UllrGrass Beer & Music Festival

GOLDEN – When the founder, songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist of Coral Creek newgrass band Chris Thompson and his wife Susannah formed UllrGrass Beer & Music Festival 11 years ago, their intent was to provide an enjoyable three-day event that took place at a time of year when the cabin fever-inflicted community could socialize outdoors.

Held at Parfet Park in Golden the last weekend of January every year come rain, snow, or shine, it is a wonderful mixture of great music, cold beer, and tongue-in-cheek idolatry. The ancient Norse god Ullr, the patron saint of skiing, seemed an appropriate wintertime honoree.

Thirty Colorado craft breweries offered their products at stands on one side of the grounds. During the afternoon of Saturday, February 1, people were almost shoulder to shoulder sampling the different libations.

If you weren’t a beer or ale connoisseur, there was also a mead tent. Vikings, after all, were known to be very fond of mead.

The Ullr Saloon under the big top had cocktails for sipping during tweeners or at any other time during the day or evening.

Vendors sold their art, jewelry, and clothing at some of the booths. Denise Jennings and Jill Curnow of Lapis & Lemongrass offered handcrafted necklaces made of sterling silver and semiprecious gemstones. Bloodbuzz Records owner Jen Nolon had vintage classic rock LPs for sale. The most valuable record in the bins was a German-pressed mint-condition copy of Jerry Garcia’s Garcia priced at $75.

Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’

We’re finally on our own

This summer I hear the drummin’

Four dead in Ohio

Rolling Harvest was the first band to appear on the main stage, Saturday. Their name perhaps alluding to Neil Young’s best-selling record Harvest of 1972, they rocked attendees with a half dozen of his songs including “Ohio,” “Southern Man,” and “Powderfinger” (from Rust Never Sleeps).

In between, “All Along the Watchtower” was one of the highlights. Another Bob Dylan number, performed especially for the unrequited, was “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right”:

I give her my heart but she wanted my soul

But don’t think twice, it’s all right

The B-side of 1970s “Immigrant Song,” “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do” by Led Zeppelin, was given the bluegrass treatment by the next act onstage, Easy Tiger. Bringing the “Grass” in “UllrGrass,” they entertained for an hour as the audience danced and swayed.

Continuing in the same vein, the tight-knit and musically gifted Coral Creek UllrGrass All-Stars and friends enthusiastically delivered for the next two hours. The Carter Sisters and Maybelle Carter’s 1952 release “The Sun’s Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday” struck a chord with many.

Performing mostly original compositions, one of the songs, named “Powder Day in Heaven,” was written by Chris Thompson in 2012 in honor of a departed friend who loved to ski. Another song was one that Chris, Susannah, and their daughter Cassidy used to sing around the campfire when fishing a secret spot in Wisconsin. All three took the stage for that family favorite and a few others.

Although the vast majority of the concertgoers didn’t know the Thompsons personally, they were made to feel as if they did, and were welcome members of the extended UllrGrass clan.

Proceeds from UllrGrass are donated to the Precious Child and Coral Creek Kids Music Project charities. For more information, go to www.apreciouschild.org and www.coralcreekmusic.com.