High in the Colorado Rockies the annual YarmonyGrass music festival is celebrating 10 years with the four-day event held in Rancho Del Rio, Colorado. Set to take place August 13 – 16, the 2015 lineup includes The Travelin’ McCourys Featuring Billy Nershi, Rebel Alliance Jam Featuring Keith Moseley, Scott Law, Dan Lebowitz and Dave Brogan, Head For The Hills, Peter Rowan, Honkytonk Homeslice and many more. To give a taste of what YarmonyGrass has to offer ahead of the 2015 installment, we hit up the festival’s mastermind Andrew McConathy to share his 10 most memorable moments from the festival’s past.
1. Keller Williams as the “Secret Special Guest” at the inaugural YarmonyGrass in 2006.
2. Rebel Alliance Jam performing “Franklin’s Tower” at Copper Mountain in 2008 with Keller Williams, Billy Nershi, Scott Law, Tye North, Michael Travis, Jason Hann, Michael Kang and Tim Carbone.
3. Railroad Earth playing a haunting "Goat" in the cold, rain and snow at YarmonyGrass in 2008.
4. The infamous "Lobby Jam" at YarmonyGrass 2008 which was the final time it was held at Copper Mountain, featuring members of Greensky Bluegrass, Elephant Revival, Honkytonk Homeslice, Head for the Hills, The Grant Farm, The Drunken Hearts and more.
5. In 2009 Chadwick Stokes from Dispatch joined Elephant Revival for “The General” and “The Story of Benjamin Darling."
6. “The World Famous YarmonyGrass Floating Stage” in 2010 and 2011 which featured members of The String Cheese Incident, Greensky Bluegrass, Elephant Revival, Honkytonk Homeslice, Head for the Hills, The Drunken Hearts, Coral Creek and more.
7. In 2011 festival favorite Peter Rowan joined the Emmitt-Nershi Band for a moving rendition of the classic “Walls of Time”:
8. Also in 2011 Greensky Bluegrass invited special guest Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth to sit-in on “Can’t Make Time”:
9. In 2012 Carbone and Railroad Earth played their namesake tune “Railroad Earth” during their set at State Bridge just as a Union Railroad Train serendipitously rolled by (goosebumps). (Track 2 below)
10. Last year Billy Nershi’s Joint Set performance of “Jellyfish” featuring Keith Moseley, Andy Thorn, Tyler Grant, Dave Watts, Rob Eaton, Jr, Kevin Watson, Jake Wolf and myself.
Bonus Memorable Moment Courtesy of JamBase’s Matt Hogan: One of the highlights I’ll never forget from Yarmony was from that same 2008 festival at Copper Mountain, when Andrew stepped into the spotlight as a musician when he was invited out during the festival-closing “Billy Nershi’s Joint Set” all-star jam to perform his original tune, “Sound Good.” It was a celebratory moment during an already- celebratory set, with Nershi, Scott Law, Tyler Grant, Allie Kral, Nat Keefe (HBR) and a bunch of other musicians welcoming him into the fraternity with a traditional tequila toast, and thanking him for providing a setting for them all to gather at and perform. Since then, his band The Drunken Hearts have continued to make their mark on the Colorado music scene (they are now the official host band of YarmonyGrass), and Andrew has grown exponentially along with the festival as a performer, promoter and musician.
Tickets for YarmonyGrass are on sale now.
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