DBT #448 Rocky Mountain Folks Fest 2026

 

Our third trip in four years to Lyons CO for the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest did NOT disappoint.  I'll post the highlights to this page as I get them done.  Let's start off with the highlight reels I posted to Facebook made quickly with Edits.  Day 2 was a shorter day and missed in the highlights because we didn't arrive until mid-afternoon, well we were staying in Boulder and had to walk down Pearl Street, buy some vinyl records, and eat lunch.  Ha, it is vacation you know.

You know festivals sell themselves on headliners on the main stage (Gillian Welch, Ani Difranco, Jesse Wells), but you will see more of the smaller artists highlighted from me.  Number one we love the listening room quality of the Wildflower Pavilion, and two we can get up close and personal with each and the sets are short enough that they really tease you into loving them.  This stage is what has got us to drive 14 hours and get a hotel for 4 nights; the rest is gravy.  I am adding many a favorite video to a RMFF playlist and will continue so click the link and there could be more:

Let's have some fun and highlight a few:

During a Songwriter finalist song swap, I reached for the camera for the last song as Pamela Machala stood up from her piano.  I kind of figured it would be fun, and quickly she had clapping to a familiar rock beat and sang a song that might be my wife's theme song.  You know you don't tend to see us at "Camping" fest, and while sometime you can drive in and out of those fest to a hotel for a night stay, you almost never get flush toilets.  "I don't want to Poop in a Porta Potty" is such a great song.  Please watch and chuckle at it, but be warned like a commenter said "Now it will be in your head all day."

Larry & Joe were on at the same time as Sarah Clanton & Andy Beckey in the Wildflower Pavilion; and they were good. (videos coming) Also we didn't want to lose our upfront seats before Shanna in a Dress's set.  I did wander back myself and got a taste of them; so entertaining.  One song was salsa on a 5 string banjo and the other bluegrass on a traditional harp.  (I think I got 30 seconds of that for a friend, we'll see if I share it.)  Here's a little of the salsa banjo; and yes when the beautiful young lady started to dance I knew she had to be added too.

Now I'm not going in chronological order, so the next favorite was the Saturday 4:45 Wildflower concert with Silo Sisters.  We had seen Bonnie Sims the night before on the main stage with Big Richard, but I have loved Phoebe Hunt for ages, and Melody Walker since our first Rocky Mountain Folks Fest.  Silo Sisters were born in the silo at the Lyons fest ground after their week of leading the Songwriter week.  I never knew which song would be the best so I ended up recording all of them.  I normally don't want to post someone's whole set, but after I released the first one; Bonnie said go for it in a IG comment; so the playlist now has three songs and will have more when I'm finished.  Here's the one I'm super glad I recorded, oh Marla.  I wonder if they took the name from a League of their Own movie?  You may want to go back to the intro and catch Bonnie's joke in the intro; at first I didn't get it.

How can I not highlight the women who will play my house concert in October, Shanna in a Dress!  This was our second time seeing her because she also played at the Moccasin Creek Festival.  I left of the last verse to keep her Prom Story within 3 minutes, so now you will need to see her live to find out how it ends.

I laughed an agent friend of mine, who pushes me a lot to go to Blue Ox a fest without flush toilets, Karen Wells Verlander, knew I was at RMFF so she messaged me to go see Alexa Wildish.  Duh we were already in the front row holding our spots for the Silo Sisters.  Alexa was introduced as being from Lyons, and had some connection with "The Voice"  I didn't catch all of it, but as we listened Lori and I agreed, "She's good"  Karen told me later the guitarist plays in Sprig of That, which is a band I follow and have in the library from Bandcamp.  There are two full songs and a two song sampler in my RMFF playlist; this one is a great example of her sound:

Here is a full song:

We enjoyed Sarah Clanton and her partner Andy Beckey in the Wildflower on Friday, and I posted her "Dragons in the Kitchen" in the playlist on YouTube, but this short got dinged and blocked for licensing.  Maybe it was the tequila talking... it's a quick three song snippet to remember a great set.

Here's a full song that I now own from buying it on Bandcamp on her album "Shadow Work"

While most of my videos are captuted in the listening room that is the Wildflower Pavilion, most people buy tickets based on the main stage. Here are three favorites from Friday's main stage. Kristin Andreassen with her husband Chris Eldridge, John McCutcheon, and probably the best act from the main stage... Big Richard.

So much harder to record good memories from the main stage, here are three from Friday with Kristin Andreassen, John McCutcheon, and Big Richard.

Here are some main stage snippets from Jesse Welles, Steve Poltz, and Ani Difranco.  Loved the first part of Jesse's set where he did his acoustic stuff; his electric stuff was meh? and we left with half hour to go.  Steve was so much fun, we made a point to get to his Wildflower Pavilion show the next morning a half hour early and still only got the second row.  Yes it was packed, and I'll have a few memory videos from the night.  Ani was awesome, and we did get on to someone's front tarp to see a few songs up close.  Right, YouTube wouldn't allow posting this reel and it didn't make sense to cram it into a horizontal video, so it's on the DBT Facebook page.

There will be more added to this post, but until I'm done why not revisit our past trips to the RMFF.

Here's 2023's recap, ha published in Feb 2024.

Then there was our 2024 trip.