INTEREST

By Katherine Weadley Redstone Review

LYONS – Leaning forward intently to listen for the sound of a solid “G,” he slowly turns the tuner on the neck of his Western Bigleaf Maple mandolin and picks the phosphor bronze string. Completely focused on the task at hand, he barely notices the inconsistent gurgle of the river, or the naked toddler as she runs by screaming in delight.

People walk by in their festival outfits of fleece, tie-dye, and hats of varying styles and sizes, talking and laughing as they find their way back to their tarps where they will eat, drink, dance and listen to music. The musician finally gets the sound he is looking for, unfolds himself from his cross-legged position on the grass, and gets up to find his bandmates for their set on the main stage. It’s showtime for Rockygrass. This year’s festival is July 29 to 31.

The more things change the more they stay the same, and nothing could be more true than celebrating the 50th anniversary of Rockygrass. Bluegrass in Colorado wasn’t as popular in 1972 as it is today. The Colorado Bluegrass Society started in 1972, the independent radio station KGNU started the radio show Old Grass GNU Grass in 1978 and it’s still on air today, often hosted by Lyons local Brian Eyster on Saturday mornings. Swallow Hill, which promotes acoustic music, was founded in 1979.

But what about Rockygrass? In 1972 the festival began through the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society (CBMS) as the Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival with the help of musician Bill Monroe, who is credited with creating the bluegrass music genre. According to the CBMS the first event had an attendance of 6,500.

Then in 1995 the CBMS sold this festival to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (registrant Craig Ferguson) and the event was moved to Lyons from a fairground in Adams County. Once the grounds of the Center for Wildflower Preservation, the property at 500 W. Main St. in Lyons is now home to Colorado’s largest annual bluegrass focused festival.

In 1989 the festival’s name was changed to “15 More Years of Bluegrass, Inc.” but was changed back to Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival a year later, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. A few years after the CBMS sold the festival in 1995 the name changed from Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival to RockyGrass –and that name remains the same.

This year’s sold-out festival, July 29 to 31, offers bluegrass classic headliners such as Yonder Mountain String Band, Sam Bush Bluegrass Band, Hot Rize, and Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band. True to style, Rockygrass also showcases up-and-coming bands such as the Wildmans. From Floyd, Virginia (pop. 528) and newish to the Colorado Bluegrass scene, this band consists of siblings Eli and Aila Wildman as well as banjoist Vitor Furtado, who in 2019 became the youngest recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize. A comedian and banjo player, Martin is an alumnus of Planet Bluegrass.

The band’s classical and jazz backgrounds show through their traditional repertoire. About Floyd, Virginia, Eli says, “We live in a town where there is a bluegrass and old time music scene. They all come out on the street on Friday night and jam. So there’s just lots of fiddle tunes being played downtown.” According to visitfloydva.com, this town is a key stop on the Crooked Road, Virginia’s heritage music trail – with its famous Friday Night Jamboree at the Floyd Country Store and County Sales, home of the world’s largest collection of traditional bluegrass and oldtime music.

Newly together but with storied Colorado resumes is the band Big Richard, which calls its style of music “bluegrass with a side of lady rage.” This band consists of Bonnie Sims (mandolin and guitar), Emma Rose (upright bass and guitar), Eve Panning (fiddle), and Joy Adams (cello). Sims is known for being part of the band Bonnie and the Clydes with her spouse Taylor.

The band’s music is virile and raw with old-timey wit. Lyrics range from, “Tell the preacher, tell the pope, I don’t wear no greasy coat,” from their song Greasy Coat, to a dark and delightful song about an older sister drowning her younger sister and a mysterious fiddler in the song Wind and Rain.

The next festival at Planet Bluegrass is the Folks Festival from August 12 to 14. For more information go to planetbluegrass.com.

Katherine Weadley lives in the mountains and is a librarian, a writer, and has been covering Planet Bluegrass events for almost two decades. Travels with Redstone Dad Ian Brighton, son James, mom Theresa, and Michael Bright, visiting in Charleston South Carolina. Take the Redstone with you on your next trip and send us your photos showing where the Redstone has traveled. Send your photos to redstarnews5@gmail.com.

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and Board of Trustees have invited me to join the Board of Trustee meetings to give an update of all the things we are working on in the Lyons Fire Protection District to improve the protection of our community. I would encourage everyone to join the meetings online to ask me any questions you might have about your fire department and give me feedback on how we are doing. In closing, I want to thank our community for being extra aware and diligent in our effort to reduce the wildfire danger in our community.

The Lyons Fire Protection District, along with the Town of Lyons, has been working very closely with our Wildfire Task Force to reduce and mitigate wildfire risk in our community. We continue to have meetings with HOAs and neighborhood groups to educate homeowners on the importance of home mitigation efforts. Please pay close attention to fire restrictions that are put into place and be extra careful when we have critical fire weather or red flag days that ban all open burning. Anything we can do to prevent wildfires from impacting our community is our mission. We are stronger together.

Peter Zick is the Fire Chief for the Lyons Fire Protection District.

Strengthen communication during emergencies Support neighborhood emergency preparedness Enhance relationships between our fire district, surrounding communities, and Boulder and Larimer County emergency planners.

Create groups of people in the neighborhoods within the Lyons Fire Protection District to coordinate preparation and response to emergencies.

Create voluntary communication trees for fast information sharing in case of an emergency and place emergency radios in our neighborhoods.

Create a system to send critical messages and updates to a Point of Contact in each neighborhood, who then communicates the messages to a team of people to share with all participating neighbors.

Sign up to receive messages about imminent threats and hazards! It only takes a few minutes and you can choose how to receive this info. Boulder County: http://www.boco911alert.com Larimer County: https://www.larimer.org/emergency OR www.leta911.org