Telluride 2008 - first day.

GREETINGS FROM TELLURIDE!

well, after a Wednesday drive from Denver that included:
- smoke pouring out the back of my car in Eisenhower tunnel,
- numerous idiot drivers,
- a 30-minute pileup south of Montrosse where road work had funneled everything down to one lane, and
- a strange odor of gasoline coming from my air conditioner

we made it into town.
Also, having a press pass on your car DOES have it's advantages (aside from the TWO "press" parking spots near the capitol) as I got full car access into town without even a word said by the guy at the gate.

Wednesday night is technically the night before the festival, so most people are getting into town and setting up camp or getting into their condos. (the hardcore town park campers have been here for weeks, however).

anyway, it is also the kickoff party night with Yonder Mountain String Band at the conference center up in Mountain Village. Me, Jason, Rick and his buddy Josh rolled up in the gondola with fresh drinks in hand around 7:30, stood around in line for a bit running into a good 20 people or so we knew. There were a lot more ticketless people outside this year than years past -- the show sold out this year in 24 hours.

the band came on right around 9 and opened up with Shawn Camp's 'redbird' with the crowd raging behind. Dave Johnston's banjo was on point from the start of the show and i remember thinking how loud the band was without sounding distorted.

The venue itself is just a huge ballroom/conference center, nothing too special, but it has a really flat sound thanks to the carpet of the room.

I haven't seen Yonder since February, and the band sounds much more rehearsed. they ripped through originals like 'at the end of the day' and Johnston's recently-penned 'Fingerprint' as well as Bob Dylan's 'Spanish Harlem Incident' in the first set, but the highlight for me was 'new horizons > suspicious minds (Elvis) > new horizons'. I have heard them cover that song once before in 2004 at a show in Vail, so to hear it again in the middle of new horizons was great. I was in the beer line when they started it, and turned to some random girl behind me, grabbed her and started two-stepping.

the boys closed out the set with a 'new horizons' dedicated to the folks in the midwest floods.

it's bluegrass festival, afterall.

a fifth microphone was put out on stage at setbreak, and after the lights went down Mr. Drew Emmitt from Leftover Salmon walked on stage to play the entire set. the band kicked off the last hour and a half with Adam Aijala ripping through the intro of Shawn Camp's 'damned if the right one didn't go wrong'. After a lackluster 'East Nashville Easter', the band tore through Todd Snider's 'sideshow blues' and into bassist Ben Kauffman's 'Catch a Criminal', with the home-town crowd-pleasing first line "I'm going back to Colorado, with my suitcase and a gun/I'm gonna find me a desperate woman/and have me a little fun'

yes. yes we are.

the band toyed around with two of their murder ballads at the end of the night, 'on the run' and 'dawn's early light'. The first song being a part of an ongoing saga of songs that revolve around the rambler, the sherriff and the sheriff's wife. The latter is about brothers seeking revenge for the killing of their third brother by an outlaw.

oddly, the band chose to jam out of dawns and into Danny Barnes's (of the Bad Livers) Death Trip - a song about not wanting to grow up again, among other things such as selling 'it by the pound'.

the band played up until midnight, leaving no time for an encore. But I've still got three more sets of YMSB this week, so i'm not complaining.

Afterwards, we waited in an hour + line to get back down the gondola into Telluride where the parties lasted until well after 3 a.m.

SO....
Today is the start of the actual festival on the other end of town. I"m going to get up and get some food in me, take a longboard over and check out the scene at the gates, pick up my wristband and do some people watching.

there's no bands i want to see until 2 p.m. when the ladies of Uncle Earl take the stage. AFter that is a set by Arlo Guthrie, then Del McCoury Band, then Ani DiFranco and finally tonight, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (if he shows up)

More updates and pictures later.