Chuck Sitero of High Lonesome is Playing for World Peace

“When I came up in bluegrass, it was only white dudes,” explains Chuck Sitero, founding member of Lyons, Colorado-based bluegrass outfit High Lonesome. “It was nobody that was gay, it was nobody that was Black, it was nobody that was anything else. And we’ve come forward, and now I’m afraid, honestly, that it’s going to go back to the way it was, which is not very interesting when you go to a convention, and it’s just 5,000 white dudes in suits singing about shit that was relevant 100 years ago.”

Started in Atlanta, Georgia, by Sitero with a different group of musicians, Sitero relocated to Colorado and created a new iteration of High Lonesome, one where he could play the type of bluegrass music that he wanted to play. “I had a very traditional band back home,” he explains while wearing his Atlanta Braves baseball cap, a nod towards his time in Georgia, “because the musicians there are, I wouldn’t call them narrow-minded, but they’re not exposed to what we’re exposed to here in Colorado. This scene has cultivated itself into a very open-minded bluegrass. Bluegrass here means something different than in the South. And I like it here because I’m able to play this kind of music here, and I just couldn’t do it down there in Atlanta. There just [weren’t] the musicians. If I brought these songs to them, they’d be like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

After tinkering with the lineup a bit, Sitero has finally settled on a group of musicians he considers a “cohesive unit” who have been playing together for about a year now, although Sitero has been playing with guitarist Dylan Kober for about three years now. And with every big gig the band gets, they find themselves even more excited for the future. “I never thought I would ever play eTown,” says Sitero, reflecting on the band’s recent performance at one of Boulder’s most beloved venues. “I never thought I would ever do any of these things. And we’re just, we’re getting a lot of big gigs, and they’re just getting bigger and bigger.”

Following the recent release of the band’s self-titled debut album back in November, the band sees themselves booking bigger and more interesting shows. Upcoming shows for High Lonesome include TheBigWonderful in Winter Park on April 5, a performance at one of the band’s favorite venues, Swallow Hill in Denver on April 19, and a stop off at the Gold Hill Inn in Gold Hill on May 30. “We don’t really choose any shows that we don’t want to do anymore,” Sitero explains in a way that sounds proud without being braggy. “We’ve been putting in the work the last four years. We’ve played all the little places, and we really just can’t even fit our fan base into a small place right now, so we’re just being really selective about [choosing shows] unless we get out of the front range.”

So, what is the appeal of High Lonesome that’s causing them to become a bigger and bigger name in the Colorado music scene? Besides their carefully crafted melodies in their unique cocktail of modern bluegrass, Sitero sees the band as escapism in an increasingly scary world. “We basically play for world peace over here,” says Sitero. “Our music is out there to entertain people and take people’s minds off of the current things that are happening with the United States and the world.” And, with no shortage of things in this world to be horrified about, maybe the gentle guitar pickings of High Lonesome are just what we need.

Like journalism like this? Consider becoming a sustaining supporter (and get our printed copy monthly at home.)

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.