Midwinter Bluegrass festival will be held February 14-16, 2025
There is one key word, a proper noun in a literary sense, that I’ve heard again and again over the last ten years or so in Colorado. With each passing season it seems to grow in number, like the miracle of mitosis creating life as cells divide and spread. It’s found within a sentence, within the early back-and-forth of an initial meeting. The word is “Longmont” and the banter goes like this:
Bar patron: “Hey buddy, I really like your playing. Your band sounds great. Where are you out of?”
Bluegrass musician: “Oh, thanks! I’m in Longmont. Our band is out of Longmont.”
What is this place of bluegrass dreams; this utopia of instruments gathered into the Colorado night? I picture voices calling out in harmony from across the boulevard with choruses of “Old Home Place” and “I’m On My Way Back to the Old Home” along with a lone whistler strolling the lane to the tune of “Home Sweet Home.” How did it all come to be?
I have a couple of theories:
The real estate market of Boulder proper has reached such astronomical heights that bluegrass musicians have been forced into caves along winding canyon roads, yurts upon burned out ridgelines, and of all places… the northeastern plains.
There is a bluegrass festival on the northern edge of Denver, in Northglenn, that since 1986 has consistently been bringing legends of the genre to their stage, and offering a welcoming home to pickers up and down the halls, on every floor as the elevator doors open, throughout its massive main floor atrium – even in the workout room – unlike any other “Picker’s festival” in the west, resulting in a wide-reaching community of bluegrass musicians and enthusiasts from Lakewood to Louisville, Lafeyette to Longmont.
I lean toward the latter and applaud Midwinter Bluegrass Festival for its history, dedication to the traditions of the genre, embrace of new events, and promotion of the meaningful aspects of community in bluegrass music. Like a storied camp, running for decades at a well-known outdoor festival, Midwinter Bluegrass is an annual gathering of friends to pass the song around with bated excitement for the mainstage acts to come.
And when it comes to those mainstage acts, there are headliners for the upcoming February 14-16 festival that you simply will not see anywhere else: Tony Trischka's Earl Jam, Wood Box Heroes, and Sister Sadie. There are traveling and local favorites who will play with the tone and honesty that the festival is known for: Mike Compton & Joe Newberry, Damn Tall Buildings, Jake Leg, Blue Canyon Boys, Ms. Amy & the Jet Set, Ragged Union, Charlie Stevens Band, and KC n' Co (KC Groves and friends!).
Many of these names are no doubt familiar to friends of the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society. You may have seen them perform before, or you’re anxiously awaiting seeing an act for the first time (I for one am thrilled to see Tony Trischka’s Earl Jam and his powerful righthand man, Michael Daves). The entire concept of Earl Jam is so cool. Songs pulled from tapes like Alan Lomax and his field recordings of old. This time from legendary “picks” with John Hartford on fiddle, and Earl Scruggs on banjo. Two of the greatest of all the late greats. Trischka gives each song new life, faithfully transcribing and playing exact Scruggs solos, then taking off and giving melodies his own take, or placed in the purposeful and well-deserved hands of his band, bringing the cool concept of the album to the festival stage.
Then there’s the power and drive of Sister Sadie. Haunting vocals flowing over melodic instrumentation, diving into pristine harmonies. I love how the title of their newest album, “No Fear” isn’t the name of some title track, or single to push for radio play. It’s an attitude and one that can be felt throughout. This album is indeed fearless. With themes of heartache, breakups, drinking, and traveling, No Fear is reminiscent of the dim lights, thick smoke honky tony bluegrass of a past dominated by a male perspective. It’s refreshing to hear from the neighboring barstool.
But there is one name among the 2025 lineup that is less known, though perhaps built from the most famous of all. I am talking about Wood Box Heroes.
A legitimate “Super Group” the Wood Box Heroes have components to rival the newest Telsa self-driving car, the latest digital rendering from an AI prompt, to rival any falsehood of auto-tuned studio trickery or samples at the touch of a button. They rival these gadgets of wire and solder because they are built with the body and soul of artists who combine their individual talents for the sake of the voice and instrumentation of the bluegrass whole. The Wood Box Heroes is Matt Menefee on banjo (Mumford & Sons, Cadillac Sky, Warren Haynes), Barry Bales on bass (Alison Krauss & Union Station), Jenee Fleenor on fiddle (Blake Shelton, Larry Cordle), Thomas Cassell on mandolin (Bryan Sutton Band, Jim Lauderdale, Becky Buller), along with singer/songwriter/guitarist, Josh Martin. All create vocal layers that shine with the light of their many influences: a sky lit with the pyrotechnics of rock, the dim of a jazz club table lamp, flickering neon of the stage door blues club, the setting sun of a country lane ballad, and the midnight moonlight of bluegrass on high. The fast-approaching February 14-16 Midwinter Bluegrass Festival is your chance to see one of the most lauded bluegrass bands in the southeast scene upon a Front Range Colorado stage.
For more information on Midwinter Bluegrass Festival and all the bands mentioned above, check out the link below, though be forewarned, you might end up moving to Longmont.