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The Bluegrass Meltdown is a true melting pot

The Durango Bluegrass Meltdown finally is legal. The 21-year-old festival will start Friday, kicking off the festival season.

Headliners include Shawn Camp, Balsam Range, Special Consensus and Rebecca Frazier and Hit & Run. Hit & Run were Meltdown regulars before relocating to Nashville. Off-stage, Camp has kept busy as a Grammy-winning producer and songwriter, penning hits for George Strait and Jim Lauderdale, among others.

Regional bands such as The Railsplitters, Colorado College Bluegrass Ensemble and Finnders and Youngberg also are returning, along with most local bluegrass bands, including the newest version of The Badly Bent. Guitar player and singer Pat Dressen, fiddle player and singer Cindi Trautmann and banjo player Mark Epstein have been playing as a trio since late 2014, and they recently added bass player Jim Stanley and mandolin player Fred Hoeffler to the lineup.

Bluegrass fans also are hyped for guitar player Jon Stickley and his trio. Stickley’s ties to Durango go back to his time in the bluegrass band Broke Mountain. That five-piece called Durango home for a chunk of time from 2003 to 2006, and since then, Stickley has been making music in the fertile area of Asheville, North Carolina. Stickley will perform festival sets as “Jon Stickley and Friends,” which could include former bandmates and friends who also are in town for the festival.

His trio, which features Lindsey Pruett on violin and Patrick Armitage on drums, will perform Saturday night at the Durango Arts Center. The trio show will feature original music, a progressive mix of guitar-driven newgrass and fiddle-dominant gypsy jazz. It’s an organic sound spawned from informal picks with different musicians.

“I come from a bluegrass background; when I say bluegrass, I mean people standing around a campfire and jamming all night long,” Stickley said in a phone interview. “You dig into some weird areas when you’re hanging out with some creative people. Some of those areas you get into, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, this is kind of bluegrassy, and it’s kind of jazzy – it’s almost something totally new,’ which just happens when people get together and pick together all night long.”

Stickley’s time in Durango as a member of Broke Mountain and random tours as a Colorado Playboy have spawned friendships, and his bluegrass sets will be a gathering of old friends and bandmates.

“It’s one of the cool things that’s been happening at bluegrass festivals since they started, these legendary reunions and collaborations” Stickley said. “These festivals bring everybody together, and on stage, its one of those elements of surprise that you can have.”

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.

Bryant’s best

Friday-Sunday: 21st annual Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, music at the Henry Strater Theatre, Durango Arts Center and Wild Horse Saloon (Saturday only). Weekend pass $70, Saturday-only $50, Sunday-only $30. www.durangomeltdown.com.

Saturday: Progressive acoustic with Jon Stickley Trio, 8 p.m. No cover for Meltdown pass-holders, $10 without pass. Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., 259-2606.



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