This year, the 6th annual Tico Time Bluegrass Festival got underway near Durango, Co for a 3 day festival May 15-17. Despite not being sold out, the festival hosted a wonderful line up of incredible musicians and artists from all around the nation, highlighted by Grammy award winning Old Crow Medicine Show on Saturday evening. Now, we'll highlight some of the best moments of this year's festival.
1) Great weather all three days of the festival
While it was a bit warm in the sun, all three days-Friday, Saturday and Sunday had great weather for the wonderful attendees, musicians and workers of Tico Time Festival. The temperature hovered in the mid 80's every day while Saturday and Sunday had a nice cool breeze with some cloud breaks from the intense New Mexico sun. While it was a bit chilly Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were all decently warm camping weather with wonderful clear night skies except for Sunday.
2) Pixie & The Partygrass Boy's Saturday night session
This weekend saw two full sets by Utah's Pixie & The Partygrass Boys at Tico Time Festival. Pixie herself appeared a bit tired during her Sunday evening set and was no doubt drinking some coffee, but the group was on fire Saturday night and played a near 2 hour set. What was so unique about it? "I was worried the crowd might have gotten out of hand," explained fiddle player Amanda Grapes the following day. There was indeed mosh pit at a bluegrass concert-yes, you heard that right-the crowd was a bit rough and rowdy, which actually made the whole experience even more fun!
3) Old Crow Medicine Show's energetic show headlining show Saturday night
Before Pixie came on at 11PM Saturday night at the side stage, another rowdy band took the main stage by storm for a packed audience. While we've seen mosh pits before at Old Crow shows, and surprisingly the general audience was a bit more tame this time around for them, the band themselves were more energetic than ever. The lead singer has an incredible amount of energy, and there were a lot of first time attendees who were seeing the group for the first time. It was also a special nod the lead singer gave to his beloved wife Molly Tuttle with a song dedication to her (it was also her actual song they performed). There were a few unique cover's at the end the band normally doesn't play that made this a stand out set, including an impressive version of Buffalo Springfield's For What's it Worth.
4) Big Richard
Another stand out performance was from the all girl group Big Richard, who came on directly before Old Crow Medicine Show (you can tell everyone was really tired after Saturday, right?). Big Richard is one of those groups that gets better every time you see them, and this weekend was no exception. "Were only trying to keep up after Big Richard," explained Old Crow Medicine Show' Keith Secor. He was absolutely right. The girls gave a few surprising political speeches and moments throughout their set, but the real power were their incredible harmonies and instruments. It turned out it was a perfect warm up for Old Crow, and the crowd for Big Richard was equally as packed.
5) Guest appearances
One of the best things about festivals are the many guest appearances musicians make throughout the event. Tico Time is no different. In particular, Amanda Grapes was in true form all day Saturday and Sunday, and even had energy left in her to play our favorite version of 'Devil Went Down To Georgia' during Pixie's own set. Saxophonist Bob Hemenger was also particularly great all three days at the festival and added a bit of jazz throughout the event. It was great seeing Big Richard and Pixie and the Partygrass Boys members join each other's sets during Saturday as well as the two groups compliment each other extremely well.
That all being said, everyone of the artists at the 6th annual Tico Time Festival were all great. There was incredible sets by Yonder Mountain String Band and Keller Williams Friday evening. Earlier groups like All She Wrote were great as well. It was a BYOB festival, so that alone made Tico Time an unique experience versus other music festivals. What separates Tico Time from other festivals as well are all the water activities it has to offer the crowd, including paddle boarding and a giant water slide. Over all, Tico Time was great to attend and absolutely worth going to for another year! The sound in particular was great throughout the event except for some mis haps during Pixie's late night set on Saturday.
A+
(All photos by Mark Matheson coming soon!)
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