I obsessively love [old] Mumford and saw them both years at TBF including their first year at the Opera House (before literally anyone knew who they were outside of the UK, which was special- and amazing) but they don’t play folk music any more. Their latest album ‘Wilder Mind’ released last year is electric guitar and synth-heavy arena pop rock a-la Coldplay, but not as good. Their tour last summer was with the Flaming Lips and some folky bands too as part of their carnival-like festival setup, but they’ve been solidly selling themselves as an electric rock band.
It’s extremely unlikely that they’ll ever return to Telluride because of how their sound has changed. There’s no banjo or even any other acoustic instruments at all on the album, if I’m not mistaken. Their 2011 Main Stage performance was far and away the greatest performance I’ve seen at Telluride in the years since I’ve been coming to the Fest (since 2004). And their 2010 Opera House show during their first year hear was nothing short of historic. Standing at the band’s feet in that tiny 214 person capacity venue and hearing songs like ‘Little Lion Man’ and ‘The Cave’ performed for the first time before the entire world knew them and loved them just a short time later was mind blowing and tear-invoking to say the least. I’ve seen a lot of music and all different kind and I’d never experienced anything like them before.