Leftover Salmon remains Colorado proud 30 years after reinventing bluegrass

By Steve Graham

Leftover Salmon may belong to the musical universe, spending most of their time touring the world and reinventing progressive bluegrass music. But they are “absolutely” still a Colorado band, says founding member Drew Emmitt.

In other words, the band members all “want to be in the high country to stay,” as they sing on one of their jangly fan favorites.

When I caught up with Emmitt for a phone interview, he had just finished schussing down the mountain 20 minutes from his Crested Butte home.

“This is my local playground,” he said.

Everyone in the band lives in Colorado except drummer Alwyn Robinson, who recently moved from Boulder to Brooklyn. Founding member Vince Herman moved to Oregon but ended up returning to Colorado last year.

The guys may not have moved far from their Boulder roots, but their music has diversified from the “polyethnic Cajun slamgrass” the band invented.

“It’s not as accurate as it used to be,” Emmitt said. “It still does kind of describe us, which is playing piles of styles and playing whatever we want.”

What they wanted to play starting 30 years ago was rootsy, Cajun-influenced bluegrass music, but with electric guitars and drums, which at that point in time, had few precedents.

“We figured we’d follow in the footsteps of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Chris Daniels and add some rock and roll to the mix, and found that it worked pretty well in rowdy ski area bars,” Herman said. “We were in the right place to play this kind of stuff. Once it was seen that folks out here liked that hillbilly music the door opened a bit wider for that kind of thing at local clubs and theaters.”

The local bluegrass scene just kept growing thanks to bands like Leftover Salmon and major festivals such as Rockygrass and Telluride.

Emmitt said Leftover Salmon also helped launch a do-it-yourself trend in the roots music world.

“We were part of the movement of bands that were figuring out how to get on the road and make a career out of this,” he said. “We just loaded into a school bus and started traveling around.”

Emmitt said he misses that spirit of adventure, but not the struggle of their salad days.

“It was fun to be the new band that was breaking trail. All these record labels were pursuing us,” he said. “I don’t miss how hard it was and how hard we had to tour.”

They quickly discovered that Colorado was a convenient home base for incessant touring.

“It’s one of the best places in the country because you’re very central to everything,” Emmitt said.

He also said Colorado delivers the band’s most consistent fan base, and it’s always growing.

“It still amazes me how many people are still discovering the band,” Emmitt said. “We still keep generating a young crowd through our music.” He looks forward to once again playing Colorado shows, from small theaters like the Fox in Boulder to the famed outdoor venues, such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Even after more than a dozen appearances at the storied amphitheater, Emmitt is giddy for every show. “It never gets old, especially when it’s a sold out crowd,” he said.

The band is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a signed, limited-edition box set of all 10 studio albums. Visit leftoversalmon.com for more details.

Steve Graham is a freelance writer and former newspaper editor who likes taking his two young boys biking, hiking and brewery-hopping in northern Colorado.