Avogadro’s Number – Center of Fort Collins Bluegrass

Avogadro’s Number (Avo’s), located just north of Colorado State University’s campus, is the headquarters of the bluegrass community in Fort Collins, Colo.

Every week old and new faces gather at Avo’s for the bluegrass jam to musically interact with others, whether performing or not.

Avogadro's Number, located on 605 S. Mason Street, is Fort Collins' bluegrass headquarters. The bluegrass jam is every Wednesday.

Avo’s bluegrass jam began in the 1980s, according to John Stewart, a Fort Collins veteran of the bluegrass scene.

Despite the restaurant/bar/music venue’s average size, Avo’s has featured many of the big names in the bluegrass music.

The relatively small stage cornering Avo’s ballroom has held well-known artists such as Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident and other Colorado-based bands.

Avo’s houses several bluegrass acts a month and features their house band The T Band Bluegrass Show frequently.

For a detailed list of upcoming events and concerts at Avogadro’s Number, visit their Web site.

Colorado Bluegrass — An Emerging Hub

Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Hot Rize, Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon — all are high profile names heard every day in the Bluegrass scene around the country.

But what do they all have in common?

In recent years, Colorado has held it’s place as one of the top locations in the country for high quality Bluegrass. Every name mentioned above has enjoyed highly successful careers in the Bluegrass business.

What is most impressive about Colorado’s Bluegrass scene, however, doesn’t lie within these acts. Instead, it is the unknowns; the young groups practicing in their living rooms for hours a day, the folks showing up to the Bluegrass jams and concerts around the state, those pushing to share their music with the community that produce the expanding reputation of Bluegrass in the Rocky Mountain state.

Fort Collins, a town of over 100,000 residents and home to Colorado State University, has established itself as a hub inside a hub. The town boasts a large amount of Bluegrass bands, consisting of different age groups, styles and fan bases. 

While many of the bands such as Head for the Hills, Windy Hill String Band and Good Gravy have grown from within the campus community, there are also several more mature bands with veteran Bluegrass pickers that contribute to the Bluegrass community.

Bands like the Bluegrass Patriots, White Water Ramble and The Billy Pilgrims have been a solid base for Fort Collins’ Bluegrass scene for years. These bands bring a more grounded structure to the scene in the college town and as they consist of members older than most college students, they bring a consistency to the ever-changing, growing scene.

Head for the Hills, a band that came together in their Freshman year inside the Colorado State University dormitories, is an example of the growing interest in Bluegrass music in Colorado. The band was voted the favorite local band among Colorado State University students in the Fall of 2008, according to the Rocky Mountain Collegian, CSU’s daily newspaper.

Another principal aspect of Fort Collins’ Bluegrass scene is Avogadro’s Number, a restaurant-bar-music venue with a local atmosphere where the town’s largest Bluegrass jam is held Wednesday nights. The jam is very informal and great for players of all levels. Don’t wait for it to start; the jam ussually begins as soon as someone starts a tune.

The Front Range of Northern Colorado is a primary spot for Colorado Bluegrass music, but that’s not to say that Bluegrass isn’t also thriving in other parts of the state.

For a list of Colorado Bluegrass bands, check out the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society.