Michael Hughes

The 50th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival starts Thursday. Every June, thousands of “festivarians,” as they’re known, descend on the small mountain town for 4 days of music.

Travis McNamara is best known as the banjo player in the band Trout Steak Revival. But the pandemic pushed him into an experimental space — anything but bluegrass. The result of virtual connections he made with other Colorado artists is “Moon Calendar,” an album that’s both highly listenable and full of surprises.

ule recently had something of a musical homecoming. The Denver-born, LA-based singer-songwriter made her first big splash with audiences in 1995 with the queer-themed single “I Kissed a Girl.” The last weekend of February, Sobule returned to Denver for a pair of sold-out shows that made her feel right at home, literally! She performed in the house she grew up in. And It all started with a visit to the old Hilltop neighborhood.

Crêpe Girl is the indie music project of 21-year-old Eliza Grégoire, of Grand Junction. She’s a first-generation American, born to French parents.

Jazz artist and Denver native Dianne Reeves didn’t attend last week’s Emmys, but her work was very much present when actress Sheryl Lee Ralph gave new life to her song, “Endangered Species” in Ralph’s acceptance speech.

The Denver Gay Men’s Chorus kicks off Pride Month and wraps up its 40th season with a production that spans a century of the LGBTQ experience. The show, “Unbreakable,” brings both tears and laughter.

Telluride singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson mixes folk and country — as she reflects on faith and loss. Her album American Siren — released last fall — features a song about her cousin who became an Army Ranger out of high school.

At age 82, Mary D. Watkins still makes music. She has collaborated on a new opera about Emmett Till, the 14 year old who was kidnapped, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

Briana Harris manages and plays saxophone for the Greeley band The Burroughs. She says 2022 includes studio work and a busy concert schedule.

The return of live music is a long time coming for artists like Cousin Curtiss of Montrose. The singer-songwriter just released a new album that was recorded live at the Sherbino Courtyard in Ridgway, Colorado. As always, Curtiss delivers a high energy performance in his signature “root-stomp” style.

Singer-songwriter Marc Cohn found huge success in 1991 with “Walking In Memphis.” It helped win him a Grammy, and established his career as a gifted storyteller, soul man and steward of American roots music.

Telluride singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson mixes folk and country as she reflects on faith, loss, hope and regret. She just released her third album American Siren. The North Carolina native moved to Colorado for social work, but found her calling as a music artist. “They’re both healing professions,” Robinson said.

The pandemic took banjo player Chris Pandolfi off the road — no touring with his bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. So, holed up in his Denver home studio, Pandolfi managed to pluck a more ambient sound from his rootsy instrument. Pandolfi calls this solo project “Trad Plus Presents Trance Bajo,” which plays on a term coined by the late mountain music pioneer, Doc Watson.

For Hispanic Heritage Month, our colleagues at Indie 102.3 are showcasing Latin acts in Colorado, including Katiria. The Denver-based singer was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Denver bassist Charlie Burrell celebrated his 101st birthday with a visit to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2017. Check out Denverite’s story on that trip and listen to an excerpt of our Colorado Matters interview with Burrell from 2006 along with Burrell and the Ralph Sharon Trio playing at the Lakeside Amusement Park Jazz Club.

Jackson Melnick is a Crested Butte native who grew up going to bluegrass festivals and became an acoustic musician in his own right. Melnick’s debut album is called “Abilene.”