Highs from the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Alison Krauss closes out the 2025 Telluride Bluegrass Festival – photo © Anthony Verkuilen

Saturday morning at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is always quality time, spent with chums, rejuvenating over strong coffee and electrolytes: necessary rest time more often than not after a super late NightGrass set, an only-in-Telluride treat. You may be going to see I’m With Her, for instance, like we did, but you never know who is going to show and pick a few with their pals.

Friday night at TBF52, it was none other than Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Noam Pikelny, Chris Thile, Brittany Haas, and Bridget Kearney who graced the Sheridan Opera House stage with the I’m With Her sheroes. Spectacular to say the least. I’m With Her knocked us out with their beautiful harmonies and perfectly meshed presentations with their revered guests. Their Ancient Light with Thile stole our breath, their White Freightliner Blues with Welch and Rawlings gave us perma-grin, and their rendition of Rhododendron will be remembered over the ages. I’m With Her closed it all out with an a cappella Be My Husband in the round from the Sheridan floor among the audience. Oh, Telluride, you never disappoint!

But, enough rest and relaxation for a weekend morning! We had a festival to get to! And, off we scurried – most to Town Park for the ever exciting Band Contest Finals, where Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light walked away the victors. Others dashed to Elks Park to catch more Irish/Americana fusion with Dug with that awesome stomp board that could be heard from blocks away. Dug had the folks at Elks holding hands and dancing in a massive circle. 11:30 a.m. and the merrymaking was already in full swing, literally. Ken Pomeroy then floored the Elks crew with her deep lyrics, ethereal voice, and heart-grabbing guitar playing. Stunning to say the least.

Staring at the Shellman Stage back in Town Park, it was clear as day that Béla Fleck has a knack, and it is this: finding the most accomplished, eclectic players on any instrument and joining them for an unbelievably unique collab. That is exactly what he did for TBF #52: uniting Edmar Castañeda on the harp, and Antonio Sánchez on drums, with his otherworldly banjo-playing for the likes of nothing we had ever seen — or heard — before. The BEATrio.

The combination was enthralling — both visually and aurally. It was hard not to take our eyes off Castañeda’s outstretched arms and flying fingers, feverishly trying to figure out how he was getting all those varied and wonderful sounds out of that magical harp. When we did look left, we were glued to Sánchez playing his heart out with perfect profound percussion on at set of at least six drums and same for cymbals. Then, there was marvel Béla playing every note imaginable on his 5-string, up and down the neck, lightning fast with his distinctive force, making melodies stick and striking pointed pops.

They went from jazzy swingy with Archipelago to a sort of Latin boogie with Pellucidar, to a jaw-on-floor experience with Kaleidoscope. Nothing compares to the start of that song — or, frankly, the rest of it too. Amazing.

Edmar introduced himself to the star-struck festivarians, stating that you could feel God in this place. All the believers in the audience vehemently nodded in agreement. Then, Whispers of Resilience began with Castañeda as an actual angel with a harp laying down the emotive foundation for what became an absolute majestic, heavenly overture by the trio. Tears were shed by performers and audience members alike at its conclusion.

To lighten things up, Fleck did a call and response sing-along to his banjo riffs. Folks ate it up and happily tried to mimic his increasing complicated runs. Fun! Speaking of fun, you could tell these three were certainly enjoying themselves playing together.

Thankfully, per usual at TBF, the King of Telluride, Sam Bush, ruled the roost on Saturday evening. He with his King’s Court of Stephen Mougin, Todd Parks, Chris Brown, and Wes Corbett laid down bluegrass edicts and proclamations with authority. The King knows what his people want — and he delivered it royally for two wonderful hours with his signature picking, chops, and vocals — beacons for the Telluride faithful.

From River Take Me to Circles Around Me we were enveloped in bluegrass love and lore. Thousands from the tarps sang “High in Telluride. Up on Bridal Veil” at the top of their lungs along with Sam. Nothing beats living in the moment in those lyrics.

We all loved seeing Sammy play the guitar with a beautifully done Crossing No. 9. Sam also paid homage to John Hartford, delivering well-welcomed Back in the Goodle Days and Skippin’ in the Mississippi Dew. Bush does the best Hartford, his fun with it is simply contagious and, of course, his fiddling is fantastic too.

The boys then lilted into Emmylou’s Born to Run, to which we all gladly bounced along. And, how can you not grin all the way through Sam’s Bananas? Especially, when the band dipped into Whipping Post in the middle. We all shouted Bananas at once in between Sam’s shredding.

Also, way too much fun was Sam announcing “[W]e need a banjo tune and we need it right now,” then bringing out Béla Fleck and Noam Pikelny to join Wes Corbett in a brilliant show of banjo bests. Fiddler Brittany Haas joined too. What a ride: Remington Ride to be exact. A straight-up banjo throw-down with each performer on stage just ripping. Then Sam and the boys grooved us up with guests Marcus King, Charlie Starr, and Chris Daniels on a deep, driving Mercury Blues with their wonderful wailing guitars. The crowd lapped up Sam’s set (in seven)!

Talk about grooving, we rolled right into Toy Factory Project’s amazing tribute to the songs of Toy Caldwell. The Toy Factory Project is comprised of Paul T. Riddle, Marcus King, Oteil Burbridge, Charlie Starr, Josh Shilling, and Billy Contreras. I know, what an incredible ensemble, right? And, oh, they brought it: what an out-of-this world performance of southern rock goodness from two versions of Fire on the Mountain to This Ol’ Cowboy to Searchin’ for a Rainbow to Can’t You See. Yes, we saw — and it was incredible. It was some of the best in the business showing us how it is done when it comes to those sweet sounds of Americana South. We who witnessed that in our beloved canyon that eve were indisputably the lucky ones. Thank you, Planet Bluegrass!

Say it isn’t So: Last Day

Sunday morning at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is for the tarps. It is when you linger and lounge with buddies, savoring each and every moment because you know you might not see these particular pals again until this time next year. It is for reminiscing about the epic adventure you have been on over the unbelievably filled past few days. On TBF52 Sunday, a tinge of melancholy crept in occasionally, but tidal waves of gratitude graced us overwhelmingly. How joyous and humbling to know we were blessed to be able to participate in the most renowned bluegrass event on Earth.

The stellar string band sounds of New Dangerfield provided us the perfect soundtrack for this particular Sunday morning, grounding us in authenticity, and forcing us to recognize the really real — and, importantly, to appreciate it in the present. Similarly, young phenom Ken Pomeroy sang us into the early afternoon with her finger-picking guitar style, and powerful lyrics. Her set reminded us not to rush, but to slow down, observe, listen, and feel. Pomeroy presented a full set of her enchanting songs, including a wonderfully named The Devil’s Hiding in the Bible Belt, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothes, and her most famous tune to date, Cicadas.

Things took a turn mid-afternoon from a sort of slow goodbye to a mass realization that — wait, a minute — we all still had the rest of the day and all night to festivate. The Rebirth Brass Band led us right back into the party around 3:00 p.m. with that New Orleans music. From the first tuba note of that song, we knew that that was exactly what we needed to get us boogeying down again. It was, indeed, a rebirth. Festival-goers hopped up from their tarps and did their best efforts at second line dance moves for an absolutely blissful hour or so. Whoop-whoop, our day was far from done! We definitely felt like funkin’ it up. And, we did. I mean, how could you not with those trumpets, trombones, and a tuba, to boot, just belting out that beautiful Big Easy jazz from the Fred Shellman Memorial Stage?

With the most understated name in all of bluegrass the Telluride House Band (Sam Bush, Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, and Stuart Duncan, with Chris Eldridge standing in for Bryan Sutton) took us on an incredible journey. They started with Future Man, a Strength in Numbers tune: a nod to the musicians’ decades-long friendship. It was clear “Critter” Eldridge fit right in with his impeccable guitar chops. The Band and audience alike had fun with their many covers from John Hartford’s My Rag to a super enjoyable version of Stevie Wonder’s Boogie On Reggae Woman, where they each broke down the song one-by-one.

Eldridge expertly led the House Band through Home From the Forest from Tony Rice’s Manzanita album, playing seamless solos and delivering spot-on vocals. Meyer’s solo on this one was breathtaking. The House Band also played some Tim O’Brien tunes, Train on the Island and The High Road, with none other than Tim O’Brien, himself, who popped up to the stage from the Poser Pit moments before.

The House Band brings it year after year. They are the maestros of their instruments and the Poser Pit was filled with so many of the other TBF performers. They all wanted to see the House Band, their skill, their style, and their jaw-dropping performances.

The entire set top to finish was class, but it was how they closed it out that truly floored us. Slopes, another Strength in Numbers complicated as all get-out song, was absolutely epic. Each band member laid down perfect solos and the band as a whole was an absolute machine. The breakdowns, meshes, and crisp picking was unmatched. After Eldridge showed off his stuff making the stark transition part way through the tune, Fleck masterfully laid down one of the wildest solos of TBF52. Meyer and Douglas kept it altogether with the song’s unique backdrop. Our mouths remained agape as they jumped into Rider, a tip of the hat to Seldom Scene and Eldridge’s dad. Eldridge led the tune with great harmonies and then phenomenal solos from Sam and Stuart. Stuart’s fiddle turned into a train running down the tracks. How his fiddle was not sawed in half after his solo we will never know.

Then it was everybody’s turn to show what they had one-by-one. Fleck just crushed it; Meyer then bowed out a soulful solo; and Douglas dug and went deep into essentially an electric guitar solo — on the dobro. The Telluride All-Stars certainly had a great time welcoming Eldridge into the fold — and we did too!

Alison Krauss & Union Station were fan favorites to close out TBF52 on the Main Stage. Krauss’s angelic voice and fun demeanor served as a warm bluegrass hug to send people on their way. She and her top-notch bandmates (Jerry Douglas, Barry Bales, Ron Block, and Russell Moore) gave us a flawless set that had us smiling through our tears of joy and gratitude. We gave our buddies knowing looks that TBF52 was one for the record books: its musical lineup, its scenery, its people! We were blessed, I guess.