Non-screenwriting related: Telluride Bluegrass Festival
A blast from the past. Before I started screenwriting, I did a comedy act for two years. And before that, I played music professionally for 7 years. From 1978–1980, I lived in Aspen, Colorado. The first winter season, I played in a duo with Pat Flynn. We were known as Myers & O’Flynn. The next season, we had a four piece band called Crossroads. A couple of personal musical highlights occurred at the 6th and 7th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Here’s proof that yours truly performed there.
[Of course, they misspelled my name for the 6th Festival (“Myres”) and the name of the band for the 7th Festival (“Cross Roads”) — so even in my fleeting moments of glory, I am humbled.]
What prompts this bit of reverie is my friend Kurt Brown sent me a YouTube link to a 10-minute highlight reel of the 8th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival that took place in 1981. I was in attendance for it — did not perform — but a bunch of musicians I knew did play including Hot Rize, Sam Bush & John Cowan, Danny Wheetman, etc.
Eclectic line-up per the custom of the festival: Leon Russell. Norman Blake. Rosanne Cash. Ricky Skaggs. Be sure to check out John Hartford at 7:50 and 8:32. He was great — played banjo and violin solo, and did this tap shoe routine on an amplified board. Completely blew away the crowd. Great performance.
The New Grass Revival, which always played the prime Saturday late afternoon set at Telluride, did not perform in 1981 because they were in the process of changing members. Later that year, they added Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn — yep, the very same guitar virtuoso I was lucky enough to perform with for a couple of years. Here’s a fairly recent video of Pat performing at the Greyfox Bluegrass Festival with Tim O’Brien, John Cowan, Bela Fleck, and Jerry Douglas:
Then in 1987, after the spec script K-9 sold, I added another Telluride memory: Attending the 14th Annual Telluride Film Festival. The 35th edition is coming up: September 4–7. It’s sold out, but check out their website that weekend when they announce the films they’ll be spotlighting. They always have an interesting slate of movies
And someday, if you get a chance, go to the film festival. Or the bluegrass festival. Or the mushroom festival….
Comment Archive