By Kyle Kirves

A musical genre that evolved out of religious spirituals, workingman’s chants, lovelorn laments, and murder ballads – bluegrass, by name -- maybe doesn’t have the best reputation for having a sense of humor.

Well Big Richard is here to change that.

“We take the egos out of it and we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” says Emma Rose, Big Richards’s standup bass player. “We laugh a lot and bring a lot of humor and energy to the stage.”

Big Richard’s all-women quartet of Bonnie Sims (mandolin), Emma Rose (bass, guitar), Eve Panning (fiddle), and Joy Adams (cello) are well-established musicians already familiar to Colorado music fans. Now, they’ve come together as a supergroup and are branding themselves as a y’allternative to the stoic, straightlaced world of traditional bluegrass.

And the name Big Richard? Yeah – it’s a reference to what you think it is.

“We originally got together to support a local festival when they realized they had hired mostly male groups for their lineup,” Eve says. “They wanted an all-female band to get on stage and we all knew each other from the scene.”

See them live
Big Richard has several Colorado dates on tap, starting with a set Saturday, May 28, at the MeadowGrass Music Festival in Colorado Springs; and a Sunday, May 29, show at Mainstage Brewing in Lyons. Click here for more dates and details.

The promoters asked them to perform under the banner of McAwesome Women of Bluegrass. But they had other ideas.

“We changed that to Spirit Dicks of the Rocky Mountains,” Eve continues. “But we settled on Big Richard shortly after that.”

“We were having a little fun lampooning that male-centric aspect of the music,” Bonnie says.

The experience was energizing, the attitude infectious, and the results already semi-legendary. The early rehearsals generated so much laughter and good times that they knew they had to do more than just the one show. “After that first performance, we knew we had to chase this energy we had with each other,” Bonnie says.

The band quickly settled in, playing to each other’s strengths, and sharing the spotlight in ways maybe foreign to other gendered groups. With three different singers to call on, a diverse history of playing together and apart in various ways over the years, and a bottomless well of styles to draw from, the music is like a folk recipe everyone contributes to over time with a “little bit of this, and a little bit of that.”

Like all bluegrass stories, though, this one’s roots go back farther than that. Emma had envisioned putting together an all-female lineup years before. “When I moved back I knew I wanted to make a supergroup of the most powerful badass women musicians that I knew,” she says. “Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone that fits that description more than these three.”

The consensus among the bandmates is that while the product may be music, the process is what keeps things lively and interesting. “We really like hanging out and playing music with each other and being straight about what we want out of it and having a good time.”

Now, with over a dozen shows behind them – including an appearance on Boulder’s eTown in April and Montana’s Big Sky Big Grass festival – Big Richard is ready to hit the road. Inspired by live audiences, they all contend that the folks at shows really are like the fifth member of the band.

“All of us have realized how much the audience is a part of the music. We didn’t have audiences for a couple of years there (during the pandemic). We need that energy. We bring them in and it’s so fulfilling to have that conversation with them and that participation from them,” Joy says.

The home state audiences are particularly special to the group. “Colorado fans are determined to have a good time. We played WinterWonderGrass and it was minus-6 degrees and people were still out,” Emma says. “At the Telluride festival it was snowing and sleeting and we watched people pull their jackets out and encourage us to just keep going. Colorado fans are unstoppable.”

Joy echoes the sentiment. “There simply is no other audience like a Colorado audience. They just want music all night long. There is no other fan base like this one.”

“We want the audience to know that we love them,” Bonnie says. “We do that through a highly entertaining show and we take them on a journey and show them how much fun making music with your friends can be.”

Women are often the subjects (or even objects) of old school bluegrass songs. Big Richard proves that ladies are up to the storytelling challenge as well – and making it relevant and liberating for diverse audiences. When asked about where bluegrass music stands today, and Big Richard’s role in bringing a fresh perspective to an established, often conservative musical style, Joy suggests that bluegrass “has been presented in a certain way for over 70 years, largely by white men. We want to deliver this music and message in a way that highlights the voices of women.”

“There’s a certain role that women in bluegrass bands are supposed to fill and we’ve all done that. Look a certain way, play a certain way. None of us really like to do that or want to do that anymore,” Joy says. “We can shred alongside a person of any gender and in this band we’re proving it and making each other more powerful through it.”

Bonnie fully agrees. “Sometimes putting a band together and keeping it together takes a lot of work. This one just felt like it kind of fit together in an instantly beautiful and harmonious way.”

“It’s an instrumentation you don’t see often. We have a lot more space to be creative and we kind of have an ability to read each other’s minds,” Eve says.

So if you’re thinking of attending a Big Richard show – and with dates and appearances popping up all over this summer, why wouldn’t you? – be ready for a wildly entertaining, humor-filled, and delightful show that spotlights the voices and abilities of these talented women.