The Fretliners to light up Belly Up Aspen
The Fretliners/Courtesy photo
A band to watch, The Fretliners will bring their high-energy bluegrass to Belly Up Aspen at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 30.
“It’s really crazy how much it feels like we’re glowing right now,” Taylor Shuck said.
In 2023, the band debuted their self-titled album “The Fretliners,” featuring fan favorites “Purple Flowers” and “Suitcase & Heartaches.” That same year, The Fretliners pulled off a rare double win — taking first place at both the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition and the RockyGrass band competition. Only one other band has ever managed that feat.
Formed in September 2022 in Lyons, Colo., the touring acoustic band has continued to create buzz with new albums — in 2024, they released their EP “Three of a Kind,” including tracks like “Memories of You” and “Telluride Strawberry Moon.” They also debuted a new band member, Grayson Wickel.
The current band lineup features Shuck on bass, Tom Knowlton on lead vocals and guitar, Sam Parks on mandolin and Wickel on fiddle. Wickel, originally from Asheville, N.C., is based in Salt Lake City. He joined in March and is touring for the first time.
“Grayson officially joined the band about a month ago, and he is just incredible. We are so lucky to have him. We’ve been playing so much music. That’s another thing that’s been awesome about Grayson — he does not stop playing. We’re constantly writing new songs and working on new ideas. It’s been really, really special,” Shuck said.
The founding three members of the band still live in Lyons.
The band just recorded an album with well-known Nashville Producer T Bone Burnett, which Shuck said they are excited to share with audiences.
“A lot of people gravitate toward ‘Purple Flowers,’ ‘Suitcase & Heartaches’ and ‘Dreaming of the Dawn,’ so audiences should come to hear those and then fall in love with the new stuff,” he said.
The forward-looking band is already working on their next album, he added.
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“We’ve been focused on good songwriting. It’s been the central skeleton of this band,” he said. “One thing we’ve noticed at our shows is that there will be a lot of chatter, and then there will be whole rooms that go quiet because they want to listen. I think it’s captivating music.”
He largely attributed that captivation to the original nature of the music.
Live performances are another aspect of the band’s reputation. The group has played at various venues in Colorado, such as Denver’s Mission Ballroom, Fort Collins’ Almont Resort and the Cloverlick Banjo Shop.
The band has also been touring around the country in such states as Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. The most recent leg of the tour brought the band to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Shuck said.
“We just finished a 15-day tour,” he noted.
He’s also been making custom set lists using watercolor for the backgrounds and then writing the set list out to give away to a super fan each night — noting, “it’s been so much fun.”
Parks’ dad, Kenny, came up with the band name The Fretliners, so it’s not a surprise he received the very first watercolor setlist when he came to a recent show.
The band is excited to head to Aspen to perform at Belly Up.
“We love it up there. We love a mountain town. We love the culture,” Shuck said. “The Colorado mountains in spring are a special time of year.”
For more information and tickets, visit bellyupaspen.com/events/the-fretliners.
Thievery Corporation plays at Belly Up Aspen on Saturday
This year, Thievery Corporation celebrates 30 years. The duo has remained entirely relevant for three decades by generating one of the most unique bodies of work in electronic music, blending international sounds from cultures ranging from Brazil and Jamaica to India and Iran.
