Summit County Citizens Voice

Big week for music along the Colorado River, with YarmonyGrass on tap,  featuring Peter Rowan and the Emmit-Nershi Band

Music lovers camp along the banks of the Colorado at Rancho del Rio .

By Jenney Coberly

SUMMIT COUNTY, CO — Great music and a host of outdoor activities including camping, fishing, rafting, hiking, biking, and even yoga await visitors on the banks of the Colorado River near Bond, Colorado, as  the Wailers take the stage at State Bridge on August 3, and the YarmonyGrass festival kicks off the next day at Rancho del Rio.

The Colorado River wends its scenic way along Route 131 north of Wolcott.

Reggae music seems an ideal fit to the mellow and casual atmosphere along this stretch of the Colorado, and thirty years after Bob Marley’s death, the Wailers are still rocking on. Together with Bob Marley, the Wailers sold in excess of 250 million albums worldwide. Outside of their groundbreaking work with Marley, they’ve also performed with the likes of Sting, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Peter Tosh, and Burning Spear.

Just down the road apiece on August 4-6, the sixth annual YarmonyGrass festival will be held at Rancho del Rio. The festival will include some of the finest string musicians in the country such as Peter Rowan, the Travelin’ McCoury’s with Republic of Strings guitarist Scott Law, Emmit-Nershi Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Grant Farm with Keith Moseley, The Contribution, Nershi-Law Santa Cruz Guitar Duo, and the Trancident, featuring the String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann, Michael Travis, Kyle Hollingsworth, and Michael Kang.

According to an article in the Mountain Weekly News about the 2010 event, festival creator Andrew McConathy said his inspiration for YarmonyGrass came from “Growing up in Colorado, attending the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and following the String Cheese Incident guys out to Horning’s Hideout in Oregon” for the band’s annual music festival, which gave him the idea to create a Colorado festival that acted like an “adult summer camp for a few days.”

Filed under: boating, camping, Colorado, recreation, tourism Tagged: | Colorado River, rafting, Rancho Del Rio, State Bridge, The Wailers, YarmonyGrass festival