Rebecca, Martha & Peggy Sue

by Chris Aaland
 

Spring is in the air: sneezes abound, Mexican Logger flows freely and the sound of banjos fills the air. The Durango Bluegrass Meltdown turns 21 this year, with one of its strongest lineups ever. National acts include Balsam Range, Shawn Camp, the Special Consensus, Rebecca Frazier and Hit & Run, and the Jon Stickley Trio. Plus, there are a few regional festival favorites like Finnders & Youngberg, the Railsplitters, Locust Honey String Band and Caribou Mountain Collective, and many local acts. Find a complete schedule and buy tickets online at durangomeltdown.com; advance tickets can also be purchased at Animas Trading Co. Here’s a look at the headliners:

- Balsam Range is a five-piece from the fertile soil of Asheville, N.C. They recently took home an armload of hardware at the 2014 IBMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year (Buddy Melton).

- Shawn Camp is a songwriting legend with one foot in bluegrass and the other in honky-tonk. He’s penned hits for Top 40 country guys like George Strait (“River of Love”) and Garth Brooks (“Two Piña Coladas”) and bluegrass stars like the Del McCoury Band (“Traveling Teardrop Blues”). He’s also the lead singer of the Grammy-winning Earls of Leicester, which includes such legends as Tim O’Brien and Jerry Douglas. Read more at the end of this week’s Top Shelf.

- The Special Consensus returns to town for the first time in a decade. This ever-evolving quartet was founded 40 years ago in Chicago. Throughout its history, two things have remained constant: founder and banjo player extraordinaire Greg Cahill, and a commitment to traditional bluegrass harmonies. Their latest release, “Country Boy: A Bluegrass Tribute to John Denver,” won a pair of IBMA awards.

Rebecca Frazier and Hit & Run are one of many headliners for the  Durango Bluegrass Meltdown’s 21st anniversay, this weekend.

- Rebecca Frazier and Hit & Run are no strangers to the Meltdown, having last played here in 2005. Frazier is the first woman to have appeared on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and is a genuine triple threat as a singer, songwriter and picker. Hit & Run burst onto the scene by winning Telluride and RockyGrass band competitions in the early 2000s.

- Jon Stickley Trio brings Grismanesque jazz to the Meltdown. Y’all probably remember Stickley from past Meltdowns as a member of Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band and Town Mountain.

The Strater Hotel’s annual open house takes place from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, including a concert by local bluegrass outfit Sugar Creek. A suggested $5 donation will benefit the Meltdown. Tour the hotel and enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

BREW Pub & Kitchen gets into the Meltdown spirit, too. Papa Otis & the San Juan Mountain Moonshiners play old-time, mountain stomp at 7 p.m. Friday. Loose Change does a one-hour set at 6 p.m. Saturday. Neither show has a cover.

New on tap at BREW is Martha, a tart, invigorating Farmhouse Ale, infused with Montmorency cherries & rose hips. Martha is named after brewer Erik Maxson’s maternal grandmother, a long-time Durangoan who taught first grade at Riverview Elementary School. If you attended Riverview in the ’60s or ’70s, you may remember her warm smile or, if you were naughty, she may have given you a pat on the bottom. Martha has been resting peacefully up at Greenmount Cemetery since 1989 so raise your glass to the west.

Carvers hosts SilverPlume in a free show at 9 p.m. Friday. A side project of Nick Dunbar’s (from Mountain Standard Time), the band includes 2014 RockyGrass banjo contest winner Kane Hollins.

And Saturday marks Record Store Day 2015! The good folks at Southwest Sound and Random Records would love to help you pick out some vinyl rarities released just for the day.

Re-live the era of good-time rock & roll as “Rave On! The Buddy Holly Experience” featuring Billy McGuigan comes to the Community Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Backed by the rocking Rave On Band, McGuigan will transport the audience back in time with “Peggy Sue,” “That’ll Be the Day” and “Oh Boy.”

The Mac Jazz Quartet plays a Music in the Mountains friendraiser tonight at St. Mark’s Church, located at 910 E. 3rd Ave. Dinner starts at 6:15 p.m., with the concert to follow at 7:30.

And the San Juan Symphony Youth Orchestras conclude their 2014-15 season at 7 p.m. Monday at the Community Concert Hall.

In honor of the Meltdown, this week’s Top Shelf list employs the Whisperer of the North, David Smith, to provide his 10 favorite Shawn Camp tunes:

1. “Rain in Durango” – Camp earned a Grammy for his work on Guy Clark’s “My Favorite Picture of You,” which features this song. Awards aside, we’ve all lived this song and hearing it performed on the Meltdown stage will be epic.

2. “ The Tune of a Twenty Dollar Bill” – While it’s on Camp’s legendary “Live at the Station Inn” release, a version by Lonesome River Band on “Window of Time” gets my toes tapping every time.

3. “Dear Departed” – Of all the Camp songs covered by all the bands, Town Mountain’s heart-on-sleeve take on this one made it one of my favorites.

4. “Travelin’ Teardrop Blues” – Does anyone handle a Shawn Camp song better than Del McCoury? This one’s on “Del and the Boys.”

5. “My Love Will Not Change” – Keeping with the Del covers, this time off of “It’s Just the Night.” The band takes this one and runs!

6. “Sis’ Draper” – Put Ricky Skaggs’ lyric-changing version back on the shelf and go to the original on Guy Clark’s “Cold Dog Soup.”

7. “Soldier’s Joy, 1864” – Continuing with favoring the Clark/Camp connections, seek out Guy Clark’s “The Dark” release for this bullet-biting tale.

8. “Magnolia Wind” – Mentioned above, “The Dark” features the greatest songwriters in bluegrass as Guy Clark’s band (Camp, Rawlings, Scott, O’Brien, Welch). Says something that there are two Camp songs on it.

9. “Ain’t No Way of Knowing” – There’s something about this one that bands love. Seek out versions from the likes of the Steep Canyon Rangers, Lou Reid & Carolina, and The Infamous Stringdusters (who all happen to be past Durango Bluegrass Meltdown headliners!)

10. “Redbird” – I wanted to throw one more on the list from “Live at the Station Inn” to stress the legendary status that I state above. Every fan of bluegrass, folk, Americana, songwriting, etc., should have this album in their collection. It’s just a bottle-clinking good time.

Don’t shoot no dice nor get too tight? Email me at chrisa@gobrainstorm.net.