Mountain Melodies

Music-loving miners, dancing muleskinners and modern-day festivals form the fabric of local musical history

BY EMILY SHOFF

These days, there are many ways to listen to music in Telluride, from festivals and concerts to the tunes featured on local radio station KOTO to our own curated playlists. Yet, we often forget that back in the day, when the miners first moved here in the 1870s, the only way to hear music was to experience it live. Explains local historian Ashley Boling, “If you wanted to hear music, you had to go hear a band play. Phonographs were expensive and difficult to transport and even if you got them here, where would you buy music? A record store at that time was unheard of.”

In the 1890s, a 20-piece ensemble, the Coronet Band, formed and played annually at the local Fourth of July parade and at dances all around the region. They were so popular, the band was even invited to kick-off then-Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan’s speech in front of the New Sheridan Hotel in 1903, when he was campaigning to be president. There were other local bands, such as the Yellow Jackets, who played in the area, including in neighboring Ophir and the mining community of Tomboy, located in Savage Basin at 11,500 feet above sea level.

Another musical event of the mining era was the Muleskinners Ball, a lively dance thrown by the men who drove the mule trains between town and the surrounding mines. The annual shindig was established in the late 1800s and its popularity kept it going throughout Telluride’s time as a mining hub. There was also the Sheridan Opera House, founded in 1913, which opened its doors to musical acts and vaudeville troupes alike. “Performers would travel out from the East in the summers to escape the heat and travel around the Rocky Mountains for a few weeks, putting on shows,” Boling says.

Flash-forward 60 years to the earliest days of the Telluride Ski Area, which had opened in December 1972. Desperate to get the summer economy off the ground, the town launched five festivals in 1974. Two were music-based: the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Chamber Music Festival, both of which flourished and continue to this day.

The first Bluegrass event had the local band Fall Creek to thank for inspiration. The band, known locally for playing at events like the Fourth of July parade, traveled to Winfield, Kan., to see bluegrass talent such as Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien and John Cowan. The band’s members then returned to Telluride, committed to shaping Bluegrass so that it featured the very same artists. Now, close to 50 years later, many of those same musicians play at an event that has changed surprisingly little. Although it has a few more thousand people and a bit more polish, Bluegrass remains at its heart a gathering together in the cathedral that is Telluride to hear live, acoustic roots music.

Different in both scale and venue, the Chamber Music Festival was also born in the summer of ‘74. Back then, Telluride was one of the few small towns in Colorado celebrating classical music. These days, however, it is the caliber of the music, the long relationship between festival organizers and patrons and the stunning setting that continue to draw fans.

As the world slowly reopens with the pandemic seemingly winding down, we welcome back the things we perhaps didn’t appreciate enough before — hugs, the smiles of music lovers on their Town Park tarps, live music reverberating off of the canyon walls and time spent with family and friends. All the more in Telluride, where live music has always formed the fabric of the town’s sound.

MUSEUM’S SCINTILLATING SUMMER

The Telluride Historical Museum is the place to be this summer. First, check out The Long Run: 50 Years of the Telluride Ski Area, a new annual exhibit — set to be unveiled in June and running until April 2023 — that will explore the history of the Telluride Ski Resort as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding. In addition, the museum’s uber-popular Hike into History program is set to continue. These forays to historically significant sites provide a unique way of exploring the area’s stunning backcountry while learning more about its scintillating history. For more, visit telluridemuseum.org.

The Coronet Band in what was then known as Bridal Veil Park. (Historians seem to differ on whether the band took its name from the instrument or from nearby Cornet Creek.) Photo courtesy of the Telluride Historical Museum, all rights reserved. This and other historical photos can be purchased from the museum. Go to telluridemuseum.org and click on Shop.