Telluride Blues & Brews!

No better way to end a great summer than by heading down to Telluride for their annual Blues & Brews festival! Great town, great music, great beer, great trails, sure had a helluva weekend. Some of the highlights:

1. Hitting Moonlight Pizza in Salida on the way down. My favorite pizza in the world. We also checked out the First Street Cafe, completing the Salida list of bars in my Colorado Liquid History book.

2. Setting up camp. It was a great place to pitch a tent, and we listened to Joan Osborne during construction of our little hippie village.

3. The beer. It was awesome that security at this event didn't go overboard, and it was very easy to sneak in all the PBR and vodka I could drink, avoiding the $5 charge per beer inside festival grounds. But the actual Brews part of the festival rocked too, with three hours of free beer from tons of microbreweries.

4. Baked in Telluride! I've wanted to go here ever since I heard Phish mention the place in a 1988 show. The joint rocked! The food is actually average, but the crowd that the place attracts is worth the price of admission. Plus they have beer from local Smuggler's Brewery on tap. I'm now the proud owner of a "Baked in Telluride" shirt and coffee mug.

5. The music! Great performances all around! Never seen John Hiatt before, but his Friday evening set rocked! It was also great getting to see one of my favorites, the John Butler Trio! Even though his 70 minute set lacked some of his best songs, he did what he could, including making fun of people who watch Fox news. Also found out that his tune, "Gov Did Nothing" is actually about George Bush and his, uh, inspiring, response to Hurricane Katrina. Hard to believe that a foreigner (i.e., terrorist!) from one of the axis of evil countries (Australia) can come over here and bad mouth Fox news and GW, but everyone was either too stoned or too drunk (or both) to act like true patriots and shoot him.

G Love played a great set too, barely stopping in between songs. Lots of guests too, including Big Sam and John Butler. The muical highlight of the entire weekend for me came when he went into a freestyle rap about having the munchies after getting stoned and jonesin' about Tastycake Butterscotch Krimpets!

Gov't Mule was right on as well, including a few songs with Susan Tedeschi.

Saturday night we got to ride up the gondola to see Warren Haynes. He didn't disappoint. One of my favorite lines from any song was written by Warren, in Patchwork Quilt, when he mentions a "banjo moon in a tie dyed sky." Warren explained to the crowd that this line was written over almost a decade ago when he was playing with the Allman Brothers in Telluride!

6. Bear Creek Canyon. Took some time on Sunday morning to hike back Bear Creek, which is part of the Hardrock course. Really great to see this beautiful part of the world without the physical and mental stress of HR.

7. Telluride! Definitely the best venue I've ever been to for a live show. The entire town basically becomes part of the festival. Friendly people, great dive bars, unbelievable scenery. Can't wait for next year!

You can see all the pics here.