” said Vuarnette Karen Hale, whose group skewers the actor with “He’s a Local” to the tune of The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel.”

Wood River Acoustical Music Association member and Hailey resident Judy Upham, founder of The Out of the Woodwork band and a women’s choral group, says The Mint is open-minded about new programming.