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Events

[click "Play" to hear Kris Holstrom on the greening of Bluegrass]

100_0002 Once upon a time, Telluride Bluegrass meant dumpsters belching the remains of the day that had been marinated in one too many beers drunk from one too many plastic cups. Do you recall the debris littering Town Park, including plastic everything, from water bottles to utensils? Do you remember when the Festival changed its tune?

About 10 years ago, Kris Holstrom saw the festival waste as a resource for compost for her organic farm. The now director of The New Community Coalition began gathering food scraps behind the scenes from the vendors.

 "Initially, I was taking home maybe two pickup truckloads of food scraps from the event."

17 June, 2009 /
BelaJD The fraternity meeting known as Telluride Bluegrass opens this weekend, June 18 – June 21, and a favorite son returns to town to join his friends.

Bela Fleck is named after the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, also a passionate ethnomusicologist known for mixing sounds – in Bartok’s case, Hungarian and other folk sounds with the music of his contemporaries – to create distinctive music.

16 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear interview with Steve Szymanski]
CraigSteveJDTBF08-2047 In 1970, Tellurider Kooster McAllister hooked up with John "Picker" Herndon, Fred Shellman and J. B. Matteotti to form a band. Fall Creek jammed regularly down valley from Telluride. After returning from the second annual Walnut Valley Festival and National Flatpicker Convention in Winfield, Kansas, Fall Creek decided to start its own festival.

In 1973, Telluride Bluegrass  was born with the idea of turning locals on to the music and musicians on to Telluride. In 1989, Craig Ferguson and Steve Szymanski took over the show, but kept true to the roots.

Thirty-six years and counting, some of the greatest performers in the world continue to thrill growing crowds of Festivarian fans, picking Telluride over hundreds of wannabe events as the place to bring their families for a mini vacation. To them, to us, Telluride is not just another gig.

15 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" for Mike Farris interview]
Farris Mike Banner 2 If your church on Sunday morning, June 21, 2009, is the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, expect a rousing, spiritual Baptist or roots tent revival in a most unusual package: a tall white guy in dark glasses accompanied by an 11-piece band, Roseland Rhythm Revue (horns, back-up singers, etc). The guy will be singing as if his life depended on it – and it does. Meet Mike Farris.

In the 17th century, a poet stirred by the rich polyphony of church music declared that the music showed him the way to heaven's door. Ditto for Mike: the man who once found salvation in a bottle, now finds it through his music. For Mike, playing music is like praying. It shines a light on his soul. It keeps this rocker sober and soulful.

14 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" for Eamon McLoughlin interview]
Pressmini_vert02 According to Telluride Bluegrass Festival regular and Grammy winner Tim O' Brien it's all about recycling: he describes what he does musically as "making something new out of something old."

Tim is not alone. Linking the past, present and future is also what the relatively new band, The Greencards, is all about.

The aptly named Nashville-based trio – a green card identifies the bearer as an alien with permanent resident status in the United States – is comprised of two Australians, Kym Warner (mandolin. etc.) and Carol Young (vocals, bass) and an Englishman, Eamon McLoughlin (fiddle, violin, viola). The primary reason for moving to the States was to find opportunities to play their brand of high energy acoustic music not much in demand at home. Somewhat ironically, the group, which just opened shop in 2003, is already one of the hottest new bands in America, making distinctly American music.

13 June, 2009 /

by Jennie Franks

Tpf_logo_1 SPARKY PRODUCTIONS is pleased to announce the line up for the 3rd Annual TELLURIDE PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL from 6th – 14th July at the historic Sheridan Opera House.

As resident dramaturg for this year’s festival HEATHER HELLINSKY will work with playwrights TODD KREIDLER and JAN BUTTRAM.   Heather has worked extensively with up and coming playwrights from all over the country.   She received her MFA in Dramaturgy from ART/MXAT Institute for the Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard and is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.    This past year she was Resident Dramaturg for the Pittsburgh Public Theater where she has just finished working on Rob Zeller’s world premiere play Harry’s Friendly Service.

13 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Paul Hoffman's interview] Greensky Bluegrass is the world turned upside down. Winning the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest three years ago was a world-upside-down moment for...

12 June, 2009 /

[click to hear Beth Roberts interview] by Eileen BurnsCelebrate Telluride's colorful and storied past this Saturday and Sunday as the Telluride Historical Museum, Telluride Visitors Services and the Sheridan Arts Foundation sponsor the first ever, Telluride Heritage Festival.  This...

12 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear WPA interview]

Wpa Flashback: Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2000. Sugar Hill Records had several oldies but goodies in the lineup. John Cowan was appearing with his new group, Lonesome River Band. Also on the scene were Seldom Scene, Jesse Winchester and Sam Bush. With Nickel Creek, the label also featured strong Gen Zeta talent.

Nickel Creek proved that the youth brigade was not all about skin-flashing and razzmatazz.  Two of the musical whiz kids in the new group were a  brother and sister act, Sean Watkins (2/18/77), guitar, mandolin, and vocals, and Sara Watkins (6/8/81), fiddle and vocals. Sean and Sara are back in town 10 years later for their encore at the 36th annual Bluegrass Festival, June 18 – June 21.  (Star fiddler Luke Bulla was also in town that year with Ricky Skaggs, another-wet-behind- the-ears superstar in the making.)

12 June, 2009 /

by Jennifer Nyman-Julia

WWF Eric England 401 Telluride can be a scrappy town, but just as quickly, it is a place that wears its heart on its sleeve.

It's Day One of Sheridan Arts Foundation's Wild West Fest, a program that brings 50 inner city children from Boys and Girls Clubs all over the country to town every spring for a week of exciting learning programs under the guidance of talented local mentors. My name is Jennifer Nyman-Julia. This is my 11th year as the Mentorship Program Director, and I really love my job.

10 June, 2009 /