by Chris Aaland

Thinking outside the box is nothing new to the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown, which runs from Friday through Sunday at a variety of local venues. In past years, the festival booked Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, Nickel Creek, the Infamous Stringdusters and the Steep Canyon Rangers long before those bands won Grammys or sold out giant shows around the world.

“We have a nucleus of board members that have their finger on the pulse of what is bluegrass today,” said Meltdown president Steve Williams. “We’re not afraid to go after bands that aren’t really known around here, but are on the national scene. That’s exciting for all the people who come to the festival, too.”

Meltdown, now in its 19th year, has taken bluegrass into the schools; hosted a free Friday night kickoff at the Durango & Silverton Railroad Museum; and offered such annual highlights as the Super Jam, the Celtdown and the old-time barn dance.

“You can count on Telluride to bring you the greatness of Sam Bush, Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas, always,” said KDUR station manager Bryant Liggett. “You can count on the Meltdown to bring you some bluegrass band you’ve never heard of that instantly becomes a favorite, or a throw-together band of musicians you’ve always liked, playing a handful of sets at the Meltdown and killing it.”

And that’s exactly what’s happening this year with Bluegrass 101 and the New Reeltime Travelers – two bands that don’t tour or record albums.

Bluegrass 101 came out of banjo player Keith Reed’s desire to find a way to send his Colorado College Bluegrass Ensemble to the Meltdown. A 30-year veteran of the bluegrass scene and longtime member of Open Road, Reed has taught bluegrass at the prestigious Colorado Springs institution for nine years and currently has 33 students participating.

Earlier this week, five of Reed’s buddies assembled  in Colorado Springs for shows at CC and the Air Force Academy to play benefit concerts to send his students to Durango. And those buddies are ringers, with bassist Mike Bub (formerly of the Del McCoury Band), Bradford Lee Folk (the voice of Open Road), Shad Cobb (fiddle player for the John Cowan Band) and Chris Henry (mandolin player for Shawn Camp) completing the lineup.
“They’re open to these kinds of things,” Reed said of the Meltdown. “It’s really important that we reinvent all the time. Constant change – even by performing with different people – opens your ears to different things.”

Bluegrass 101 gives the audience the musical equivalent of three college credits in the genre that Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys invented in 1945.

“Bluegrass 101 will just be synonymous with playing straight-ahead bluegrass without trying to sell a band,” Reed said. “It’s playing Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Stanley Brothers material with some new songs that Brad’s written. This is nuts and bolts bluegrass.”

Reed said that when Flatt & Scruggs left Monroe to forge their own path, fans would shout out, “Play some of that bluegrass stuff.”

“It was that sound as opposed to trying to create something,” he said. “This is how bluegrass should be played.”

And that’s exactly what he hopes to introduce his own bluegrass students and the Durango audience to.

“I saw a great need for how to play professionally, how to talk to an audience, how to sound as a group, how to sing on a stacked harmony,” he said.

In turn, his CC students get to showcase their talents at the Meltdown – which they’ve done every year since 2009.

“The students get a lot of gigs around the school itself,” he said. “They practice a lot, work together on harmony a lot. It’s a great groundbreaking for them. Just having that confidence is a great asset.”

The New Reeltime Travelers, featuring Tom Sneed, left, on mandolin, and Ben Winship on everything else, headline the Barn Dance on Saturday night at the Railroad Museum.

The New Reeltime Travelers, on the other hand, give fans who have longed for an RTT reunion something to embrace.

“It’s the music lover’s thing,” said New Reeltime Travelers mandolin player Thomas Sneed, himself a veteran of the 2002 and ’04 Meltdowns with his original Reeltime bandmates. “There’s a lot of festivals these days, but the Meltdown has a lot of personality. We had a lot of success in other parts of the country. But we were honored when (Durango) liked us.”

Sneed assembled an all-star cast, including original RTT banjo player Roy Andrade; fiddler Betse Ellis (the Wilders); bassist Eric Thorin (an ex-Open Road member); multi-instrumentalist Ben Winship (formerly of Loose Ties); and old-time singer Carol Elizabeth Jones (Garrison Keillor’s Hopeful Gospel Quartet).

“These are all people who have been doing this for decades,” said Sneed. “A handful of the people in the New Reeltime Travelers haven’t been to the Meltdown. I’m pretty sure that Betse and Ben haven’t.”

Winship, in particular, holds a prominent place in the history of Western bluegrass through his recordings and tours with Loose Ties.

“He’s very much responsible for the growth of bluegrass in the Rocky Mountains,” said Sneed. “Back in the ’80s you had Hot Rize, Loose Ties, Front Range and Special Consensus. Way before 1990, they had a great band and were playing some experimental music.”

When Sneed sees Ellis, Andrade and Jones, it’s like looking into a mirror.

“Betse and Roy were the only people I’ve ever met who were really into old-time music as much as me,” Sneed said. “Betse spent the last part of Doc Watson’s life with him. Carol has been doing old-time music for a really long time. She’s really highly regarded in the old-time community. “
Fans can expect to hear a smattering of classic RTT material mixed with songs provided by everyone in the new lineup.

“There are ingredients from everybody,” said Sneed. “That’s the best part – the combined experience of all these people. We’re really proud of the show, it’s very diverse. All of us have had a lot of years to study this stuff. This new incarnation shows the depth of old-time music. There’s an original element also. I’m excited for people to hear the new music, too.”

For a complete line-up and schedule of events, go to www.durangomeltdown.com