Reunite to Play Rockygrass 2022
Photos by Kevin Slick
“I think it’s the 50th anniversary of Rocky Grass and Craig Ferguson is always looking for ways to respect tradition while also welcoming new audiences,” says Nick Forster. “And he was just steadfast in his commitment. He just said, ‘Look…we have to have Hot Rize. We cannot do the 50th anniversary of Rockygrass without Hot Rize. I don’t care if you guys are retired or whatever. You’re playing Rockygrass.’ And we eventually we said, ‘Ok we will. We’ll play Rockygrass.’” And with that attitude Hot Rize did take the stage at the 50th annual Rockygrass Festival. It was their first performance since January 2019 and a really big deal for the bluegrass community…a large community of which Hot Rize is definitely a part. Forster (bass and vocals), Tim O’Brien (mandolin, fiddle and lead vocals), Pete Wernick (banjo) and Bryan Sutton (guitar) may not have shared a stage for over two and a half years, but they certainly share their respect for Colorado bluegrass and their place in it.
If you’re reading this publication, you probably fully understand the strength of tradition, community and respect that resonates with every string that is picked in bluegrass…and it is that shared embrace that brought Hot Rize out of retirement for this one-off gig. Other regional bluegrass communities exist but there seems to be a vibe about Colorado bluegrass that allows all who participate, the bands and the fans, to know they are a part of something special. Even Hot Rize realized that the strength of this specifically bluegrass event would be tighter with their participation. Regarding their inclusion, “I grew up where music really was a community,” echoes Sutton, originally from Asheville, NC, “and I love my adoption into the Colorado music community.” “We pretty much decided to stop looking for work,” says Wernick. “We were sought out, they thought it was important to get us and they made a big deal out of it, so we thought about it and we said ‘yes.’” “This is about the community much more than this about our band,” says O’Brien. “The best reason for a Hot Rize reunion is to pay homage to that community, our own branch of the tradition. It’s the 50th annual and Hot Rize is playing it. That sounds right…that sounds exactly right.”
Formed in Denver in 1978, Hot Rize germinated around the Colorado Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival put on by the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society. “The first [festival] was in ’73, two years later in ’75 Country Cooking played the Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival,” says Wernick referring to his mid-70’s bluegrass band from New York. “I met Tim that summer…he won the fiddle contest, which was a big deal, and the soundman was Charles Sawtelle. I met Charles then. It was renamed Rockygrass when Planet Bluegrass obtained the festival [in 1992].”
Forster first attended the festival in 1976 and soon joined Wernick, O’Brien and Sawtelle. Originally Hot Rize had Sawtelle was on bass and Mike Scap on guitar. After Scap left, Sawtelle moved to guitar and Forster joined on bass. “I also want to defend the Colorado Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival,” says O’Brien. “It started because there was a need for it. There were bluegrass groups and a lot of interest and the Society built the interest by having a festival.”
“The Colorado Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival was Hot Rize’s home festival before it became Rockygrass,” O’Brien continues. “It had started as the Colorado Rocky Mountain Bluegrass Festival. Charles Sawtelle did sound there with his Sawtelle-Wilson sound company. The first time I saw Bill Monroe was there in ’75. I think the same year I won some well needed cash in the fiddle contest. I was a student of the music then, [just] curious about Monroe, instead of being consumed by him as I later became. Then Hot Rize formed, and we played ‘78 and ‘79 as a local band.” “We were a fixture in Colorado Bluegrass before anybody was really a fixture,” says Wernick. “So, if there’s any band that’s associated with Colorado Bluegrass it’s got to be Hot Rize.”
After 12 years of activity, Hot Rize disbanded in 1990. Upon learning that Sawtelle contracted leukemia (he passed away in 1999), the band re-grouped and in March 1996 recorded their two-night stand at the Boulder Theater. These shows spawned the live release So Long of a Journey in 2002. With renewed interest in the band, Sutton was asked to join and remained with them until January 2019.
How Hot Rize fits into the history of Rockygrass, and Colorado bluegrass is central in the minds of the band and the local community. The rarity of having them all in the same place at the same time is allowing The Colorado Music Hall of Fame to use Hot Rize’s appearance at Rockygrass 2022 as an opportunity to induct them. “I think we’re simultaneously proud of our legacy, but we’re also not done yet,” says Forster. “This is an opportunity for us to get together and play some music, play some songs…also have that honor…the induction into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. This will sort of cement our spot in the story of this particular music, in this particular part of the country.” “It’s a nice feather in our caps in that they want to induct us,” says O’Brien.
Sawtelle is never off the minds of Hot Rize or their fans and his presence will be there when Sutton plays Sawtelle’s 1937 Martin D-28, with herringbone binding. “Bryan is a great artist in his own right,” says Wernick, “but he really understands the business of tradition. He understands bluegrass tradition in a certain deep way. He listened to a lot of Hot Rize as he was growing up. When he joined the band, we all understood that he should be Bryan Sutton and not Charles the 2nd. I like the way Bryan is very respectful of Charles. That’s a very cool aspect…he’ll bring out the old herringbone.” O’Brien adds, “Yeah that’s a good idea ya’ know. That symbolism is good…and it also happens to be a really good guitar.”
Frank Edmonson is another Hot Rize family member who has passed away. The former soundman and bus driver was an integral part of the band…essentially the fifth Hot Rize. His co-write with Wernick, “Frank’s Blues” appeared on 1985’s Traditional Ties. Wernick also selected it as one of his signature instrumentals for Rockygrass 2022. “I have my heart set on doing “Frank’s Blues” which is my most involved, complicated instrumental…which I really like,” says Wernick. “It was co-written by Frank Edmonson who was with us as soundman and road manager for eight years. Even after we disbanded, he’d work with us at times and then he died at age 49. He’s very fondly remembered. He really assisted me in the writing of the tune. He was driving the bus and I was sitting up in the shotgun area working on a tune and he started making suggestions and I took all his suggestions. So, I thought he co-wrote the tune and I called it “Frank’s Blues.” Frank especially liked that…there was something about [him and] the color blue and people would call him ‘Frank blue.’”
And play “Frank’s Blues” they did…it was the fifth tune. They accelerated into it right after a few Hot Rize standards including “Blue Night,” “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning,” and “Hard Pressed.” Their final LP When I’m Free (2014) was well represented, seven out of twelve tracks, with “Doggone,” “You Were On My Mind This Morning,” “Western Skies,” “Burn It Down,” Glory In The Meeting House,” “A Cowboy’s Life,” and “I Am the Road.” Bluegrass Unlimited was initially surprised by all this “new” material but upon further reflection, as the only Hot Rize LP with Sutton on it, it makes perfect sense. Every Hot Rize LP was represented and, as this was a celebration of their status with Rockygrass, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers “stayed on the bus.” “Last time I heard Waldo Otto was up in Alaska and he licked a telephone pole and his tongue got stuck to the telephone pole,” shares Wernick.
Their twenty-three songs, ninety-minute set included sit-ins by Jerry Douglass, Justin Hoffenberg, and Peter Rowan. Forster even brought out a 1917 Mandocello. One of the many highlights was when Rowan and O’Brien tried to out-tenor each other on “Blue and Lonesome.” Their set, the final of the three-day festival, ended with a gang-twang with just about everyone who played that day joining in on “Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow.”
Emotions were high at Rockygrass where many young artists are psyched to play such a big gig early in their career and where older acts such as Peter Rowan and The Earls of Leicester nailed their sets. Throughout all the hot licks and tasty fills that filled the main stage and the amateurs in the Wildflower Pavilion, anticipation was high for Hot Rize to close out the festival. “It’s the 50th anniversary of the Rockygrass festival and Hot Rize is a part of that celebration,” says Sutton. “It feels like a way to celebrate Colorado bluegrass, Colorado bands like Hot Rize and Colorado festivals. It feels like we’re able to be a part of a big party and that’s fun. That’s pretty soulful compared to…‘let’s just book some more gigs.’ I like that part of it.”
Acknowledging their place as bluegrass elders allows the guys to reflect on what most certainly will be their last Rockygrass and how their story might just come to an organic end on this glorious day. “Nobody wants to stay too long at the dinner party,” says Forster. “This feels like a good moment to be acknowledged and to acknowledge our fans and our relationship to them and it’s a good time to recognize this is a good time to leave the party before the last guests.”
“That’s an ongoing thing, that’s tradition, that’s humans teaching others to carry on, it’s real normal,” reflects O’Brien. “After a while the elders just sit around and they marvel at the younger ones. Growing into that role is what we’re all kind doing and it’s just fine. Now it’s fifty years later and I’m one of the old guys. Thanks to these good festivals, especially Planet Bluegrass’s events, the music is thriving. It’s a new ball game but it connects all the way back.” “We are inspired by people whose music inspires and influences you,” says Forster. “It’s special to be part of that great circle of life that is constantly evolving.”
As the sun set in Lyons, Colorado and the last twang of Hot Rize’s encore “Midnight on the Highway” bounced off the canyon walls, their final take on this majestic event also rings. “Every single show we’ve ever played was an opportunity to create a bond and a connection with our audience,” says Forster. “And every single time we get onstage to play those songs we have that invitation to open people’s hearts and minds to make that connection, musically and otherwise. We are going to try our best to be up to the task but at the end of the day it’s also just about that invitation to connect and to feel something significant that goes from the stage and back out the audience then back to the stage…that’s what we do it for, that’s why we do it.” “Charles, Tim and I were all at the third Rockygrass and here we are playing at the 50th,” says Wernick. “And there’s nothing comparable to that in Colorado. The festival is a really important festival, it’s one of the best festivals ever in bluegrass. We’ve always been featured at it whenever they’ve had us, and they’ve had us a lot. They wanted to celebrate, not just their own festival, but Colorado bluegrass. They said it that way when they asked us to play. It’s an honor.” O’Brien sums it up perfectly. “We take a bow, but we bow to all that’s gone on since our time and before our time and then what will go beyond. We just stand there ceremonially in a certain way but we’re gonna play music too so it’s gonna be great.”
