4:15 p.m. Sunday, sun-baked Town Park, Telluride: Almost every year one picker rises to the audience's collective jaw-dropping attention at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Longtime attendees remember the first time a Bela Fleck or a Marc O'Connor or a Jerry Douglas first took the stage and their place among the elite players. This is the year of Guthrie Trapp, a remarkable Nashville-based acoustic and electric guitarist. His fluidity and creativity on the baby-blue Telecaster reminded listeners of the legendary Albert Lee. Trapp is a member of Jerry Douglas' band and also came out for the Sam Bush all-star encore and cranked-out amazing solos on "One Love," the Bob Marley classic, and "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms." Photo By Robert Nathan.

Members of the fast-rising national bluegrass band, The Steeldrivers, gather around the mic Sunday at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Photo by Hans Lehndorff.

In 1987 I previewed the 14th annual Telluride for the Daily Camera. Performers that year included newcomers Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell and Roseanne Cash, Riders in the Sky and the Telluride All-Stars: Marc O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Sam Bush and Bela Fleck. In the article I asked guitarist Leo Kottke what he was doing playing at a bluegrass festival:

“It has more to do with Telluride than with the musical category. I don’t have any name for what I play. I just glom onto whatever I like and it all seeps into my music,” said Kottke from his Minnesota home, taking time out from  installling tie rods on his car.”

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. .

A high energy gospel performance by Mike Farris and The Roseland Rhythm Revue got the crowd on their feet Sunday morning. Photo by Robert Nathan.

Three generations of pickers converged during Saturday night's Sam Bush Band encore. Progressive bluegrass elder statesman Peter Rowan, right, and the next generation's avatar, Sam Bush (of New Grass Revival and Strength in Numbers), honor the next era's biggest star, Chris Thile of the Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek. Photo by Hans Lehndorff.

Boulder's Yonder Mountain String Band was joined by Sam Bush on fiddle for several songs on Saturday afternoon at Telluride. Photo by Hans Lehndorff.

-          “This is an F. F is the same in Senegal, in Sydney and Tokyo. Music has no borders.” – Gold-robed West African cora master Toumani Diabate to the audience on Friday, as he explained how the 21-string harp-like instrument is tuned.

-          You don’t expect to run into John Oates at a bluegrass festival … or a rock festival for that matter, but he’s been hangin’ all weekend at Telluride as he did last year. “Nothing could have kept me away,” he told me as we both got coffee backstage. We’re anticipating a guest appearance by him during Sam Bush’s set later this evening, maybe “Rich Girl” with full bluegrass rock instrumentation. (John Oates is the dark-haired member of the mega-hitmaking, ‘70s blue-eyed soul duo, Hall and Oates.)

-          Today’s lineup ends with Gaelic Storm, most famous as the dance band playing below deck in the film “Titanic.”

The Hillbenders of Springfield, MO were the 2009 Telluride band contest winners. They earned the right to perform at the 2010 bluegrass festival. Photo by Robert Nathan.