Noise of Summer: 36th Annual Telluride Bluegrass, June 18-21

Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris will be at the Telluride Bluegrass fest. How 'bout you?

Bluegrass is popular all over the United States -- no doubt about it. But historically, it thrives in about three to five regions: Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, eastern Maryland/Pennsylvania, the Ozarks of Missouri and southeastern Kansas and, interestingly enough, Colorado. The Centennial State -- that's Colorado, yo -- is probably the major hub for groups that explore progressive bluegrass (a.k.a. newgrass, jamgrass, hippie bluegrass). I'm talking about bands like Leftover Salmon, Yonder Mountain String Band, The String Cheese Incident and Oakhurst.

Colorado is also home to one of genre's more celebrated multi-day festivals, Telluride Bluegrass, which is entering its 36th year. Located in the San Juan Mountains in the southwest corner of the state, there's no beating Telluride when it comes to dreamy settings. Humongous snow-capped peaks and lush, Rocky Mountain flora surround its mainstage. There are workshops for musicians, all night jams, performance competition, camping, hiking and a well-established emphasis on green-conscious business. It's pretty darn amazing.

Musically, Telluride has followed Bonnaroo's lead in opening its doors to alt-country types, world musicians and hip indie rockers dabbling in Americana and roots music. For this year's installment (June 18-21), the line-up features everybody from newgrass heavies Railroad Earth to indie dude Conor Oberst to mandolin legend Sam Bush to the luscious Jenny Lewis. And that's just the tip of the iceburg. Here's the complete line-up -- more or less:

David Byrne
Elvis Costello & The Sugarcanes
Emmylou Harris
Three Girls & Their Buddy
Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté
The Steeldrivers
Todd Snider
John Cowan Band
Peter Rowan
Jerry Douglas
Tim O'Brien
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Punch Brothers
The Lovell Sisters
The Greencards
Crooked Still
Greensky Bluegrass
Gaelic Storm
Zac Brown Band
Blue Canyon Boys
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson
Mike Farris & The Roseland Rhythm Revue

This is an insane collection of talent for sure, but if forced to pick three can't-miss performances, I'd go with these:

1) Greensky Bluegrass
Not too many folks have heard these upstarts from Kalamazoo, Michigan, but Telluride just loves them. The quintet won the festival's band competition in 2006. In addition to the playlist up above, a great introduction to Greensky Bluegrass is their last full-length, Five Interstates, which has a real Jay-Farrar-meets-Dillard-&-Clark vibe. There's something very early '70s about this Greensky Bluegrass. They're basically classic singer-songwriters playing in a West Coast hippie bluegrass style.

2) The Steeldrivers
Much like the Infamous Stringdusters, the SteelDrivers are a pack of hot shot Nashville session cats getting all acoustic. That said, they're totally fiery, playing a brand of Appalachian mountain music that's fortified with brawny, swampy blues-rock. Singer and guitarist Chris Stapleton howls like Bob Seger had he grown up in, say, Bristol, Tennessee, rather than Detroit. Over the last year or so a Steeldrivers performance has become a pretty hot ticket in the bluegrass scene. So yeah, this will be a killer show.

3) Three Girls & Their Buddy:
Emmylou. Patty Griffin. Shawn Colvin. Buddy Miller. Need I say more?