Discover Top Posts Tagged with #therailsplitters

Discovered a bluegrass band a few weeks ago that I fell in love with and now I'm at one of their concerts with my best friend @banahbanah and Dale??? This is amazing. #therailsplitters #thatcoloradolife https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Ifnm-hAPz/?igshid=ja7t18to2kkf

#therailsplitters #thatcoloradolife

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The song "To Do" by #therailsplitters I thought worked really well for @nanibeth 's super awesome tabletop RP Character, because we're dorks like that. 😎 https://www.instagram.com/p/B2IiopyhxaL/?igshid=u52da13ehse9

#therailsplitters

Another Season of FESTIVATION Is Among Us

High On a Mountain Top - photo: Emily Sierra

The sun is finally warming the hills and if I open my windows wide enough, I can almost hear the tinny resonance of a banjo and taste the hops in the air. Although winter has lingered a bit longer than most of us Coloradans would like, that’s not stopping June’s arrival and with that comes the ever-loved Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

For almost forty-six years, festivarians have graced Telluride's Town Park to watch world-class musicians perform all genres of music, not just bluegrass. What started as a small festival where you could practically drive your car up to the stage and pitch a tent more than 2 inches from your neighbor, has turned into an epic event that sells out in just a matter of minutes.

Telluride through the Copper Kennedy lens - photo: Emily Sierra

I’ve been to Telluride Bluegrass Festival a few times now but last year, 2018, I had the honor of playing on mainstage Thursday morning with my band, The Railsplitters. At 9:30AM, the boys and I warmed up in the expansive green room under the stage, the five of us anxiously sweating all over our instruments. We’d all dreamt of playing Telluride Bluegrass before and now it was becoming a very unnerving reality. With a tight grasp on our cups of liquid courage, we took our positions across the front of mainstage and proceeded with the set we’d each been imagining since the start of our musical careers. As I looked out among the masses, I realized that I hadn’t yet fully comprehended the magnitude of this privilege. I was standing in the same spot that so many of my idols had stood over the years.

The Railsplitters on Mainstage - photo: Dancer Productions

In 1976, nine years before I was born, John Hartford played songs about the Mississippi River on that very stage. In 1985, my favorite vocalist of all time, Emmylou Harris played there with her band as I experienced my third month on Planet Earth. In the year 2000, as I was trying to pass my driver’s exam, Nickle Creek, a band who is essentially the same age as me, were literally blowing the crowd’s collective mind. Eighteen years later, I somehow found my way from the heart of the deep south onto a stage larger than my hopes and dreams.

Lauren wearing her new Crowleys in Telluride, CO - photo: Dancer Productions

If that stage could tell a story, it would be one filled with love and laughter and music and tears. It’s a story that continues with each year of festivation and as Telluride Bluegrass Festival continues to make history, festivarians and performers alike will continue writing the story of music together.