Bluegrass and Vikings: The Annual Ullrgrass Festival Returns to Golden

Winter weather in the Rockies is unpredictable. For many, the latest polar vortex that brought subzero temperatures and a blanket of snow to the Front Range served as a good excuse to avoid the outdoors.

But in Golden, where recent highs peaked in the single digits, a group of modern-day Vikings is preparing to celebrate the reason for the season with the annual UllrGrass festival. The beer and bluegrass event, named in honor of the Norse god of winter, takes place in Parfet Park from Friday, January 31, to Sunday, February 2. Thankfully, the music is played under large, heated tents.

“The weather always keeps it interesting. In late January, it can be a full Norwegian Viking festival, or it can be a beautiful bluebird day,” says Jeremy Richard, the guitar-wielding vocalist and singer-songwriter behind Denver bluegrass band Pick & Howl. “I’ve ended up playing a four-string guitar by the end of the set due to the weather influence. It’s part of Colorado, right? We all have a pair of fingerless gloves.”

While it’s a little too early to predict the exact forecast for this year’s festival, performing in such capricious conditions typically requires “a lot of tuning,” according to Andrew Gordon, Pick & Howl’s dobro and pedal-steel player. “Your wooden instruments get out of whack. It can be quite an adventure."

Pick & Howl takes the Ullr Saloon Stage on Friday, January 31, at 5 p.m. The five-piece — which also includes Paul Larson on the Scruggs-style banjo, fiddle player Melissa Stube and Eric Gordon on double bass — is eager to share its new album, Country Symphony, released independently in November.
The dozen songs that comprise the record are a mix of lonesome ballads and original jigs inspired by Richard’s passion for hunting and living off the land, as well as growing up in Florida. “I source all my own food from hunting, so it’s an important thing for me. Our fall schedule slows as a result and how successful I am early,” he explains, adding that the title track and “Fever” were featured on episodes of the MeatEater Podcast hosted by Steven Rinella. “But there are a lot of voice memos while out hunting.”

Colorado Symphony is Pick & Howl’s first offering since the group won the 2022 RockyGrass band competition, as well as the debut of Stube. “We had been picking in campgrounds with her for a while, so it was cool to finally put the pieces together and officially welcome her into the band,” Richard says.

In fact, all the members initially met in the nocturnal-yet-fertile campground scene of past Telluride Bluegrass festivals before banding together in 2018. Now with Stube, “it’s a different kind of attack and feel,” as Andrew Gordon sees it.

“It’s a little less fast but a different style of songwriting that maybe tends more country and goes hand in hand with that kind of lonesome nature stuff Jeremy was experiencing at that time,” he continues.

The latest material will be a good way to combat the cold, too, especially a spunky ditty like “My Own Shoes.”

“Once the crowd gets packed, the tent gets packed, people start dancing, you warm up pretty quick,” Richard says.

There will be plenty of opportunities to heat up with some hot tuneage throughout the weekend. The other bands on the UllrGrass bill are Brandywine & the Mighty Fines, Magoo, Great American Taxi, Rolling Harvest, Easy Tiger, Coral Creek, Still House String Band, Railroad Earth's Todd Sheaffer & the UllrGrass All-Stars, Timberline Troubadours, Broken Compass Bluegrass, Madeline Hawthorne and Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth.

Festivities also include Saturday’s beer festival, Family Day on Sunday, food trucks, local artisans, dance performances, an UllrEgg Hunt and a costume contest (remember, horned helmets are the preferred headwear for an extravaganza like this).

The creation of Golden couple Chris and Susannah Thompson, UllrGrass is in its eleventh year and has become a must-do for locals and New Age powder pirates alike. Plus, it’s all for a good cause, as the proceeds from the volunteer-powered event benefit Broomfield nonprofit A Precious Child and Golden’s Coral Creek Kids Music Project, which Chris Thompson (also of the band Coral Creek) founded in an effort to deliver music education and performance to elementary school students in Colorado.

“The only way this event can happen is with the support of our incredible Golden community,” Susannah Thompson shares. “It takes a village to throw a festival with more than 100 volunteers and fifty-plus local businesses working together to pull it off. Every year we are humbled by the collaboration of our town.”

For acts like Pick & Howl, UllrGrass is ultimately a toast to those who don’t let a little ornery weather get in the way of a good time.

“Bottomline, it’s very Colorado to even think about throwing a festival in January that’s outdoors mostly,” Andrew Gordon concludes. “But that means a lot of string music and good beer, and people aren’t scared of the weather. People show up, so it’s really cool.”

UllrGrass, 3:45 p.m.-midnight Friday, January 31, 11 a.m.-midnight Saturday, February 1, and 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sunday, February 2, Parfet Park, 719 10th Street, Golden. Tickets are $18.