The Spirit of Toy in Telluride

 The Live Debut of the Toy Factory Project  at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival

 Telluride, Colorado

Saturday, June 21^st, 2025

Also featuring the Still House String Band, Kaleb Klauder and Reeb Willms, The Bela Fleck Trio featuring Edmar Castenada and Antonio Sanchez, Yonder Mountain String Band, Kasey Chambers, and the Sam Bush Band

      Walking alongside a cascading stream dotted with sunbathers and swimmers into Telluride Town Park, nestled in a valley surrounded by the truly mind-blowing San Juan Mountain range of the Rockies, we saw (and thankfully felt in the hot sun!) children spraying water bottles and cowboy hats and flowered bunny jumpsuits exchanging happy hellos. That, coupled with a scan of the schedule of bands for the day, told us just how far Planet Bluegrass has come to embrace diversity. The Toy Factory Project made its live debut at the 52nd edition of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and it was also the first to play a singular kind of southern rock there too.

But that monumental show was nine hours away yet. Regrettably, we missed the two openers, arriving just in time to settle into our area and share in an eye-opening concert by banjo legend Bela Fleck and his Trio. Three numbers into their set of virtuoso instrumental showcases, the world-renowned Mexico City drummer Antonio Sanchez (of Pat Metheny Group fame) regaled the crowd from his kit about their joined forces, deadpanning, “A banjo, a harp, and drums? What the hell will that sound like?!” Well, it was a wondrous melding of worldwide inspiration and thrilling performance. About as far from bluegrass as improvisational music gets, but right at home at Telluride.

Colorado Music Hall of Famers Yonder Mountain String Band then brought some fine, ramped-up ‘grass, peppered by a missile barrage of marshmallows from the audience (a Telluride tradition) and included a powerful take on The Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post.” Australian Kasey Chambers then led her band through a set of charming modern country music leading up to Sam Bush and his group taking the stage and electrifying it for two hours. One of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s ambassadors along with Fleck and Jerry Douglas, Bush switched around from mandolin to fiddle to guitar, and sang tributes to John Hartford, Tony Rice, South African Johnny Clegg, and yes, the Allman Brothers with his own high spirited take on “Whipping Post.” Something about that song in a bluegrass suit just gets people going!

Although the air temperature began dropping like a rock, Bush added even more heat to the music by inviting guitarist/singers Marcus King and Charlie Starr to the stage for his band’s set-closing blast through David Lindley’s “Mercury Blues.” That set the stage, so to speak, for the Toy Factory Project.

After a long, beautiful, hot day of music and fun, the 12,000 joyful people still in attendance at 10 p.m. stayed put until 11:45 and ate the Toy Factory Project set alive. I exchanged glances and smirks with my wife that said, “Are you kidding me? We are in Rocky Mountain paradise watching a collective of rock, southern rock, and bluegrass music royalty play a slate of songs together that we, and the world, have loved for over 50 years.”

Led by the legendary drummer Paul T. Riddle, the Toy Factory Project also includes guitarist and vocalist Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, perpetually rising star guitarist and vocalist Marcus King, bassist Oteil Burbridge of Dead & Company and The Allman Brothers Band, keyboard player and vocalist Josh Schilling of Mountain Heart, and go-to musicians Billy Contreras on fiddle and percussionist Jimmy Rector. Riddle, the original drummer in a Spartanburg, South Carolina band held in high esteem in the 1970s—and one of the nicest southern gentlemen I’ve ever met—had long wanted to put a fresh coat of paint on the songs by his late band mate, the guitarist Toy Caldwell. Riddle’s friends were more than eager to join him, but it took 13 years of planning, interruptions, and changes to make it happen. Once it did, the band convened in Peter Frampton’s Nashville studio with guests Derek Trucks, Vince Gill, and Frampton himself, to cut new versions of Caldwell’s timeless songs including “Heard it In a Love Song” in a surprisingly beautiful arrangement.  If you were alive in the 70s, you just said the name of the band we are legally obligated not to, to yourself, and probably also exclaimed wow! The album will be released sometime soon.

Knowing the album as I do, I prayed that the wow factor would translate to the stage as well as it did this evening. As soon as these men hit the stage and launched into “Hillbilly Band,” they had the crowd in the palms of their hands. I witnessed the original band start its show 51 years ago with the same furious country tune and became a lifelong devotee. Starr’s chickin’ pickin’ on it, the band’s deep in the groove moves, and Riddle’s jazz-fueled propulsion, instantly justified his intent to honor Toy Caldwell’s songs with newfound fire, while losing nothing of their original allure.

“24 Hours at a Time” was the third song played and the first to ignite into a fiery jam, King and Starr’s guitars in synch and yet blazing their own trails. Bassist Burbridge, initially subdued and wearing oxygen tubes presumably due to the altitude, began to move both the bottom, and his body, in his inimitable way. “Fire on the Mountain” (by guitarist George McCorkle of the original band, and one of two non-Caldwell compositions played) led ingeniously into the Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain,” a move inspired by Burbridge’s membership in Dead & Company.

Bela Fleck joined on banjo for “This Ol’ Cowboy,” the shimmering country of it enhanced by his distinct plucking. They may call this music southern rock, and the Toy Factory Project legitimized that often misunderstood genre beautifully on this night, but at its heart, Toy Caldwell’s songs are country, just taken to new heights. With “Long Hard Ride,” the band went Western with both Fleck and Sam Bush helping drive the insistent melody. Contreras shined on “Blue Ridge Mountain Sky,” and bluegrasser Schilling played shimmering notes. Both players added to the validity of this Project as Riddle had always wanted those sounds to be part of the original music.

“Can’t You See,” sung by King in a voice that could belong to an old black female soul singer, and “Take the Highway,” in Starr’s smooth as a leather saddle croon, brought the show to a close while bringing the house down.

These timeless songs that need no introduction, have been re-introduced nonetheless, spectacularly. Thank God for Toy Caldwell and his songs, and for Riddle and the Toy Factory Project’s belief in them. I can’t wait to see where this trail will lead.

Tom Clarke for MAS

 

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