Lucy Moore joins Meredith Carson in the KGNU studios for a wide-ranging conversation ahead of this year’s Mountain Fam Jam in Gold Hill. They talk about Lucy’s musical roots in the O’Brien and Moore family, growing up around KGNU and Colorado’s folk scene, becoming the event’s music director, and carrying forward the tradition of the longtime “Charles” concert.
The interview also features live performances by Lucy, including Townes Van Zandt’s “Buckskin Stallion” and Tim O’Brien’s “Edge of the Storm,” along with stories about family, touring, song collecting, and the community that has shaped her musical life (Air Date 7/17/26).
Listen to the local gold here:
Transcript:
Meredith Carson: Lucy, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Hello. Hello. Hi, Mare. How are you, Luce?
Lucy Moore: Hello.
Meredith Carson: Hello.
Lucy Moore: Hello, KGNU.
Meredith Carson: There you go. That’s who we’re talking to.
Lucy Moore: Denver, Boulder, worldwide.
Meredith Carson: Denver, Boulder, worldwide is right. Hey, you want to come be on the air all the time? You’re good at this.
Lucy Moore: I suppose I am. I’ve been listening to you my whole life.
Meredith Carson: Yeah.
Lucy Moore: You do have one of the best radio voices ever.
Meredith Carson: Oh, my darling. Thank you.
Lucy Moore: Even if you slow down your words sometimes, it’s still the best voice. We love it.
Meredith Carson: Thank you. As your Uncle Red Knuckles used to say, “Folks, let us know when it gets too slick for you.” That’s kind of my theme for this program.
Speaking of your Uncle Red Knuckles and your family, you are musical royalty in this state—and indeed all over the world.
Lucy Moore: At least on this station, for sure.
Meredith Carson: Well…
Lucy Moore: “Famous in our house” is our quip. There’s definitely a subset of people who say, “Your uncle? Your mom? Your dad?”
Meredith Carson: A pretty large subset. Your mom happens to be Molly O’Brien. Your dad happens to be, as I always call him, the fabulous Rich Moore. And then there’s that uncle—Red… Tim, whatever you want to call him.
Lucy Moore: Rich Moore’s brother-in-law.
Meredith Carson: Exactly. Tim O’Brien.
Lucy Moore: Molly O’Brien’s brother.
Meredith Carson: And your fabulous uncle.
One of the reasons we’ve invited you here today is that you’ve brought your nephew, Desi, who’s part of the next generation of the family.
Lucy Moore: Yes, my first nephew, Desi, born on Halloween 2020 under a blue moon. He’s here in the studio.
Meredith Carson: Dancing around and entertaining himself.
Lucy Moore: He’s getting a real taste of what my sister and I experienced growing up. We had the luxury of going to lots of concerts. Last night my folks played at the Longmont Museum, so Desi came up with them, and I took him home to Lyons with me.
Meredith Carson: You got the handoff.
Lucy Moore: I brought him to the station this morning after we watched some RC cars on YouTube and had a yogurt. We’ve got a gig tonight, and when we have to come to the station tomorrow, we don’t have a babysitter, so he’s coming with us.
Meredith Carson: Absolutely. That’s how we did it. We’d have a festival that weekend and people would say, “Get a babysitter.” We’d say, “Are you crazy?”
Lucy Moore: Or just don’t fall in the river. Hope somebody catches you—which actually happened once at RockyGrass. I’m fine. We’re all fine.
Meredith Carson: She lived to tell about it, ladies and gentlemen.
Lucy Moore: Desi’s getting the full experience.
My sister Brigette and I actually did a summer camp here when I was about 15, around 2003. Shelley Schlender and Sam Fuqua ran a camp where we produced radio segments. We collected nature sounds on the trail right outside.
I’m so glad we’re still in this station.
Meredith Carson: The current station.
Lucy Moore: Exactly. This is the station my sister and I have been coming to for most of our lives. I barely remember the earlier locations.
Meredith Carson: This has been home for most of your life.
Lucy Moore: It really has. I remember my mom saying, “I have to be on KGNU this morning. I’ll take you to Pearl Street afterward.”
That’s my plan today, too.
The next generation is here: Desi O’Brien Nava. We’re Lucy and Desi.
Meredith Carson: We are Lucy…
Lucy Moore: …and Desi. The DesiLu Suite over here.
Meredith Carson: I want to talk a little about the Mountain Jam. You’ve been coming ever since it started—which, well, it’s almost 40 years old now, so it’s older than you are.
Lucy Moore: I’m here to say on live radio that I believe Charles started it in the mid-’90s.
Meredith Carson: In a couple of years it’ll celebrate its 40th birthday.
Lucy Moore: That’s right. I’m 38, so the timing fits.
I still call it “the Charles.” We don’t call Twitter “X,” and it’s going to take a long time before anyone calls the Mountain Fam Jam anything but the Charles.
When I say “the Charles,” I mean the Mountain Fam Jam. Charles founded it a couple of years before he passed away in 1998. After he passed, KGNU kept it going.
Charles is one of those good spooky people who’s always around.
My mom became the music director after his passing and ran the event with the station for close to ten years.
Meredith Carson: I think it was closer to ten.
Lucy Moore: It covered all of my middle school years, high school, and some of college. Every third weekend of July meant Gold Hill.
Gold Hill is truly my favorite place on earth, so it’s wonderful to be able to do this job.
Meredith Carson: Me too.
For people who don’t know, there were several music directors in between. I was one for a few years.
Lucy Moore: Casey Groves.
Meredith Carson: Casey was great.
Lucy Moore: Bonnie Sims.
Meredith Carson: Bonnie was wonderful.
Lucy Moore: It’s a long line of powerful women that I’m following.
Meredith Carson: And Lucy is now the music director.
Lucy Moore: This is my third year.
Meredith Carson: So this first Mountain Fam Jam is going to be very, very family-oriented.
I love that you booked the family.
Lucy Moore: I finally booked myself this year. I didn’t do it the first or second year, but this year Tim was already coming, and I thought, “I need one more act. I guess it could be me.”
Then I was done booking.
Meredith Carson: “Okay, Lucy, you’re in.”
I’m glad you had to convince her instead of me. I’ve heard she’s difficult.
Lucy Moore: I live with her. Tell me about it.
Meredith Carson: We’d ask Desi, but he’s having too much fun.
So you’ve had a career as a professional musician for about ten years?
Lucy Moore: I guess so. It doesn’t necessarily keep the roof over my head, but I take every opportunity I can. I learned so much growing up with Rich and Molly—and Tim, too.
Meredith Carson: Tim has probably never had another job, but your parents certainly balanced music with other work.
Lucy Moore: My dad had a day job while my mom toured. He held down the household, took care of the kids, the dog, and the cat while she was on the road.
I looked up to her then, and she’s still my idol. I saw her sing last night, and I melted just like I do every time.
Music was always happening in our house.
Even while my dad worked full-time, he played with Celeste Krenz and had his own bands. Every morning before we left for school, he’d spend at least an hour practicing.
I got to see both versions of a musician’s life. My mom lived on the road with everything in one bag. My dad balanced a day job with making music. Both were completely valid.
Meredith Carson: And probably much more common.
Lucy Moore: Much more common. There’s only so much room at the top.
But music is for everyone. Music is everything.
I always took piano lessons growing up.
Meredith Carson: And trumpet.
Lucy Moore: I used to play trumpet—and accordion—which led me to Denver School of the Arts and then to Mills College. May it rest in peace.
Meredith Carson: We love Mills College.
Lucy Moore: It’ll always be Mills College to me. Some names don’t change.
Meredith Carson: Maybe we could hear a couple of songs.
Lucy Moore: Sure.
One thing about me is that I don’t really write songs. I have a couple in my toolkit, but I spent years hearing, “If you want to be taken seriously as a singer, you have to write your own songs.”
I don’t buy that anymore.
Meredith Carson: Hello, Barbra Streisand.
Lucy Moore: Hello, Barbra Streisand. Hello, Linda Ronstadt, who never wrote a song. Hello, Molly O’Brien. Ella Fitzgerald. Frank Sinatra.
They’re song interpreters.
There was a time when people criticized Woody Guthrie for writing his own songs. Later, people expected everyone to write their own material. Carole King wanted to sing her own songs but was told she didn’t have the right look, so other artists recorded them first.
Nobody really knows what’s going on. It’s all made up.
I just sing the songs I love.
I think it’s safe to say I know at least a thousand songs.
Meredith Carson: Okay—give me two.
Lucy Moore: I have that kind of brain.
I’m going to sing a song Alan Reynolds wrote that I learned from Marianne Faithfull.
I’m told I talk more than I play, but you also have to talk while you tune.
Meredith Carson: That always seemed like the hardest part.
Lucy Moore: When I saw John Craigie live, I kept thinking, “Enough with the songs. Tell another funny story.”
Meredith Carson: Exactly. Could you tune again, please?
Below is a cleaned transcript with timestamps, filler words, false starts, and verbal tics removed while preserving the conversational flow. I’ve left the song lyrics largely untouched, since they appear to be a performance rather than conversational speech.
Meredith Carson: Yep.
Lucy Moore: Music producer. You can find him under The Heavy Twelves. Check it out.
Here’s one that, any time it came on my iPod, I thought, “Oh, I have a song.” This is “Buckskin Stallion” by Townes Van Zandt.
And we don’t ask ChatGPT in my family. We ask Chat TVZ.
[Performance: “Buckskin Stallion”]
Meredith Carson: Lucy Moore, live in KGNU Studios. Chat TVZ indeed.
Lucy Moore: Always. Consult that oracle.
Meredith Carson: I think everything you need to know is right there.
Lucy Moore: Everything—just stay away from the glue.
Meredith Carson: There is that.
So when you called your Uncle Tim and said, “We’d love for you to come play the Mountain Fam Jam”—formerly the Charles—what did he say? We’ve asked him several times over the years, but the man is busy.
Lucy Moore: He is. I think a big part of it is that the Mountain Fam Jam always falls on the Sunday before RockyGrass Academy starts. Tim is teaching at the Academy this year, which means he’s already in town a week early. Otherwise, it would have been hard to justify flying in that far ahead of RockyGrass.
Meredith Carson: It had to be what we call routing.
Lucy Moore: Exactly. It was properly routed.
He’s also bringing my step-aunt, Jan Fabricius.
My mom is still the orchestrator of my life. Back in January or February she said, “Tim’s going to be here for the Academy. He’ll probably do the Charles.”
I finally asked him. Mom encouraged me to make the call myself, although she couldn’t help giving me a little push.
Meredith Carson: Connections are a big part of every musician’s life. Most musicians have to travel to make a living, and when you’re constantly on the road—as your mom was while you were growing up—you build relationships that go much deeper than just meeting someone at a conference.
Lucy Moore: That’s true. Whatever you’re passionate about, you find your people. For us, it’s music.
Meredith Carson: And our people will be up there on Sunday from noon until 5:00.
Today is the last day to buy tickets online at KGNU.org, although tickets will also be available at the gate tomorrow.
We’ve crossed a couple of major milestones in ticket sales this year—our best attendance since well before COVID—so we’re really excited.
Lucy Moore: I’d also like to give a lot of credit to our friend Taylor Sims.
We’ve been talking about Tim so much, but Taylor Sims Band is also playing.
Meredith Carson: The troubadour.
Lucy Moore: He’s like our honorary family member. He’s not actually related to us, but he’s like a brother to me. He and his wife Bonnie have become incredibly close friends since I moved to Boulder County. They’ve taught me so much about being a working musician.
Meredith Carson: They both know exactly what they’re doing. I love Big Richard. I love the Taylor Sims Band. I love Bonnie and the Clydes.
Lucy Moore: Never forget Bonnie and the Clydes.
Meredith Carson: May we have another song?
Lucy Moore: Absolutely.
I think I’ll do a Tim song. I may even play it on Sunday because Tim almost never performs this one.
It’s from Rock in My Shoe, which my sister and I listened to constantly growing up. Our grandparents’ car basically only had Tim and Molly CDs in it.
Meredith Carson: I’ve been to Wheeling, West Virginia in the summertime.
Lucy Moore: It’s a lot more humid than here.
Meredith Carson: Much more humid.
Lucy Moore: I hear you can still get a glass of chardonnay for about four dollars.
Meredith Carson: $3.99!
Tell your story while you tune.
I had lunch once with Lucy’s grandfather—Tim and Molly’s father. He was just a wonderful man. We were at a restaurant, and the women ordered red wine. I ordered white.
The waitress brought me what looked like a schooner of beer filled with wine.
I said, “That’s a really big glass of wine.”
She replied, “Well, for $3.99, I guess it would be.”
That’s still my favorite Wheeling, West Virginia story.
Lucy Moore: Good enough.
To quote my Uncle Tim, “We tune because you care.”
Meredith Carson: Exactly.
The Mountain Fam Jam is coming up the day after tomorrow in Gold Hill. We’ll have fantastic music, food, beverages, and, for the first time, a dedicated kids’ area with crafts, games, rock painting, mask making, crown making, beanbag tosses, and lots more.
I wanted to organize a spoon-and-rock race like we used to do years ago, but everyone immediately saw the liability in handing kids spoons and rocks.
Lucy Moore: We didn’t have any of that when I was growing up going to the Charles.
We had to make our own toys out of wood.
Meredith Carson: Painting rocks is about as close as we’re willing to get.
Lucy Moore: Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius are headlining.
Taylor Sims Band is our other featured act, and I’ll be playing the opening and in-between sets while everyone changes over.
We’ve also changed the format this year. Instead of three equal sets, the featured artists get longer performances.
Meredith Carson: People had mentioned they wished they could hear more from each act.
Lucy Moore: Exactly. If you’re bringing these incredible musicians all the way to Gold Hill, it makes sense to give them another twenty minutes or so.
All right—this is “Edge of the Storm,” written by my Uncle Tim.
[Performance: “Edge of the Storm”]
Meredith Carson: Lucy Moore, live on KGNU.
Lucy, it’s been such a pleasure having you here this morning.
Lucy Moore: Thank you, Meredith.
Meredith Carson: Thank you for coming in. KGNU has been one of your godparents, I think.
Lucy Moore: It really has.
Meredith Carson: Besides Sunday, do you have other gigs coming up?
Lucy Moore: I do.
The easiest place to keep up is lucymooremusic.com.
After the Mountain Fam Jam, I’ll be back at Gold Hill on September 20 with a band that’s still being finalized.
I’ll also be at the Rock Garden in Lyons with my trio, The Night Children. The trio includes Katie and Dustin, who also perform as Many Mountains.
We have two tracks available now while I finish my full-length album.
You can find them on all the streaming services, but I’d especially encourage people to visit lucymoore.bandcamp.com, where you can buy the music directly from me.
They’re released as Lucy Moore and the Night Children. Right now there are two tracks: one Gillian Welch song and one Bob Dylan song.
Meredith Carson: Excellent.
So the website is lucymooremusic.com.
Thanks again for coming in.
Lucy Moore: Thank you, KGNU.
Meredith Carson: Thank you.
Go out and see live music. Lucy has performances coming up, and you can find all the details on her website.
We’ve had Desi here in the studio with us…
Lucy Moore: …and Chloe.
Desi’s internal clock says it’s time to go to Trader Joe’s and let him choose whatever he wants.
Meredith Carson: Sounds like fun.
I’ll see you Sunday.
We’re going to head back into music. You mentioned John Craigie, so we’ll play something from I Swam Here.
Lucy Moore: See you Sunday afternoon in Gold Hill from noon to 5:00 with Tim O’Brien, Jan Fabricius, and the Taylor Sims Band.
Meredith Carson: Thanks again, Lucy.
