Telluride rocks, but the storeworkers are getting restless

I’ve been in Telluride about 18 hours now, and I absolutely love it here. We drove all afternoon and evening last night, but the 8 hour trip is well worth it. I got to the condo I was staying in and cruised down to the Darrel Scott and John Cowan show at Las Montañas. Banjoist extraordinaire Noam Pikelny played for the last hour. No dinner, a lot of beer and some tequila gave me a nice hangover this morning. A few Advil and some caffiene helped. I cruised into town to check my email and to get some work done before heading out to the Band competition first round. I saw the last 4 or 5 bands, and was very impressed by a bunch of them. Two favorites emerged, Deja Bluegrass and the Green Mountain Boys. I think they both made the finals.

I headed over to baked In Telluride for lunch. They have free wifi, but that also translates to pretty shitty wifi. It was crowded but they were pretty nice. The internet was basically unusable, so I decided to get some work done out in the sun. It was really hot and having a laptop on my lap that generates tons of heat didn’t help. But I got a bunch of work done and listened to Darrel Scott once again – here’s a video:

Darrel was amazing, and I stayed in Elks Park to see Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn (members of the Sparrow Quartet – google it). 2 fantastic banjo players of very contrasting styles. See some more bad iPhone video below:

Afterwards I cruised down to the guitar store in town to play Collings guitars that are unattainable. The sales staff were a bunch of pricks, and gave me shit for playing some guitars for a while. Hey, if you have guitars in a store, they’re meant to be played. So I did. I think that the employees are just getting tired of the festival folk there, and there are still 2 days of festival left! So that sucked.

Then it was back to Baked In Telluride for more work, which is where I am now. The workers here were also pretty crappy, a definite departure from the last time I was in here. They’re also getting worn down. I’m worried about shopping on Sunday, everyone will be a bunch of assholes, I fear. I know the pay is shitty and the rent is high, but come on. Maybe I’m the one who’s the asshole? Looking back, I don’t think it was me.

Things I forgot:
1. Pillow – Luckily there was one for me at the condo.
2. Sunblock – Had to get ripped off on some at the Village Market, but I will probably use the same bottle for like 2 years, so $8 was ok to pay.
3. Friends – This is the first year I’ve been basically by myself at a festival. I’ve seen a few friends here, but they also have festival passes (another thing I don’t have) – so I’m pretty much on my own.

It’s a different experience when you’re basically flying solo. Which is probably why I’m writing this long blog entry before finishing up my work for the day. I’m used to being by myself, but before next year I’m pretty much looking for a female partner in crime (as opposed to a Lady En Confidante). If you have any ideas on someone who would tolerate my idiocy, let me know.
Ok, work to be done before checking out “Boss Flatpickers” at Elks Park, which should be a pretty amazing hour of music. Yonder Mountain String Band at the Sheridan tonight, I’ll be trying to upload photos, video and twitters as it’s happening tonight.