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SnowyGrass
July 9 - 12, 2026 in Estes Park, Colorado
SnowyGrass is Presented by
One spot available for c0-Presenting Sponsor!
Thursday 7/9
Stanley Park
2:00 PM
Camper Check in
Bluebird Shelter
4:00 - 6:00
Campy Hour Open Mic
TBD
7:00 - 9:00
Square Dance (TBD)
Friday 7/10
Bluebird Shelter
1:00 - 3:30
*Wernick Method Bluegrass Jam Class
4:45 - 6:00
Charlie Stevens Band
6:30 - 8:00
Gasoline Lollipops
Bluebird Shelter - Late Night
8:20 - 9:35
Sullivan Sisters Duo
Saturday 7/11
Bluebird Shelter
10:00 - 10:45
**Bruce Molsky Fiddle Workshop
Bluebird Shelter
11:00 - 11:45
**Stash Wyslouch Guitar Workshop
12:00 - 1:00
Friendly Reminders
1:20 - 2:20
Richey Ramsey Duo
2:40 - 3:55
Ragged Union
4:15 - 5:15
Bruce Molsky & Stash Wyslouch
5:35 - 7:05
Yoseff Tucker & the Ascots
7:25 - 8:55
Sullivan Sisters
Late Night in Bluebird Shelter
9:15 - 10:15
Bruce Molsky & Stash Wyslouch (TBD)
Sunday 7/12
Bluebird Shelter
10:00 - 10:45
**Workshop Bruce & Stash Wyslouch
11:15 - 12:15
TBA
12:35 - 1:45
Yoseff Tucker & the Ascots Gospel Set
2:05 - 3:20
Blue Canyon Boys
3:40 - 5:10
Bruce & Stash Wyslouch
5:30 - 7:00
TBA
Bluebird Shelter Late Night
7:20 - 8:20
Blue Canyon Boys
**Workshops are $15 each + processing fee. Tickets may be purchased with or without festival tickets at https://www.ticketsignup.io/TicketEvent/SnowyGrass2026/Store
* Wernick Method Jam Class. More info and early registration coming
Craft Beverages
presented by:
Join the Wernick Method Jam Class with Pete Wernick assisted by Joan Wernick on Friday, July 10, 1:00 - 3:30.
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Hands-on learning in large and small groups
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No jamming experience necessary
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You will be jamming the first hour!
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All bluegrass instruments welcome
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Full ground rules and etiquette of typical jams
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Intermediates welcome, and given added challenges
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Friendly, encouraging, knowledgeable teaching
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Gentle tempos! Mistakes expected!
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Music/tab reading not needed or used
Ear skills taught and emphasized, as in real bluegrass
Learn many bluegrass standards
Singing not required, but encouraged and taught
Soloing not required! “Faking” solos taught
How to lead songs and how to follow new songs
How to find melodies, fake solos, sing harmony
Group and individualized instruction on backup skills
Understanding, low-pressure, time-tested teaching
About the Bands
Bruce comes back to Snowygrass with the brilliant, quirky and delightful Stash Wyslouch! After years together in the original Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, the two continue to stretch the limits of whatever musical styles they touch.
Polish-Colombian guitarist/composer Stanislaw “Stash” Wyslouch is an avant-garde Bluegrass guitarist,
singer and songwriter. His music delights in story-telling, improvisation and outer-space-worthy composition. Despite his Heavy Metal beginnings, Bluegrass music has been central to Wyslouch’s life for the past 15 years, touring and recording with groups such as The Deadly Gentlemen, Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, The Jacob Jolliff Band, and Tony Trischka’s Early Roman Kings. His 4th and most recent album “Plays and Sings Bluegrass Vol. II” was released in 2021.
Acclaimed fiddler and singer Bruce Molsky is also a serious threat on banjo and guitar. He’s “one of America’s
premier fiddling talents” (Mother Jones) and a Grammy nominated artist. His collaborations with musicians
from just about everywhere have allowed his own voice to grow in unexpected directions. His most recent
recording "Bruce's Halling" with Swedish maestro Ale Möller brings together traditions in a new and fresh way, and "Lockdown Breakdown" with longtime friend and colleague Darol Anger explores new fiddle territory, from old-time to Scandinavian to Old School R&B. Bruce also keeps his creative fires lit through as the go-to guy for the next generations of roots players at Berklee College of Music, where he is the Visiting Scholar in their American Roots Music Program.
The Blue Canyon Boys are equal parts purists and innovators when it comes to Bluegrass: they stay true to the form’s roots while constantly reimagining their relationship to tradition. The result is a toe-tapping mix of haunting standards, genre-bending arrangements, and catchy original numbers—all built on the bedrock of their collective bluegrass mastery.
Ever since founding members Jason Hicks and Gary Dark launched the Blue Canyon Boys in 2006, the Blue Canyon Boys have raised the bar for bluegrass bands. They bring it all: seamless brother-duet style, crisp instrumentation, unvarnished lyrics and subversive humor. After winning first place 2008 Telluride Bluegrass festival band contest, the Blue Canyon Boys went off at full tilt, taking the bluegrass circuit by storm, performing in illustrious venues across the country as well as internationally.
Their distinctive sound, honed from over a decade of performing together, moves easily from instrumental wizardry to playful ribbing. Ultimately and repeatedly, they hit a high note—the rare confluence of harmony that leaves the soul ajar.
The seasoned quartet features Gary Dark on mandolin, Jason Hicks on guitar, Drew Garrett on bass, and Chris Roszell on banjo. Their acclaimed album, eponymously called The Blue Canyon Boys, was their most polished and poignant yet. Classic bluegrass, clean and raw, blends effortlessly with the band’s homegrown compositions, then peppered with a judicious cover or two, such as the band’s riveting take on Pink Floyd’s “Time.”
Front man, Clay Rose was raised between an outlaw, truck-driving father in the mountains of Colorado and a country song-writing mama in the sticks outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Clay’s penchant for open roads and trouble making are the backbone of the Gas Pops’ sound. The rest of the band consists of Don Ambory, Scott Coulter, “Bad” Brad Morse, and Kevin Matthews who all come equipped with music degrees from Chicago, Boston, Jacksonville, and Denver, respectively. They each add flavors of their own background and heritage, further diversifying the band’s signature sound.
Fresh out of the legendary Dockside Studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, Gasoline Lollipops are promoting their new album, All The Misery Money Can Buy, which pursues happiness and the American Dream to the end of the rainbow and chokes on a pot of gold. Gas Pops collaborated with Clay’s song-writing Mama, Donna Farar (“Last Thing I Needed” recorded by Willie Nelson and Chris Stapleton) to create this politically-charged union of soul music and Southern rock.
Gasoline Lollipops are three-time winners of Colorado Daily’s “Best Local Band” award, and two-time winners of Denver Westword’s “Best Country Band” award. Over the last four years, they have toured throughout the U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands, and Belize. In 2018 they made Billboard’s top 10 Spotify chart, as well as Pandora’s top 10 Trend Setters list. Today, the Gas Pops continue to bend genres and electrify live audiences with ferocious sincerity.
The Sullivan Sisters have dazzled audiences since childhood with their unique blend of fast bluegrass picking and captivating sibling harmonies, with music ranging from lyrical originals to timeless folk classics to blazing instrumentals.
Inspired by the bluegrass community in North Carolina where they were born and raised, Soraya and Luciya began taking guitar and banjo lessons at ages 8 and 6. Their music drew influence from the bluegrass community surrounding them, and they carried their love of the genre with them when they relocated to Chicago.
Over the past ten years, The Sullivan Sisters have toured the country as featured performers at Merlefest, the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum’s Romptober Festival, IBMA’s Bluegrass Live Festival, the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, and the Evanston Folk Festival. Their instrumental talents have garnered them national distinction, including First Prize in Banjo and Third Prize in Guitar at Rockygrass 2023, and Second Prize in the 2024 Galax Old Fiddlers Convention Bluegrass Banjo contest.
The sisters have recently formed a five-piece band by joining forces with three phenomenal teen pickers and longtime friends: Oscar Caudell on mandolin, Finn McGuinness on fiddle, and Sammy Mougin on bass. The new band launched its debut to a sold-out, standing room audience at Evanston SPACE in January 2025, and has multiple tours planned for 2025 and beyond.
The band’s recipe for tasty contemporary bluegrass contains three main ingredients. Geoff Union’s ‘Outsider Songwriting’ makes use of poetic lyric ideas that stretch beyond the ‘normal’ country themes to include personal, and even historical, stories, often presented in creative rhyme meter. Ragged Union sets their sometimes obscure-in-a-good-way lyric content to ‘Timeless Melodies’ that are new, yet sound familiar and classic. The songs are further enhanced with ‘Unexpected Arrangements’. Changes in feel, tempo, and time signature, along with rich compositional ideas, and atypical song structure (like putting the bridge at the end of the song) set Ragged Union’s original material apart. All of these concepts come together in an impressively exciting live performance that is equally at home at the festival, concert series, or nightclub.
The band has released four albums, 2015’s Hard Row to Hoe; 2017’s Time Captain, and Live at Leeds (recorded live at the Seven Arts Theatre in Leeds, England) and 2022’s Round Feet, Chrome Smile. A new release is in the works for the winter of 2024-25.
The Lineup
Geoff Union - flatpicker, singer, songwriter, Fayetteville, NC. The primary songsmith and long-standing leader of Ragged Union, Geoff is known for a songwriting style that’s light and bouncy on the surface, but lyrically deep and complex, with plenty of twists and turns in the music to make the listener come back again and again.
Elio Schiavo - mandolin and vocal, Philadelphia, PA. With a unique, soulful voice and wildly skillful mandolin playing, Elio introduces elements of R&B, funk, rap, reggae, and classic rock absorbed during his long and varied recording and producing career. Elio is a creative instrumental composer and skilled audio engineer as well a founder of one of Brooklyn’s most popular longstanding bluegrass jam sessions.
Rebekah Durham - fiddle and vocal, Midland, TX A world-class violinist, Rebekah trained at Juilliard and has played at local and international festivals. Past groups include the internationally touring indie band, San Fermin, and Colorado’s own The Ginny Mules. She continues to perform with orchestras and at select events, and her classical upbringing fosters a perpetually growing appreciation for fiddling and the intricacies of bluegrass and string band music’s scope and potential.
Chris Elliott – banjo, Houston, TX An award-winning banjo player, Chris joined Ragged Union from 2014 until 2019, and the band is happy to have him back on stage again in 2024. He has been a staple of the Colorado bluegrass scene for over twenty years, performing with Spring Creek, Blue Canyon Boys, and Chain Station, and Foggy Mt Spaceship. Chris also teaches banjo technique via the Elliott Banjo School.
Ian Haegele – bass Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Highly skilled in jazz and classical music, as well as bluegrass, Ian has worked with many top-shelf groups in Colorado over the years, including Long Road Home, Thunder and Rain, and the Martin Gilmore Trio. He also appears in theater productions, and earned his Masters in Music Performance from the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley.
The Charlie Stevens Band aims to challenge the boundaries between genres while keeping a strong connection to the traditions of Bluegrass music.
The Charlie Stevens Band draws from the hard-driving sounds of the Bluegrass world to create new, and exciting, acoustic music.
In addition to Bluegrass, they are influenced by various other styles rooted in the American tradition. Most notably, Rock and Roll, and the Blues.
Cover songs range widely. Including: traditional Bluegrass, such as Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers; progressive Bluegrass, such as David Grisman and John Hartford; Rock and Roll, such as The Grateful Dead, Cream, and The Allman Brothers; and even current artists like Billy Strings.
Charlie's original songs attempt to blend all of these influences together in a way that's fresh and fun to listen to. Up-tempo tunes featuring blazing fast solos, and powerhouse vocals, make this an exciting group to see live, regardless of musical preference.
Friendly Reminders is an indie folk-grass string quartet comprised of songwriter Ian Foster on acoustic guitar and vocal, Meg Rice on upright bass, Their music is an artful blend of energetic bluegrass, soulful jazz, and dynamic folk music, and the duo is regularly joined by a rotating cast of talented pickers and singers alike.
Friendly Reminders pick and groove their songs through the air and send sultry sound waves into the hearts of folks eager for insightful lyricism and beautiful harmonies. The unit creates beautiful vocal layers over driving rhythms, needle-drop moments, and skillful solos that weave in and out, over and under, out and through. Every song contains thought-provoking lyrics that leave the listener ready to queue it up for a second listen.
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