Durango’s bluegrass music community continues to be an active and productive bunch.
Shows are plentiful, with a growing number of fans and musicians eager to play, listen and play some more.
Paul and Elle Ambrose’s documentary “For the Love of Bluegrass,” which debuted two weeks ago, showcases Durango’s Bluegrass Meltdown Festival and many of the key musicians and show organizers who make up our bluegrass community.
The film was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, with one of the rewards for donating being a private show by local band The Badly Bent. That premium was picked up by organizers of the Meltdown; the result is a show for Meltdown volunteers and the bluegrass-loving public. Playing tonight with The Badly Bent is one of the newer bluegrass bands in town, La La Bones.
La La Bones are Tommy Frederico on banjo, Jimi Giles on bass, Kathy Hilimire on fiddle, Deb Moses on dobro, Scott Roberts on mandolin and Kyle Siesser on guitar.
The band came together after Hilimire and husband Roberts relocated to Durango from California. Roberts had been in Sweetwater String Band, and his wife was looking to start their own band in their new town.
“I personally wanted to be in a band that featured women,” Hilimire said last week at the KDUR studios. “I met Deb, we became friends, she’d come over and play tunes.”
A guitar player was added, Giles joined the fold and Frederico came on board after playing with band members in the super-jam at last year’s Meltdown. La La Bones was born.
“Since then, I think we’ve been figuring out what our niche is,” Hilimire said. “We have six singers. I think that seeing us play is kind of a mini music festival. We feature mostly original songs. So you get our individual song-writing styles, our individual voices and our individual tastes. So each song is almost like seeing a different band.”
One of the attractions of the bluegrass scene is the bonds forged among the musicians. Once a formal concert ends, musicians and fans will often gather backstage, in a campground or in someone’s house to keep the music going into the wee hours of the morning.
In bluegrass, the desire to play outweighs a quest for big paydays. It’s an open club that pulls seasoned pickers alongside newbies into jam circles.
“When I first started playing, there were really welcoming people,” Moses said. “It didn’t matter what level you were at, even if you just knew a few chords you could jump in. It’s that community feel, and being welcomed, and playing music with people you’d never hang out with otherwise, but being brought together by music.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s best
Today: The Badly Bent and La La Bones play a Durango Bluegrass Meltdown fundraiser, 6 p.m., $10 advance/$15 day of, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave., 375-7160.
Sunday: Booty Conda plays funk, 8 p.m., no cover, Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.
