The End of an Era
Promising Music Reporter Goes Down in Flames
As many know, I recently attended the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. This was my third straight year in attendance and I had hoped to charm you, the reader, with observations, commentary and witticisms about the goings on. This, most definitely, did NOT happen. Several things went wrong:
Whoops... I forgot to look at the stage!
- They don’t really have internets at music festivals.
- I have a real job and it kind of got in the way, so I missed some significant portions of the festival.
- Telluride is one of the most beautiful places on earth, so I went hiking, missing even more festival.
- I’m a huge fan of bluegrass music. I simply couldn’t bring myself to pay attention to the aforementioned goings on long enough to take notes.
In many ways, this festival has become the highlight of my musical year. It has also become a bit of a tradition for Mrs. Palaver and me. I always enjoy the vast majority of the music I hear, the crowd is always super-nice and it’s hard to resist a really good drowning in festival food! This year we were joined by some friends and declared ourselves “too old” to camp with the festivarians. The net result being that I returned with only an epic sunburn instead of both an epic sunburn and a mysterious aroma.
Have you ever wondered what you will be like in 25 years. It’s possible that I have seen into the future. Watch Future Palaver ROCK OUT to Yonder Mountain String Band!
My Festival Highlights
Dave Rawlings Machine
On the main stage, by FAR my favorite performance came from the Dave Rawlings Machine. Dave Rawlings is a long-time collaborator with Gillian Welch and has collaborated with some great artists (Old Crow Medicine Show, Tom Petty, Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams). His new record is fantastic and was, quite frankly, even better live. I’d recommend him on Twitter or Facebook, but he has lame pages. However, I do highly recommend picking up the record A Friend of a Friend.
Punch Brothers
My man-crush on The Punch Brothers continues after a third straight beyond-excellent “after-festival” Nightgrass performance. Held in the Telluride Sheridan Opera House (which holds about 150 people), the group played until after 2:00am and were joined onstage at various times by a litany of guests including Bela Fleck, Jeff Austin (Yonder Mountain String Band), and Drew Emmitt (Leftover Salmon). The most surprising guest of the evening had to be Ed Helms, who stars as the character Andy on The Office. Apparently, Ed plays a little bluegrass and he wandered onstage with his banjo for about 15 minutes and played some tunes. Along with about everyone else, I recorded some illegal video. Watch it NOW before I’m forced to remove it.
and MORE Punch Brothers…
I have an 18 minute video that includes the final jam of the night with all the guests. Leave me a comment if you’d like to view it.
In Other News…
Non-Profits Saving Detroit?
I ran across this interesting article on how the non-profit sector is leaping to the rescue of the city of Detroit and surrounding areas hit hard by the economic recession and a few decades of decline due to mismanagement. Focused mainly on jobs creation, economic redevelopment and health, the city and surrounding areas have received almost $108 million in paid out grants over the last year. You can read some interesting insight into how the actions of a number of funders has impacted the area in this article.
I have an opinion, but…
If these satellite images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico aren’t enough to make you sick…
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/oilspill/index.html
Palaver’s Plugs
In today’s version of Palaver’s Plugs, I’m recommending a project that is yet to see the light of day. It seems that a movie starring Dwight Yoakam (my man-crush before the Punch Brothers), Kris Kristofferson (a man crush somewhere between Willie and Waylon), Jason Priestly (ummm…) has been created! The movie is called The Last Rites of Ransom Pride and has all the makings of a stylized Western, complete with psychopaths, a dwarf/pirate and Siamese twins. Let it be said now that the film did not get reviewed particularly well in its debut at the Edinburgh International Film festival. But it’s Dwight Yoakam!
Learn more about the film here and read the review here. The film is slated for release in Oct. 2010.
The Mountain Palaver
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