Labor of love

Film documents Durango’s thriving bluegrass scene

by Chris Aaland

If you’re hanging around the Durango Bluegrass Meltdown this weekend, you’ll probably notice camera crews. Look a little closer, and you’ll see those same crews archiving everything from greenroom shenanigans to all-hours pickathons.

Paul and Elle Ambrose, two internet marketing experts and film producers, are combining their passion for bluegrass with their professional skills to produce “For the Love of Bluegrass,” a film documenting the 20th Durango Bluegrass Meltdown and the community of musicians, volunteers and fans that give it life.

“There’s an incredible army of enthusiasts, and they’ve done it for 20 years,” Paul Ambrose said of the hundred-plus folks involved in assisting the nonprofit Meltdown Board of Directors with the three-day festival each spring. “It’s truly a community effort.”

The Ambroses plan to document every aspect of the festival, from restaurants preparing breakfast for the musicians to in-studio radio appearances to volunteers mingling with musicians backstage.

This back story could sound like a missing verse from “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” a 107-year old hymn popularized by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Willie Nelson and countless others.

It all starts with the Ambroses, best known as the proprietors of the local marketing firm Desert Dolphin. Twenty years ago, the two were relative newcomers to Durango, having moved here in 1988. Musicians at heart, they fell in with like-minded creative types – artists, photographers, musicians and writers. One of those, Dan Peha, encouraged them to attend a concert by Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys. After the show, Peha brought a broken old banjo head for Stanley to sign. (Since that first autograph, banjo legends Pete Seeger, Earl Scruggs, Béla Fleck and Tony Trischka have signed it as well.)

The Ambroses and Peha were so moved that they set out to form a bluegrass band. While talking with Stanley, Peha mentioned that he’d like to take banjo lessons because he hadn’t played since college. A local musician overheard and told Peha he’d help get him started. That musician was local bluegrass impresario and banjo picker Hugh Felt.

Not long after, Paul, a guitarist and singer, and Elle, a newbie to the bass, formed Subject to Change, a bluegrass band that included Peha (banjo), Felt (a newcomer to the mandolin), Lauren Shapter (the first chair violin for the San Juan Symphony at the time) and Jon Westrup (guitar and dobro). Subject to Change would play two or three of the early Meltdowns.

“We’ve been playing for about 20 years,” said Paul Ambrose. “Everything we’ve learned, we learned here. We just wanted to celebrate that aspect of the community. Maybe it’s our chance to give something back.”

And so the seeds were sewn for a long relationship between a handful of local pickers and a festival they’d all embrace. Felt became a radio DJ and has hosted “The Grass is Bluer” on KSUT (7-9 p.m. Thursdays) for 20 years. Peha is now serving his second stint as a member of the Meltdown’s Board of Directors after many years on the DSCPA/Durango Acoustic Music boards as well. The Ambroses designed many of the festival’s posters, T-shirts and other souvenirs, including the iconic polar bear with a banjo logo.

A friend and fellow musician, Bill Stewart, suggested to the Ambroses after a Tuesday night jam this past January at the Henry Strater Theatre that they shoot a documentary about the local bluegrass scene. Ever since, they’ve been busy interviewing, filming and drafting storylines for the project. The end result may even put the 20-year-old festival on more than just the regional bluegrass map.

“The Durango Meltdown has always been a word-of-mouth kind of thing,” said Peha. “I think what we’re seeing now with the Ambroses’ video is, it’s reaching a much broader audience. This is our 20th year, and we’re probably going to sell out for the first time. I see this documentary as more of a way of reaching people that don’t really know about the Meltdown. It’s also a gift from the Ambroses.”

“For the Love of Bluegrass” is much more than a live DVD of performances, although some main stage magic will certainly make the final cut. Rather, the Ambroses are looking for the stories behind the scenes: what motivates and draws volunteers, business sponsors, radio stations, venues, coffee shops, pubs and, of course, bluegrass lovers to the festival.

“There are nearly 100 volunteers during the Meltdown itself,” Paul Ambrose said. “What we found was there are no big promoters making profits off this thing. This is literally an organically grown festival with handmade music. Those are the stories we’re telling.”

And many of those stories are about volunteers and fans who picked up an instrument, sat in on a few jams and formed bands of their own. They’ve followed several local bands around as they prepare for the Meltdown, including the Badly Bent, Running Out of Road, Loose Change (Stewart’s band) and Sugar Creek (Peha’s latest outfit). The Ambroses also filmed the recent Badly Bent reunion at the Strater and the group’s live performance in the KDUR studios.

One aspect that sets the Meltdown apart from other festivals is its mixture of national, regional and local talent. This year alone, national acts like Blue Highway, Town Mountain and the Earl Brothers play alongside top regional acts (the Ruined Nation Boys, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, the Railsplitters, Stray Grass and others) and more than a dozen local bands – a tradition that dates back to the first Meltdown in 1995.

Peha said he came aboard around the third festival, and said as long as he can remember, local 4 bands  have always been part of the mix. None of the local bands get paid for their performances, though. “We get a pass to the festival, which is the reward for playing the main stage,” said Peha.

This year, the Meltdown held auditions for local bands in the form of CDs or videos. Local acts also must be actively working bands. A tier system rates the talent and professionalism of the bands and then assigns sets on either the main stages or the band showcases at the Durango Elks Lodge, where new bands can hone their skills with a professional sound man and live audience before graduating to the main stage.

“A good example of that is Loose Change,” said Peha. “They played last year on the Showcase and were very well received. This year they’re on the main stage. The idea has always been to get every local band in town participating in some capacity.”

“For the Love of Bluegrass” also focuses on the main instruments found in bluegrass: banjo, dobro, fiddle, guitar and mandolin. “We’re living in a golden age of acoustic music,” Paul said. “The instrument builders who are with us today have never had such diversity and craftsmanship.” Musicians like Rob Ickes, dobro player for Blue Highway, this year’s most anticipated headliner, and Chris Thile, mandolin wunderkind for Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers, are leading the evolution, he said.

While “For the Love of Bluegrass” is a labor of love, it isn’t cost-free. Talent, equipment, editing and production are all hard costs. To offset these expenses, the Ambroses have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $3,500. This campaign runs through Sun., April 20, and donation levels start at $1. To donate, visit fortheloveofbluegrass.com and click on the link for the Kickstarter campaign. A variety of premiums are available, including VIP tickets to the film’s September premiere, T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and the DVD itself.

After costs are covered, all profits from sales will go to the Meltdown. “Durango has probably the highest concentration per capita of bluegrass bands in Colorado with the possible exception of Lyons,” said Peha. “I think the Ambroses are trying to show this in their video.”

Peha says that Durango’s love affair with bluegrass is more than a three-day spring fling. “This thing is definitely year ’round. We will start working on next year’s festival next week with our post-mortem meeting.”

And best guess is that Peha and the Ambroses will find their way into their next bluegrass jam – be it downstairs in the Strater on Tuesday night or at the Durango Brewing Co. on Wednesday – as well. That circle, indeed, is unbroken.