Meltdown

My mom is visiting my brother this weekend. Why wouldn’t she? Her grandson is 14 months old and adorable, and her son and daughter-in-law are great fun and live in a really cool town: Durango, Colorado.

There’s a lot to love about Durango. And this weekend, there’s even more to love. It’s the Annual Durango Bluegrass Meltdown.

Yep.

And of course my very own brother is performing.

Yep.

I really can’t keep up with the names of the bands he plays in. They seem to change names and shift players continuously, but it seems there is always a need for a kick-ass banjo player like my brother.

This weekend he’s playing in Jack Ten High, at high noon on Saturday, at the Durango Arts Center. Just in case you happen to be nearby.

I mean, if you are, how could you pass this up:

Get your bluegrass party on and get your seats early because this incredible ensemble includes some of Durango’s wildest pickers….these guys have been seen around town lately playing styles of music described as, “Ain’t no part of nothin.” They promised to behave, put aside their evil drums for the weekend, and pick some real music for the fine folks of the Meltdown.

“Ain’t no part of nothin’?” you gotta love that.

But my brother is not the only musician in the family. No.

My mom flies out this particular weekend so that she can jam with all the bluegrassy folks.

Yep.

She’s played the guitar for years (almost 50?!), but now also plays the fiddle and the mandolin (I know!). So she books herself a room at the historic Strater Hotel, the Meltdown headquarters, “where jamming and merriment goes on into the wee hours of the morning, as the cowboys and miners would have liked it!”

Yep.

Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? I’m not really sure where I went wrong. My stringed instrument career ended in junior high, which was short sighted. If I still played, maybe I’d be in Durango this weekend too.

Hopefully, my nephew Jack will inherit the music gene.

I just hope he picks the right instrument