“We didn’t know what was involved in putting on a festival, and neither did the town. By not knowing what to do, it actually made it possible, because we didn’t realize things like you’re supposed to have money to pay the bands before you hire them. If we had known, it never would have happened. We just sort of did it the Telluride way.” – Festival co-founder Kooster McAllister (1951-2018) Welcome Festivarians, to our 45th Anniversary! We’re ever grateful to Fred, Kooster, Picker & J.B. for their naivete in founding this magical event 44 years ago. What almost didn’t happen has grown up to become one of the most important events in the musical universe (enjoy a few of our favorite Festival milestones in the program footers), with a Festivarian Nation making the pilgrimage from every state in the US and countries abroad. This historic 45th lineup honors the rich musical legacy started by the Fall Creek Band years ago: an adventurous union of Bluegrass, Country, Folk, Blues, Jazz, Classical and Soul. We’ve simply come to know and cherish it as Telluride Bluegrass. Join us in welcoming our new partner, Colorado-born Avery Brewing Company, and enjoy their delectable brews, including the world premiere of their Festival Lager! As Sustainable Festivarians, we encourage you to complete this year’s Eco-Puzzle crossword for a chance to win a deluxe Kelty camping package. And be sure to share your neighbors’ innovative camping practices with Leave No Trace for a chance to win camping passes to the 46th.
Festival Director: Craig Ferguson Assistant Festival Director: Steve Szymanski Festival & Box Office Manager: Shauna Nashak Festival Grounds Supervisor: Rich Estes Operations Crew: Tony King, Ross Caswell, Sean Flynn, Zach Tucker, James Hinker, Aaron Kilian & Jordan Bushouse Sustainable Festivation Supervisors: Walter Wright, Tyler Simmons & Marina McCoy Festival Waste Crew: Alex George & Andrew Kolberg Chief of Security: John Cohn Security Supervisors: Frank Hensen & Joe Piche Crowd Management: Damion Alexander, Jana Alexander, Josh Blakeman, Jake Cohn, Jonathan Greenspan, Rachael Hensen, Abe Millar, Degrey Phillips, Consuelo Reyes, Arthur Sowinski, Tina Tharpe, Andrew Tokarz, Kevin White & Megan White Customs Gate Supervisors: Franny Cohn, Debby Guarino, Ruth Hensen, Carol Lee, & Erin Thompson TP Camp Gate Supervisors: Marilyn Branch, Sheri Brieski & Larry Stewart
Pedestrian Bridge Supervisors: Emery Cardy & Calvin Poon Backstage Security Supervisor: Tara Doran Pit Master: Hunt Worth Overnight Security: Shawn Williams, Gary Broughall & Ben Rich Camping Supervisor: Kathleen Morgan Town Park Campground Hosts: Tim & Laura Thomas Warner Field Campground Hosts: Toni Norris Carter & Fawnda Rogers Lawson Hill Campground Hosts: Jack Bonker, Michelle Foote & Adriana Galue Mary E Campground Hosts: James Addoms, Laina Baltic, Aaron Cooklin, Amy Hardy, & William Alex Wissing Valley E-Team Supervisor: Steve Green Parking Supervisor: Dennis Green Vehicle Gate Supervisors: Ed Janus, Matt Kroll, Kristin Milord & Mary Alice Wagner Lodging Coordinator: Denise Mongan Backstage Hospitality/Artist Supervisor: Mark Nicolella Backstage Hospitality: Hanna Ferguson & Meghan LeClair Backstage Catering Supervisor: Markus Chesla
Artist Transportation Supervisors: Ed Kean & Jeremy Matsen Box Office Supervisors: Laura Larson, Geoff Wickersham, Nicole Bookman, Jelena Caplan, Nichole Elmore & Bill Carlson Media Relations: Brian Eyster Sponsor Relations & Social Media: Alannah Rudd Concessions Supervisors: Jill Brzezicki, Bethel Steele, & Chris Mraz Communications Supervisors: Luci Reeve, Sandy McLaughlin & Jim Bedford Country Store Supervisors: Patrick O’Kelly & Dustin Boyd Artist Consignment Supervisor: Kara O’Kelly Family Tent Supervisor: Patricia Sunfield Sponsor Tent/Greentown Supervisors: Wendy McFarland & Suzanne Teele Contest Supervisor: Charlie Bailey Elks Park Workshop Supervisors: Edee Gail & BJ Suter Elks Park Workshop Sound: Dean Rolley, Alan Bradley & Vicki Phelps Elks Park Workshop Transportation: Tom & Nancy Richards Stage Design: Kahlie Pinello
While you’re here with us, please take good care of each other and be ever mindful of the severe drought by conserving water whenever you can. Find a spot on an empty tarp until its owners return. Take action for the Planet at the KEEN booth. Sing and dance and play. And most of all, savor the inspiration and friendships born of this magical place. On behalf of our hundreds of staff and volunteers, we’re so glad you’re here.
Love,
The Folks on Planet Bluegrass Park Beautification: Claudia Kean Libation Station Supervisors: Pam Bennett, Scott Kelley, Ashley Story, & Dan Zemke NightGrass Supervisor: Daniel Mullan 2018 Poster Artist: William Matthews Master of Ceremonies: Chris Daniels
STAGE CREW
Stage Manager: Skip Kent FOH Engineer: Simon Welch Monitor Engineer: Mike Bove Backstage Manager: John Setser FOH/Stage: Garth Michael Lighting Director: Dave Hall Lights: Jim Hurst Audio: Mark Miceli Patch/Stage: Mark Dennis Monitors/Stage: Brent Healy Stage Lead: Ric Teller Stage: Mark Altomare, Melissa Britton, Justin Milner & Rhett Snyder Labor/Spots: Tim Territo Spots: Tom Wirth Sound: Firehouse Productions Lights: ILIOS Lighting Design Backline: Harry Backline, LLC
PROGRAM STAFF
Editors: Brian Eyster & Steve Szymanski
Design & Layout: Pat Creyts Contributing Writers: Charlotte Bell, Brian Eyster, Sarah Hagerman, Steve Leftridge, Alannah Rudd, Dan Sadowsky, Steve Szymanski Advertising: Alannah Rudd Photography: Benko Photographics, OnTheDL Photography, Nate Ryan Printing: Matt Coburn at OneTouchPoint Cover Image: William Matthews
THANKS TO OUR FESTIVAL PARTNERS
Avery Brewing Company, EcoProducts, Klean Kanteen, Keen Footwear, Kelty, Telluride Alpine Lodging, Shanti Guitars, Martin Guitars, Taylor Guitars, Craft Concentrates, Meier Skis, Leave No Trace Center For Outdoor Ethics, Zeal Optics, Sunsense Solar, EcoAction Partners, Red Bird, Allegro Coffee, Guayakí Yerba Mate, Nechville Banjos, Sierra Sage/Green Goo, & Eldorado Natural Spring Water
PLANET BLUEGRASS YEAR-ROUND STAFF
President & Gentleman Farmer: Craig Ferguson Senior Vice-President: Steve Szymanski
Vice-President of Operations: Shauna Nashak Vice-President of Communications: Brian Eyster Director of Awesome: Laura Larson Merchandise & Festivarian Relations: Dustin Boyd Ticketing & Festivarian Relations: Geoff Wickersham Volunteer Coordinator: Nicole Bookman Marketing & Sponsorships Coordinator: Alannah Rudd Festivarian Relations: Jelena Caplan Ranch Crew: Griffin Ferguson, Jeana Johnson, Cindy Kalyan, Ty LaFollette, Wyatt LaFollette, Jared McCain and Savannah Watson
PLANET BLUEGRASS WOULD LIKE TO THANK...
The Town of Telluride with a special thanks to Stephanie Jaquet, the US Forest Service, the Town of Mountain Village, San Miguel County, Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association, Lawson Hill Property Owners and the Telluride School District
1 9 7 3 : R O A DTR I P TO W A LN UT VA LLE Y FEST IVAL INSPIRES FAL L CREEK BAND T O CREAT E FEST I V A L .
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I wanted this year’s poster to look like no other! It had to seem nostalgic, because we’re so well established by now. But it also needed to be fresh and colorful. (Having started doing the poster for this event in 1984, I’ve tried to never repeat myself.) I took my initial cues from the ‘45’ record adapter, as this is the forty-fifth annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival! I’ve always loved the British Rail posters of the 1930s and 1940s. So I thought the simplicity would allow me to emphasize the key elements: a young, fresh-faced couple playing acoustic instruments, and the town of Telluride, symbolized by the canyon and waterfall. As obscure as the ‘45’ adapter symbol is to a lot of young people, there is huge revival of interest in vinyl records. And I’ll be surprised if there aren’t lots of Festivarians who don’t recognize it! Have fun and be safe!
—Willy Matthews
Part of the unique vibe of TBF is the artwork on the stage and scattered throughout the grounds, aka the “foof.” “It seems really strange to bring beauty to the most beautiful place on the planet,” festival decor director Kahlie Sue Pinello says. “But when you have a festival with 10,000 attendees, we can guide people with art as opposed to signage and fencing. Mixing foof with function is a way of designing a Festivarianfriendly experience.” This year’s stage is inspired by nostalgic lithographic travel posters, a theme also reflected in Willy Matthews’ beautiful poster artwork. The two gypsies flanking the stage, a joint undertaking by Kahlie Sue and her father Jake, a retired art teacher living in the Denver area, were inspired by the uncanny immersion these next few days will bring. “At a festival we’ve all got that gypsy blood with camping, friends, community and music. We’re also all displaced a little bit. So I’m trying to set the mood for the festival as home. I’d like create a little home away from home for all the Festivarians.”
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1 9 7 4 : 7 0 0 PE O PLE A TTE N D 1S T TE LLURIDE BL UEG RASS & COUNT RY FEST IVAL , JUL Y 6. T ICKE T S: $2.
THE RESULT OF 185 YEARS OF NEVER SETTLING. HD-28
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Festivarians! We are gathered in this beautiful box canyon to celebrate life, music, and magic yes, of course - but also to participate in Sustainable Festivation!* Together, our community can help preserve this stunning landscape and ensure festivation for years to come. Over the years, we’ve learned how to improve our composting and recycling programs, perfect Leave No Trace camping, reduce single-use waste by drinking locally-filtered water from reusables, and offset 100% of our carbon emissions as a Festival. But our work is not finished. Our world is changing quickly. So it’s more important than ever to take home what we’ve learned and act in our own communities. In light of recent press around the perils of single-use plastic, this year’s Eco-Puzzle highlights the importance of reuse, today and everyday. Let’s bring our Festivarian values to the masses…! Complete the puzzle on the back of the pocket schedule, then deposit it at the Sustainable Festivation Booth. You’ll find answers in a variety of places around the Festival: our posters, our partners in Greentown, and in program articles. We’ll choose a GRAND PRIZE winner from the Main Stage at 4:45pm on Sunday. You need not be present to win. *Sustainable Festivation (n): the act of creating a conscious community centered around a love of music and respect for the planet.
Eco-Puzzle Questions ACROSS: 1. Collect and turn in a baggie of _____ trash to KEEN each morning for your chance to win PRIZES! 3. Zeal Optics uses _____-based materials in their sunglasses to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. 6. B Corps (including Planet Bluegrass, Klean Kanteen, and Guayakí) lead a global movement to use _____ as a force for good. 8. Complete your Festivarian _____ with a reusable beer cup, Klean Kanteen pint, water bottle, utensils and food canisters. (And a cocktail tumbler, if you fancy!) 12. Avery Brewing Co. donates their “spent grain” from brewing to a local farm to use as cattle _____. 13. Remember to visit your campground host for free Eco-Products _____ bags. 14. A portion of our 2017 carbon _____ purchases helped fund regenerative agriculture at Colorado’s May Ranch. 15. Americans use 500 million _____ daily. That’s 125 school buses worth of plastic!
Eco-Puzzle Grand Prize 6
DOWN: 2. For every pound of Guayakí Yerba Mate purchased, over a pound of _____ is reduced from the environment. 3. No single-use _____ water bottles at TBF! Bring your own reusable, and we provide the free, filtered drinking water. 4. For 12 years, TBF has been 100% carbon neutral by offsetting the _____ created by festival travel and energy usage. 5. Congratulations to 2017 Leave No Trace Campsite Challenge co-winners: Camp Hideout and Camp _____! 7. Last Summer, we donated 2,000 pounds of leftover _____ from our festivals to those in need. 9. Call your representative at the KEEN booth to help protect public lands and fight _____ change. 10. A randomly-chosen _____ will win a pair of Limited Edition TBF Meier skis this weekend! 11. Phone out of juice? Visit Sunsense Solar in Greentown to charge your phone using solar _____.
Kelty deluxe camping package including: Outback 4 tent, Mesh Low-Love chair, large folding cooler, and $500 in Kelty cash
1 9 7 5 : 2 N D TB F B R I N GS N E W GR A S S REVIVAL , MAG IC MUSIC, OPHEL IA SWING BAND.
As Festivarians return to this glorious box canyon, surrounded by enduring friendships, cherished traditions, and generations of the world’s most masterful musicians, the notion of “disposable” seems shallow—and superficial. As a wise Festivarian sage once said, “reuse is deep.” It begins with the reusable Festivarian Toolkit. During this Telluride Bluegrass weekend, we fill our water bottle, mug, and beer cup with long-lasting memories—coffee on the porch of Baked in Telluride, drinks shared with new tarpmates, hydrating on the hike to Bear Creek Falls. While parting is always such sweet sorrow on Monday morning, we leave with these sturdy pieces of our Toolkit, ready to connect us back to the magic of Telluride anytime throughout the year. Yeah, deep. So begins the mental shift from single-use plastic items to sturdy reusables that we can fill with living memories. And it feels great, right? This year we’re urging you to look even more critically at single-use plastics. Yes, they’re oh so convenient. But since its invention, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced, much of which is single-use. That’s enough plastic to cover the surface of Argentina (the world’s 8th largest country!). On average, only 9% of this plastic is recycled here in the United States, with an astounding 79% accumulating in our landfills and natural environments, including our oceans. Uggh. So, why are we still offering a Festival beer cup made from plastic? In our quest for the perfect beer cup, this year we’re introducing a “bridge solution.” This new reusable cup uses less material and energy to produce, is easily recyclable (#5 plastic), and features a full color imprint of Willy Matthews’ festival poster to help fill it with memories. But ultimately, its success depends on you making it a permanent part of your reusable toolkit. Over the years, we’ve taken major steps to reduce our landfill waste: introducing water stations to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles; requiring our food vendors to
“Bluegrass is the original reusable resource and one that’s never let me down on this journey over mountains, rivers, through valleys to the great ocean which is in peril today with our land-fill junk! We need to clean up our throw-away world of trash and garbage politics, our junk food diet of lies and manipulation... Well, at least let’s recycle the plastic for a start!” —Peter Rowan
THE LITTLE THINGS DO MATTER
A GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE DECISION-MAKING BEST: Do you really need it? If no, skip it! If yes, bring your own reusable bag, cup, bottle, utensils. BETTER: Forgot your reusable? How about
SKIP THE STRAW: Americans use 500 million drinking straws daily.
slowing down & enjoying your food or beverage on-site using washable dishes instead of singleuse ones? Ahhhh...this is the life.
PASS UP SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BOTTLES: Nearly 1 million
GO O D : Too busy to enjoy your life? Is
plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute around the world.
AVOID USING PLASTIC BAGS: U.S. consumers use 100 billion plastic bags every year—almost one bag per person each day. Laid end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times. BRING YOUR OWN UTENSILS: Nearly 40 billion plastic utensils are produced each year. Most end up in our landfills, beaches, and oceans.
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use 100% compostable serviceware; incentivizing Festivarians to bring reusables. The next step is to apply the tools of Sustainable Festivation to our everyday lives. Reuse may not always be the easiest or most convenient option—although, living the good life never really is. (Telluride is not the most convenient place to hold a Festival!) Commit to following the path of the Sustainable Festivation warrior, wise in the ways of reuse, with a reusable toolkit always at your side, and with a deeper understanding of how reuse can help our Planet…and ourselves.
there a non-plastic single-use option, such as a glass or a can (both infinitely recyclable)? Use that instead!
OK: Only a single-use option available? Ok, fine – just make sure it’s 100% compostable. And be sure you put it in the compost bin!
1 9 7 6 : J OH N H A R TFO R D’S 1S T O F 1 2 FEST IVAL S. BRYAN BOWERS’ 1ST OF 7.
Allow us to introduce ourselves: we’re Avery Brewing. As a Colorado-born brewery for over 25 years, we are honored and excited to join the Planet Bluegrass family here in Telluride! We are beyond proud that we can share the beauty of our brews with you among the beauty of this quintessential nook of our Rocky Mountain state. We have always sought out friends that have an equal obsession for excellence and quality in their craft as we do in ours. With Planet Bluegrass's goal to bring amazing music to these amazing places, leave the earth better than they found it, and lift up everyone together in the spirit of positivity and goodwill, we jumped at the chance to join the Festivarian tribe. Thank you for everything you do to make this festival world-class! What can you expect from us? A singular focus on creating the perfect beer and perfect beer experience. We find that in a world of discord, pursuing the perfection of something as seemingly so simple and inconsequential as beer can actually transform the world. We exist to pursue the mastery of beer, and to reveal its power. So please enjoy the fruits of our labor, kick back, and discover what great beer can do to your world. Bring on the tunes!
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1 9 7 7 : PE TE R R O W A N ’S 1S T O F 3 8 YEARS.
Blending Old World tradition and expertise with ingenuity, creativity and boldness, our new friends at Avery Brewing are excited to share these eccentric ales and lagers from across the mountains in Boulder, including the world-premiere of their Festival Lager. Drink up!
WHITE RASCAL
As our flagship beer, we pay tribute to the history and time-honored tradition of the steadfast Belgian Witbier by brewing White Rascal with the same Belgian ingredients used by 15th century brewers from the village of Hoegaarden. White Rascal is unfiltered and cleverly spiced with coriander and Curacao orange peel producing a refreshingly zesty classic ale. 5.6% ABV
AVERY IPA
As the very first packaged IPA in Colorado, Avery IPA radiates with the crisp, floral, and resinous hoppiness of six different hop varieties, supported by a malty backbone and a dry finish. Look for a fresh and piney body with aromas of juicy citrus, all balanced by the subtle caramelly sweetness of the malts. Hop Freaks Unite! 6.5% ABV
GO PLAY IPA
Go Play IPA is a celebration of those who do their thing, whatever it is, with the same all-in, obsessive enthusiasm we have for beer. Go Play IPA sports juicy, tropical, and dank aromas, fueled by dry-hop additions of Vic Secret, Idaho 7, and Simcoe hops. Better yet, sodium and potassium help activate this motivated, lively India Pale Ale. Fuel Your Stoke. 5.5% ABV
FESTIVAL LAGER
This light, crisp, and classic American Lager is the perfect companion to long days in the alpine sun and nights spent dancing under the stars. We use Colorado grown Two-Row barley and Pilsner malts to create this high-quality, clean, and crushable lager. 4.8% ABV
In addition to our selection of Colorado-brewed Avery beers, we’re pleased to offer several unique and delicious Colorado-inspired cocktails and eco-friendly wines.
BLOODY MARY’S GIN & TONICS •
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MARGARITAS MOSCOW MULES
Coyote Gold Natural Margaritas were invented by a pair of engineers from Fort Collins with a passion for perfectly balanced margaritas. What began as a “kitchen brew,” has been available since 2008 as an authentic, all natural product that is free of preservatives, artificial flavors & colors, and gluten. Our Bloody Mary’s, Gin & Tonics, and Moscow Mules feature hand-crafted vodka and gin from Spirit Hound Distillers. This craft distillery in Lyons uses custom-built distillation equipment to capture all of the purity and flavor of their locally-sourced Colorado ingredients, such as freshly picked juniper berries. Tonic water and ginger-lime shrub are provided by Lost Identity, a boutique crafter of old world beverages in Vail. (For those novice mixologists among us: Shrubs are a blend of fruit, sugar, and vinegar invented during the Colonial Era to preserve fruit long after harvest.) Our premium wine selection of Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, and Merlot is provided by YOONIT Wines, an eco-friendly way to serve high quality wines at the Festival. With recyclable packaging and gravity fed dispensers, this local Colorado company has removed the need for glass bottles, kegs and electricity for storage.
1 9 7 8 : VA S S A R CLE ME N TS & H O T R I ZE (1ST OF 20 YEARS!) DEBUT . PAST OR MUST ARD BECOMES M C .
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by Charlotte Bell
Have you ever tried to describe the Telluride Bluegrass Festival to someone who’s never been here? It’s not easy, despite the plethora of superlatives that come to mind. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is a package: four days of the most eclectic showcase of virtuosic music around, along with a crowd of happy Festivarians that are ready for anything—in terms of both the wildly diverse musical adventures and the ever-changing elements. And it all takes place in one of the most stunning box canyons in the world. Sharing the Telluride Bluegrass experience is about to get easier. Get ready to invite a huge audience of off-site music lovers to the festival this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, Chris Thile’s Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show, Live From Here (LFH) will share the festival’s incomparable music, its intrepid Festivarians and even the beloved box canyon, with 2.5 million listeners all around the U.S. and beyond.
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1 9 7 9 : D O C W A TS O N , N O R MA N B LA KE JOIN T BF FAMIL Y. T EL L UL IVE RECORD REL EASED.
“Telluride is one of the inspirations for Live From Here,” says Chris. “The kind of variety I want people to experience on the show is deeply informed by what I hear at Telluride. Live From Here is not an island. That there’s a festival like Telluride in the world is good for people to hear. The way the music sounds in the canyon—I want the radio audience to get a taste of that. “This radio show has to happen in Telluride. This festival is so important to American roots music and acoustic music in general. It’s where so much exploration has happened. “Telluride is a unique collaboration between artists on stage and the audience. We will be guests on the show together. We will be performing en masse for the radio audience. It’s not just us performing for the Festivarians, but us and the Festivarians performing for the radio audience.” Chris became the host of “A Prairie Home Companion” (APHC) in October 2016. A couple years earlier, after decades on the air, Garrison Keillor was turning toward retirement. When Chris guest hosted the show several times in 2015, Keillor realized he’d found his perfect successor. In 2017 MPR changed the program’s name to Live From Here. “We are rediscovering what modern radio is to a younger generation,” says Fred Newman, longtime sound effects specialist for APHC and now for LFH. “Live From Here is a very different show, but it still has the roots of the original, especially the intimate feel. Chris is to music what Garrison is to words. The genius of Garrison is that he is a metaphor merchant. Chris’s music is just extraordinary. So the show is much more centered around music now.” While the show is more music-focused than the original, Chris finds it important to maintain a balance between music and spoken word. Variety is central to the show. In addition to continuing some of APHC’s faux commercials and comedic banter, LFH features a weekly standup routine from comics such as Maria Bamford, Rory Albanese, Jenny Zigrino and Neal Brennan. “I adore contrasts,” says Chris. “One of the places I learned about contrasts was from the original show. So that, to me, was one of the attractions when I was considering becoming the host. I think that when people are laughing their guard is down. They’re more open to any kind of music you put in front of them. The reverse is also true. You’re probably more ready to laugh when you’ve taken in some good music. The two strands compel each other forward. Two hours spent laughing and listening to music are going to go by real quick.”
“I love being compelled to write music. When you don’t have a deadline, so often you end up sitting there pulling your hair out about something that doesn’t matter ... Knowing that the song has to be done by Saturday helps you cut out some of the obsessive B.S. in writing.” COMPOSITIONAL BOOT CAMP
For many listeners, the centerpiece of APHC was Keillor’s weekly “News from Lake Wobegon.” His tales about the fictional town’s idiosyncratic characters enthralled audiences for decades. We may not be checking in on the strong women, good-looking men and above-average children of Lake Wobegon anymore, but thanks to Chris’s monumental musical creativity, we can enjoy a brand-new song every week on LFH. In keeping with its more music-centered approach, the show’s regular feature, “Song of the Week,” is its answer to Keillor’s weekly monologue. The Song of the Week is what Chris spends most of his LFH-related time on each week. He calls it “compositional boot camp.” “I love being compelled to write music,” he says. “When you don’t have a deadline, so often you end up sitting there pulling your hair out about something that doesn’t matter. T-Bone Burnett once told me, ‘Better is the enemy of the good.’ When you have a deadline you don’t have time to dot all your Is and cross all your Ts. Obsessive editing is a form of procrastination that looks productive but it’s not. Knowing that the song has to be done by Saturday helps you cut out some of the obsessive B.S. in writing.” The LFH house band also spends much of its rehearsal time preparing the Song of the Week. Each week, Chris sends a recording—usually just voice and mandolin—of the new song to members of the band. Punch Brothers guitarist and LFH house band member Chris Eldridge (a.k.a. “Critter”) describes the wild ride of learning and performing a new, and often complex, song each week: “The recording Thile sends out is skeletal. You don’t have a bunch of info filling out the harmonies. Because the mandolin only goes down to a G below middle C, sometimes you wind up with chords that don’t have the root in them. So sometimes the chord he’s playing on the demo can be deceptive.” The recordings often arrive in the middle of the night on Thursday, the day before the band gets together to rehearse all the songs for Saturday’s show. It’s at the rehearsal where the brand-new song takes shape. In describing the process of putting together the Song of the Week, Critter uses a metaphor that many Festivarian campers can relate to. “I liken it to putting up an old-fashioned tent. Those old tents don’t take shape until there are people with tent poles on all four corners. If you had just one guy on one pole, the tent would just be fabric and a stick—mostly lying on the ground.
1 9 8 0 : N E W GR A S S R E VI VAL JOINS L EON RUSSEL L . ST EVE G OODMAN’ S 1ST OF 3 T B FS.
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“[30-year APHC musical director and pianist] Rich Dworsky will consult with Thile before our rehearsal and make a chart. When the rest of us show up for rehearsal, we have a chart and we just start playing. Usually within the first 15 minutes, there’s an ‘aha’ moment where you see what the song is. It just appears in front of us. Thile has it crystal clear in his mind. He knows exactly what it’s going to be. For us it takes shape as we start playing.” Sarah Jarosz, who often appears on the show as a “duet partner,” has sat in with the house band numerous times to perform the Song of the Week. “It’s definitely the part of the show that keeps the musicians the most on their toes,” she says. “Chris will compose these songs, sometimes a couple days before the broadcast, so often we don’t get a rough demo until the morning of the rehearsal—sometimes at 4:00 am. Considering how intricate many of the songs have turned out to be, I’m still blown away that they can come together so quickly. It’s a real testament to Chris’s communication skills and the insanely high level of musicianship in the house band. It’s such an honor to be able to be a part of that process.” As any Festivarian knows, magic moments of spontaneity are part of every Telluride festival. In that way, Live From Here seems like a perfect fit. While the show is scripted, when the artists come together to rehearse, things have to come together in very short order. “Everything about doing the show is like walking a tightrope,” says Critter. “There’s almost nothing that’s super well prepared. There’s such limited time to work on it. I think that’s the beauty of it. It’s a live radio show. We all prepare as much as we can beforehand, and when we’re there we work really hard. There’s something really exhilarating about the work.” House band members may be accustomed to the whirlwind of learning an entire program in a single rehearsal, but the production crew usually spends days getting the details just right. Producing the show in a festival setting with limited setup time makes for an invigorating challenge. The LFH crew has been keeping in regular contact with Planet Bluegrass to familiarize themselves with the technical aspects of sound production at the
“There’s almost nothing that’s super well prepared. There’s such limited time to work on it. I think that’s the beauty of it.” festival and the peculiarities of broadcasting from a box canyon with wildly unpredictable weather. When asked about their anticipated challenges, the tech crew wrote, “Coming to Telluride, we are condensing what is normally a multiple-day production of rehearsals and sound checks on stage down to a handful of hours. This is only feasible because the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is so well organized, managed and staffed. “Live broadcasts from outdoor venues are always weather dependent. Microphones pick up birds/wildlife sounds, wind, rain, thunder and traffic. Heat and humidity affects the way acoustic instruments sound as well as the way sound travels, so we have to take that into account. Thunderstorms/lightning can cause power issues. Wind, rain and electronics do not play nicely together; we carry plenty of windscreens for the microphones, tarps for stage gear and instruments, and of course lots and lots of plastic bags.”
THE NECESSITY OF MUSIC
By hosting the show, and by bringing it to Telluride, Chris hopes to inspire audiences to appreciate the power of music in all our lives. “My goal is that this show would be proof of my theory that music is music is music—that music is a necessity of life, not an accessory of life. I think it could be looked at in a very similar way as oxygen or food or water, and that it should be. We were cold as a species so we discovered fire. We were alive so we created music. “I seek both to demystify the creation of music and to further glorify it. It’s as unspecial as food and water, and as special as the miracle of life itself. It simply is part of the meaning of life. My goal for the show is to be a part of that phenomenon.”
Charlotte Bell is a writer, yoga and mindfulness teacher and oboist who lives in Salt Lake City. She is the author of three books published by Shambhala Publications. Her most recent book, Hip-Healthy Asana: A Yoga Practitioner’s Guide to Protecting the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Pain, was published earlier this month.
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1 9 8 1 : R I CK Y S K A GGS , R O S A N N E C A SH AND JERRY DOUG L AS (1ST OF 34 YEARS) AL L DEBUT .
Learn about the new V-Class guitars at taylorguitars.com
3155-Telluride Bluegrass Festival Ad 3.5x4.675.indd 1
1 9 8 2 : 1S T A FTE R -HOURS JAM AT T HE SHERIDAN. BEL A FL ECK’ S 1ST OF 37 T B Fs . 5/29/18 10:28 AM
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Here inside the Town Park festival grounds, Sustainable Festivation is a visible, tangible thing: your reusable Festivarian Toolkit, your impressively creative campsites, the passion of Sustainable Festivation crewmembers at the waste stations. But much of our work on Sustainable Festivation happens beyond the summer solstice weekend, with a vision toward the larger scope of sustainability. SUPPORTING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
WE’RE A PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION!
For nearly 20 years, Planet Bluegrass has been an innovator in Sustainable Festivation. This Spring we took the next major step in committing to higher standards of purpose, accountability and transparency— in perpetuity. This process began in 2015. After completing a rigorous examination of our current business, environmental and community practices, Planet Bluegrass became just the 2nd festival producer to be named a Certified B Corporation™. With this voluntary certification, we joined a movement of for-profit businesses who aspire to be a force for good in the world. But as a company, we wanted to make a more longlasting, formal commitment. Thanks to the advocacy of B Lab (the nonprofit entity responsible for certifying B Corps) more than 30 US states now offer a framework for responsible business: the Benefit Corporation. This April we made the legal changes to become Telluride Bluegrass Festival, PBC—one of a growing number of Public Benefit Corporations in Colorado. In this way, we have formally committed to operate our business in a manner that is sustainable and beneficial to society and the environment, for years to come.
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Since 2007 Planet Bluegrass has been neutralizing 100% of the carbon emissions created by the Festival, including all Festivarian travel to/from Telluride. Through 15 years of supporting innovative projects, we have offset 25,630 metric tons of carbon, while also helping fund 5,402 megawatt hours of electricity with wind power. That’s equivalent to not burning 32 million pounds of coal or taking 6,350 vehicles off the road for an entire year! This year we are working with the local Pinhead Climate Institute (PCI) to purchase Colorado-based agricultural carbon offsets. This ranch-based carbon offset sale is the first major, commercial purchase of carbon offsets made available by PCI, an offshoot of the Telluride-based STEM education non-profit Pinhead Institute. These PCI carbon offsets are generated by the May Ranch, a 16,480acre parcel of Colorado shortgrass prairie located along the Arkansas River in Prowers County. Once threatened by conversion to cropland agriculture and even a feedlot, 85% of the pristine May Ranch is now under permanent and perpetual conservation easement thanks to this carbon offset program. Through this “regenerative agriculture” project, the May family is paid to leave its soil intact and untilled, where it can remove planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere, store it, and help address global climate change.
DROUGHT IN TELLURIDE REGION San Miguel County is currently experiencing the most severe drought in nearly 40 years. Please take fire risk very seriously and follow these water conservation practices: • • • • • • •
Take short showers—or skip a day. When washing your hands, turn off the water while you lather. While washing dishes, don’t let the water run. Fill one basin with wash water and the other with rinse water. If it’s yellow, let it mellow. Plug the sink while shaving instead of running the faucet. If doing laundry, match the water level to the load size. Reward kids for water-saving tips they follow.
1 9 8 3 : F A TH E R O F B LUE GR A S S MUS I C, BIL L MONROE, COMES T O T EL L URIDE!
10th Annual
With nearly 4,000 Festivarian campers sharing this gorgeous mountain environment, it is vitally important for each of us to be mindful of our camping footprint. In collaboration with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and Eco-Products (supplier of free compostable bags for your campground compost), we will again be rewarding campsites that excel in creative, sustainable camping.
How Do I Participate? How Do I Win? We encourage camps in any of the Planet Bluegrass-managed campgrounds to enter. To nominate your campsite or one of your neighbors:
1 Submit a 1-page entry form at the
Leave No Trace booth in Greentown, explaining how the campsite exhibits cleanliness, sustainability, & creativity.
2 Stop by the Leave No Trace booth each day to view all the campsite entries and vote for your favorites.
We will be judging campsites using three criteria:
CLEANLINESS Are you repackaging the food
you bring? Are you keeping a tidy campsite? Are items secure and protected from the wind?
SUSTAINABILITY Are you separating recycling and compost? Are you reusing products? Are you using alternative energy sources? Did you bike or carpool to the festival? Did you reduce your home’s energy while attending the festival?
What Do I Win?
Each day we select two winners—one random, one staff choice—for prize packages that include: Avery Beer, Kelty gear, Klean Kanteen reusables, Keen sandals, and Forty Years of Festivation books.
After the pack-out on Monday we will select grand prize winners to receive a pair of 4-day passes and camping for the 2019 Festival.
CREATIVITY Does your campsite have a theme? Did you decorate your campsite? Are you utilizing unique and innovative camping techniques? Are you upcycling any items from home?
Congratulations to 2017 co-winners Camp DukTape in Town Park and Camp Hideout in Warner Field!
®
1984: WIL L Y MAT T HEWS PAINT S HIS 1ST OF 22 T BF POS T E R S.
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Don’t you call me “old school,” you, you whippersnapper!
Why I was the craziest, most dangerous, nuevo-gonzo bad boy in the entire drinking
establishment. Twisting locks that wound everywhere. Chest hair indicating the prevailing winds. Skin like peaches and cream. A railroad rhythm about me that somehow muttered, “danger, danger, danger.” Oh yeah, you know what I mean. Then came the vaguest suggestion of a respectable profession in the profitable field of K–8 education. Eventually love came unbidden, followed at a suitable distance by marriage, pregnancy, mortgages, re-fis. You think this cannot happen to you—you are too, too hip. Ha, ha. LOL. Of course you can stay right where you are, drinking six shots a night, seeking bumps, attending free concerts while lurching about in ever more embarrassing dance moves, then crawling back to your hellish, stinky, single-wide with increasingly toothless neighbors, like I see certain denizens of good times past do. Your choice. Tonight, I conjure the specter of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s 50th Anniversary. (This year is 45, so righty-ho, I’m looking ahead now.) I’m telling you, the first five years were wild territory with no fail-safe. I was there, mostly. The story is laid out with rugged honesty in the hard-cover publication, 40 Years of Festivation, which I hear is a very good read. See, so much was happening in the year preceding each consecutive TBF, it was a surprise when it did come around. And then when it was over, too! Jeezuz, did that just happen? Little tykes will by the 50th, be raging around tight-rope pickin’ circles, ready to blow your mind in a random sit-in. This is good. For a while we classic dudes and duchesses wondered where the next generation was. Then, there they were, and hot as blazes. We old farts will pat their pretty heads and hand them down a TBF 50 commemorative coin. Fifty years, wow. I’ll be 75. Other people have been 75—not me. Cute little Chris Thile will be 43. You, reader, could be around for
Fifty. But look honey, there’s no guarantee. I learned this by going through cancer this year. The Big C. I’m okay now, but no, survival was not guaranteed. The cast and crew will be tipping a lot of booze out on the famous Telluride Bluegrass Festival Fred Shellman backstage gravel this year. The normal course of attrition took some good ones over the years and this year it was TBF founding father, Kooster McAllister. Oh, I miss him. His sweetness, his innate wisdom, his humor and warmth, and his New Jersey class. Cancer, boom—just like that. My treatment affords me a 95% survivability rate, meaning I have a 5% chance of being dead in five years—of this same cancer. Cheerful. And the close calls among those who present this TBF party— also insane. Ask your current MC, Chris Daniels. Chris’ chances were 50-50 for about a year. Cancer, by way of a very deep ordeal, has returned me somewhat surprised, into a body I’m slightly unfamiliar with, and into a time (now) I was seriously not expecting there for a while. Weird, huh? So, give me a break. I was beautiful for so, so long! Let it be your turn now, m’kay? I’m ass-kicked. Sure, the bone structure remains, but can I play the role of a dizzy fashion queen accidently lost amid the craggy backdrop of the Rocky Mountains? No, no way. You do it, and do it big. I look forward to number 50. I look forward to being viable for The Fifty. I look forward to the tremendous little thing we were a part of so long ago giving me a whopping tonload more music that amazes me silly. See you there.
Pastor Mustard (aka Dan Sadowsky) was the Telluride Bluegrass Festival MC for 31 years. He wrote the year-by-year essays for the hardcover collector’s edition book Telluride Bluegrass Festival: 40 Years of Festivation, available at the Country Store.
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1 9 8 5 : TO N Y R I CE , E DGA R ME YE R , E MMYL OU HARRIS (1ST OF 16 YEARS) DEBUT .
Thanks to your thirst for delicious Colorado craft beer—along with our selection of locally-produced cocktails—we have donated more than $450,000 to local organizations over the past 5 years including: Telluride Volunteer Fire Department, Telluride EMT Association, Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, KOTO, Telluride Community Television, One to One Mentoring, Angel Baskets, San Miguel Resource Center, Telluride Mountain Club, San Miguel Bike Alliance, Leave No Trace, Telluride Academy, Telluride Rotary Club, Telluride AIDS Foundation, and contributions of nearly $55,000 to the Town of Telluride to assist with construction of the new stage. Again this year, the tips you leave for our beer booth volunteers support a different local non-profit each day:
Thursday KOTO
Friday One to One Mentoring
Saturday
Sunday
Ah Haa School for the Arts
Telluride Carbon Neutral Coalition
R AIS E YOUR REUSABLE CU P H IG H!
THANKS FOR SUPPORTING THE TELLURIDE COMMUNITY.
Est. 1992
Telluride Music Co. Now an Authorized
Dealer for
JUNE
JOIN US for a SANTA CRUZ WORKSHOP with DAVE BRUZZA of GREENSKY BLUEGRASS 22 at 1 pm
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1986: NIT T Y G RIT T Y DIRT BAND PL AYS 1ST OF 5 T B Fs .
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The Family Tent provides whimsical, musical, and educational activities for children and their parents from noon-5pm on Thursday and 10am-5pm Friday thru Sunday. Most activities are free, but we ask that parents please accompany their kids at all times.
LIVING FOLKLORE
Since 1998 Living Folklore has been making the Telluride Bluegrass weekend just as fun for children as it is for adults. The kids area offers a magical refuge for the whole family with kids yoga, storytelling, crafts, interactive performances with live characters, and giant processions. With this year’s theme of Alice in Candyland, Living Folklore will be bringing elements from Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland to life with giant puppets and a lifesize children’s board game. Come play with us and experience the magic of The Family Tent! Learn more at www.gigglebubble.com
PANCAKE
BREAKFAST At the Telluride Elks Lodge 4 7 2 W E S T PA C I F I C
KIDS TALENT SHOW
The ever-popular talent show returns Saturday afternoon for the 22nd year.
22 ND ANNUAL KIDS PARADE
The weekend culminates with this beloved Telluride tradition. Carry a flag, umbrella, or one of the giant puppets as Gumbo Wobbly leads this huge procession through the festival grounds on Sunday afternoon at 2:45pm.
JUGGLERS’ GROVE F R I DAY – S U N DAY J U N E 22-24
Breakfast Served 9am to noon Adults $10 | Kids $5 | Cash Bar
MENU Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns, Bacon, Sausage, Coffee and Juice
Lauri Watson welcomes new and experienced jugglers for lessons and free juggling balls each day.
BETTY HOOPS
Decorate and create your own kid- and adult-sized hula hoops. Then join the Hoop Dance coach and 5-time world record holder, Betty Hoops, for free lessons on Saturday and Sunday. Learn more at www.bettyhoops.com
For more information visit Tellurideelks.org.
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1 9 8 7 : ST R E N GTH I N N UMB E R S DE B UT AS T EL L URIDE AL L -ST ARS.
adventure music Coming in August:
Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg “Third Journey”
Ricardo Silveira “Organ Trio” with Vanessa Rodrigues & Rafael Barata
Re-issued Re-Mastered Windham Hill Classics: Darol Anger & Mike Marshall “Chiaroscuro”
Darol Anger Barbara Higbie Mike Marshall Todd Phillips “Live at Montreux”
Darol Anger & Barbara Higbie “Tideline”
Darol Anger Barbara Higbie Mike Marshall Michael Manring “Sign Language”
Adventure Music is pleased to support the
Trust for Public Land
All Adventure Music releases available from Amazon/iTunes/Dusty Groove America 60 EAST 56TH STREET, 9TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022
in its efforts to conserve the mountains that frame Telluride’s annual bluegrass festival. Support www.TPL.org ph: 212.829.7006 email: info@adventure-music.com
Every June, songwriters and bands from around the world trek to Telluride for the prestigious Troubadour and Band contests. Offering beautiful instruments, cash prizes, and international recognition, these contests showcase the next generation of Telluride Bluegrass artists. Join us in welcoming these talented performers on Thursday and Friday at Elks Park, then celebrate with the finalists Saturday on the Main Stage.
Troubadour Contest
2018 TROUBADOUR FINALISTS
Troubadours will perform in a randomly selected order.
Emery Adeline
Lydia Luce
Vincent Colbert
Mia Rose Lynne
Kyle Donovan
Rob Nance
Jackson Emmer
Garrett Owen
Kora Feder
Brian Pounds
Nashville, Tennessee
Los Angeles, California
Denver, Colorado
Nashville, Tennessee
Boulder, Colorado
Durham, North Carolina
Carbondale, Colorado
Dallas, Texas
Brooklyn, New York
Austin, Texas
For the 28th year, the Troubadour Contest introduces ten inspiring young songwriters to Festivarian Nation in Telluride. One of these artists will join past winners like Catie Curtis, Deb Talan, Gregory Alan Isakov, Caitlin Canty, and Clint Alphin as the 2018 Telluride Troubadour. Singer-songwriters not currently signed to a major recording or publishing deal submitted songs beginning last December. In April, our panel of industry professionals selected these 10 finalists from hundreds of submissions. During two rounds of Elks Park performances, Troubadours will be judged on the quality of their songs’ composition, vocal delivery, and overall performance. On Saturday evening the winning Troubadour will receive a handmade Shanti dreadnought guitar featuring Indian Rosewood back and sides, European Spruce top, and herringbone details. Cheer on your favorite Troubadours throughout the festival as they perform songwriter-in-the-round sets at Elks Park, ‘tweener songs on the Main Stage, and live in-studio on KOTO.
2018 TROUBADOUR SCHEDULE Preliminary Round Thursday, June 21 Noon Elks Park Stage
Final Round Friday, June 22 2:45pm Elks Park Stage
Winning Troubadour Performance Saturday, June 23 6:15pm Main Stage
Contest winner announced Friday, June 22 at 4:45pm on the Elks Park Stage.
Band Contest
One of the foremost contests for acoustic stringbands, the Telluride Band Contest has helped launch the careers of Dixie Chicks, Greensky Bluegrass, The Lil Smokies, and dozens of other past winners. This year’s bands will be competing around a single microphone for a spot on the 2019 main stage lineup and an EP recording package from eTown Hall Studio and Airshow Boulder.
2018 CONTEST BANDS
Bands will perform in a randomly selected order.
Cadillac Mountain Tucson, AZ
The Dirty Grass Players
Fairfax, VA
Flat Left Feet
Pick & Howl
Lexington, KY
Arvada, CO
The Get Down Boys
Professor Banjo & The Fledgling Pickers
Baltimore, MD
2017 Winners: Sugar & The Mint
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Gold Top County Ramblers
Huntington Beach, CA
Into the Fog
Wilmington, NC
Colorado Springs, CO
Scott Slay and The Rail Lakewood, CO
Stillhouse Junkies
Durango, CO
BANDS SCORE IN THESE CATEGORIES • 30% Material Selection
BAND COMPETITION SCHEDULE
• 30% Instrumental Performance
Preliminary Round Friday, June 22 10:00am Elks Park Stage
taste, difficulty, authenticity, & originality
The Warren G. Hardings
Wood Belly
• 10% Stage Presence
Seattle, WA Denver, CO
ability of soloists & overall blend
• 30% Vocal Performance
lead & harmony
1 9 8 8 : TE LLUR I DE B LUE GR A S S B E CO MES 4-DAY EVENT . 1ST BL UEG RASS ACADEMY.
Final Round Saturday, June 23 9:30am Main Stage
CRAFT EDUCATION CONSUME RESPONSIBLY
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1 98 9 : A LI S O N K R A US S & UN ION ST AT ION DEBUT . 15 T H & FINAL NEW G RASS REVIVAL SE T .
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2018 Schedule of THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SUNDAY
June 21st
June 22nd
June 23rd
June 24th
11:00 - Noon Chris Thile
10:00 - 11:00am The Maes
9:30 - 10:30am Band Contest Finals
10:45 - 11:45am The War & Treaty
12:15 - 1:15pm The Railsplitters
11:15 - 12:15pm Frigg
10:45 - 11:45am Sugar & The Mint
1:30 - 2:45pm Billy Strings
12:45 - 2:00pm Phoebe Hunt & The Gatherers
Noon - 1:15pm Béla Fleck & Brooklyn Rider
Noon - 1:15pm Edgar Meyer & Christian McBride
2:30 - 4:00pm The Jerry Douglas Band
1:45 - 3:00pm Peter Rowan & The Free Mexican Airforce
3:15 - 4:45pm Yonder Mountain String Band
4:30 - 5:45pm The Infamous Stringdusters
4:00 - 6:00pm Live From Here with Chris Thile
5:15 - 6:45pm Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
7:00 - 8:30pm The Del McCoury Band
6:15 - 7:30pm Emmylou Harris
6:15 - 6:30pm Telluride Troubadour
7:15 - 8:45pm Punch Brothers
9:00 - 11:00pm Tedeschi Trucks Band
8:00 - 10:00pm Telluride House Band
6:45 - 8:00pm St. Paul & The Broken Bones
9:15 - 10:45pm Sturgill Simpson
10:00am Gates Open
3:15 - 4:30pm The Wood Brothers 5:00 - 6:30pm I’m With Her: Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O’Donovan
9:00am Gates Open
featuring Sam, Béla, Jerry, Edgar, Bryan & Stuart
10:30 - Midnight Greensky Bluegrass
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SATURDAY 9:00am Gates Open
8:30 - 10:30pm Sam Bush Band 11:00 - 12:30am Leftover Salmon
1 9 9 0 : J AME S TA YLO R , FLE CK TO N E S DEBUT . DIXIE CHICKS WIN BAND CONT EST .
10:00am Gates Open
1:30 - 2:45pm Tim O’Brien Band
at Elks Park
Workshop schedule subject to change. Please check for daily updates on sign boards.
THURSDAY June 21st
FRIDAY June 22nd
12:00 Troubadour Contest: Preliminary Round
12:15 Stephen Mougin & Friends: Guitar Pull
11:00 Clint Alphin: 2017 Troubadour Encore
2:00
Edgar Meyer, George Meyer & Sasha Scolnik-Brower: Music for Violin, Cello & Bass
3:15 Sugar & The Mint Thursday Refresh-Mint 4:30 The Lil Smokies: Happy Hour
10:00 Band Contest: Preliminary Round
1:30 Johnny Gandelsman: The Three Partitas 2:45 Troubadour Contest: Final Round 3:45 Hawktail plays Unless… 4:45 Troubadour Contest: Winners Announced 5:00 Frigg: Frost on Fiddles
SATURDAY June 23rd
SUNDAY June 24th
10:30
Michael Hornick, Bobby Wintringham & Friends: Instrument Building
11:30 Troubadours: Emery Adeline, Kora Feder & Garrett Owen
Noon
Phoebe Hunt & The Gatherers: Featuring The Human Hands
1:00 Drew, Eli & Willa Emmitt: Emmitt Family Band 2:15 JigJam: Irish CeltGrass
1:15 Troubadours: Vincent Colbert, Jackson Emmer & Lydia Luce 2:45
3:30 The Maes: Sister Harmonies
Andy Falco, Travis Book, Jacob Jolliff: Celebrating the Acoustic Jerry Garcia
4:00 Troubadours: Kyle Donovan, Mia Rose Lynn, Rob Nance & Brian Pounds
Most activities at the family tent are free. We ask that parents please accompany their kids at all times.
THURSDAY June 21st
Noon-5:00 Jugglers’ Grove, Arts & Crafts
FRIDAY June 22nd
SATURDAY June 23rd
SUNDAY June 24th
Noon Funny Bone Logic & Clown Yoga
Noon Funny Bone Logic & Clown Yoga
1:00 Gumbo Wobbly’s Quackers & Kazoos Class
1:00 Storytelling with Gala the Flower Faerie
Noon Clown Yoga with Gumbo Wobbly & Friends
10:00 Jugglers’ Grove, Arts & Crafts
2:00 Kids Yoga with Patty Sunfield 3:00 Alice in Candyland Story and Giant Board Game
10:00 Jugglers’ Grove, Hoop Making, Arts & Crafts
2:00 Drama Class & Talent Show Sign-ups 2:30 22nd Annual Telluride Kids Talent Show
10:00 Jugglers’ Grove, Hoop Making, Arts & Crafts
1:00 Alice in Candyland Story and Giant Board Game 2:15 Parade Preparations (until parade begins) 2:45 22nd Annual Kids Parade (through festival grounds
during set-break)
3:30 Closing Circle
1 9 9 1 : 1 6 ,0 0 0 + IN AT T ENDANCE. FUT URE T BF CAPACIT Y CAPPED AT 10 ,000.
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Thursday, June 21st
Chris Thile
The Railsplitters
11:00 - Noon
12:15 - 1:15pm
During a recent Q&A, a fan asked Chris Thile what he thinks about while he’s playing music on stage, a fascinating question for a guy whose brain contains a tangle of neurons that produces unprecedented musical genius. Of course, he thinks about the fretboard, anticipating the next spray of notes in his labyrinthine runs, mentally leaping ahead to ensuing improvisational trapeze acts. He must also think about his complex poetry, both colloquial and refined, filled with psychological depth, elegant wit, and literary expressionism, a mix of Monroe and Morrison, Flatt and Faulkner. Given his wide-ranging setlists, he might also think about his own spearheading achievements in Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers, countless collaborations, and his solo output, including the brilliant new Thanks for Listening. And on Thursday, he will think about the storied TBF traditions of the Shellman Stage, which now include Chris’s fifth-consecutive Fest-opening solo set. But you, Festivarian, don’t have to think about any of that on Thursday morning. You can simply relax into full-sun tarp-itude, letting Chris’s crystalline quarter-notes cascade over you as you recline, sun-soaked, bare-limbed, in your best-brimmed hat, knowing that you have four full days and nights of Festivation ahead. That, of course, puts you in the single sweetest spot on the planet. Don’t you think?
High five, Festivarians! It’s the 45th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, five years removed from our big 40th birthday and five years away from the Festival’s Golden Anniversary. TBF features five nights of music. Five campgrounds service the Festival this year. There are five waterfall-hikes accessible from town. And the five-piece Boulderbased band The Railsplitters are making their TBF debut, five years after winning the 2013 RockyGrass Band Competition. The accolades keep pouring in for The Railsplitters’ elegant genre hybrid: the sorghum-sweet vocals and graceful guitar of Lauren Stovall; the limber, light-touch mandolin of Pete Sharpe; the Scruggs and clawhammer stylings of Dusty Rider (on the Five!); the classicallycomplexioned fiddle of Joe D’Esposito; and the jazz-coded bass foundation of Jean-Luc Davis. Together, the ‘Splitters form a tilt-a-whirl of dynamic songcraft, instrumental precision, deft jammability, and harmony-marinated arrangements. The band’s latest album, Jump In, is brimming with richly ornamental constructions and lyrical narratives that articulate the complexities of selfhood, gender, and intimacy. So it’s time to take five and take in The Railsplitters on Thursday, as they fill the empty spaces around you and the emotional spaces within you with their singular, soothing musical resonance.
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Billy Strings
The Wood Brothers
1:30 - 2:45pm
3:15 - 4:30pm
Get ready, Telluride. Because Billy is. In fact, if anyone is prepared for a scorching TBF debut set, it’s the 24-year-old phenom who has been taking the newgrass world by storm with his breakneck virtuosic flatpicking, whiskey-cured vocals, and thrill-ride live shows that stretch the limits of string-band jamplification. Raised by bluegrass folk, the young Michigander’s prodigious talent surfaced early; by the age of five, he had already earned his nickname: Billy Strings. His teen years found Billy playing in heavy metal bands, and while the guitar slinger found his way back to bluegrass, the bang-yourhead energy and tendon-taxing shredability of metal would continue to inform his electrifying live sets. Last year, Billy released his debut album, Turmoil & Tinfoil, a record that captures his fret-blitzing fearlessness and his band’s ability to stretch out. In fact, when Billy and the boys (mandolinist Jarrod Walker, bassist Royal Masat, banjoist Billy Failing) start a song, you could walk to town to the Telluride Bud Company to restock your flower and make it back in time to see them still setting flames to the same song. However, you won’t want to miss a second of Billy’s volcanic set of lightspeed fusiongrass and his band’s 360-degree pursuit of the next canyonshuddering jam. So batten down your tarps: Billy Strings has arrived.
Telluride Bluegrass is always an annual reunion of kinships, but 2018 marks a special celebration of family: the McCourys, The Maes, Frigg, and Sugar & the Mint are all sibling acts; Tedeschi Trucks Band, Phoebe Hunt & The Gatherers, Tim O’Brien Band, and The War & Treaty all feature husband-wife pairs. And adding to the TBF family affair are the ultra-cool Wood Brothers, a group that epitomizes the musical chemistry unique to brothers. Oliver (enchanter of plucking patterns and grease-fire slide guitar) first found success as the frontman of Southern blues-rock outfit King Johnson. Younger brother Chris (guru of double-bass technique, sound, and style) achieved enormous popularity as one-third of jam-jazz mainstays Medeski Martin & Wood. When the Woods joined musical forces in the mid-’00s, they found a kindred spirit in Jano Rix, a multibrained percussionist who handles drums, keyboards, and mellotron, often at the same time. Rix is also the inventor of the Shuitar, an acoustic guitar turned portable percussion instrument that supplies the perfect texture and traction to the trio’s unique hybrid of elemental folk, gutbucket gospel, speakeasy blues, and hamfat jazz. Touring behind their excellent helpin-hard-times LP, One Drop of Hope, the Brothers hit Telluride at their creative peak and bring the ideal roots-rock fix for your happiness jones.
1 9 9 2 : SHA W N C O LVI N & MA R Y C H A P IN CARPENT ER’S 1ST EL KS PARK WORKSHOP.
Shawn Colvin • Kathy Mattea Ellis Paul • Mike Farris Penny & Sparrow Sam Baker • Hubby Jenkins Sloan Wainwright Les Poules á Colin Mean Mary plus 2 other performers TBA
MoabFolkFestival.com Festival Pass: $130 Single Venue: $40
Early Bird Discount 10% off until July 1st
1 9 9 3 : DE L MC COURY’ S 1ST OF 16 T BFS. NICKEL CREEK PL AYS FAMIL Y T E N T .
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Thursday, June 21st
I’m With er:
Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O’Donovan
5:00 - 6:30pm Who’s your favorite Her? Is it Sara Watkins, who has reached platinum sales and collected cairn-piles of awards as a member of the TBF luminaries Nickel Creek and with her three cripplingly-beautiful solo albums, featuring her nimble multi-instrumentalism and sweet, register-leaping vocals? Or is it Aoife O’Donovan, whose ethereal vocals graced five Crooked Still albums and whose sensual songcraft, shadowed folk-grass, and exquisite breeze-borne ballads can be heard on dozens of collaborations and on her own solo albums, including 2016’s elegant In the Magic Hour? Or do you prefer Sarah Jarosz, whose extramusical mastery of mandolin, guitar, and clawhammer banjo and whose warm vocal poise have created a lush contemporary fragrance on four lauded albums, including 2016’s uber-gorgeous, Grammy-winning Undercurrent? Well, good news, Festivarian: You don’t have to choose. These three distinct voices have formed I’m With Her, and they will all be with you on Thursday. It’s a heart-liquefying collaboration among three artists who have each commanded her own solo set at Telluride Bluegrass in the past. As a supergroup, a union that originated right here at the 2014 Festival, the trio will highlight songs from their debut album, See You Around, a spellbinding set that showcases the remarkable blend of the singers’ tones and tunes. Weep-Inducing Beauty Alert: By combining their towering talents, I’m With Her create a sublime one-of-a-kind musical hybrid that stops time and accesses hidden chambers of the heart. Prepare for a stunning siren summit.
The Del McCoury Band
Tedeschi Trucks Band
7:00 - 8:30pm
9:00 - 11:00pm
Last year, during Dierks Bentley’s set with The Travelin’ McCourys, the country superstar was, along with 10,000 Festivarians, thrilled by a surprise appearance by Dierks’s hero: the iconic Del McCoury. What was not a surprise was that when Del opened his mouth to sing, with his trademark keening tone and powerful projection, he bent everyone at the Festival toward him in a euphoric celebration of the legacy and continued excellence of Del. He’s the archetypal high-lonesome singer, the dapper-suited and silver-pompadoured Bluegrass Hall of Famer, the Blue Grass Boy who sang lead for Bill Monroe, the Grand Ole Opry member and multiple-Grammy winner, the recipient of IBMA’s Entertainer of the Year a record nine times, the man Sam Bush calls the King of Bluegrass. Del is our greatest living link to bluegrass’s origins and represents the purest integrity of traditional forms, and only Del possesses the singular ability to both expand the perimeters of classic grass with his peerless band and to also make contemporary material across all genres sound like 1959 again. Del is approaching 60 years as bluegrass’s definitive patriarchal picker and is today as vital as ever, whether partnering with Sam or David Grisman, recording a collection of Woody Guthrie songs (2016’s Del & Woody), or leading the adventure-seeking musicians in the incomparable Del McCoury Band: Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Rob McCoury (banjo), Alan Bartram (bass), and Jason Carter (fiddle). It’s opening night. The legend has once again come to play. Welcome to Del-uride.
Tedeschi Trucks Band are huge. Our Thursday night closer has attracted a vast international following, selling out venues worldwide and releasing a series of award-winning recordings. They are both a critical smash (their debut, 2011’s Revelator, won the Grammy for Best Blues Album) and a commercial sensation (their latest, 2015’s Let Me Get By, was a Top 15 album in the US). And speaking of huge, at a dozen members strong, Tedeschi Trucks Band are a stageful of gargantuan talent. Susan Tedeschi is the world-class Berklee-trained soul-blues belter and guitarist, who as a solo artist compiled multiple Grammy nods and has dueted with everyone from Willie Nelson to Mick Jagger. Slide-guitar master Derek Trucks started as the young bottleneck prodigy who won a Grammy with his Derek Trucks Band before joining the Allman Brothers (his uncle is founding drummer Butch Trucks) in 1999. A colossal player with boundless stylistic reach, Derek is ranked the 16th Greatest Guitarist of All Time by Rolling Stone. Together, as musical and life partners, Susan and Derek lead the TTB collective (which includes two drummers, three backup vocalists, and a threepiece horn section), pumping out a valley-sized pageant of bellbottomed blues, honey-dripping funk, sunbaked gospel, and Southern boogie. With the two guitarists’ advanced fretymology and the band’s eclectic cross-rhythms, TTB combine Muscle Shoals fire, Motown polish, and Stax punch into an intoxicating jam for the ages. So gear up, Telluride, for a two-hour soul stew revival. This is going to be huge.
“Man, this view is unbelievable. Lookin’ around here it’s pretty hard not to get goosebumps…” —Dierks Bentley
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1 9 9 5 : L E FTO VE R S A LMO N ’S 1S T O F 16 T BFs. JOHN COWAN’S “DARK AS A DUNG EON. ”
Friday, June 22nd
The Maes
10:00 - 11:00am Tarp of the morning, early risers! Was it your turn to wait for the bagpipes this morning? Were you one of the Frostivarians in the pre-dawn line, stockinged into your bag, shivering as you begged the sun to finally peek over the mountain? Well, now that your extremities have thawed out, you are about to be rewarded for your sleep-deprived service by having a prime spot for a band guaranteed to warm your hearts, too: Australia’s exquisite folk trio The Maes. The Rigby sisters, Maggie (banjo) and Elsie (violin), alongside cellist Monique Clare, know about changeable weather: Their fellow Melburnians often joke that their city experiences “four seasons in one day,” so a Telluride June should make them feel right at home. Their latest album, last year’s stellar Take Care Take Cover, is an evocation of the natural world, both lyrically (songs about the moon, sky, storms, waterlilies, honey) and sonically, as their elegant portrait of folk music weaves aromatic instrumental lines across autumnal lyricism, verdant songcraft, and confluent three-part harmonies. So the Friday sunrise brings us the award-winning, internationallyacclaimed Maes. It will be a restorative morning session guaranteed to optimize your inner temperature through the delicate latticework of the Maes’ sumptuously plucked instruments and pacific voices. Soak it in.
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Frigg
11:15 - 12:15pm Our world-hopping continues on Friday with a feeding frenzy for Fiddlevarians as we welcome Frigg, the celebrated string-stroking phenoms from Finland. A Frigg gig is an energy-packed instrumental feast for the senses featuring a top-shelf phalanx of fiddlers. It’s a parade of pegboxes, a chain of chinrests, a battalion of bows. There are Friggin’ fiddles everywhere. There will be so much horse hair on stage, you might as well break out the mint juleps. Frigg’s seven members mix traditional Nordic folk music with modern Americana flavors, creating a Scandinavian sawing session like none other. Music is the international language, and dancing is, of course, a form of communication. So come converse with Frigg: You haven’t lived until you’ve jigged to an hour of Nordgrass. Over the last decade, the award-rich Frigg have released eight spectacular albums and headlined the world’s biggest folk festivals. With a frontline attack of four fiddlers, backed by guitar, cittern, and double bass, Frigg play with thrilling parallelism and counterpoint, expression and locomotion, transporting the audience inside their polyrhythms and overlapping lines. Fun fact: Frigg take their name from the Norse goddess of wisdom. So it’s wise to bow to the bows. And guess which one of our weekdays bears the goddess’s name? That’s right. Thank Frigg it’s Friday.
Phoebe unt & The Gatherers
The Jerry Douglas Band
It’s been a globetrotting Friday morning at Telluride: We’ve already breakfestivated this morning with bands from Oceania and Fennoscandia. And while fiddling singer-songwriter Phoebe Hunt is a Texas-born Brooklynite, she brings global dimensions to her fascinating brand of roots music. Most recently, Phoebe returned from a music-andmeditation retreat in India, adding new raga structures and spiritual clarity to her blend of country twang, gypsy swing, folk-soul torch, and jam-angled prog-grass. Phoebe is not only a first-rate fiddler but is also one of the most skilled singers you’ll see on the Shellman Stage. With her elastic larynx and vast stylistic range, Phoebe is equally at ease on newgrass ballads, mountain-folk rippers, and jazz standards. Furthermore, her band, The Gatherers (including her mandolinist husband, Dominick Leslie) command a dynamic musical stockpile, playing with downright Flecktonian precision and complexity. The hunting and gathering implied in the band’s moniker certainly match the band’s explorative musical pursuits and deadly-talented instrumental and vocal prowess. Conversely, their new album, the melting-pot marvel Shanti’s Shadow, reveals Phoebe’s real first name: Shanti, a Hindu word that means peace. So killer music and peaceful vibes. Sounds like a Telluridian Friday afternoon.
Jerry Douglas made his first TBF appearance back in ‘81, so ‘18 finds Jerry celebrating the rare TBF Palindrome Anniversary. It makes sense for a guy who has been playing the dobro backward and forward for 34 TBFs as one of our most deified heroes. Decades ago, Jerry earned the top spot as history’s greatest dobroist, elevating the level of musicianship all around him, and he continues to wow and inspire us as a reviver of old sounds and inventor of new ones. The stats are astounding: 14 Grammys, 27 IBMA Awards (including 2 Entertainer of the Year Awards leading the Earls of Leicester), 3 CMA Instrumentalist of the Year Awards, an AMA Lifetime Achievement Award, and over 2000 recordings as a sideman. In Telluride, Jerry turns solos into sagas, as his lion-oil licks, racecar runs, and picking loops spool outward onto the tarp tapestry and up into the cosmos. Last year, Jerry reached another new height with the release of the mega-gem What If. This is Deluxe Flux, with an augmented band (fiddle, electric guitar, a horn section) full of musical stunt nuts. With so many dynamos on stage on Friday, The Jerry Douglas Band is sure to stir up such a wet stew of instrumental fire, it will be too hot to hoot. Won’t it now? Hey, that’s another palindrome! (PS: In honor of Jerry’s anniversary, this bio contains 18 palindromes.)
12:45 - 2:00pm
2:30 - 4:00pm
1 9 9 7 : J OH N N Y C A S H , J O H N PR I N E , DAVID CROSBY & T AJ MAHAL AL L PL AY T BF.
Collings MF5 Deluxe Varnish #1191 In Telluride, visit Telluride Music Company. Located in the historic business district at 333 W. Colorado Ave, (970) 728-9592
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Friday, June 22nd
The Infamous Stringdusters 4:30 - 5:45pm
Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams, who played an unforgettable TBF set in 2016 backed by The Infamous Stringdusters, called the band the “Star Wars of bluegrass.” It’s easy to see what Ryan meant: The Stringdusters are a megahit band both critically and commercially, a perennial powerhouse on tour, master-level duelists on stage, and creators of instant classics. Yet the Stringdusters are not a matter of science fiction, but of chemistry. Travis Book (bass), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), Andy Hall (dobro), and Chris Pandolfi (banjo) reach an upper realm of musical communication and improvisation exclusive to players such as these. Individually, they are all aces of technique and polish; together, they create a hothouse textural mix that crackles with energy and contrapuntal tangles, setting off sparks in every direction yet maintaining an internal rhythmic balance for optimal tarp-stomping. As hydroponically jam-fit as the Dusters are, they are equally prolific as studio precisionists: Their selftitled 2008 LP shot to #1 on the Bluegrass albums chart, 2014’s Let It Go crossed over to the Country Top 40, and last year’s Laws of Gravity defied its title by climbing even higher and landing a Grammy. So prepare to get Dusted as the Stringers shoot in for their 5th TBF and another canyon odyssey. It’s going to be out of this world.
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Emmylou Harris 6:15 - 7:30pm
When Emmylou Harris first appeared on the scene in the early ‘70s, no one knew quite what to make of the cool, guitar-strumming, ravenhaired, hippie-folk beauty with the butterfly voice who was hitting the top of the charts by resurrecting Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens tunes. Fifty years later, she remains a treasure as one of popular music’s most influential figures. Emmylou has always helped others achieve greatness. She set the standard for harmony singing, first with Gram Parsons, then with Bob Dylan, The Band, and hundreds more. On her own, she had 24 Top 10 singles in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a country superstar and did so without ever compromising her earth-sister authenticity. In the ‘90s, after years as an interpretive genius, Emmylou refocused on her own original songwriting, penning a series of gorgeous, award-winning albums. At 47 nominations and 13 wins, Emmy is among the most Grammy-honored artists ever and was this year’s recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted her in 2008. She received Sweden’s prestigious Polar Music Prize in 2015. Today, from her rescue-dog organization to the Concerts for a Landmine Free World, she continues to give back. And on Friday, she gives us all a moment to cherish forever: an evening in Telluride with the incomparable Emmylou Harris.
Telluride House Band Greensky Bluegrass
featuring Sam, Béla, Jerry, Edgar, Bryan & Stuart
8:00 - 10:00pm
You saw The Avengers, right? A group of heroes, each powerful enough to command his own headlining show, all join forces for one gargantuan two-hour blockbuster. So it is with the Telluride House Band. They are the Superpickers, the Guardians of the Musicalaxy. This is the Age of Ultrajam. They are the holders of the Infinity Tones. Separately, the Tones (Time, Mind, Soul, Reality, Power, Space) are the mighty forces that sustain Festivaria. But together, the Tones are supreme and eternal. And these six marvels team up just once a year. Brace yourselves. It’s going to take courage. They are the true iron men: They leave it all on the Shellman year after year, many of them with decades-long consecutive TBF streaks. Sam, the peerless, fearless leader. Béla, the star-lord visionary. Jerry, the rocketfueled wingman. Bryan, the falcon-fast illusionist. Stuart, the spidery sage. And Edgar? Edgar smash! There are no special effects here. Just the best players in history—live, raw, and real—mining musical history, cycling through genres, crosspanning from one full-blooded solo to another. The sets are at once highly improvised, expansive, and risktaking, yet full of strategy, coherence, and immaculate control. It is the epic of the summer. What will the six virtuosi come up with this time? Spoiler Alert: They’re going to kill it.
1 9 9 9 : E A R L S C R UGGS FI N A LLY C O MES T O T EL L URIDE!
10:30 - Midnight
Hey, we realize that Friday we’re hitting your hedonistic hotspots especially hard with a jam attack for the ages, more thrill-a-second awesomeness than your central nervous system is built to withstand. But we believe in you. And we know that the Freakivarians come out at night. And the current lords of the nighttime world are Greensky Bluegrass. These Michiganimals have gone from 2006 Band Contest champs to TBF mainstays, playing NightGrass shows so rowdy that building-code specialists have had to lay plans for seismic retrofitting. Greensky’s mainstage sets also produce a heightened reality: Guitarist Dave Bruzza, mandolinist Paul Hoffman, banjoist Michael Bont, dobroist Anders Beck, and bassist Mike Devol have added new colors and soundscapes to bluegrass, bringing classic-rock drama and psychedelic sweep to a sonic communion that will take you from indica to sativa in seconds flat. A GSBG show knows no boundaries: Fans have come to expect beloved Greensky originals from albums like 2014’s If Sorrows Swim and 2016’s Shouted, Written Down & Quoted and for the quintet to flash their interpretive intelligence on a steady stream of surprises featuring the band’s epiphanic tension-andrelease improvisations. So it’s Friday evening in Telluride. As darkness falls, Greensky Bluegrass are about to expand your mind and take you deep into the night.
Saturday, June 23rd
Sugar & The Mint 10:45 - 11:45am
How are you feeling this morning? What time did you finally crawl into the tent last night? We’re asking only because this morning’s tarp-run times were several seconds slower than average. Festivarians are barely raising their arms during wristband checks. The coffee line looks like a Dorothea Lange photo. Yes, Friday night was a doozy. Jam-packed. But, speaking of jam, we have just the thing to get you going again Saturday morning: Grape Flavored. You see, that’s the title of the debut LP by indiegrass sextet Sugar & the Mint. Winners of the TBF Band Contest last year, Sugar & the Mint are a young (ages 17-21) Arizona band who recreate old-time sounds but push their arrangements into contemporary shapes and flavors. And if tradition holds (past contest champs include the Dixie Chicks, Greensky Bluegrass, the Lil Smokies, etc.), this band is going places. They are Keenan Hammack (guitar), Matt Tatum (mandolin), Johan Glidden (guitar/fiddle), Jason Howard (bass), Glory Glidden (fiddle), and Kiva Rain Keith (cello). Their brand-new LP Just Past Midnight is a showcase for the band’s folk-freckled bluegrass and plucky range, including a clever spin on Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” So after a wild Friday night, we sweat it out to the strings of a runaway American dream: the romantic, talented kids taking the Telluride main stage.
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Béla Fleck and Brooklyn Rider Noon - 1:15pm
We first fell for Béla Fleck when he was the young banjo wizard in New Grass Revival, working miracles with a blazing left hand way up on the neck, scattering sixteenth notes over astounded audiences everywhere. Since then, Bélaphiliacs have had to work overtime to keep up with the breadth of Béla’s talent and ambition. As a synthesizing conceptualist, he has continually kept a step ahead of the rest of the musical world and become the sole proprietor of any number of post-grass genres. If Béla is the banjo’s mad scientist, then Telluride is his laboratory. In addition to his revolutionary work with the Flecktones, Béla has brought TBF the world’s greatest tabla and kora players, jazz and classical giants, and the full Colorado Symphony, all led by the genius of the five-string banjo. This year, Béla will combine with the extraordinary Brooklyn Rider, the NYC-based string quartet (violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, cellist Michael Nicolas) who have been reinvigorating classical music with their vibrant energy and eclectic widening of the classical palette. With his original piece for banjo and quartet, Night Flight Over Water, Béla has once again created a new harmonic vocabulary, timbral blend, and elegant atmosphere that will provide Telluride with one of the weekend’s most moving, unmissable delights.
Peter owan
& The Free Mexican Airforce
1:45 - 3:00pm By Saturday afternoon, you’re probably ready for another altitude adjustment. That means it’s time to check in with the great Peter Rowan: It is not marijuana destroying the minds of the young/But confusion continued for power and greed in all forms/Well, the borders of evil will fall to the smugglers of light/We’re the Free Mexican Airforce and we’re flyin’ tonight! Rowan has always had his fingerpick on the pulse of America, and the words he wrote 40 years ago still resonate as profoundly today as ever. Such is the way of the Telluride shaman, who is set to practice his musical divination and healing at TBF for an incredible 38th time. He is the seeker of cosmic truths and of the sounds that mimic the rhythms and spirit of the North American landscape. He was the sagacious bard in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, in the folkadelic Earth Opera, in the rustic soul of Seatrain, in the hippiegrass of Muleskinner. As a solo troubadour, he mined our history with sojourns into reggae, blues, dustbowl folk, and Hawaiian music. He’s a Grammy winner who has written timeless classics and, with Old & In The Way, made the bestselling bluegrass album of all time. But it’s also his vipassanā, his insight into the nature of reality, that is Pete’s annual, enduring gift to Festivaria. Don’t miss this special gathering of music and peace in the valley.
ve From Here
with Chris Thile
4:00 - 6:00pm
How did we get here? More precisely, how did we get Live From Here here? That’s a long story, told elsewhere in this program. Here’s the short version: In 1974, the popular radio institution A Prairie Home Companion first launched. Hosted by writer and humorist Garrison Keillor, the variety show’s radio-play-style skits, rootsy musical numbers, and homespun tales from fictional Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, became familiar company to millions of listeners across the country. Broadcast in front of a live audience, APHC ran on Saturdays for over 30 years until the departure of Keillor in 2016. Who could have the intelligence, charm, esoteric wit, and musical moxie to take over as host? Enter our own Chris Thile. With Chris as host, the renamed Live From Here travels around the country, staying true to the show’s classic approach while establishing new traditions, such as Chris’s original “Song of the Week,” and showcasing the best and brightest of today’s musical and comedic talents. In what will be a historic two-hour TBF event, Chris and his cast of regulars will present Live From Here from the Shellman Stage, featuring special performances from St. Paul and the Broken Bones, I’m With Her, Punch Brothers, and comedian Kirk Fox. Millions will be listening around the world. You, Festivarian, will experience it live from here.
2000: SUSAN TEDESCHI, BONNIE RAITT, JACKSON BROWNE AND YONDER MOUNTAIN (1ST OF 19 YEARS).
Del McCoury Band • BÉla Fleck • THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS The Travelin’ McCourys • Seldom Scene • Jeff Austin Band The Grateful Ball • Della Mae • Dom Flemons Hogslop StringBand • Jeff Scroggins & Colorado The Good Time Travelers • Billy Parker & Mandoclectic The Knockabouts • Greg Blake Band • Cadillac Mountain Jesse Anderson • Band Contest • & More
TICKETS ON SALE NOW •
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA • PICKININTHEPINES.ORG
camping • jamming • kid’s activities • educational workshops • band contest • community barn dance
2 0 0 2 : 1S T BOOMCHICKS SET . DEB T AL AN WINS T ROUBADOUR CON T E ST .
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Saturday, June 23rd
St. Paul & The Broken Bones Sam Bush Band
eftover Salmon
6:45 - 8:00pm
8:30 - 10:30pm
11:00 - 12:30am
It’s a time-honored tradition at Telluride that we dive deep into the wells from which our musical traditions spring. At the same time, we often break down roots-music boundaries to find new sonic adventures. And sometimes, we just dance ourselves silly. On Saturday, we do all three at the same time with soul-revivalist sensations St. Paul & The Broken Bones. It takes a special group of musicians to stack up to the best Southern soul to come out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but St. Paul & The Broken Bones are the real deal: rafter-ringing gospel-soul and sweat-soaked R&B, with dashes of country, jump blues, folk, and jazz, all punctuated with horns and backed by a muscular, swinging rhythm section. The eight-piece Birmingham band have been lighting the fire of purists and new initiates alike with their comet-hot, brassbolstered performances. Producing a lot of that heat is bugle-voiced frontman, Paul Janeway, whose fevered stage performances and vocal command have led the band to opening spots for the Rolling Stones and marquee festival sets around the country, including Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. Their studio LPs 2014’s Half the City and 2016’s City of Noise have been met with widespread acclaim. On Saturday night, Paul and the Bones are bringing TBF a high-voltage blast courtesy of Jesse Phillips (bass), Browan Lollar (guitar), Andrew Lee (drums), Al Gamble (keys), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Jason Mingledorff (saxophone), and Chad Fisher (trombone). So get up, Telluride: It’s time to get down.
Good evening, music lovers! We’ve reached 45 years of Telluride Bluegrass. And for the last 44 of those years, the Festival has been anchored by the King of Telluride, Sam Bush. Sam is the King, not just for his incredible streak of consecutive appearances but also because Sam, more than anyone else, embodies what Festivarians love most about the TBF experience. In fact, Sam formulated and perfected the elements that created the TBF zeitgeist in the first place. He did it by pioneering a new musical language: If Sam didn’t invent the bluegrass solo, he invented the supremacy of the solo, turning it into high craft, stuffing it with imagination, composing little masterpieces on the spot, playing with pianistic dexterity and with finger-fracturing force and control, writing new manifestos for his instrument. He did it by rewiring the rhythm matrix. Sure, Sam is the smooth chop-erator, but he also transformed the mandolin with his rhythmic displacement, his reshuffling of patterns, his making a fool of time. He did it as a chameleonic purveyor of styles, as someone who reupholstered bluegrass in ways previously unimagined, as a master of melodic drive, of emotional crescendos, of tone painting. He did it as a superb singer, as a consummate accompanist of other singers, as a generous bandleader, as a storyman. And he did it with charisma enough to start a revolution, with his perfect mix of virtuosic artistry and crowd-pleasing showmanship. That’s what makes him King. And that’s why Telluride Bluegrass is Sam’s world: We’re all just dancing in it.
Remember back in 2005 when Leftover Salmon announced they were going on hiatus? God, it was awful. Grown men locked themselves in the porta potties to weep. Hoola hoops fell despondently to earth. Children boycotted the kids parade in protest. Festivarians did not rise up to wake and bake early in the morning. (Okay, fine, they did, but still.) After all, Salmon had spent years making TBF wilder, louder, hairier, and more sleep-deprived, electrifying the newgrass scene with daredevil picking, consciousness-expanding grassedelica, frenzy-whipping tempos, Cajun rampagin’, and Mark Vanndemonium. Once they went missing, they were like Jamgrass Jesus: They were gone, but their influence loomed large; their disciples (String Cheese, Yonder, Railroad Earth, Greensky, etc.) rose to prominence; and every year, the faithful held out hope that they’d someday come back. And then in 2008, our prayers were answered: The second coming of Salmon has seen them returning to the road, the studio, and to Telluride with a renewed commitment and energy unmatched in their 28-year history. Over the last six years, the band has released three excellent studio albums, including the new Something Higher, a title that pays tribute to the band’s Colorado home, to our better natures, and to the late-night Ingestivarians in Telluride. So rise up: Founders Vince Herman and Drew Emmitt, along with bassist Greg Garrison, banjoist Andy Thorn, drummer Alwyn Robinson, and keyboardist Erik Deutsch, are back in town for another Saturday-night jammin’-with-Salmon slamgrass jubilee.
“We were excited that once the musicians we loved were turned on to the magic of Telluride, they would want to come back again and again.” —Kooster McAllister
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Sunday, June 24th
The War & Treaty
10:45 - 11:45am
Our logo of the two stringed instruments, the yinjo and the yangdolin, represents how two opposing forces often interact to create balance. So how balanced are you this morning after four nights of liberatin’ festivatin’? Perhaps you could use a little purification. (And that dip you took in the San Miguel River probably didn’t take care of those hard-to-reach areas around the soul.) That’s where our Sunday-morning gospel set comes in, and we shalt not lie: This year, we present one of our greatest spirit-cleansing acts ever, The War & Treaty. Their name indicates that they understand opposing tensions and how those contrasts can be used to achieve harmony. And we’re talking powerful harmony, brothers and sisters. Tanya Blount is the powerhouse singer whose debut LP climbed the charts in 1994 and included “Through the Rain,” a Top 40 R&B hit. Michael Trotter, Jr. is the former soldier who taught himself to play using Saddam Hussein’s confiscated piano and gained national attention for singing at his fallen comrades’ memorials. Together, as The War & Treaty, the married couple blend spirituality and sensuality, sorrow and joy, heartache and healing in a rousing, passionate country-soul and Deltablues vernacular. Get yourself to church Sunday morning, as The War & Treaty time-travel back in musical history and purge your problems away.
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Edgar eyer & Christian McBride Noon - 1:15pm
Sunday is a day of rest in most Western countries. So give yourself permission to sit back while two of the world’s greatest musicians fuse for a double double-bass pas de deux for the history books. Edgar Meyer is the world’s most renowned classical bass virtuoso, a brilliant player who conquered the classical world with his technical command and ambitious, genreobliterating approach, winning the esteemed Avery Fisher Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship for his outstanding achievements on his instrument. But Festivarians cherish Edgar most for his annual TBF duets with the likes of Béla Fleck and Chris Thile and as the driving engine in the Telluride House Band. Christian McBride is jazz’s preeminent bassist, having played on over 300 recordings and collaborating with everyone from Sonny Rollins to Paul McCartney to Herbie Hancock to James Brown. He is the leader of several prominent groups, including the Grammy-winning 18-piece Christian McBride Band and the experimental Christian McBride Situation with turntablist DJ Logic. One of the jazz scene’s key ambassadors, McBride is the current artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival. What will happen when these two barons of the bottom meet up? Expect a Sunday afternoon of bass bliss as two of the all-time masters put on an unprecedented display of artistry, skill, and beauty.
Tim O’Brien Band
1:30 - 2:45pm
Now appearing at TBF for the 42nd time, Tim O’Brien has been a key architect of the Festival’s traditions, musical evolution, and spirit. And in recreating bluegrass, country, swing, and folk traditions, from his native Appalachia to classic-era Opry to Rocky Mountain highs to deep Dylanology, Tim has been TBF’s beloved history professor. At the same time, Tim’s own history is worthy of a music-studies program: In 1975, the Ophelia String Band, featuring a 21-year-old Tim, played the 2nd TBF. Three years later, Tim formed Hot Rize, who set the standard for bluegrass excellence across 20 game-changing TBF appearances. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Tim also led the O’Boys, dueted with his sister Mollie, wrote songs that landed at the top of the country charts, and had the chops to trade fiddles and mandolins with Sam Bush in TBF’s Thunder Jams. Tim has never stopped bringing musical lessons to Telluride: The Celtic chronicle of The Crossing, the sophisticated Americana supergroup NewGrange, duets with Jerry Douglas and Darrell Scott and Irish fiddler Kevin Burke, the O’Brien family tribute to Roger Miller, the muchcelebrated Earl of Leicester, his own solo sets, and now the 13th TBF performance of the Tim O’Brien Band. And Tim has done it all with his trademark charm, authority, and class. This Sunday, class is once again in session.
Yonder Mountain String Band
3:15 - 4:45pm
Despite a name that evokes oldtime music, Yonder Mountain String Band have always been about forward motion. Since forming in 1998, nothing with Yonder was ever stagnant: not their tours (they’ve played over 2,000 shows), not their setlists, not their arrangements, and certainly not their fans (the wiggling, sandal-shuffling, Kinfolk). Yonder moved bluegrass music into the 21-century with a whole new energy: By expanding the range of acoustic, drumless string bands, YMSB made bluegrass music more exciting and less restrained. And they set their audience in motion: Countless fans left Yonder shows compelled to start their own bluegrass bands. The band itself has continued to evolve with the 2014 additions of mando stud Jacob Joliff and fiddle fireball Allie Kral, and Yonder’s record-making is likewise devoted to progression: 2015’s Black Sheep and last year’s Love, Ain’t Love, are the band’s most expansive, fully-realized collections yet. And this year in Telluride (their 19th), Yonder keep moving, as they jump from their traditional Saturday spot to Sunday. You know those damned old end-of-TBF blues? Gone. So catch some rays, Barechestivarians: They don’t call it Sunday for nothing. And if you brought your pipe, make it super bowl Sunday. Yonder Mountain String Band are turning our final afternoon into the pick peak of the party.
2006: GREENSKY BLUEGRASS WINS BAND CONTEST. BARENAKED LADIES CLOSE FEST AROUND SINGLE MIC.
Sunday, June 24th
N itty Gritty Dirt Band
Punch Brothers
5:15 - 6:45pm
7:15 - 8:45pm
The legendary, history-altering Nitty Gritty Dirt Band bring people together. In fact, to commemorate 50 years as a band, NGBD brought together a wide range of artists whose own careers were shaped by the influence of the Dirt Band, including our own Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, and also Jackson Browne (an early Dirt Band member), Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, and many others. The Dirt Band made possible the transition of the ‘60s folk boom into the ‘70s country-rock movement, as other California bands like the Eagles and Poco would follow the lead established by Dirt Band singer-guitarist Jeff Hanna and drummer/ harmonicist Jimmie Fadden. It was a musical revolution that would have a profound impact on everything from ‘70s arena rock, ‘90s Americana, and today’s country music. NGDB united music fans everywhere with a long list of timeless classics like “Fishin’ in the Dark” and “Mr. Bojangles” and a string of multi-platinum albums. And in 1972, the Dirt Band accumulated an unprecedented all-star group of bluegrass and country luminaries for the momentous Will The Circle Be Unbroken album, a recording session that brought such giants as Doc Watson and Merle Travis together for the first time. The album was a million-seller that not only tickled country purists but turned the rock crowd on to the likes of Roy Acuff and Mother Maybelle Carter. Today, NGDB (Hanna, Fadden, along with longtime keyboardist Bob Carpenter) continue to bring friends together, now celebrating 52 years of Dirt. Come celebrate and sing along on Sunday night.
They call themselves Punch Brothers, and Festivarians have long known that, true to the band’s name, these guys indeed pack quite a wallop. They came out swinging as, pound for pound, the most formidable contenders in acoustic music with the release of 2006’s How to Grow a Woman from the Ground. The band defended their title as prog-grass champions with the release of 2008’s Punch, featuring the staggering brunchgrass suite “The Blind Leaving the Blind.” 2010’s Antifogmatic, a dizzying ten-count of songs, featured the lineup that would prove them capable of going the distance: Chris “Kiss This” Thile on mandolin, Noam “Quick, Kill Me” Pikelny on banjo, Gabe “The Deranged Hitcher” Witcher on fiddle, Chris “The Fredericksburg Flash” Eldridge on guitar, and Paul “Bearer” Kowert on bass. 2012’s Who’s Feeling Young Now? established the Punchers as not only critical belt-holders but also sales heavyweights on an album packed with hooks and tightly-laced bob-and-weave instrumentals. The Phosphorescent Blues (2015) countered with deadly combinations of falsettos that float like butterflies, solos that sting like bees, and haymaker instrumentals that turned Debussy into stick-and-move jazzical bluegrass. So before we throw in the towel on the 45th TBF, we have a final-night one-two Punch: the annual Sheldon Sheridan finale that takes the Festival to the closing bell and, before that, another round of Punch-drunk excellence on the Shellman Stage. So get yourself ringside for the main event of the evening: a Sunday-night knockout with one of the greatests of all time.
Sturgill Simpson 9:15 - 10:45pm
If a single moment best illustrates the current divide between Americana music and mainstream country music, it was Sturgill Simpson busking outside the CMA Awards last year to support the kind of inclusion and nonconformity that Simpson feels are often unwelcome in Nashville. Since his 2013 hard-country debut, Sturgill has indeed been all about authenticity and an uncompromising songwriting voice. As classic country as the Kentucky native can get, full of Willie whine and Waylon thump, Sturgill brings fresh excitement to familiar sounds and then detonates them into bold new directions. The result is a convergence of past and present that is both dopamine-producingly familiar yet never settles for nostalgia. 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, as its title suggests, found Sturgill transcending country music’s sonic scope, injecting hardnosed honky tonk with cosmic psychedelia, and expanding his audience, surging into the Top 10 on both the Country and Indie charts. 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth took even more artistic risks, with dense, dark, personal motifs, and reached new levels of success: The album debuted at #3 across all genres and won the Grammy for Best Country Album. So after two masterpieces in a row, where can Sturgill go to both honor his outlaw forbears and take the music to all-new vistas, to sing his hookheavy and psychologically complex songs, to find a kindred audience that values the independent spirit of maverick music making? He travels to Telluride, of course, to bring the weekend to a rowdy, rhapsodic crescendo.
All artist bios written by Steve Leftridge, a St. Louis-based writer, teacher, and musician who has written for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, PopMatters, and No Depression and has attended TBF since 1997.
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2007: STRINGDUSTERS DEBUT. GOVERNOR HONORS TBF WITH COLORADO BLUEGRASS DAY PROCLAMATION.
Making the most of the shortest nights of the year, the NightGrass series continues the 38-year tradition of the After-Hours Jam in intimate venues around Telluride and Mountain Village. On Wednesday afternoon, ride the free gondola to Mountain Village for the free outdoor FirstGrass Concert in Sunset Plaza featuring Billy Strings followed by The Lil Smokies. Then head over to the Telluride Conference Center as Dierks Bentley w/ The Travelin’ McCourys celebrate Bluegrass Eve. (A huge thanks to our buddies in Yonder Mountain for sliding over to make room for this special Dierks show. Yonder’s 16-year run of epic Kick-Off parties remains legendary.) For the next few nights, Telluride’s most storied venues host sold-out indoor shows—including the historic Sheridan Opera House, the legendary Fly Me to the Moon Saloon, and the state-of-the-art Palm Theatre (inside Telluride High School on the west end of Colorado Avenue). Tickets to NightGrass shows are completely separate from Festival tickets. Again this year we sold all NightGrass tickets through a single online lottery in April. As always, we welcome your comments about this online lottery system for NightGrass ticketing.
WEDNESDAY
June 20th
Free FirstGrass Concert: BILLY STRINGS AND THE LIL SMOKIES Outdoors at Sunset Plaza, Mountain Village 5-8pm • All-Ages
THURSDAY
June 21st
THE WOOD BROTHERS Sheridan Opera House 11pm show Ages 21+* GREENSKY BLUEGRASS Palm Theatre 11pm show Ages 21+
CELEBRATE BLUEGRASS EVE...
DIERKS BENTLEY W/ THE TRAVELIN’ MCCOURYS Telluride Conference Center 9pm show All-Ages
THE LIL SMOKIES Fly Me to the Moon Saloon 11pm show Ages 21+
FRIDAY
June 22nd
June 23rd
LEFTOVER SALMON Palm Theatre 11pm show Ages 21+
THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS Palm Theatre 11pm show Ages 21+
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND Sheridan Opera House 11pm show Ages 21+*
PHOEBE HUNT & THE GATHERERS Fly Me to the Moon Saloon 11pm show Ages 21+
Still looking for NightGrass tickets? 44
SATURDAY
I’M WITH HER Sheridan Opera House 11pm show Ages 21+*
SUNDAY
June 24th
PUNCH BROTHERS Sheridan Opera House 10:30pm show Ages 21+*
THE LAST REVEL Fly Me to the Moon Saloon 11pm show Ages 21+ * unless accompanied by parent
Visit the Avery booth in Greentown to learn about their NightGrass ticket giveaways.
2 0 0 8 : MA R S H MA LLO W S FI R S T FLY DURING T HE SWEL L SEASON. PUNCH BROT HERS 1ST OF 11 FE ST S.
MOORS & McCUMBER - ELLIS DELANEY
TOM PRASADA-RAO - MATT COX - JEREMY FACKNITZ CHRISTOPHER SMITH - MONUMENT HILL - WILL PFRANG
Share music, songs and good times with friends under the Colorado sky.
rative songwriting, Artist-led workshops, collabo ustic jams t open stage and late nigh aco
Fun, interactive, music-oriented activities for kids Tent-camping, popups & hotel rooms on-site
2009: DAVID BYRNE WITH DANCERS. ELVIS COSTELLO GOES BLUEGRASS. ZAC BROWN ROCKS AFTERNOON SET.
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Robert “Kooster” McAllister In the early years, a lovable bear of a banjo player prowled Town Park. This furry beast was none-other than Kooster McAllister, a member of “The Fall Creek Band.” It was that ragtag group of friends and musicians who, in 1973, founded what would become the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Kooster or Kooter-pie or any of a dozen nicknames that followed him around, had a house down the valley and was one of the most wonderful and successful characters this area has produced. He was here last year, laughing, smiling and in the front row loving every moment of a legacy he helped create. But that is not his only contribution to music... Kooster established the Record Plant Remote recording truck and is credited on hundreds of the most iconic live albums, award shows and live broadcasts – from Pavarotti to Springsteen to Prince – for which he earned three Emmy nominations and a Grammy Award. My own love of Kooster dates back to meeting him in 1975. Kooster bounded up to me after our Magic Music set and we started talking “banjo.” I taught him our song “Old Man Das” and he later rewrote it (a much better version than I could have ever played). A gentle man, a giant of industry commanding respect from the highest levels of recording history, and the funniest dang fella I ever knew.
—Chris Daniels
God gave me the best friend you could ask for. I miss him dearly.
( 1951-2018)
It didn’t matter where you were or what you were doing in life, olé Kooter Pie always had a smile for you.
—Marikay Shellman
—J B Matteotti, Fall Creek Band
I love you, Kooster, then - now - always. Only a lucky few have seen Kooster at work in his native environment: the world-class, hightech, ultimate-playrooms of the Record Plant Remote trucks. He had the coolest head under the intense pressure of the no-room-for-mistakesno-second-takes world of remote recording. I looked to him as a teacher and mentor, and he was the best kind: a Sensei by example, man of unlimited patience. We all miss you, Kooster.
—David G lasser, Airshow Mastering
—Sam Bush
We first met in 1990 when up drove the fancy, state-of-the-art Record Plant Remote truck to record our first Festival DVD. Like everyone who met him, I immediately felt a kinship. I miss him and will always appreciate his unique vision and love for this festival. This one’s for you, Kooster.
Kooster played banjo in Fall Creek with Fred and he knew about sound gear. He was the little round guy with big hair in the “More Official” t-shirt who got up on the main stage in 1975 and announced that NGR was playing a concert at the Nugget the day after the festival. People cheered before he got to say, “And it’s free! It’s free!!”, after which they cheered some more. Those first years were sketches of what the fest became, but the love that Kooster and friends put into it was the basis for the whole thing.
—Tim O’Brien
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—Steve Szymanski, Planet Bluegrass
It still seems unreal – our dear friend’s passing. I first met Kooster in Telluride in 1975 when New Grass Revival made our first appearance. He was a true seeker – of fine music, of beauty, of laughter, of adventure, love, and life. He was no stranger to hard work. I remember how, during those early festivals, he literally had to flip pizza dough at Hole in the Wall when he wasn’t working in Town Park. He was a damn loyal person, the kind you are lucky to have in your corner. He remained in mine throughout the 43 years I knew him. I saw Kooster the day of his passing. I sat down in a chair next to him, gripped his hand, and sang two of his favorite NGR songs to him: “Sail to Australia” and “Deeper and Deeper.” Although he was heavily sedated in hospice care, I choose to believe he heard them.
—John Cowan
2 0 1 1 : C L O UDS PA R T DUR I N G MUMFORD & SONS’ ENCORE, MAKING WAY FOR ROBERT PL ANT ’S FI N A L E .
This year’s program and pocket schedule are printed on FSC®-certified Neenah Conservation paper at OneTouchPoint Mountain States, an FSC®-certified printer in Denver. By using this 100% post-consumer recycled fiber made with 100% renewable energy, we saved: 15,668 pounds of wood (that’s 50 trees!); 23,540 gallons of water (more than 1,369 eight-minute showers!); 4,341 pounds of carbon emissions (equivalent to 50 tree seedlings grown for 10 years!); and 1,575 pounds of solid waste. Help extend the life of this program by sharing it with your tarpmates, protecting it as a lasting souvenir, or recycling it in the specially marked bins by the Festival exit. SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
JULY 6-8, 2018 Nothing quite compares to a music festival in the heart of the RockyMountains. The 4th annual Copper Mountain Music Fest features bluegrass and Americana artists from around the country.
PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:
THE WEEPIES WITH MIPSO
AUG 6 • 7:30 PM
900 BASELINE ROAD • BOULDER CO TICKETS: chautauqua.com
Langhorne Slim & The Law, John Fullbright, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius, The Black Lillies, Gasoline Lollipops, Aaron Burdett Acoustic Trio, Timber!, Umberto Fonte, Randall McKinnon and Andy May
ADMISSION IS FREE!
CopperColorado.com
2 0 1 3 : STE VE MA R TI N & E DI E B R I C K E LL FIL L -IN FOR L AST -MINUT E MUMFORD & SONS CANCEL L A T I O N .
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PLANET BLUEGRASS WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR LODGING PARTNERS
Dates to Remember TELLURIDE BLUEGRAS S June 20-23, 2019 June 18-21, 2020 June 17-20, 2021
nd our events in Lyons, Colorado: RO C KYG RAS S AC ADEMY
July 22-26, 2018
RO C KYG RAS S
July 27-29, 2018
THE S O N G S C HO O L August 12-16, 2018
Reserve your 2019 lodging now at
T E L L U R I DE B LU E G R A S S . C O M / L ODGI N G
RO C KY MO UN TAIN FO LKS FES TIVAL
August 17-19, 2018
MO UN TAIN S UN 25TH AN N IV ERS ARY September 14-15, 2018
MABO N C ELEBRATIO N
September 22, 2018
2019 Tickets
Visit Bluegrass.com beginning in October for details about purchasing tickets through our online lotteries, including Telluride Bluegrass camping in Warner Field and Town Park. All other 2019 tickets go on sale in early December.
VIRTUAL TARP Throw down your virtual tarp, commune with your fellow Festivarians, and be the first to hear about lineups, tickets, and giveaways...
For 45 years we’ve been continually refining every aspect of the Festival experience. Your voice is a vital part of this ongoing process.
web: festivarian.com @planetbluegrass
Complete our online Festivarian survey and you’ll be entered to win a pair of 4-day passes to the 46th Annual next June.
@planet.bluegrass
bluegrass.com/tbfsurvey
@planetbluegrass
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ONLINE SURVEY
2 0 1 4 : F O R TY YE A R S O F FE S TI VA TI O N BOOK PUBL ISHED. SAM BUSH’S 40 T H T EL L URIDE!
2018 LINEUP
YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND (X3) GREENSKY BLUEGRASS (X3)
RAILROAD EARTH (X2) THE INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS (X2) LEFTOVER SALMONNEIL YOUNG
PERFORMS THE MUSIC OF
LEFTOVER SALMON’S FUNKY BRASS BREAKDOWN KELLER WILLIAMS & THE ANDYS WITH HIGH COUNTRY HORNS FT. JENNIFER HARTSWICK, NATALIE CRESSMAN & SKERIK
FT. ANDY FALCO, ANDY HALL & ANDY THORN
MANDOLIN ORANGE (X2) FRUITION (X2) STEEP CANYON RANGERS THE LIL SMOKIES SHOOK TWINS - TOTAL REMIX REQUEST LIVE SIDEBOOB - FT. ALLIE KRAL, MIMI NAJA, & SHOOK TWINS THE MUSIC OF JERRY & DAWG & S A M S O N G R I S M A N DUSTBOWL REVIVAL HORSESHOES & HAND GRENADES FT. SCOTT LAW, STU ALLEN
JON STICKLEY TRIO
DANNY BARNES
DAROL ANGER & THE FURIES
JOHN CRAIGIE
FRONT COUNTRY WORLD’S FINEST BENNY “BURLE” GALLOWAY BRAD PARSONS THE LAST REVEL OLD SALT UNION YAK ATTACK
DEEP FRIED PICKLE PROJECT
PETE KARTSOUNES ARTHUR LEE LAND TRIO THE LOWEST PAIR
CASCADE CRESCENDO
THE DEER
DRIFTWOOD
THE HONEY DEWDROPS
TAYLOR KINGMAN & THE HOLY KNOW-NOTHINGS - FT. LEWI LONGMIRE, JAY COBB, TYLER THOMPSON, JOSH SIMON TESKEY BROTHERS THE DRUNKEN HEARTS KINA LYN & MATT FRANZEN USEFUL JENKINS TALBOTT BROTHERS 2017 BAND CONTEST WINNERS AND MORE...
2 0 1 5 : TB F WINS POL L ST AR AWARD FOR MUSIC FEST IVAL OF T HE Y E A R .
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