The music partnership of Durango banjo player Mark Epstein and Front Range guitar player Mark Merryman goes back almost a quarter century.
Their band, Fret Knot, was a Front Range-based bluegrass band that also featured one-time local songwriter Benny Galloway. Fret Knot played the Meltdown for a couple of years, along with an occasional Friday night set at the former Summit (now the Balcony Backstage) that was loaded with guests and packed with fans on the dance floor. Epstein still references those Summit shows as some of his favorite performances.
Epstein and Merryman, who began playing together even before the Meltdown and before Fret Knot the band, continue to perform informally in festival campgrounds and at one or two shows a year. This weekend, the Fret Knot Duo will play Friday night at Durango Craft Spirits and at 6 p.m. Sunday at Dalton Ranch.
Merryman and Epstein met at a party; Merryman had been invited to jam with “a bluegrass guy,” and they clicked. “He was tuning up, and I heard him play a lick” Merryman said last week in a phone interview. “Then we played for about two or three hours. After that, we started getting together a lot.”
They played numerous performances around the Front Range, including week-long stints at ski areas and other shows in mountain towns. For years, they also performed monthly runs in Winter Park.
It’s been musically productive – while banjo may be best within the confines of a four- or five-piece bluegrass band, it’s also right at home in a duo. Forget a retro romp of predictable folk music and covers from bad AM radio – they’re digging into originals and favorites from the canon of Americana and bluegrass. Their duo of banjo and guitar offers all of the rhythm, and often the drive, of a bluegrass band, a method that works for the two longtime bandmates and friends.
“He and I have always been very complementary in terms of our styles,” Epstein said of Merryman in an earlier interview. “We’ve always had a really good groove when we play together, which is one of the things I really enjoy about playing with him. It’s very comfortable.”
Through the years, the two have amassed a deep well of tunes, enough to play a series of shows without repeating a song. At one point in the 1990s, they alphabetized their catalog and attempted to play every song they knew, beginning with the letter “A.” After four days, they were only at “M.”
“It’s really fun playing with a whole band, but as a duo, you can get more work,” Merryman said. “And, as a duo, we know a lot more songs.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s best
Friday: Hello, Dollface plays indie-soul, 7 p.m. No cover. Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.
Friday: Fret Knot Duo plays bluegrass and acoustic music, 5 p.m. No cover. Durango Craft Spirits, 1120 Main Ave., 247-1919.
