Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Spur of the moment some friends and I decided to hit up the tail end of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

(Nick and I took a hike to look down on the festivities, and scope out some potential high-lining spots)

We left Saturday afternoon and got in that night just in time to get some food and a Pinstripe at the Corner Haus. We peeped the scene and headed into a nice bar that had two live bands tearing it up. Bluegrass of course, I mean Bluegrass was coming out of the rafters and through the cracks in the street.

(Buddhist monks performed a chant on stage and then made this art using colored sand. At the end of the festival it was scattered into the river as a ritual)

Everybody was carrying banjos and fiddles all over town and setting up on street corners, in bars, and makeshift tents in the campgrounds to romp and stomp out some beautiful music. I think we saw the Henhouse Prowlers and Blackberry Bushes or something like that. Alls I know is that the fiddle player for Blackberry was a prodigy…his tone, timing and sound were perfect and seeing that stayed with all of us through the whole festival as the best people in the world got down on their instruments. Later that night we headed into tent city and jammed to a real mellow group in this set up tent, with heat lamps, decorations and a bunch of generous people. They played well past 4am and we headed to camp at the elementary school with visions of fiddles dancing in our heads. It was up and at ‘em a few hours later, with some food in us and the spirit of music we picked up our tickets for the last day of the show and staked out some ground at the stage.

(Jeff and Steph mac on some breakfast and get ready for a day of music)

The Carolina Chocolate Drops tore it up and had the whole crowd dancing. Mumford and Sons brought it, and then it was all a set up for the “Telluride House Band” which was an all-star mix of the best Bluegrass musicians. Bela Fleck on banjo, Edgar Meyers on bass, Jerry Douglas on slide, Sam Bush on Mandolin, and Stuart on fiddle. Good god, they made it rain bluegrass and just blew us away with their talent.

(the Telluride House Band...basically the dream team of bluegrass shut down the festival)

We hit the sack early to get ready for a drive home and the next hitch starting bright and early Tuesday morning.

(Nick's got that gleam in his eye that can only come from scouting 13,000 ft. high-line spots while bluegrass music drifts through the valley)