I recently made my 13th annual pilgrimage to Telluride for the 37th Telluride Bluegrass Festival. As always there was a mind blowing medley of bluegrass and other great acoustic (and some not so acoustic) acts. While I always love the seeing the standard cast of characters (i.e. Sam Bush, Tim Obrien, Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, YMSB, etc..) this year seemed to have an abundance of great acts playing the festival for the first time. Josh Ritter, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and Mumford & Sons blew me away.
All this said, I have to say the absolute highlight of the festival this year was the illustrious rockabilly goddess Imelda May. Hailing from the rockabilly shores of Dublin, Ireland, Imelda and her band have a great traditional sound. It was as though the band stepped out of a time machine from the 50′s hidden behind the stage. Her presence and vocal chops were matched by her band that were each masters of their respective instruments. The drummer was one of the most energetic percussionists I’ve seen in recent memory.
I think it was quite apropos to have a rockabilly band at the bluegrass festival. Both styles have very close recent ancestry. In many ways they are both red headed step children (or perhaps kissing cousins) of traditional country/folk/blues music.
