what got you hooked ?

[Lisa Delia]

It was the 30th anniversary for me.  Bill (bf) got me a ticket last minute (thanks, Boston Bob!), and daughter Lauren (then 10) and I made it down in time for Rumballs.  I was there to see Susan Tedesci, not knowing how awesome blueGRASS was yet.  We sat out in a crazy thunderstorm to see her, but I don't regret that at all.  I was introduced to String Cheese, Leftover Salmon, and all the House band regulars that year.  Bill and I usually have a pretty sweet set-up each year, with all the bells and whistles.  Always comfortable.  I fell in love with the music, the vibe and the most beautiful setting in the world.  I still love blues, but blueGRASS has taken a large part of my heart.  See y'all in a few!

 Listening to: birds chirping. Yay!

[Cindy Lou]

Wow Al, we both saw NRG for the first time in 76.  I really thought you had been coming to TBF before 88, but 26 is very impressive. We'll have to have an anniversary toast, and snag Sam too if we can find him. So many good times, it blows my mind. (well what's left of it). 

[BrianFoley]

The bill of rights.

[landshark]

Johnny Cash. He was out of this world...wowwwwwing me to this very day. TBF, Ferg would bend things alot back then. JC was a make you stand tall so you could get a good listen, commanding perfomance....

Before that I never did really care for him. Too country for me I use to think but then when he took stage WOW is all I can say and THANK YOU PBG for expanding my Musical world

[Mel]

Great idea for a thread!!

I was invited to TBF in 1996....2 years after moving to Colorado from Florida.  I had never even heard of Sam Bush and knew exactly zero bands on the entire 4-day lineup.  Crazy, right?  So I came, I stood on the street corner waiting for someone to sell me a ticket, I had fun, I went home.  I didn't even buy a t-shirt.  It rained a lot that year.  I also had just bought my 1993 Isuzu Trooper the week before so that was it's first out-of-town trip.  But something struck me.  The next year I accepted the invitation again to go.  I got to Telluride in time to hear Johnny Cash echoing through town as I wandered into the Last Dollar Saloon.  I remembered a couple tunes from last year.  Sammy still cranked out a lot of Newgrass Revival with Johnny C and Bela in those days.  Big Country stuck in my head from the year before when the Flecktones played.  I'm literally embarrassed these days to have NOT known these artists previously.  Who the hell is Leftover Salmon?  By TBF1998 (25th Anniv) I was a regular.  After my first TBF family moved away, had kids, and faded away I then picked up the mantel for "Gen 2" of my festival experience.  That lasted from 2003-2006 which added plenty of new festi-friends including the Utarpia* (*copyright Daniela Shultz 2005ish) crew which I met on the streets of Telluride at 5am.  Not a bad place to hang out if you have to be up that freaking early.  In 2007 I experienced that crazy thing called "Town Park" after Kaptain Karlos was short-sighted enough to invite me to camp with Run A Muck.  The same year this forum started.  Thus begins "Gen 3" festival life.  The music....insanely good!  The friends...insane!  The experiences I've had and the live music I've seen are more than I normal human living a normal human life could ever hope for.  Yet, I prepare again to dive into it in merely 25 days.  Which reminds me of 842 things I need to do before then.  Anyhoo....I'm in the fun position now of being neither new nor old.  I see what has been, and I see who will be our next generation of festivarians.  Some bands have shifted from regulars to "wow they are finally playing TBF again".  But it's still the same feeling of "I must go again".  It's an inseparable combination of music and people and vibe.  The music and people make the vibe.  The vibe and music bring the right people.  The right people and the vibe bring the music.   It's like all that circle of life stuff you see in the Lion King except the voice of Ferris Bueller isn't the main character.  And that is my story.  Oh and one other thing I'd like to mention....boobs!

Similar experience...up till you get to the boobs part.....oh wait....

I will effusively thank Hooch for getting me started, and this year my hubby will be coming with....oh wait, he was there last year too...

[Arizona Girl]

Cindy Lou, 2007 was our first trip, and our first Run A Muck, too. 

 Listening to: Joshua Bell & Edgar Meyer - If I Knew

[headlight]

Jerry Garcia led me to bluegrass, just like many others of my generation.

Too funny Bevin, in my case, bluegrass led me to Jerry Garcia!

Started with a small Southern IN festival called Bean Blossom and a long strange trip indeed to 1st TBF in 99 after we moved to CO. Went solo that first year as the Mrs. couldn't get the time off, since she had just started a new gig.

Fortunately that has not been the case the remaining 6 times we have participated.

My Dad was a big Man in Black fan, but I also grew up with the Oprey and Hee Haw

I guess what got me/us hooked was the total experience. From the local contingent we immeidately bonded with, to the scenery and oh yeah I guess the music was ok too! 

 Listening to: More SOSDD

[Jake n Wanda Ziller]

My road to Festivarian Land began in the early 70's. I had been introduced to bluegrass around 1970 attending local folk and bluegrass festival days at the town park in Hagerstown, Md listening to some off the wall star ups called Seldom Scene. It was fun stuff and they sure were good. Went out when ever they rolled around. Then, right out of high school a friend introduced me to the music of John Hartford via his brand new Aero-Plain album. Got my attention big time.

Years of enjoying the genre passed. Then in the early 80's working as station manager at a community radio station in Dallas I began hanging out with some folks who were listening to NGR, Peter Rowan (I was already familiar with him ever since Sea Train, and O&ITW), Guy Clark, JJW, REK, Nanci Griffith, Emmy Lou, etc. Those folks lead me to exploring the whole newgrass arsenal of players, "Wooden Music" as Ray Wylie Hubbard called it, and I became a serious fan, somewhere along the line I became aware of TBF tough never sprang.

Then, in the spring of 1990 I was managing a community station in Little Rock when I noticed a postcard about TBF fall out of a NGR demo from a couple years ago. Wait. I had seen a similar card fall out of the Strength In Numbers LP jacket. Oh yeah. I heard about this. I decided I should see if Wanda wanted to drive out to Colorado this summer. She wasn't sure but our pal Flap a DJ at the station (she hosts Not Necessarily Nashville on the LR NPR station these days) said "Dang! If you don't want to go to that I will!" So Wanda said alright lets do it.

We drove a beat up Toyota PU across AR, TX & OK, NM, and up into the San Juan mtns straight into town. Picked up our tickets at will call on a Thursday afternoon, went in to hear some music thinking we would sprint into the mountains to set up camp in the national forest, but wound up staying all afternoon and through the final set before we thought about a camping spot. That night we drove for what seemed like hours getting to Alta Lakes where we set up camp and froze our parts all off. Went into town right after sun rise where we warmed up.  Back and forth each morning and night almost tore the suspension out of the truck but we had a blast, between the music, new friends, and being surrounded by the San Juans we knew we were coming back. The clincher though was running into Peter Rowan at the Bean and chatting with him for almost half an hour.

We came back the next year and 6 months later we moved to Flagstaff and have been back 12 times together, I have made the run up the hill 3 times on my own and once each with my two sons the fest right after each of their 9th birthdays. That's a total of 17 I guess for me and I have never been disappointed. Don't expect I ever will be. We have camped for the Fest in the wild at Alta Lakes twice, at the now extinct Mill Creek Campground 4 times, Warner Field twice, the high school twice, and Illium 7 times.

Can't make it this year but I'll be bringing both boys next year. Praise the good folks at KOTO because they keep us from Jonesing too much on the years we can't make it.


 Listening to: John Fogerty TBF 2012

[Dewstar]

 

I could write a book on this topic. Been rolling in since '89 and haven't looked back since. It doesn't hurt that I am semi attached to Mike Bub.

Making the transition to Festivaria came swiftly after skiing here back in high school '77-80.  New grass grabbed my ass and wouldn't let go. I began to hope to see them when ever they played TRide. At the same time, my ear latched on to Tim O'brien, and basically walked the wind blew, enjoying just about anything his fingers and vocals displayed. This would become a resonating meaning of fandom. Tony Rice was a fast following to another realm. My compilation tapes stirred deep meaning in the hearts and minds of like mind.


My daddy claw hammered, and brother picked and plucked more than I care to remember, something like eight days a week, impossibly milking it 10-12 hours, capturing a riff or roll 80 some times in order not just to get it, but to unmistakenly master inside and out, round and pegged so there would be no question who's skill had been mastered, hands, er fingered down.

TBF has always been a friend. Countless visits year after year never stop the flow. The talent, surroundings, the buzz, the sound, and the awe on the artist's reflection and facial expression when they emerge for the very first time facing the crowd and grange for the first time. The essence of the meaning of a redHeaded stranger actually crying his blue eyes out while the pouring rain makes No difference on the audible effect. To watch a band Rize and fade, only to return make a comeback stronger more popular than ever.

It's the comradery, the mutual admiration society, and the plain dumbfounded feeling of awe about the the whole damn thing. It hardly strictly gets much much better than this. Fun, fantastic, feel good, brazen emotions, raw, industrious , infantile, serious and just tingly.

It's the play on the senses that just doesn't quit. It's a warm, fuzzy, plain and simple.