An Unforgettable Journey

Come along with us on a picture tour of our recent expedition out to the beautiful state of Colorado, final destination... Telluride Bluegrass Festival!

Fill 'er up, it's gonna be a long journey

Crossing the Mississippi River near St. Louis, the gateway to the West

After our show at Coopers Landing, an awesome venue right on the Missouri River. Next stop, Colorado!

The Beautiful town of Boulder. We stayed here for about a week playing shows in Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins. Many many thanks to our gracious host, Chris Cloonan.

We arrived during a mighty hail storm. Luckily it stopped right before our set and we got to perform at this awesome festival right in Denver.

Made a trip out to Red Rocks

Shortly after our set at Red Rocks.... just kidding ;)

This one needs no explanation.

We played our last show on the Front Range in the lovely town of Fort Collins. Great beer, great venues, and most importantly, great audiences!

We had a beautifully scenic drive through the Poudre Canyon en route to Steamboat Springs.

Nice.

Steamboat Springs was a really cool little town. Though we didn't stay for long, we had a blast playing at Hahn's Peak Roadhouse and the hospitality was second to none. The hot tub and hotel rooms were a pleasant surprise!

After Steamboat, we stopped in a great little town called Carbondale before heading on towards Telluride. Carbondale had an awesome venue called Steve's Guitars. Steve was a really cool guy who had a bunch of sweet guitars hanging all over his venue, cool place.

Our last stop before Telluride was this cool old mining town named Rico. We stayed with this super nice lady named Beth and her husband Bob. They took great care of us and we got some solid rest before Telluride. We were so inspired by this place, we named our new instrumental "The Road to Rico."

We got to do some hiking. Man that mountain air was FRESH!!

Wait! Was that a bear?!?!

I'm outta here man.

Finally made it to Telluride and let me tell you, this place was incredible!

Jerry Douglas getting things started. Tommy literally got 4 times better at Dobro immediately following this performance.

From left to right: Stuart Duncan, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Sam Bush, Tim O'Brien, Jerry Douglas, and Bryan Sutton... need I say more?

We were honored to perform in the Telluride Bluegrass Band Competition where we made it to the finals and got to perform on the main stage! Congrats to the winners, the Lil' Smokies from Missoula MT, as well as the other finalists, the Lonesome Days from Denver CO, and Running Out of Road from Durango CO. All great bands, all worth checking out!

Woo! Telluride!

Ahhh, Telluride at night. Hey look, the moon!

Did a little hiking to the end of the canyon in Telluride. You can see the largest free falling waterfall in Colorado and next to it, the first AC power plant in the world. Well you probably can't see it,... but it's there.

After Telluride, we headed back across Colorado. We stopped by the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, awesome rock formations... or are they ancient beasts, waiting to awaken from a thousand year slumber?!? Probably just rocks.

Hey Mom! Hey Dad! Havin' a blast in Colorado, can't wait to see you. This park rocks!!!

In the middle of our long journey home, we made a stop at the Gateway Arch. Earlier, we played the Westport Saloon in Kansas City. After our set, we hopped in the car and drove 14 hours to Asheville. What a trip!

Thanks to everyone who followed us on our journey, to all the gracious hosts and kind folks we met along the way. Thanks to all the awesome bands we got to share the stage with and all the venues that were so kind to have us. 

We are now back in Asheville and gearing up for some summer shows around North Carolina. Keep an eye out for news and updates as we have big things on the horizon. We will be working on new songs, planning more tours, and refining our sound more and more each day. This summer we will be experimenting with the original vision of the Collective, featuring different musicians at different shows and exploring new sonic landscapes. 

We look forward to continuing to bring new and exciting music to the world of folk, bluegrass, and roots music. Thanks again to everyone who has supported us thus far, keep in touch and keep carryin' on!

- Fireside Collective