{"id":27077,"date":"2024-06-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tuning-in-to-the-early-history-of-telluride-bluegrass\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:51:11","slug":"tuning-in-to-the-early-history-of-telluride-bluegrass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tuning-in-to-the-early-history-of-telluride-bluegrass\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuning in to the early history of Telluride Bluegrass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\u201cIt
\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t about money, it was about playing music,\u201d said Marikay Shellman, recalling the early days of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which she helped her late ex-husband, Fred Shellman, found in 1973. (Wyatt Richards\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BAYFIELD \u2013 Marikay Shellman still revels in her recollections of the early days of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t about money, it was about playing music,\u201d she said, sitting at the dining room table in her Bayfield ranch home, gazing at photos from the festival\u2019s scrappy start. \u201cIt was just on the dirt ground and I\u2019m nine months pregnant and show up and there\u2019s no water, there\u2019s nothing to drink, there\u2019s no food.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Telluride Bluegrass Festival was founded in 1973 by Marikay\u2019s late ex-husband, Fred Shellman. The 51st annual festival begins Thursday and will draw a daily influx of 12,000 sun-kissed Festivarians to the box canyon. It infuses over $12 million into the local economy, according to the Telluride Tourism Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Shellman\u2019s
Shellman\u2019s great-grandmother\u2019s banjo hangs in a room in her home, alongside framed posters from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival\u2019s early years. (Wyatt Richards\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fred died in 1990, but his legacy \u2013 the festival he was determined to create and the triumph of his passion over reason \u2013 lives on.<\/p>\n

Now 74, Marikay is quick to recall Fred\u2019s storied dedication to the event. However, she has largely underplayed her own involvement.<\/p>\n

In December 1971, the young couple moved to Ophir. Fred taught skiing at Telluride Ski Resort, just a fledgling destination at the time, and formed a band called the Fall Creek Boys.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, he was a visionary dreamer with a drive unbound by the fiscal or regulatory realities of holding a bluegrass festival in downtown Telluride. His zest fueled the first few festivals, which started as a Fall Creek Boys performance in Town Park over the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n

But behind the scenes, it was Marikay who maintained some of the critical infrastructure that kept the festival going each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pregnant, nursing, pregnant, nursing or pregnant nursing for all those early years,\u201d she said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

She was, most visibly, the food provider. She cooked most of what performers and volunteers ate from scratch and worked to serve it around the venue.<\/p>\n

Without much in the way of amenities, Marikay would serve sandwiches, lemonade and sun tea to her husband and the people he had recruited to help put on the festival. It was a \u201chuge improvement\u201d when the festival got a tent over the food area, she said.<\/p>\n

She would take a break whenever New Grass Revival took the stage.<\/p>\n

The band headlined the second bluegrass festival in 1974 and its bouncing, mandolin-strumming frontman, Sam Bush, was at some point crowned the King of Telluride Bluegrass. Bush has not missed the event since and will play his 50th Telluride Bluegrass Festival this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Telluride
Telluride Bluegrass Festival founder Fred Shellman. The visionary behind the event died in 1990, and the Town Park stage was named after him the next year. (Courtesy of Marikay Shellman)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fred worked year-round to promote the festival. It was \u201chis everything,\u201d Marikay said.<\/p>\n

However, her ex-husband was a charismatic and driven organizer, but not a businessman.<\/p>\n

At first blush, Marikay chalks up her contributions as provisions supplied by a dedicated wife.<\/p>\n

But after overhearing her 14-year-old granddaughter make the point, Marikay decided to set modesty aside and come clean about the scope of her contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter it got started and the Fall Creek band pretty much pulled out, it was just Fred and myself and I was funding it all,\u201d she said. \u201cI was just paying for it because he was kind of the genius behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vendors would call the couple\u2019s home and Marikay, using some inheritance from her father, would pay the bills. Within a few years, the Shellmans were the festival\u2019s only backers aside from whoever Fred might have convinced to pitch in some money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this was his dream, and it was even though I had three kids, it was always his baby,\u201d she said. \u201cI just supported him in it as long as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marikay
Marikay Shellman thumbs through \u201c40 years of Festivation,\u201d the book about Telluride Bluegrass written by Dan Sadowsky, which includes writing from various organizers and performers over the years. (Wyatt Richards\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The couple split in 1983 as Fred\u2019s music-centric lifestyle grew into a source of conflict. But, when speaking of him now, Marikay still taps into the same well of adoration that drove her support in the festival\u2019s early years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so in love with Fred. \u2026 I totally believed he could do anything he wanted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In 1989, Planet Bluegrass had taken control of the festival as a result of a series of events<\/a> that are unclear to some and would rather not be discussed by others.<\/p>\n

The Shellmans had never considered the longevity of Telluride Bluegrass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that you think about that in your 20s,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 There was always going to be next year. Always. But (we) didn\u2019t think about it being 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the festival is a family reunion of sorts for Marikay. Her kids have had iconic moments there with the likes of Rosanne Cash and Doc Watson.<\/p>\n

She comes home with CDs from new bands each year, but it\u2019s the greats \u2013 the bluegrass legends whose multidecade careers have been punctuated by repeated appearances on the Fred Shellman Memorial Stage \u2013 that quiet her thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful and in awe and that I can just go and listen to every single note of Sam Bush up close and personal, and listen to Peter Rowan\u2019s voice \u2013 still \u2013 echo off those canyon walls, and all the different, different musicians that B\u00e9la (Fleck) has brought with him,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cI\u2019m just always in comfort of hearing Tim O\u2019Brien.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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