Hey! Dan Wrote a Guest Post on the Happy Ass Ranch Bluegrass Festival

The 4th Annual Happy Ass www.happyassranch.com Ranch Bluegrass Festival and Jam recently filled the hills with good music at Happy Ass Ranch, up highway 24 and west of Lake George, Colorado.  Two to three hundred people made it out to the festival, with most camping out at the ranch for the music.

Headliners at the fest, Grass it Up www.grassitup.com and Creating a Newsense  Creating A Newsense - Hard Rockin' Barn Stompin' Psychedelic Porn Funk

www.creatinganewsense.com capped off a raucous Saturday Night.  Creating a Newsense brought the crowd to a frenzied fist-pumping climax with an unidentified, but crowd favorite anthem.  As well, Grass it Up sparked the crowd with electric renditions of crowd favorites "Carr Jack Blues" and "Nadine".

Music continued on Sunday, with the festival wrapping up Sunday afternoon.
Things got started Friday, with the Ackermans www.theackermansbluegrass.com (from Colorado Springs).  In fact, almost all bands performing at the ranch were from Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and Pueblo.

According to one Festival originator, David Jeffrey, organizers set out this
year to put the focus on local bands.  As a result, the Bluegrass Festival
excluded out-of-state bands that play bluegrass music in exchange for local
bands that play other types of music.  Good news for music fans and the odd,
eclectic group Edith Makes a Paper Chain www.myspace.com/edithmakesapaperchain2. 

Paper chain (as dizzied festival goers dubbed "Edith") does not play
bluegrass.  Not intentionally, anyway.  Paper chain's work is described as,
among other things, gypsy folk and "haunted circus music".  While slightly
more accessible than Denver's Bela Karoli www.belakaroli.com (the band, not the coach), Paper Chain did deliver an assortment of oddity Friday night.  The most moving

moment came during a cover of Radiohead's www.radiohead.com  "No surprises".  Serious music fans are not supposed to like covers.  However, this was not a case of one local group imitating another, much more famous group.  This was a case

where the newer group hijacked the material.  They made it their own. It was
impressive.

While Paper chain supplied the highlight for Friday night, a collected group
of local songwriters did so for Saturday afternoon.  Talent from Creating a
Newsense, The Haunted Windchimes www.myspace.com/thehauntedwindchimes, The Jack Trades www.myspace.com/thejacktrades, and The Genuwines www.myspace.com/thegenuwines were

assembled for an all-star party that made it clear that their individual
bands are worth checking out.

Although the Happy Ass Ranch Bluegrass Festival and Jam is over for this
year, YOU can make its effects live on by seeing any of the new (and long
established) bands that it has brought out. Do that.