The Four Corners Folk Festival has, for the 25th year, brought a torrent of words, people, and music to Reservoir Hill of Pagosa Springs. From the first day of September to the third, KSUT radio of Ignacio, Colorado has seen the festival of folk and bluegrass music all the way through. Jill Davis, festival director, and the radio station utilize the rented park of Reservoir Hill to accommodate more than a thousand people with places to camp that already exist and music that must be brought to this land. A park must be rented, music must be brought by people who perform, and people must be brought to a land that is not paid for but utilized, all to bring a festival to our town. This festival demands the lives of people who search the background residue of social reports from the court in an effort to judge people.

"Due to your criminal background, we cannot compromise our integrity by allowing you up here for an interview," said Jill Davis.

Despite the slander of certain individuals, their path paved with gossip, I walked directly up the hill and toward the radio tower that I could see from the home I love. There I beckon all to get above the fume created by an exhale of words slung behind the backs of all. They can have their criminal background and police blotters. I will take the clear air and sight to see the people I love. If you want to feel more of this place that you love and see all, come up here with me. Do not go around or through agents and managers. Care for the truth and go straight to the people in the light, for truth is the light and we must have light in order to see. Go straight there, for I did and I reached musicians and locals in the same breath. I reached the people who love in order to be loved.

Avery Ballotta, playing the fiddle for Damn Tall Buildings, was the first to be reached by me.

Avery has played the fiddle for twenty-one years. He began playing the instrument when he was nine years of age and got his fiddle at an instrument swap at his high school. After hailing from Montana, Avery played many concerts abroad, including a recent performance in the Alps. When asked what he brought to Pagosa, Avery Described the band that he plays in with a trio of musicians. While Brooklyn, New York is his home, Damn Tall Buildings was formed in Boston, Massachusetts. There, the band was a quartet with banjo player Jordan Allaman.

Now, Max Capastran plays guitar and sings for the band. Max is also the primary songwriter for Damn Tall Buildings.

Sasha Dubyk plays bass and sings for the trio.

Avery recalls his origins as a performer in Damn Tall Buildings.

"We originally started busking, so it's a lot of practice, playing together, as individuals in a band, is one of the prevailing spirits of the show," said Avery.

Practice is a word clearly defined in the way Avery described the growth of the band. Avery defined practice as the act of keeping his foundation and fortifying it. Orientation of the players around the microphone was pivotal, according to Avery, and important to his performance. He describes the way he would groove with Sasha while leaning toward her on stage. Sometimes he needed to get closer, sometimes he did not.

"We played around one microphone, which is a pretty old school bluegrass style and that makes a kind of intimacy to any size of the show.

Whatever you perceive as the audience is what we bring to you." Avery

Other than being very traditional, Avery referred to their music as art. There is music that is played, a song that is written, and a message that reaches the people. Avery describes the message heard by the people in the audience as subjective. In the moment the people on Reservoir Hill heard the songs of Damn Tall Buildings, the message was there…

"Art is so subjective in general that a message in lyrics might be true to the moment of writing the song that when you perform it, it becomes something completely different," said Avery.

Inspirations of the band, according to Avery, were among John Hartford, a banjo and a fiddle player who wrote the song titled In Tall Buildings. Teachers in the life of Avery Ballotta were spoken of as encouraging. Avery, in his name alone, shows that people build on what they have and never change.

"I am my own person at the end of the day so it is nice to take all the elements of myself," says Avery. After wishing Avery the best for his evening performance, I listened to a song so that I could hear him once more.

A plucking of the fiddle begins a song about moving to the city and then to the mountains. Slowly, the fiddle makes a sound that begins to swing. An alternating base holds all of the music down as if with an anchor of rhythm. Damn Tall Buildings is a bluegrass trio comprised of people who play music that you can see while listening and yet there is depth in simple lyrics. There is a song from On High if you look up here, for here is Reservoir Hill.

Jon Pickett played the base and still sings the band Chain Station. Alex Theole plays the acoustic guitar and sings for the band and carries his vocals. Jarett Mason plays the mandolin and carries vocals of his own.

Singing and lyrics were described by Jon and shared and carried by every member of Chain Station with each musician holding their sound within every song. Chain Station was formed in Estes Park, Colorado, and the band came to Pagosa to perform. There was more to give with their music and more to take from this land both came with their performance. Once playing the acoustic guitar with the former name of the band, Glentucky, Jon has spent his solo career as a songwriter. Jon spoke of the growth of the band in the way to the current name as seen at the Four Corners Folk Festival.

"Chain Station was an evolution. It was not a performance band," said Jon.

Eventually, the band began performing live shows leading to the performance at the Four Corners Folk Festival of Pagosa Springs. Energy from their music was listed as an element of their songs brought here to this land. Jon spoke highly of the feeling of walking in the center of a crowd full of people in the large main stage tent and continuing to play a song about the way to go. Jon describes the feeling given by his music when asked what he brought to the people of Pagosa with his music.

"I would call it absolutely electric," says Jon.

Chain Station, according to Jon, will be known for its energy. Jon brought a workshop with the band to the folk festival called "Pickin On," in which participants practice lessons from songs played by musicians in the field I love. Patrons were taught to break down the message of collaboration in a song by learning to play. You must be open to inspiration to identify what inspires you and then collaborate while practicing a written song. Jon Pickett stated that he felt participants in his workshop learned the true meaning of collaboration through his efforts.

"We brought our energy. I believe that we have become known for our energy," says Jon.

Repeatedly Jon speaks of keeping the glass half full and how that is important to his music. Jon came here to Pagosa wanting people to hear his music and his passion, and he describes soaking up a diversity of skills from his performance. Still, Jon speaks heavily of the way people must see and hear in order to derive meaning from the lyrics of Chain Station.

"I don't know if I would prescribe anything to learn. I would take the lyrics for what they mean to you," said Jon.

Jon Pickett plays at the Rockin Mountain Tavern of Estes Park every Tuesday evening. With self self-described attitude, optimism, and the outdoors, Jon seeks the inspiration to feed the energy of his music. Jon informed me that he is a naturist and seeks inspiration outside. Overall, Jon Pickett went from Pagosa with his heart full to show what he took with him.

"I was left with a full heart, left energized and full of gratitude," Jon.

In this land of flesh and blood, there are lyrics of all people. With lyrics there is music. For Chain Station, there was a glass half full not half empty…

Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs brought music the crowd danced to and was described by Josh Moore, playing guitar and singing, as foot stomping. Their music was warm and upbeat, and Josh said that there was room for an encore. People received the band well here in Pagosa, were organized, and described by Josh as kind.

Lena Schiffer plays guitar and also sings for the band. The stompbox is a hollow rectangle made of wood and produces a thud vital to the percussion of the Bird Dogs. Laney Lou was the nickname of Lena as a child and thus inspired part of the name for the band.

Matt Demarais plays the guitar and sings for Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs.

Ethan Demarais plays the upright base for the band. As a child, Ethan had a stuffed duck called his "Bird Dog," which was an inspiration for the name the their bluegrass band.

Brian Kassay brought his fiddle to the bird dogs, forming a sound that laces together the rhythm of the music played.

Josh Moore described the importance of harmony in the music of Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs. A harmony is a series of layers, each consisting of a single note, miring together as a single sound. All notes are sung in unison by all musicians who bring the vocals of the band. Their band had no shortage of four-part harmony, according to Josh. Such harmony delivered a sound with enticed people to dance during the September performance on Reservoir Hill.

"We like to incorporate four-part harmonies," said Josh.

Other than these harmonies, I asked Josh if he wanted the people of Pagosa to hear anything else. As a chord of harmony comes together from individual places, Josh wants people to hear meaning individually in the crowd that gathers for their songs. Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs was not too serious and there was room to derive meaning from simple listening. Perspective from people in the audience was vital to the coalescence of people gathering at the festival to hear music. Josh was adamant that he did not gather to hear advice and did not give any of his own. Emphasis in their songs and lyrics rested on the ability of people to obtain their own comprehension of meaning.

"We want them to have a bit of levity," said Josh.

There was a surge of emotion within his performance that Josh continued to describe as electrified. Josh expressed a desire for the audience listening to his music to feel the emotion in him and the entire band while playing music. Music was rhythmically designed to compel people to dance, as Josh described. On Reservoir Hill, that is just what the people did. During a vibrant tour full of a feeling that Josh described as joy, the band exhumed the desire to let the audience feel the emotions that the musicians felt. Whether you hear their song Let it Go, Give it Up, or Hold On, you will feel this electricity from their new record in some way. Laney Lou and the Bird Dogs all want you to feel the joy they felt while playing their music for you all. Josh refers to the people in the audience once more.

"We want them to feel the joy we feel while playing it," says Josh.

At the request of a child, Josh signed their face after the show and looked at all who came to see them perform. Their faces showed a will and yearning to return to Pagosa and perform. Josh told me that he wanted most of all to hear whether or not the people wanted him back to hear them play again. While admitting that he took from the show in Pagosa is more than he gave, he wants to return from his current hometown of Bozeman, Montana, for the feeling of performing for the people still draws him back.

"It is about the energy of the crowd, it is addicting," says Josh

While thinking of the words spoken by the people and the music I heard, I sit and watch the wind blow the leaves of oak and the needles of pine around me. This is the only sound emitted from the forest now. The stereo is out of here and the stage is flat. What does still come from the hill of the Reservoir is the people and the earth. The sounds of the child banging on metal are the only tone that resonates in this place where music carries on. Right on the way that the people go, a truck rolls by to show the source of the percussion created by the people of Pagosa Springs. On the side of the truck is the name of the town I love in the midst of a clanging sound from a hammer upon a metal tower. In the center of the hip of Reservoir Hill, I stand without a band around my wrist, without the need for permission, without any claim that the land is owned as property without me by people who came here, and without any more pain from the slander of people.

I have more from everything I do without and I stand tall and proud with a notebook full of all that I deserve to hear from the people. I stand proud that I have found the music of this land, the kind I hold so that none will have to pay to hear me. While standing where the water flows I think of all that has transpired here once more. The only music left is mine for I am Man.