For three weeks, eight Colorado College students traded the traditional classroom for stages, rehearsal spaces, campgrounds, and music venues across the West as part of the Advanced Topics in Music: On the Road Block A class.
Led by Bluegrass Ensemble Director Keith Reed, the students studied the history and cultural impact of folk and bluegrass music while developing their vocal and instrumental skills. They also learned something harder to teach: how to trust themselves, their classmates, and the process of becoming a band.
That lesson began almost immediately.
Just one week into the block, the students arrived for their first gig at Pine Creek Lodge in Livingston, Montana, facing a daunting task: perform nearly 25 songs over almost two hours for a live audience.
“The main thing I took away from this class was my ability to trust and lean into the process of learning and performance,” says Shaden Higgs ’29. “It was exciting and nerve-racking to perform over 20 songs in front of a live audience with classmates I had met a week ago, and a set list we had thrown together in the hours leading up to the show.”
When students worried about whether they would be ready to compete against professional musicians at a band contest, Reed encouraged them to trust themselves and assured them they would fit right in with the other musicians.
“I really don't think that we believed him that it would go well until it happened,” says Higgs, who plays mandolin and fiddle.
For Higgs and her classmates, the music quickly became about more than preparing for performances. Students began practicing and creating music together on their own.
“Georgia, Jack, and I would spend hours by the river learning songs and making up harmonies,” Higgs says. “Keith didn't tell us to do that extra practice. We just felt so inspired to learn and to rise to the occasion of the class and to this opportunity to perform together on stage.”
Almost all of the students had taken lessons on their instruments before enrolling in the course, but for most, this was their first experience performing regularly as professional musicians.
Reed, who has taught the class almost every year since 2016, says every student played an important role in the group's success. Throughout the block, he and Off-Campus Program Director Cori Moore provided individual music lessons and led group practices. Reed, who plays banjo, and Moore, who plays guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, also performed alongside the students.
After their first performance in Montana, the group spent a week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they became more comfortable performing together and developed set lists for their upcoming shows.
Then, Reed threw them another curveball.
During dinner one evening, he arranged an impromptu performance. Without a set list prepared in advance, the students had to rely on one another and the skills they had developed during the block. They worked together to build a set on the spot—and successfully performed it.
“Through this class, Keith guided us towards a mindset of play and trust in the pieces falling into place, rather than stress and perfection,” Higgs says.
That mindset became central to the students' experience as they moved from one performance to the next.
Between gigs, the students spent much of their time rehearsing, but the class also made room to experience the places they were visiting. They visited Lava Hot Springs in Idaho, went whitewater rafting in Wyoming, and spent a day at Yellowstone National Park.
The group performed at several venues throughout the block, including Dornan’s Hootenanny in Moose, Wyoming; Pine Creek Lodge in Livingston, Montana; and Sidewall Pizza in Bozeman, Montana.
The experience culminated at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, a renowned multi-day music festival in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. There, CC Bluegrass competed against nine other teams in the preliminary round of the festival's Band Contest.
For students who had spent only a few weeks learning to perform together, stepping onto the Telluride stage offered a final test of everything they had learned.
“The way the class culminates with the pressure of the hallowed band contest stage provides a very direct and real experience for them,” says Director of Field Study Drew Cavin, who traveled to Telluride to watch the students compete. “There is no simulation in front of a crowd when you are on stage. Having a class of musicians, some experienced, some beginners, come together and in the span of a block create a cohesive set list and confidence to perform—it's such a powerful experience!”
After their performance, the students stayed to enjoy the festival and celebrate what they had accomplished.
For Higgs, the lessons from the block extended beyond music.
“Musical performance, skill, and cohesion are not something that can be rushed or directly taught,” she says. “True growth comes from a love of learning and an open embrace of the material you are presented with, allowing you to form connections that could never appear in a structured environment.”
