Photo by Tim Timberlake.
Colorado bluegrass group Hot Rize will share the stage with other non-bluegrass artists as part of the Third Annual RootsFest, presented by Swallow Hill at Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver.
Rootsfest will be held in celebration of Swallow Hill’s 3oth anniversary as a nonprofit organization in support of roots music. As Swallow Hill’s biggest event of the year, the festival will take place on Saturday, March 28.
The festival is formerly known as the Denver Folk and Roots Music Festival.
Both Hot Rize and Swallow Hill are approaching their 30th anniversary, although Hot Rize’s dynamics have changed since their years among the top of the bluegrass circuit. Bryan Sutton, one of the most renowned bluegrass guitarists of the younger generation, is the newest member of the band.
Sutton essentially is the replacement for Hot Rize’s original guitar player Charles Sawtelle who passed away in 1999.
Hot Rize, especially Sawtelle, has an important history with Swallow Hill; Sawtelle Studios was created by Swallow Hill in 1998 and specializes in producing acoustic music by Colorado musicians. Tim O’Brien, Hot Rize’s mandolinist and vocalist, learned much about music at Swallow Hill before Hot Rize formed in Boulder in 1989.
Hot Rize has only performed on rare occasions since the rebirth of the band with Sutton as guitarist. Their most recent concert was at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco on October 4.
The band currently has no other events on their schedule, according to their Web site and jambase.com.
Other acts at the Third Annual Rootsfest include Leo Kotkke and Shawn Colvin.
