Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and More Telluride Moments
We awoke on Telluride Mountain on Saturday (June 20) -- day three of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival -- to a dark and cloudy day threatening rain, so we all donned our raincoats and unloaded the gear as smatterings of rain fell upon us. Music lovers at this festival are not deterred by such transient things and most seemed to have packed accordingly. Several guests, including Bryan Sutton, Luke Reynolds and Kasey Chambers and her father, Bill Chambers, joined us onstage at a workshop in Elk Park in the centre of Telluride. It's always fun to invite a singer on stage and try and see if you know a song in common -- little does the audience know you are often inches away from a possible disaster! But not at Telluride. All the guests were amazing and sang their hearts out.
Backstage I ran into Bela Fleck who had played an amazing set with African artist Toumani Diabate; the snow-capped mountains of Telluride are now fans of the African instrument, the kora, a harp unique to West Africa which has been played by his family for 71 generations. No wonder he was so good! Kasey Chambers was busy enchanting the audience with her great singing, songwriting and lovable stories that come from the heart. She has a great new record with Shane Nicholson she's over here promoting, so catch them when you can.
His Majesty, Sam Bush, The King of Telluride, took the stage to rapturous applause, and hammered his mandolin chop against the mountains -- no match for the groove of this man. Playing new songs from his upcoming record, the crowd danced and cheered as his great band egged him on to faster and more intense solos.
Kym, Carol and I managed to squeeze in a quick dinner with Kasey and Shane before finding Crooked Still at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon. If you're picturing a rammed club full of screaming young folks then you're on the right track, except you might not have expected them to be singing old time songs. There were three parties going on - out front in the crowd, on stage, and backstage as countless musicians partied and waited to be called out as a guest! Aoife O'Donovan gleefully led the musical party, at one point getting Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers) to take off his shirt and play topless! A brilliant musical night.
The party had only just begun and I ended up in someone's luxury apartment with pickers like Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton, Aoife, Jeremy Kittel, Brittany Haas, Gabe Witcher and many more. Also picking his banjo was Ed Helms, actor from The Office! The music carried on till 6:30 a.m.; the sun was unforgivingly bright as we packed our instruments away, some heading for the hills, others deciding to crash where they were. Playing music for the sun as it came up on the Summer Solstice seemed like the right thing to do.
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solongsowrong says:
Even when partying, it’s still about the music!
If someone like Ed Helms would show up to play with Pop Country artists, the fans would have a fit complaining about another actor trying to jump on the Country bandwagon. In Roots circles, he’s not only welcome, but accepted and encouraged to do what he loves.
Thanks again for the entertaining blog, and your insights on the wonderful music and musicians that are a part of this great festival.
Redmaz says:
This is the Cream of the Crop. The musical elite. From a musical standpoint these people are on such a higher level of playing field than most, it’s staggering. As a musician…quite intimidating. As a fan…quite stimulating.