Modern Bluegrass Blender:

Kentucky Bluegrass, Nashville Country, Texas Swing, Cajun Traditional, Bebop Jazz, and Jam Rock

By RAR

It seems as if there is a vein of musical ore that extends down from Louisville, Kentucky, through Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, and on through the Mississippi Delta and into Louisiana, becoming particularly rich around New Orleans, and then progressing on into Texas, where it miraculously condenses into a vapor that reconstitutes itself in Colorado.

This vein of musical inspiration, in all of its seemingly disparate parts, has come to define an authentic American art form, different from all of its progenitors, and endorsed by a particular breed of musical enthusiast who puts high value on musical chops and inspired spontaneity. Colorado likes bands that do extended, jazz-style free form improvisation, especially with roots instruments, i.e., banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and upright bass, often augmented by drum kits, percussion instruments, and an electric guitar and bass. It is a Colorado hybrid confection that is riotous, audacious, joyous, and as outlaw as the strain of Mile High resident that made the state the first in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.

Colorado owes a part of its musical legacy to two magnet locations - Aspen and Telluride - that for decades have been drawing talent from that southern musical vein, as well as strong influences from California's roots music communities. These have included the jug bands that, in the mid-1960s, spawned The Grateful Dead, the original incarnation of The Eagles, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the Country-Bluegrass vein that, indirectly through Chris Hillman, gave the world The Byrds. Colorado's magnets were the burgeoning enclave of wealth, Aspen, which was bringing artistic influences from both coasts and both borders, and the bluegrass music festival held annually in Telluride, a tiny mountain town that occasionally swells in size to become a resort community sponsoring special events. In 1973, Telluride turned its annual 4th of July celebration into a bluegrass music festival and has since become one of the premiere such events in the world. This year's lineup included Leftover Salmon,Yonder Mountain String Band, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen w/ Front Country, Jason Isbell w/ The Lone Bellow, Aoife O'Donovan & Chatham County Line, Greensky Bluegrass, Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott, Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers w/ Willie Watson, Del McCoury, and the Punch Brothers.

The third leg of the stool that provides the foundation for Colorado's special brand of music is Boulder, the university town (University of Colorado) that, with business such as IBM, Beech Aircraft, and later Storage Technology, plus the government research developments in the area (e.g., National Center for Atmospheric Research), have been bringing a high-tech focus to the state since the 1960s. While Aspen was developing as a private getaway for the rich and famous, Boulder was developing as a magnet for entrepreneurial spirits from throughout the world. Both places funneled a great deal of creative energy into the state, and to varying degrees provided locations where creative types, including top-flight professional musicians, could actually live and work. Boulder, in particular, became an attractive location for older jazz players to move in their retirements (e.g., Spike Robinson, Eddie Shue), which has given the club scene there a special flavor that is cosmopolitan and sophisticated. That continues to exist to this day, with several Boulder bistros (e.g., Caffé Sole) regularly featuring high-end jazz and blues units.

Colorado's "grass" connection - Bluegrass, Newgrass, other types of grass - really exploded through the contributions of the seminal modern-bluegrass band the New Grass Revival. That band played the first Telluride Bluegrass Festival, featuring two young lions, multi-instrumentalist Sam Bush and banjo master Bela Fleck, who both came from the seminal band Bluegrass Alliance. Through their virtuosities, they inspired legions of followers and devotees to the hybrid bluegrass sound. One of the most notable bands to burst forth from that wave of new bluegrass energy was the Boulder band Hot Rize, featuring Nick Forster on bass, Tim O'Brien on mandolin and fiddle, Pete Wernick on banjo, and Charles Sawtelle on guitar. All four of those guys became legends, almost in a league with Bush and Fleck. Tim O'Brien continues to be one of the most revered musicians in Nashville. Pete Wernick became "Dr. Banjo" and the author of numerous instructional texts, and since 1991Nick Forster and  his wife Helen have hosted the NPR musical variety radio show eTown, from a facility in Boulder. Charles Sawtelle passed away in 1999, after battling leukemia, but he is remembered as one of the greatest flat-pickers that the bluegrass genre has ever known. The clip below features the late Charles Sawtelle and his Hot Rize stalwarts. Hot Rize continues to perform as a bluegrass outfit to this day, while also performing Texas Swing under the name Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers.

Leftover Salmon

Leftover Salmon was an example of the influence that Colorado's bluegrass sound was having nationally throughout the 1980s. The band's founder Vince Herman traveled to Boulder, Colorado from his home in Morgantown, West Virginia, chasing his desire to immerse himself in the bluegrass sound. It didn't take long, as he writes on the Leftover Salmon website. “The day that I arrived in Boulder, we literally drove in off the highway, parked the car, saw a sign at a bar that said ‘Bluegrass’, went in there and it was Drew playing with the Left Hand String Band; like the moment we got to town.” Drew was singer, guitarist, fiddle and mandolin player Drew Emmitt, who along with Herman would build Leftover Salmon in 1989. The third co-founder of that band was banjo player Mark Vann, whose died of cancer in 2002, only 39 years of age. The band included a musical chairs roster in the support positions, including (from the Leftover Salmon website): "drummers Michael Wooten (1989-1997) and Jeff Sipe (1997-2000, 2007-2010), bassists Keefe (1989–1991) and Tye North (1993–2000), accordion and harmonic player Gerry Cavagnaro (1990-1991), keyboard players Bill McKay (2000-2011) and Joe Jogerst (1991-1993). Leftover Salmon replaced Mark Vann with RockyGrass Banjo Contest winner Andy Thorn, who had played with Drew Emmitt and the Emmitt-Nershi Band. The band went on Hiatus from 2005 to 2010, but have since resurrected themselves to continue their special brand of bluegrass. In 2012 the band released Aquatic Hitchhiker, produced by Steve Berlin, the saxophone-playing producer and Los Lobos band member. It was Leftover Salmon's first record release in eight years.

The String Cheese Incident (SCI)

Also given birth by Colorado's absorptive bluegrass enthusiasms were mandolin/guitar/violin player Michael Kang, drummer Michael Travis, guitarist Bill Nershi, keyboard player Kyle Hollingsworth, bassist Keith Moseley, and percussionist Jason Hann, who hail from the Crested Butte and Telluride area. They are collectively known as The String Cheese Incident (SCI).  SCI plays original bluegrass infused with rock, electronica, calypso, country, funk, jazz, Latin, progressive rock, reggae, and occasional psychedelia (description from the SCI Wikipedia page).