In this KGNU interview, Rebecca Frazier chats with Meredith Carson about her upcoming performance at the 37th Annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam in Gold Hill. She’ll headline the event with an “All-Star Jam” featuring Becky Buller, Ned Luberecki, and Eric Thorin—musicians she’s collaborated with in various settings. Rebecca shares her excitement about returning to Gold Hill, a place with deep personal and musical roots, and invites listeners to join for what promises to be a special afternoon of bluegrass in the mountains. (Interview: 7/18/25)
Meredith Carson:
We are gonna get Rebecca on the air with us right now. Good morning, ma’am! Good morning—how are you?
Rebecca Frazier:
I am so well, and I’m so excited about seeing you on Sunday. We’re flying out tomorrow.
Meredith Carson:
Okay, well, you know—drink lots of water, ’cause you’re gonna be way high up in the air when you get here.
We’ve been playing tunes from your new CD, Boarding Windows in Paradise, and it has been getting a lot of airplay at KGNU. Tell us a little bit about what you were thinking about when you were writing all these songs.
Rebecca Frazier:
Oh, that’s a great question—because you probably noticed there’s a lot of Colorado in there, especially in the first stretch, “High Country Road Trip.”
For those who don’t know, I spent about a decade out there—one year in Telluride and the rest in the Front Range, in Boulder. Our band, Hit and Run, toured quite a bit out there in those mountains.
Meredith Carson:
Absolutely.
Rebecca Frazier:
It was inspiring—the landscape, the people. I was inspired, partially by that, and partially by my coastal upbringing on the East Coast. Just realizing the natural disasters that keep happening on the coast—they became a good metaphor for me and what I was going through, which was a difficult divorce at the time.
Realizing how much maintenance it can take to have a beautiful life—to live life well—and all the emotions that go with that.
Meredith Carson:
Well, it’s a wonderful CD and has been very popular here at the station with the DJs. We’ve just worn it out, practically!
We’re looking forward to seeing you. For the two or three of you out in the listening audience who weren’t tuned in earlier, we are talking to Rebecca Frazier, who is going to be headlining the 37th Annual Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam on Sunday afternoon.
Rebecca is in a loosely based group—who, I don’t think, has maybe ever played together before. Correct me if I’m wrong, Rebecca. You’ll be playing with Becky Buller, Ned Luberecki, and Eric Thorin. Is that a new ensemble for you?
Rebecca Frazier:
We’re calling it an All-Star Jam. Becky’s played in my band, and I’ve played in Becky’s band. All of us have played together at one point or another. I used to play with Eric when I lived out there. And when Becky and I teach at camps together, we often team up and get on stage together. We’ve been friends for a long time.
Meredith Carson:
And then after your performance, you and Becky are staying around to teach at the RockyGrass Academy, is that correct?
Rebecca Frazier:
Yes—and Ned, of course, on banjo! RockyGrass is one of my favorite camps in the nation. It is such a blast. I’ll be teaching flatpicking guitar, and Becky will be teaching fiddle. I can’t wait. I just haven’t been there in two years, so it’s gonna be really fun to be back at the Planet.
Meredith Carson:
We are really happy to see you. I know you’ll see all your friends at the Planet and then come up to Gold Hill on Sunday for the Charles, in the side yard of the Gold Hill Inn. Have you been to Gold Hill? It’s an old stage stop up in the mountains above Boulder.
Rebecca Frazier:
Yes! Gold Hill has some awesome history for me.
Meredith Carson:
Oh, cool!
Rebecca Frazier:
I played there a lot. I had a band called The All Night Honky Tonk All-Stars with Danny Shafer and Greg Schochet, and we played there New Year’s. Hit and Run used to play there all the time. Gold Hill has a special place in my heart.
I hope you guys listening will head up the hill. I had a little contest on Instagram and played a mystery tune—got people to guess. I’m excited that somebody answered who’s going to come to the show and get to have my special guest pass.
If you guys haven’t been up there, it is the most beautiful way to spend a Sunday. I can’t imagine anything better.
Meredith Carson:
It would really be fun! The All-Star Jam will be headlining a show that also includes Todd Livingston—fabulous dobro player—and Foggy Mountain Spaceship, which is incredible and intergalactic. So it’s going to be a very fun afternoon of music.
Rebecca, we’re really looking forward to seeing you. Have a safe flight from Nashville. So, Boarding Windows in Paradise—is that your newest release? Are you working on another one, or what’s up in your recording part of life?
Rebecca Frazier:
That’s an awesome question. I just released it last September.
Meredith Carson:
Yeah.
Rebecca Frazier:
The lineup—which was Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, and Stuart Duncan on banjo, mandolin, and fiddle—was an all-star lineup that Bill Wolf, who was Tony Rice’s producer and also worked with the Grateful Dead, put together. I had no idea those guys would say yes. They said yes, and it was super exciting.
We have some tracks already recorded for the next one, also produced by Billy Wolf, and I’m planning to do a few more soon. I don’t know an exact release date yet, but yes—it’s in the works, which is exciting.
Meredith Carson:
At some point in the future.
Rebecca Frazier:
Right. And I tell people—because I’m a single mom now—moms can do it all, but they just can’t do it all at the same time. Right?
Meredith Carson:
Yes ma’am. I know that from experience as well.
Well, it has been so great talking to you. We can’t wait to see you on Sunday at the Gold Hill Inn for the Charles Sawtelle Memorial Mountain Jam. We’re gonna have Becky and Ned on Sunday’s program, I think, so that’ll be super fun—and then we’ll see you up the hill.
Rebecca Frazier:
I can’t wait to see all of you listeners out there. Thanks for making your plans to come!
Meredith Carson:
Absolutely. Tickets are available right now at KGNU.org. And we’re gonna go back to Rebecca’s newest CD, Boarding Windows in Paradise, and play that tune she wrote about Colorado—this is “High Country Road Trip.” Rebecca Frazier, on KGNU.
