We’re about a week away from the start of the 2011 Telluride Bluegrass Festival … which is completely sold out this year. Unfortunately, a few locals have been caught by surprise … hopefully, everyone who wants to attend will find a ticket and scalpers will find their home where the sun don’t shine!
The mass exodus from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival normally occurs the Monday after the festival ends … although I did see what appeared to be a few stragglers hitch hiking at the society turn this afternoon. In the photo below, you can see a subaru and a VW bus loaded with gear and bikes taken main street (Colorado Avenue) in front of the Coffee Cowboy on Monday. You can also see the yellow school bus on its way to back to the Town Park pick up location.
The photo below is near the Box Office for the Bluegrass Festival, showing the park district vehicles hauling away equipment in effort to transform the Town Park back to it’s primary core function (although the Telluride Wine Festival is scheduled to take place there this upcoming weekend).
I forgot to put my battery in the camera from the charger.
Must’ve been a subconcious thing … since I do find that when I’m at a concert with my camera, I tend to fluctuate from being an audience member participant to a “camera person”. While sometimes it’s very non-obtrusive, it can be a distraction. Often times, I will measure how good a concert is by how few pictures I’ve taken (the fewer the better).
Anyhow, I went for a great hike in the afternoon in Ophir … so I wound up catching Mumford & Sons and the Telluride House Band (Sam, Bela, Edgar, Jerry, Bryan, and Stuart) which closed the evening & bluegrass festival.
Mumford & Sons was a fun set. The were very tight & and had a good energy to them. I suppose my one “complaint” would be the lack of a true lead instrument as I found them to be very rhythmically oriented. Maybe this is my personal taste, but I’ve often found that bands such as the Grateful Dead (and most subsequent incarnations) seem to be comprised of melodic musicians who do not stick to just the “traditional” rhythm role and are often able to create a “composite” sound which captures both aspects in a way which truly elevates the spirit of the tune. Nonetheless, I still tought M&S delivered a very fun set … especially the closing song “Hey Jude” where they brought on a lot of other musicians & got the crowd involved.
The Telluride House Band was of course a great ensemble who featured another surprise guest of Peter Rowan for a couple of songs. This is the first time I can recall him sticking around until SUNDAY to sit in with the house band … would’ve loved to have seen him for the full set. They opened with Slewfoot … which was a great, played a few traditional bluegrass songs, a few quirky fun songs, as well as a few “experimental” type journeys which were taken for a walk in the woods.
Kind of funny how immediately after they ended their set, the lights came on and you could see all the trash around, people filing out, crews taking down the stage, vendors closing up … it became the Telluride Town Park again, but in need of a clean up. Kind of sad, as it is the point in time with the longest wait for the next Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 361 days.
UPDATE: I learned it was Peter Rowan’s 30th time attending the festival, so this might explain why he stuck around until the end. Also, forgot to mention my favorite John Hartford song Aereo-Plain was played by the house band’s closing set … very very VERY cool!!!!! Here’s a link to an older version with none other than the maestro himself leading the charge (along with Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, Brent Rowan, Matt Rollings, Jerry Douglas, Glenn Wor, Harry Stinson, and the late Vassar Clements on fiddle):
… actually I had forgotten to replace the batter after re-charging it, so no photos or video clips of the Bluegrass Festival today.
I basically saw everything from Yonder Mountain String Band until the closing act … which was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
YMSB was great, as always.
Bela Fleck, Azkir Hussain, & Edgar Meyer were a nice departure from the traditional bluegrass ensembles. I like when music goes sideways.
Sam Bush Band was a great set highlighted by Peter Rowan’s guest appearance as a sit in … which, if I recall correctly, we’ve rarely seen over the years. He seems to always get an early slot and then disappears for the rest of the festival. I believe he sat in for “One Love” which came right after a great version of Maggie Mae. Of course, Sam always gets everyone else up on stage for great jam.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: a mixed bag for me: on one hand, I REALLY liked some of the music they put out, but I have a very difficult time wholeheartedly buying into their “schtick”. Maybe it’s just me & just being someone who doesn’t like being “told what to do” (stand up, sit down, clap your hands, chant this or that, etc.) by performers … especially when it’s scripted. If it happens organically, then it’s another story. Maybe it all started this way with the Zeros, but it really seems to border on being a “revival” sort of thing. Otherwise, they put together some great arrangements which very rhythmically oriented & seemed to use vocals (from at least three primary vocalists) as the primary “melodic instrument of choice”. Personally, I think the addition of a lead guitar (or electric mando) would give them a HUGE boost to dial in their overall sound … although I can see how they might be hesitant to adopt this for a number of reasons. Strangely enough, I know — without hesitation — that I could be fill that slot very easily. It seems to want to have a psychedelic flare which goes around and around, yet PUSHES and INTERACTS with the larger sound. It’s kind of weird, they’d probably be just as adverse to having me do my thing with them as I would be to being a part of the “schtick” … but I would venture a guess that we’d all be blown away.
Here’s a short clip of Leftover Salmon performing Big River at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2010. Sam Bush sat in for most of their set (as seems to be a tradition over the years), although I believe Leftover Salmon has been on again off again and mostly engages in reunion type performances such as Telluride Bluegrass. Still, Vince travels quite regularly with his band “Great American Taxi” and Drew Emmitt has his own band and also collaborates frequently with Billy Nershi of the String Cheese Incident. I recall Vince saying it was their 11th festival this year.
Here’s another video clip of Peter Rowan and Crucial Country (with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer) at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2010. I believe this is a Bob Marley song (Every Little Thing), although I can’t seem to recall them playing the whole song & this clip is very short and essentially captures a jam segment without any lyrics.
Below is a very short video clip of Peter Rowan and Crucial Country (with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer). Peter Rowan is my favorite returning recurring performer at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and it’s great to see him organize a “super group” of sorts. The intro on Land of the Navajo gives this one away every time.
Got to see the tail end of the Del McCoury Band, the full set for Alison Krauss & Union Station with Jerry Douglas, and a couple songs by the Tim O’Brien Band before I left for the evening. It looks like the Bluegrass Festival is actually fairly well attended in terms of there being a decent crowd inside the venue. The weather has so far been excellent and should continue to be through the remainder of the weekend.
Over the course of the day, it’s interesting to see the lighting change the mountainous landscape in the background.
For $100 … which is about $85 less than face value of the regular price of $185 or $55 less than the early bird rate of $155. A friend was looking to unload some that were not being used and what not … definitely wasn’t looking to take advantage, but sometimes things work out this way.
Got to see Keller & the Keels (as in Keller Willams) — directly below, but decided to leave to come back later for Alison Krauss & Union Station and maybe a bit of Tim O’Brien. Not going to make a big night out of it, since I really had my sights set on Friday (Peter Rowan & Leftover Salmon) and Saturday nights.
YMSB is playing tonight up at the conference center in the Telluride Mountain Village. They have kind of made a tradition of playing up there on the Wednesday night before the Telluride Bluegrass Festival starts for a number of years now. I want to say about 8 years. I saw them last year up in the village and had a great time. This year, I might go see Joint Point who is playing at the Fly Me To The Moon Saloon in town; however, my cousin is visiting from AZ on route to Glenwood Springs, so I don’t think he’s up for going there.
Anyhow, as you can see below, the final touches are all in place (or at least should be). The photo below was taken under the tent where they physically check your wristbands to gain entry into the actual music venue. They do a visual check in between the Box Office and the bridge which crosses the San Miguel River leading into Telluride Town Park. You can see the KOTO (local community radio station) beer booth which is located on the basketball court in the background to the right.
Entrance to TBF
