Chris Thile, left, Noam Pikelny and Chris Eldridge join Jerry Douglas for a song Saturday at Telluride. Photo by Hans Lehndorff
4 p.m. Saturday, rain-soaked Town Park, Telluride, as Boulder’s Yonder Mountain String Band takes the stage for the 10th consecutive year: Dobro master Jerry Douglas celebrated his 25th year at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival with an extremely rare performance under his own name with his own band. He normally plays in Alison Krauss’ band. On Friday night be played as part of Elvis Costello’s Sugarcanes and Sunday he’s with the celebrated Tellluride House Band. And he sits in with anyone who asks.
When he plays his own music, the consummate bluegrass/country session man who’s on Nashville’s speed dial performs original instrumental compositions steeped in jazz, swing, folk and rock that allow room for the stellar pickers to improvise and jam. It’s the signature sound that’s become identified with Telluride and powered Strength in Numbers, the all-star ensemble birthed at Telluride that included Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer and Marc O’Connor.
To crank out the old Strength chestnut, “Hide and Seek,” he called the Punch Brothers up on stage. With mandolin wunderkind Chris Thile center stage, the assembled talent demonstrated an astonishing level of instrumental mastery and creativity. It wasn’t just a blurr of notes, speed for speed’s sake.
It was the old master with the young turks, an acknowledgement that a new generation of musicians is taking over. And it’s the kind of only-in-Telluride moment that brings us festival veterans to our feet and sends a very specific chill up our collective spines. The thrill’s still there.