A solid bluegrass musician should be well versed in the bluegrass catalog. That catalog being the list of decades old tunes all bluegrass musicians will dig into, whether those musicians are seasoned professionals at the ready to pepper these tunes into a set list right alongside their own originals, or musicians that are part of a more informal pick, playing tunes on someone’s porch or among beer cans and bleary-eyed music lovers in a festival campground.
It’s a catalog the Party Mountain String band will dig into this weekend for their annual run of regional Snowdown weekend shows.
The Party Mountain String Band will perform Friday in the Snowdown Light Parade on the Tico Time Float, and at 1 p.m. Saturday at Purgy’s at Purgatory Ski Resort.
The band – Patty Storen on mandolin, Andrew Yeomans on guitar, Tyler Rice on banjo, Dennon Jones on fiddle, Jack Cloonan on guitar, Jeff Berman on bass and Tom Buswell on dobro – aren’t a band playing out that often, as this run of shows only happens for these musicians once a year, a now Snowdown tradition.
If you go
WHAT: Party Mountain String Band plays bluegrass.
WHEN: 1 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Purgy’s, at Purgatory Ski Resort.
TICKETS: No cover.
Most of these musicians have been playing together for years and are well versed in that aforementioned catalog; despite not playing together regularly, it all comes together.
“We do a lot of these one to three off shows with my buddies in Durango when I come through town,” Storen said. “We meet on a Wednesday, hash out a few songs and try to keep it fresh from show to show. But yeah, we’ve been playing music together for about 12 years now, so there’s a lot of that common repertoire and camaraderie there.”
That knowledge of the repertoire is shared by all.
“We just love playing together; it’s like riding a bike. We’ve been playing together long enough that we just dive in,” Berman said. “We’re all friends, we play together periodically, sometimes for fun, sometimes out for the good folks. Our set list will be a combination of covers, bluegrass standards, but also originals and songs we’ve played together for years.”
There’s a general confidence shared by all the players; they know the common songs, and if it’s something new, these musicians are skilled enough that they learn on the fly. It’s those informal picks on those porches and in festival campgrounds that have aided that on-the-fly ability, from learning the tunes to establishing a musical trust with bandmates.
“Jeff, Patty and I played in Fellowship of the Strings, so we have that sense of familiarity of having what we once had. It’s fun when you get this group, this is the second year we’ve done this. It’s exciting to just have a couple shows and know that it’s a limited run and cherish and savor every moment, and be as present as you possibly can, and live it up,” Jones said. “There are the standards, the traditional fiddle tunes, and the classic, well-played bluegrass standards and traditional tunes that we can always draw from. If you’re a bluegrass player worth your salt you should probably know. It would be pretty boring if we just played all the common tunes all the time, so we’ll try to bring something fresh to the table as well.”
Ask some rock musicians when they come off stage if they’d be willing to bang out another set for the love of music and they’d likely say no. That’s not the case in the bluegrass realm: These musicians will play, night and day, whether they’re paid or not. It's all for the love of the music.
“That’s part of the beauty of bluegrass music,” Storen said. “You can play it all night and all day. Especially with these fellas.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
