I have been meaning to post this, but have been busy... So I am trying to remember everything I wanted to mention, and it's a lot. I think this was the 7th or 8th time I have gone over the years. I have seen more of my musical heroes there then anywhere.
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival was June 15th-18th and I drove out with 3 buddies of mine from college.
The town of Telluride is in a box canyon, so the scenery is gorgeous. Waterfall at the end of the canyon is always in view in the distance. The local NPR station KOTO broadcasts most of the festival over the radio so even when I am not at the festival I can hear the music anywhere.
Wednesday Night before the festival...
There is some free music over in Mountain Village. We take the gondola over the mountain and the views are spectacular. The Cleverlys are playing and we caught the most of their set. Then we went to Yonder Mountain String Band (YMSB) "firstgrass" concert. The band was ok, but seemed a little sluggish.
Thursday, Day one of the festival...
Chris Thile opens up the whole festival by playing solo. I am pretty sure he brought some friends out at some point but I can't remember now. I catch the Tim O'brien band, but miss out on Dierks Bently with the Travelin' McCourys set to go to the Punch Brothers "Happy Hour" at Elks Park. It was packed, and Gabe Witchner(sp?)was not there because his wife was expecting, I can't remember the fill in fiddle player but most of the punch brothers set was straight bluegrass. It was one of those sets all the bluegrass police want the punch brothers to play, and they finished up by doing a couple of the songs they wrote without a fiddle player. The "Telluride house band" was on the MainStage that night, so I got to see Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton and Stuart Duncan. To finish off the night, we had tickets to the "nightgrass" show of the evening, The Travelin' McCourys at the Sheridan Opera House. Special guest Jake Joliff on mando came out, and to end the night daddy Del himself joined in on a few.
Friday, Day two of the festival...
We sleep in and miss a couple of shows, but manage to catch YMSB at Elks Park where it was their CD release party I think. Back to the MainStage for the end of The Jerry Douglas Band and the Punch Brothers set. Gabe was back so it was a regular set for PB. Listened to a little of Greensky Bluegrass before going to the YMSB nightgrass set at the Sheridan Opera House. I should mention they have gotten over what I saw as sluggishness on Wednesday and really put on a hot show both times I say them that day.
Saturday, Day three of the festival...
Sleep in again but make it to Sarah Jarosz followed by YMSB. Sam Bush came out and played a few songs with them. That night the Sam Bush Band was on the MainStage and that was really amazing. Best place ever to see Sam, he really puts on a show! Dispatch was interesting, but it was a touch of an anticlimax after Sammy... We sold our nightgrass tickets for Elephant Revival because we were trying to save energy for the last day.
Sunday, Day four of the festival...
We are all dragging from the altitude, and the ridiculous amount of music. I see Bela Fleck & Chris Thile followed by Hot Rize. Went back to the condo we rented and listened to the rest of the evening on KOTO. Punch Brothers nightgrass closed out the festival, and Gabe was gone again, so Thile comes out and says, "just in case you were going to demand a 20% refund, I want to introduce Sarah Jarosz and Jerry Douglas" or something like that. It was magical, Flux and Sarah with the Punch Brothers! Then at the end they played a couple acoustic from the stage. To drag out every last second of the night, Chris and Sarah came out to the middle of the floor and we were all in circles around them listening to them play 2 (or was it 3?) songs acoustic to finally end the festival.
What can I say, it was amazing! Without even mentioning all the songs I forgot I heard and all the amazing cool details this has been a long post, I tried to bold all the band names I saw so you could just skim it and get the just...
It cost a lot, it was physically tiring, but it was the best 4 days of music I have seen since the last time I went.
You should consider going next year, it will be the 45th annual.
Thanks,
Dan
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