1:45 p.m. Sunday, partly sunny, semi-conscious Town Park, Telluride: The Telluride Bluegrass Festival  is 36 years old, so it’s not surprising that a few annual traditions have developed. Sunday’s first music has almost always been a “gospel,” given a sommewhat wide interpretation. Two years ago the legendary Mavis Staples woke up everyone in the tents. Soul giant Solomon Burke literally ruled the funky stage in 2008 from a wooden throne built especially for him. This morning it was a fresh band from Nashville, Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue, who roused the tarp-draped audience with pounding bass, electric guitar, horns and great gospel singing.  As one member said from the stage: “This is the prettiest church I’ve ever seen.”

Although it sounds like a ponderous agency, WPA (Works Progress Administration) may be the hottest band that nobody has ever heard of… yet. The musical pedigree of the band members is impeccable, hailing from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Nickel Creek, Toad the Wet Sprocket and more. You’ve got four strong, harmonizing singers in Glenn Philips, Sean and Sarah Watkins, and Luke Bulla, two exceptional fiddlers in Sarah and Luke, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench on rock piano plus a veteran pedal steel man and a locked-in rhythm section. For a band that has only played two gigs they delivered a remarkably tight set of original roots-pop music. Their first recording will be out in the fall.

Coming up today: The Steeldrivers, and the festival closing Telluride House Band with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton an all-purpose utility player, Luke Bulla. .

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