2022 Artist Lineup Additions - JD Simo & Rachel Ammons
We are excited to announce that blues-shredder JD Simo and the talented one woman band, Rachel Ammons are joining this year's lineup.
We are saddened to share that Dwayne Dopsie will no longer perform at the 2022 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival due to a scheduling conflict. We look forward to welcoming him back in the future.
JD Simo
Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 12:00 pm (Main Stage)
Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 10:00 (Telluride Elks Lodge)
It seems as if the very best musicians are living portals that open up to all the music that has come before them, and a portent of what will outlast them. Such is JD Simo. The Chicago-born guitarist-songwriter-producer now calls Nashville home. Both towns are musical hotbeds, simmering cauldrons of rock, blues, Americana, gospel, jazz and country, and a whole lot of other strains that shrug off easy categorization. Simo’s guitar playing is earthy and soulful, and his expressive voice could be an echo from either a smoky Chicago blues club, or a hill country front porch on a Saturday night. He sings with authenticity and the world-weariness of a much older man. Simo has worked with the likes of Jack White, Luther Dickinson and Blackberry Smoke, and has spent time as a member of Phil Lesh's Phil & Friends confab. His latest record, Mind Control, came out of the pandemic years and is a bluesy outing with layers of fuzzy rock, psychedelia a la Hendrix, and the far-out grooves of Afro beat. His inclusion in the festival is your ticket to getting Simo-nized.
Rachel Ammons
Friday, September 16, 2022 at 12:00 pm (High Altitude Lounge Pop-Up)
Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 3:30 pm (Campground Sessions)
Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 10:00 pm (The Moon At O’Bannon’s)
Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 2:30 pm (Blues Stage)
The best mentors will take you on an unexpected journey, and then set you free to continue down your own path. Such is the case of Rachel Ammons, a classical violinist who met musician Smilin’ Bob at the behest of her parents. The two hit it off and before long, she was playing much more than violin. Smilin’ Bob played anything stringed, and though he taught her to make music on many instruments, the greatest gift he gave her was the confidence to improvise. He showed her there are no mistakes, and that music was all about the feel of the moment. The grizzled vet and the young violinist jammed endlessly, became fast friends and bandmates. When cancer took Smilin’ Bob in 2019, he left in Rachel a deep knowledge of his true love — Delta blues — and the ability to make music from most anything. Today, she works to preserve Delta cultural legacy, playing the blues in her one-woman act with a raw, emotional intensity, unafraid to improvise. Her new record, No Man Band, is a showcase of the energy of her rambunctious live shows and a self-described mélange of Delta blues, trippy, soul rawk. Smilin’ Bob is surely still smilin’.