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No tantrums, just a Meltdown

Bluegrass gathering picks on, rain or shine
The 20th annual Durango Bluegrass Meltdown was in full swing Saturday with bands playing at five venues throughout town, including the Durango Arts Center, where Robb Brophy, left, Cindi Trautmann, center, and Patrick Dressen of The Badly Bent performed.

In its 20th year, the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown rolls on as nearly 30 bands pluck, pick and play in downtown Durango venues this weekend.

Headliners Town Mountain came from Ashville, N.C., while many local favorites, like The Badly Bent and first-time Meltdowners The Lawn Chair Kings, are from right down the street.

The festival kicked off Friday night at the Durango Discovery Museum with California’s Sweetwater String Band.

As a few showers passed over Saturday, the smell of rain only complemented the diverse sounds coming from every turn as every hour, another act took the stage at Durango Arts Center, Henry Strater Theatre and Wild Horse Saloon.

Meanwhile, informal, impromptu “jamming” sessions formed random crowds while musicians played on, many having never met, joined by the language of music.

Singer and guitarist Ian Lennox of Durango’s Running out of Road called those jam sessions the very thing he loves about the genre.

“Man, I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12,” he said after an playing an impressive set of songs with three other musicians for receptive listeners in the Strater Hotel lobby. As bluegrass is known for, musicans took turns playing solo melodies on their instruments – in this case, a stand-up-bass, banjo and mandolin – in between Lennox’s vocals and fast-paced rhythm guitar.

“This (is) just getting to meet new people and staying up till 2 o’clock in the morning picking songs and having fun,” he said about the spur-of-the-moment jam.

Lennox said he’d just met two of the musicians in the lobby.

A few rainy blocks away at Wild Horse Saloon, Chicken Strange was driving its own kind of bluegrass on the stage.

“We’re kind of an incarnation of a bunch of stuff,” said the four-part band’s steel guitarist Dave Larocco as members of the audience thanked him after the set.

Mandolinist Kyle Siesser said the camaraderie of the bluegrass culture is what draws him.

“We all get together and play these songs that we know even though we don’t know each other,” he said. “It’s one of the great things about it that I like.”

The final two shows of the festival, Town Mountain and Blue Highway, are scheduled for 4 p.m. today at the DAC and the Strater, respectively.

bmathis@durangoherald.com

Durango Bluegrass MeltdownToday’s schedule

Music schedule

Henry Strater Theatre

10 a.m.: Badly Bent

11 a.m.: Chokecherry Jam

Noon: Town Mountain

1 p.m.: Blue Moon Ramblers

2 p.m.: Lawn Chair Kings

3 p.m.: Benny Galloway and Jordan Ramsey

4 p.m.: Blue Highway

Durango Arts Center

10 a.m.: Jeff Scroggins and Colorado – Gospel

11 a.m.: Colorado College Bluegrass Ensemble – Gospel

Noon: Blue Highway – Gospel

1 p.m.: The San Juan String Band

2 p.m.: Running Out of Road

3 p.m.: Loose Change

4 p.m.: Town Mountain

Wild Horse Saloon

11 a.m.: Ruined Nation Boys

Noon: Benny Galloway and Jordan Ramsey

1 p.m.: Pick and Holler

2 p.m.: Stray Grass

3 p.m.: Sweetwater String Band

Bar gigs and special events

1-3 p.m.: Jack Tallmadge, Diamond Belle Saloon

5-9 p.m.: Sweetwater String Band, Balcony Bar & Grill

5:30-10 p.m.: Blue Moon Ramblers, Diamond Belle Saloon



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