Bluegrass band Hot Rize, seen here playing the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2008, will return in 2010 — along with an impressive slate of bluegrass and indie rock musicians. Photo by Nathan Rist.

The folks at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival are known for their incredibly popular, increasingly diverse summer music showcase — and we’re happy to announce the fest’s initial artists for 2010. Of course Sam Bush and his band will be there, and Bela Fleck — well, we couldn’t imagine a TBF without him. But there will also be some brilliant indie-leaning acts in the mix, too.

Mumford & Sons seduced Team Reverb at South By Southwest earlier this year — so much so that I saw them twice, the first of which came by recommendation of Planet Bluegrass’ Brian Eyster. (Listen to “The Cave” and you’ll understand our fixation.) Eyster and his colleagues at Planet Bluegrass are bringing Mumford & Sons to Telly in 2010 — and they’ll also host another Reverb favorite, Josh Ritter, for a full band set.

(Ritter’s outrageously great indie folk LP, “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter,” was my No. 2 record of 2007 — right behind the Avett Brothers’ “Emotionalism.”)

Given that Planet Bluegrass also helped introduce us to Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, which just played to a sold-out Boulder Theater last week (see the Reverb review and pictures here), it’s no surprise that the 11-piece collective will be back in Telly for a summertime show or two.

Bonus: When tickets go on sale Wednesday morning, a limited number of holiday-priced ($30 discount) four-day passes will be available for $155. According to the Planet Bluegrass folks, “These holiday passes typically sellout in a couple weeks.”

Telly’s initial artist announcement:

Sam Bush Band

More to be announced

Four-day passes go on sale at 9am Wednesday via 800-624-2422 or the Planet Bluegrass website. Single-day tickets will be available in the early spring — along with the announcement of the festival’s single-day lineup.

Follow Reverb on Twitter! Here!

Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of Reverb and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the Underground Music Showcase, Colorado’s premier indie music festival. Follow his whimsies at Twitter, his live music habit at Gigbot and his iTunes addictions at Last.fm.

More from Reverb

• Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris to play 2011 Telluride Bluegrass
• This year's Mile High Music Festival just got better
• News: OneRepublic (and likely the Fray) to play 2010 Olympics

Ask Reverb To Recommend Your Posts