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Performing Arts

[click "Play", Susan speaks with Mark Meatto and Michael Bohlmann]

 


How to Grow a Band It takes a lot more than water. To grow a band requires blood, sweat, and tears. Also, you need to find someone to do your laundry. The Western premiere of the show-all, tell-all feature-length documentary, "How To Grow A Band," takes place during Telluride Bluegrass. The FREE screening is scheduled for Saturday, June 18. 2011, 11 a.m. at The Nugget. (Seating is limited, so reserve your ticket in advance at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/181677)

"This film documents the beginnings of Chris Thile's grand vision for a truly modern stringband and the struggles to realize this vision," explained Brian Eyster of Planet Bluegrass. "Personally I am very excited to see the results of the filmmakers' efforts. They will be on-hand for the screening and the band may join them."

 “…A gripping look at the nature of creativity and performance art," raved The Tennessean.

14 June, 2011 /
[click "Play to listen to Joe Pug's conversation with Susan]

 

Joe Pug Joe Pug is one of the new names in the line-up for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, but Festival director Craig Ferguson is betting we will like his soulful voice and lyrical vignettes.

"Craig is a huge huge fan of this fine young Dylan-esque singer-songwriter," said Planet Bluegrass marketing director Brian Eyster.

Turns out Joe Pug is not just a talented troubadour. The young man also has a gift for marketing. But I am getting ahead of myself.

14 June, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan speaks with Sarah Jarosz]

 

Sarah Jarosz The 38th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival leads from strength with a performer who could well be the future of acoustic music. Sarah Jarosz opens the FirstGrass concert in Mountain Village. She is also scheduled for a set in Elks Park on Thursday, June 17, 2:45 p.m. But for sure, the rising star will make guest appearances on the Main Stage.

"Though she's just 20, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist is earning critical praise and lots of national attention for her second album on Sugar Hill Records, Follow Me Down," explains Planet Bluegrass's Brian Eyster. "Sarah is being described by critics as the next big thing in Americana/roots music. In addition to her scheduled sets, I would expect to see Sarah also making Main Stage appearances with Tim O'Brien, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Punch Brothers and others."

13 June, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan gets Trampled by a Turtle]

 

TrampledByTurtles “One of very few bands in America that are hipster-approved but could heave a room of strangers into a hoe-down at any time…” - CITY PAGES (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

Ready to shake a shoe and your booty too? Expect a frenzy, a dance frenzy, when Telluride gets Trampled by Turtles. The progressive bluegrass band from Duluth, Minnesota is scheduled to do its thing Friday night on the Main Stage at the 38th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It's thing being forceful acoustic music delivered at a breakneck pace.

A rootsy bluegrass-like sound seems to be riding a wave, with bands such as the Avett Brothers and special Telluride Bluegrass guests, Mumford & Sons, on the crest – and TxT not too far behind.

13 June, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Eileen's conversation with Victor Wooten]

 

by Eileen Burns

Victor_wooten Telluride’s 38th Bluegrass Festival will spotlight a host of hall of fame musicians over the four-day celebration, beginning on June 16th, including five-time Grammy® winner Victor Wooten, who will be performing with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.   Heralded as “the Michael Jordan of the bass, Wooten was recently named in The Top 10 Greatest Bass Players of All Time in “Rolling Stone Magazine’s”  Readers’ Poll, and has won “Bass Player Magazine’s” prestigious “Bassist of the Year,” three times now.  Wooten’s style continues to grow and transform, but he is best known for bringing the electric base to the forefront with a rhythmic freedom unlike any other bassist performing today.

12 June, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Tony Trischka]

 

Tony Trischka Not all of the action at the 38th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival takes place on the Fred Shellman Main Stage. Legendary banjo innovator Tony Trischka is in town for the launch of the new ArtistWorks Academy of Bluegrass via a workshop in Elks Park, Friday, June 18, 1:30 p.m. and an appearance at  around 4:30 p.m. on the Main Stage.

For more than 35 years, Tony Trishchka's stylings have inspired a whole generation of bluegrass and acoustic musicians. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential banjo players of the latter part of the 20th century (and counting), largely in terms of his influence on succeeding generations of players such as virtuosic Bela Fleck, back in town for the Festival for the 30th year in a row, this time reunited with the original Flecktones – and his teacher. When he was just a senior in high school, Bela made trips to Bronx, New York to study with Tony, who he once described to me as his "hero."

"... the godfather of what's sometimes called new acoustic music," said The New York Times.

12 June, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Ben Kaufmann and Adam Aijala]

 

Yonder Mountain Telluride has its festivals. Nederland has Frozen Dead Guy Days. No kidding, celebrated annually from Friday – Sunday the first full weekend of March. A centerpiece of Frozen Guys Days is a screening of  the film "Grandpa's in the Tuff Shed," a magnum opus which premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride in 1998. A centerpiece of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is another Nederland import:  Yonder Mountain String Band.

Yonder  – banjoist Dave Johnston, mandolinist Jeff Austin, bassist Ben Kaufmann and guitarist Adam Aijala – is back again for the 38th annual event, June 16 – June 19, 2011, kicking off the long weekend with a Nightgrass set at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village and appearing again on the Main Stage on Saturday.

11 June, 2011 /

[click "Play", Michael Cleveland speaks with Susan, but notes the date of his performance is the 16th, not the 17th)

 

Michael There is a nice, alliterative quality to "fire" and "fiddle," two words that become one great big idea in the skilled hands of Michael Cleveland. Move over Nero. When Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper play the 38th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival Thursday, June 16, guaranteed Telluride Town Park burns.

The blind Henryville, Indiana native quickly became renowned as one of the hottest attractions in bluegrass for his blistering and unconventional fiddle style. By his early teens, Michael Cleveland had appeared on the Grand Ole Opry (as a guest ofTelluride Bluegrass regular Allison Krauss), A Prairie Home Companion, and before the United States Congress.

10 June, 2011 /

   Langhorne Slim returns to Telluride for an encore performance on Friday, June, 10, 8 p.m. at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House. The concert is a benefit for the Sheridan Arts Foundation's Wild West Fest, which includes the Chip Allen Mentorship Program (C.A.M.P.), special programs...

08 June, 2011 /

kicker: at Telluride's Steaming Bean Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 8 pm

Don'tChat_Gossipingbordersontreason Is gossip good or bad for the soul? Does it lengthen your life or shorten it?  The Telluride Playwrights Festival explores what exactly is the nature of gossip and why do we so like to gossip? Where does gossip end and propaganda begin?

A group of local actors explore the subject, taking their clue from the Bible to Shakespeare to Star Magazine.  In addition, local writers such as Bob Rubadeau, Jeff Price, Rob Schultheis, Devin McCarthy, John Sutcliffe all have something interesting to say on the subject.
 
The Telluride Playwrights Festival brings playwrights and actors to town once a year to explore and workshop new plays by acclaimed playwrights from all over the country.  This year, the Playwrights Festival has decided to expand the spirit of the Festival, which starts mid-July, to an early beginning on  Wednesday, June 8.

06 June, 2011 /