RockyGrass Celebrates 50 Years of Festivation

by Summers Baker

On the banks of the Saint Vrain River in Lyons, Colorado, Festivarians gathered from all around the country last weekend to celebrate the 50th year of RockyGrass - a festival that has long been considered a Bluegrass mecca in the Colorado music scene.

Many of the great legends in the Bluegrass genre descended upon the grounds for the annual gathering. Most notable among them were Del McCoury and Peter Rowan. These two musicians have carved out incredible careers that can be traced back to their respective tenures in Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, and on the weekend of the 50th RockyGrass, their presence was the musical foundation upon which the festival stood.

But even more notable this year was the collection of bright new minds in the world of Bluegrass and Old-Time music, and after two long years of COVID, festivarians were eager to hear these new bands and the work they have been doing in the absence of festivals.

The Tray Wellington Band and The Wildmans both graced the main stage this year. Both of these bands are examples of the work being done by a new generation of touring acts. The music of both bands was hard-driving, creative, and contained in it the spark of musicians who are carving out their own voices in this new era of the genre.

Jake Blount and Tatiana Hargreaves, both of whom have acquired numerous accolades in their young careers, performed Old-Time music written and pioneered by long-silenced black and indigenous voices. These two musicians have risen to the forefront of the Old-Time scene in the United States, and it was an important experience of the festival to hear them unearth and deliver songs that were forged by long oppressed people.

Big Richard, the newest Colorado all-female supergroup, swung onto the RockyGrass mainstage on the eaves of a remarkable first year as a band, which has included a mainstage slot at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, appearances all over Colorado and beyond, and the announcement of their first upcoming headlining show at The Bluebird Theater in Denver, CO on October 28. All over the festival, their new fans wore shirts that said, “I came for Big Richard”.

Another significant moment in the festival was Hot Rize’s induction into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, after which they played a set that took the audience through their storied history as a band. Bryan Sutton honored the late Charles Sawtelle during their set by playing the guitarist’s famed 1937 Martin D28.

Festivarians also heard the music of “Uncommon Ritual” - a genre expanding album recorded in 1997. Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, and Mike Marshall played through the seminal record to a crowd of attentive festivarians that refused to leave despite the flash of rain that overtook the grounds in the early moments of their performance. One festivarian was heard commenting that “the music sounded like the rain”.

These highlights don’t begin to cover all of the magic of the 50th annual RockyGrass festival. The music coming from the campgrounds alone would have been enough to draw Bluegrass lovers from far and wide on this momentous weekend. Planet Bluegrass continues to produce festivals that have no equal in the United States, and this historic festival was no exception.

Summers Baker is a Bluegrass musician and writer from Denver, Colorado. He plays with Bluegrass band Meadow Mountain, and he hosts a “sit-in” style Performance Jam at Stem Ciders in RiNo every Monday night called CiderJam, where you can often catch musicians from bands all over the country gathering to play in a casual setting.

Photos by Kevin Slick and Vicki Quarles