Telluride Celebrates 51 Years of Bluegrass, and 50 with Sam Bush

Noam “Pickles” Pikelny—the banjo maestro and member of both The Punch Brothers and Mighty Poplar—he said it best in his always humorous statements from the festival stage. “Telluride is like ‘Lord of the Flies’ meets the Grand Ole Opry.”

In many respects, the Telluride Bluegrass festival is one of the most grueling festival experiences you can endure. It’s hard to get to the remote location in the mountains of Colorado, and even harder to stay. The weather can go from blistering sun at 8,700 feet, to driving rain in 40-something degree weather, and sometimes during the same set of music. And no matter what’s happening, barring lightning, the music goes on.

But no matter how arduous the experience is, you never want to leave, and you’re always thankful you came. Unlike country music, bluegrass is blessed by how the best, the brightest, the most creative and well-versed, and the most legendary are the ones elevated in the genre as opposed to diminished. The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is known for attracting the cream of that crop, and putting them all on the same stage. It’s arguably the greatest assemblage of musical talent that happens each year, irrespective of genre.

The Telluride Bluegrass Festival has been this way for 51 years in 2024 (June 20-23). And for 50 of them, Sam Bush has been a part of it. The mandolin player and father of New Grass played his first show there in 1975 with his band New Grass Revival. Since then, he’s never missed a year, even as he’s made an entirely separate career as one of country music’s most sought after session musicians, adding mandolin to thousands of tracks at this point from legendary cuts by Emmylou Harris, to the recent album Fathers & Sons by Luke Combs.

Sam Bush was everywhere on the week, perhaps appearing as a guest during more sets than not, and crowned by his regular Saturday night headliner set where he’s been a mainstay for decades now. Telluride Bluegrass also rolled out the red carpet for Bush, serving up a commemorative bobble head to tie in Sam’s love for baseball, and on Sunday they presented him with a plaque officially declaring Sam the “King of Telluride.” A marker will also hang on the iconic Telluride stage henceforth honoring Sam Bush’s achievements and contributions to both the festival, and the town.

Sam Bush’s Saturday night set was a parade of special guests, from legends like Peter Rowan, to Telluride’s most famous resident Dierks Bentley, who showed up to play with Sam, including Bentley’s recent song about Telluride, “Sun Sets in Colorado,” and his U2 cover of “Pride (In The Name of Love)” from the iconic Up on the Ridge album from 2010 that Sam Bush played on. They were joined by Chris Thile who also played on the album.

Sam finished his set (sans an encore) with an epic 25-minute jam that seemed to include everyone on site from the bluegrass world. “We found a friend for life in this town, and friends for life at this festival,” Sam Bush said from the stage.

Sam Bush is a great example of the spirit of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. There is a true respect for the roots of bluegrass. But there is also the opportunity to expand the genre in new directions. There is also just enough country music to keep the festival relevant to country fans as well, which in 2024 included performances by Charley Crockett (read full review) and Sierra Ferrell (read full review).

Much of what happens in Telluride tends to resonate throughout the music universe, since putting so much talent in such a small town invariably results in new friendships, songs, collaborations, and most importantly, lasting memories.

The Punch Brothers were formed in Telluride, for example. Last year, it’s where fiddle player Gabe Witcher made his final appearance with the band. This year, it was new fiddle player Brittany Haas who made one of the biggest impressions on the weekend. Once again Noam Pikelny had one of the greatest lines from the stage. No, they’re not changing their name to The Punch Brothers and Sister. He said the band will now be known as “The Brittany Haas Band featuring Chris Thile.”

Chris Thile is usually the guy playing five or six shows over the week in various sets and projects. This year he only played two officially, though one was the opening show at noon on Thursday where he was paired with the incomparable Billy Strings (read full review).

Just as much as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival is about returning greats, it’s also about firsts. Danny Paisley is considered nothing short of a bluegrass legend. But for whatever reason, he’d never played the festival before. That was resolved in 2024 when he appeared with his band The Southern Grass. The Langan Band made it all the way from Ireland to lend some Irish roots to the Telluride soundscape. The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys have been one of the biggest emerging bands in bluegrass in the last few years, and they made their debut on the Telluride stage as well.

You also had artists and bands that symbolize the future of bluegrass making their returns to the Telluride stage, including the West Coast-based AJ Lee and Blue Summit, the ribald and brilliant Big Richard, and Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway (read full review).

Sierra Hull gives up nothing to the other major acts in bluegrass. She comes out on stage knowing she can go toe to toe with any other picker out there, and then goes to work proving it. She’s a great mix of traditional bluegrass influences, with an advanced compositional prowess and a drum set on the backline to give her music that extra punch of power.

When Sierra Hull started her set, it was sunny and folks were slathering on sunscreen. By the end, it was 50 degrees with a steel curtain of rain coming down. The rain was a constant issue throughout Thursday and Friday of the festival. But one of the most surprising things about the Telluride Bluegrass Festival experience is the endurance of the “Festivarians” who simply don their rain gear, and keep listening and dancing.

The bluegrass jam bands are also an essential element to the Telluride Bluegrass experience. Leftover Salmon got the worst of the weather in 2023, having all but a couple of songs completely wiped from their set due to lightning concerns. This year they once again took the stage in a driving rain, but kept the party going undeterred, with Sam Bush sitting in on fiddle. Then right near the end of their set, the sun broke out, a rainbow arched across the sky, and all felt right in the world.

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Madison Cunningham is one of those artists that a familiarity with her songs is probably essential to get the full experience from a performance. At the start of her set, you were a little worried the booking might be a little too obtuse for the Telluride crowd. But there was an artistry and honestly to Cunningham that ultimately endeared her to the audience, and resulted in large applause by the end of the set.

This was a little less of the case for the sedate Canadian folk duo Ocie Elliott whose been able to garner a big following on social media, but struggled to connect with the audience in what was a prime afternoon spot on Saturday. An earlier set time might have been better for them.

The Telluride Bluegrass Festival always loves to throw out some wild cards. In 2022, they had Tenacious D close out the opening night. This year’s wild card was Boston born, Los Angeles-based funk/alt-pop band Ripe. Though they definitely got many in the crowd dancing and having a good time, the reliance on cover songs and the loudness of the set turned off some in the Sunday afternoon set when some folks were still nursing Saturday night Sam Bush hangovers. For others though, Ripe was their big discovery and funnest moment of the fest.

Someone who never lets an audience down is Texas poet laureate and musical legend Lyle Lovett, especially when he’s backed by his “Large Band.” Bringing Lyle and his entourage to town likely doubled the population of Telluride for the day, and resulted in some of the most meaningful moments to cap off the fest Sunday evening.

Lyle’s exquisite songcraft infuses clever and humorous little observances and quips, ultimately setting you up for when he barrels you over with immense emotion or soaring sentimentality. Everything Lyle Lovett does is so refined. He can sing a song like “Pants Is Overrated” off his most recent album 12th of June that puts the audience in stitches, then sing the album’s breathtaking title track to conclude the festival, and leave everyone walking away with a filled heart.

But even if you packed up before Lyle to beat the rush to the gondolas or out of the campgrounds, it was hard to not leave Telluride completely fulfilled, with the only thing to dread being the return to the real world. Telluride and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival live in your soul, and never quite leave you, even months and years after the experience. The picturesque town and the incomparable assemblage of talent is hard to put into words, or even pictures and video.

But the good news is it will happen again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. In a world where festivals come and go, Telluride Bluegrass is a mainstay, an essential, a forefather and forebearer. Each year the history and the meaning of the festival only becomes that much more rich. 2024 certainly contributed to that legacy.

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All photos by Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos. For more coverage from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and other live events, follow Saving Country Music on Instagram. Apologies to any artists and bands not mentioned or pictures, especially The Infamous Stringdusters.

© 2025 Saving Country Music