Text and photos by Tim Van Schmidt

Pulp Non-Fiction: A Music Journalism Journey

Thank you, Mrs. Lewis.

Mrs. Lewis was my journalism teacher in junior high. She was also a girls’ gym teacher. There were no frills about her.

I had just moved to California and on being enrolled at the local school, it was decided that I should try a journalism course.

When it came time to produce the first school newspaper — “The C Breeze” — Mrs. Lewis told me to write an article. When I asked about what, she simply replied, “What are you interested in?”

That did it. I wrote a review of a Grand Funk Railroad/Black Sabbath concert I had just seen at the “Fabulous Forum” in Los Angeles. “Funk at the Forum” became my first published article in March 1971. Music was the thing for me from the very start.

But that wasn’t all. Mrs. Lewis’ freewheeling attitude toward school newspaper content became a creative well-spring for me and I contributed artwork, drew a comic strip, wrote articles and published poems. Once I saw my stuff turned into ink on paper, I was hooked.

OK, you could say that’s just junior high. But I say that was a significant launching point for the creative energy that has propelled me for many years. I’m grateful for it.

Now I’d like to thank Mr. Wiener. He was my high school journalism teacher. After the initial introductory course, my classmates and I were then given staff assignments on the school paper — “The Hunter’s Call.” When he came to me, Mr. Wiener said that I was going to be a “freelance writer” and that I could work on anything I wanted.

Right on, Mr. Wiener. You don’t know how right you were.

I pretty much went the “young poet” route in college — after finding out I had to take a typing test to get into the journalism department — and published original work in the small press throughout the country.

But once I settled into Fort Collins in 1980, the writing bug kept biting me. It is said that you should write about what you know, so I wrote about music, and wrote about it, and wrote some more until local papers and magazines noticed — and then I became really busy.

There’s a John Lennon song where he explains that “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” I thought I was going to be a big author and travel the world doing readings, lectures and book signings.

Instead I became a Rocky Mountain newspaper writer, photographer, editor, and publisher.

I haven’t published books residing in the libraries of the world. Instead, I have filled reams of newsprint that mostly have ended up either being recycled or layered throughout the county landfill.

I have helped create a lot of pulp.

Doing so involved experiencing some of the most exciting and interesting events and people in my life. What I wrote about was real life and I hope I entertained and informed readers with my stories.

When the last newspaper I wrote for in the area closed in 2008, I didn’t mind. In fact, I celebrated a release from “the tyranny of print.” I went all in on publishing, especially my photography, on the Internet.

I counted more than a million visitors to my web sites until I just stopped counting. Those big, anonymous numbers were impressive, but honestly, they just were not as satisfying as holding a real, non-digital product in your hand. Maybe I just love the smell of ink on newsprint.

So now, I want to thank the North Forty News. They started publishing my articles last year and getting back into print — after years in the electronic forest — feels great.

But more, I have realized that ink on paper is a commitment above and beyond the electronic blips on my computer screen. I like going the extra step and making my writing and photos, for however short a time as it may last, “real.”

I want to thank Angelina for opening the door to these opportunities. Thanks also to Matt for encouragement. But above all I’d like to thank Blaine for keeping the whole show going. The basic lessons Mrs. Lewis and Mr. Wiener taught me so long ago are still coming in handy today because of them.

Here’s a list of area publications that I have published stuff in as a freelancer and I include it because it acts as kind of a street level history of Noco publishing:

North Forty News/The New Weekly Scene, RM Parent, Everybody Eats, Triangle Review, The Front, The Front Ranger, Fort Collins’ Forum, Fort Collins Coloradoan, Ticket, Xplore, Mason Street Oracle, Beat News and Music, The Scene, Rocky Mountain Brews, Inside Fort Collins, On Stage, Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, Spectrum, Riff, Johnstown Breeze, Changing Woman, Style, Travel Host, Rocky Mountain Spirit, Locally Owner Retailer, Business World, Healing Path, The Source, Poudre Magazine, Business Report, Mishawaka News, Rocky Mountain Collegian, Fort Collins Now, and Art Linc.

I am very satisfied with the first fifty years of my career — but I’m already thinking about next week’s paper.

Our Back Yard: A Colorado Road Trip

Some weeks ago I wrote about cancelling international trips due to the never ending pandemic. And after this long slog, I have learned to steer clear of any big travel plans.

Still, I can’t help but fantasize about getting out of town. And the fantasy I have settled on — a dream road trip to great destinations in Colorado — is doable because it’s in my own back yard.

This trip also has all the earmarks of grandeur and culture you would want to experience anywhere else in the world. In fact, people from all over the world come here to experience it.

Let’s start with Estes Park. I know, crowds, even hordes of people are the first thing that comes to mind. But since this is a fantasy, let’s pretend that Rocky Mountain National Park was all yours for a day.

I would spend that day hiking — and I wouldn’t be in a hurry. It wouldn’t really matter which trail. Every step of the way would reveal a new mountain peak and every rock outcropping a new vista point.

High alpine lakes would shimmer under the full Colorado sun and pure white clouds would skate quickly across the sky pushed on by a brisk mountain breeze. There would still be some tough, frozen cornices high above tree line and elk would be wandering around in the meadows below. This is the picture perfect Colorado scene that makes Rocky Mountain Park so incredibly popular.

We get to enjoy Rocky Mountain in 2021, but it was a long time in the making. The land became government property in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. President Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act in 1915. And a lot of the roads and trails in the park were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Next, I would head south on US 285 to get a good view of the Collegiate Peaks, then cut off at CO 17 straight down to the Great Sand Dunes. This place is as grand in scale as the mountains but so very different. It is such a stark, yet beautiful landscape, making people look very tiny.

The Great Sand Dunes are open all year, all day and all night. Besides featuring those enormous piles of sand, the park also protects grasslands, wetlands, forests and tundra. But the dunes themselves are big — in 2020 the tallest dune in the park was measured at 742 feet from base to top.

Just a short jog down the road hooks you up with US 160 and I would head west on this exceptionally pretty Colorado highway through Pagosa Springs to Durango for an overnight. After all that travel, a trip to Ska Brewing would be in order.

But the next morning I would hit the road early to spend the whole day at Mesa Verde National Park.

The views aren’t bad there either, but this is a place that calls me for other reasons. The ruins of a long-gone culture that had once thrived in the area still tell the story of people who built complex homes while blending into the landscape.

Ancestral Pueblo people lived in the Mesa Verde area 700 years ago. The National Park was established in 1906 to preserve the thousands of archeological sites, including hundreds of cliff dwellings.

My final destination would be to head north from Mesa Verde, see some more Colorado mountain beauty in Telluride, then the Grand Mesa in Grand Junction but finally end up at Dinosaur National Monument. This trades a sense of cultural history for a sense of natural history — both connected to ancient worlds.

In the Quarry Exhibit Hall at Dinosaur, for example, more than a thousand dinosaur fossils can be viewed on the cliff wall. These pre-date petro glyphs found elsewhere in the park by thousands of years and speak to the vastness of time.

The trip home would still offer more great Colorado driving — east on US 40 through Steamboat, splitting off on CO 14 to Walden, over Cameron Pass and down the Poudre Canyon, our own Colorado treasure. It’d be great to stop off at Mishawaka for a cool – or hot — drink on the back porch, next to the rushing river, before finally getting home.

Home. When you live in Colorado — and have a chance to enjoy any of the above or whatever your own Colorado fantasy might be — that’s such an excellent word.

Sweet Summer Dreams of Mishawka

There is at least one good reason to hope for the best for the 2021 summer concert season at Mishawaka even as pandemic restrictions continue. That reason is named Samantha Fish.

Fish is a gutsy guitarist, a riveting singer and a confident bandleader when she serves up her rocking blues music on stage. I saw her deliver an electrifying set at the Greeley Blues Jam a few years ago. (BTW, there is no news yet about the annual Blues Jam in 2021.) Fish is scheduled to play Mishawaka on May 21, a one year postponement from 2020.

That’s a long time to wait, but Fish is worth it. The bonus to this May date is seeing Fish at Mishawaka.

If you’re new to the area, Mishawaka is a live music haven on Highway 14 in the Poudre Canyon. The address is 13714 Poudre Canyon Highway, Bellvue. The concert area is right on the river, literally roaring only a few feet away, with people in kayaks rushing by and steep canyon hills rising majestically beyond.

Longtime area residents know Mishawaka as a particularly unique northern Colorado venue and any live music fan worth their salt has been there multiple times over the years.

Personally, I have had some interesting times indeed at Mishawaka. For example, there was the time I was there for a Hot Tuna show when I got tapped to go backstage and interview the band. I didn’t have a pen or even a piece of paper but within minutes I found myself hanging out with Jorma and Jack in the Green Room — more like the “Green Cabin” — talking about Hot Tuna’s revival efforts at the time.

Another great Mishawaka moment came when I went to a show there by Billy Preston. It was a thin crowd so it wasn’t a big deal to be dancing up by the front of the stage. When Preston lit into Sly Stone’s “Higher,” he shoved the mike in front of my face every time he sang “I want to take you higher.” I got to yell “Higher!” in response several times — we made quite a team, Billy and I.

Then there was my encounter with David Bromberg. I had had a kind of rough interview with him by phone before the show. At the event, on the outer deck above the river, he and I hooked up for a few minutes and I told him that I “felt like an idiot” during the interview. Bromberg came back at me without skipping a beat and said, “You weren’t an idiot. I’ve talked to some idiots.”

Other memorable shows include a beautiful sunny afternoon with the subdudes. I can’t tell you why or when, just that everything seemed to be perfect about that day. Not only was a great band on stage, but it seemed like everyone we knew from Fort Collins was there. We even had our kids with us. You can’t have any more fun than that, Noco style.

Over the years, I’ve seen a wide diversity of artists at Mishawaka including Buckethead, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Cliff, Horrorpops, Los Lobos, Toots and the Maytalls, Firefall, Leo Kottke, David Grisman, and John Mayall. But more than international headliners, Mishawaka has also staged countless regional bands as well.

Located 13.7 miles up the Poudre Canyon, Mishawaka serves food as well. Mishawaka also sponsors “Live on the Lanes” live music events in Fort Collins at Chippers North including The Beeves on March 6, Write Minded on March 12, Wood Belly on March 27, and The Great Salmon Famine on April 3.

Also booked at Mishawaka this summer: Head For The Hills’ 16th Annual Pickin’ on the Poudre on May 15, Steep Canyon Rangers on June 11, Trout Steak Revival on July 2, The Steeldrivers w/ Wood Belly on August 20, and The Jayhawks on August 21.

Who knows how the summer will go in 2021. The best idea as far as Mishawaka goes is to keep in touch with their site at www.themishawaka.com. This is a Noco pleasure worth hoping for.

World in Miniature

Promoting a Little Understanding

I had a friend who had a dream.

My friend’s name was Jeanne Nash and her dream was to create a place where the richness of diverse cultures from around the world would converge. In that place, human understanding would flourish in the face of the wondrous and colorful traditions that would proudly be presented there.

To do that, Nash didn’t think big, as in physical size, but went small — really small, as in miniature.

Nash named her dream “Mundoville” and the residents there would be dolls from around the world. Her idea was that dolls reflected the people who made them.

But more than just a collection of dolls, Nash also collected miniature scenes that reflected other cultures. These scenes featured hand-made items all scaled down to fit neatly into a small space.

Nash herself was a skilled craftsperson — and that informed her worldwide search for unique dolls and miniatures. She was a jewelry maker, a master knitter as well as a miniature-maker.

That’s how I met Nash — through annual regional miniature shows. A little known fact is that my day job since 1980 has been as a ceramic craftsman who specializes in scale miniatures. Nash was not only a participant at the same trade shows I would attend, but she was also a patron, bought my stuff, and encouraged me.

Since we were both from Fort Collins, we easily became acquainted. Nash and I had mutual friends and mutual interest in what miniatures could portray.

One day, Nash invited me to her house and I got to see “Mundoville” taking shape. Nash had display cases stacked everywhere and she told my family and I the stories behind the pieces she had collected.

The most amazing one was her description of her relationship with a group of monks on the other side of the globe who made special dolls. She sent money and waited…and waited. After a couple of years, Nash was still hopeful that the dolls would arrive. Not hopeful, confident.

Those dolls did arrive. And Nash’s “Mundoville” did become a reality and not just in her living room. It has become the “Mundoville Gallery” at the Global Village Museum of Arts and Culture, right in the heart of downtown Fort Collins, located at 200 W. Mountain.

I’m proud to say that some of my own ceramic pieces are included in “Mundoville” — just check out the “Many Nations Trading Post” to see some of my decorated pots and dishes.

Nash passed away several years ago but “Mundoville” lives on. And the Global Village Museum has grown since opening in 2010, now featuring three other galleries as well as the Losel Doll Collection, made by those far away monks Nash believed would finally deliver.

In working in miniatures for several decades, my take on the popularity of the hobby is that enthusiasts partially enjoy making scenes, or even full houses, in miniature because it is a world they can control.

That wasn’t the case with Nash. She wanted the miniatures she collected and even made herself to open up windows to what makes the world vibrant.

Currently, the Global Village Museum is featuring the “Colorful Paintings by Folk Artists of Central China” exhibit in the Main Gallery. The museum will be celebrating the opening of a new exhibit, “Magical and Mythical Animals in Human Imagination,” on April 2nd. Upcoming events and programs at GVM include “The Life and Empire of Genghis Khan” on April 22 and “Xi Jinping and China’s Campaign for Wealth and Power” on March 4.

To visit “Mundoville” in person — and so much more — Global Village is currently making reservations for parties of up to five. Check their web site at www.globalvillagemuseum.org. It’s an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with a larger world view and maybe a little more understanding.

The Great Vinyl Record Primer

15 Albums That Should Be in Every Collection

There was a time when the main leisure activity for some friends and me was sitting around in someone’s living room, shooting the breeze and playing records. That’s records as in “LPs” or vinyl.

Okay, so maybe it was a little bit of a slacker scene, but it was our kind of fun. Maybe we would play a game. Maybe we might have some favorite beverages at hand, maybe some food.

However, the mandatory thing for meetings such as these was the music. We played albums. We passed the covers around, read the liner notes, told stories and let the music flow. We shared our favorites, discovered new tunes and refused to play what just wasn’t cool.

One of the things we would discuss is if you could only have ten albums on a desert island, what would they be? I know, that’s not very deep, but it fascinated us.

Let’s put this into perspective. This all would be in the early 1980s, when vinyl albums were king. Sure, you could buy singles and cassette tapes were an alternative format, but everybody I knew who collected music bought LP — or “long play” — vinyl albums.

Vinyl albums usually ran about 40 minutes or so with the music divided up onto two sides. Albums at this time then were often conceived as a two-act performance and artists shaped their song list accordingly. Better than just a good song, bands strived to produce great album sides.

Nearly as important as the music were the covers — they were big enough to become works of art in themselves. Vinyl albums were good friends — like some people think of their books — and were prized, if not essential possessions.

The “desert island disc” question, therefore, fascinated me to the point that I decided to ask that very question of music professionals in the Fort Collins area. I made up a ballot and then distributed copies to record store workers, radio station personalities, my musical friends and music fans in the community to take their votes.

The response was good and I tallied and cross-referenced the votes to come up with a top 50 list of the best albums of all time — up until that time, of course. Naturally, I had to write something about all of the albums and the result was my first major publishing project in Fort Collins, a booklet titled “The Great Rock Music Record Primer, 50 Albums That Should Be in Every Collection.” Thanks to support from local businesses, I published 1500 copies of the book for free in 1983.

“The Great Rock Music Record Primer” was exactly that — a rock-heavy list that did not include so many different genres of music and so many artists. That’s just what it was.

But this list was “scientifically” designed to showcase what music people in Northern Colorado thought was the very best music of their time — when vinyl was everything — and I thought a look at the list today might be fun for longtime record fans, and informative for new ones.

I’m going to resist the impulse to update the list, like Rolling Stone did recently on their “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. In writing about it now in 2021, I thought I would pare down the original list from 50 to 15. I didn’t take a vote, I just tried to pick some of the most enduring records that still resonate today. So here they are, “15 albums that should be in every collection”:

Allman Brothers Band “At Fillmore East”

Beatles “Abbey Road”

Big Brother and the Holding Company (w/ Janis Joplin) “Cheap Thrills”

David Bowie “Changes One”

Cream “Disraeli Gears”

Doors “Doors”

Bob Dylan “Greatest Hits (Volume 1)”

Led Zeppelin “IV”

Joni Mitchell “Blue”

Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”

Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers”

Traffic “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”

Who “Who’s Next”

Woodstock Film Soundtrack

Frank Zappa “Hot Rats”

That’s not all of the great albums or artists from the vinyl era, but it’s a good start.

One of the great joys of vinyl record collecting was shopping for the things and when my musical buddies and I weren’t listening to records, we were out finding new ones. We’d flip through the stacks, talk about what we found, show each other striking covers and quiz the person at the store counter about new releases. Generally we made each outing a mission to come home with a pile of cool stuff.

Vinyl records aren’t just a thing of the past. Sales of new vinyl even recently surpassed CDs. So shut down that streaming device for a while, dust off the turntable and get into a good groove.

Bruce Springsteen Rages On with “Letter to You”

The poet Dylan Thomas wrote: “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Is America’s rock poet, Bruce Springsteen, going “gentle into that good night”? I think not based on his 2020 album release, “Letter to You.”

In fact, dust off your air guitar before you play this one because it is just full of huge, chunky power chords underpinning an otherwise mighty wall of sound, all with “The Boss” wailing on top.

By now, a lot of Springsteen’s sound is patented and even the cadence of his writing is very familiar. Springsteen could pretty much coast on his trademark — and super successful — rock and soul music.

But not so on “Letter to You” — Springsteen continues to challenge himself and the listener, first to let that mighty wall of sound take over, and second to listen to what he’s got to say. And he’s got a lot to say.

Maybe that’s why it’s called “Letter to You.” Ultimately it’s the writing that matters.

The sound here echoes Springsteen’s live sound — it’s stadium sized — and these are going to be great stage tunes once the big shows return. But you must dig underneath this sound to get something further — lyrics that reveal emotions, dreams and experience with the eye of a poet.

One of my favorite tunes on “Letter to You” is the first one, “One Minute You’re Here,” and partially because it is the most personal and subdued track on the album. The music doesn’t overpower the words.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t great rockers here — all served up with blistering guitar licks, rich keyboard parts and deep, rolling drums.

“House of a Thousand Guitars” is one that resonates as an anthem to big rock and roll and the big hopes that go with it. Springsteen is looking for that lost chord “that’ll band us together for as long as there’s stars.”

I’ve seen him do that time and time again on stage. The last time in Denver, the arena lights switched on about two thirds of the way through the show and stayed on for the rest of the night. I saw thousands of people banded together in the name of rock and roll.

Springsteen’s fans are there with him when he says “We’ll rise together til we fire the spark, That’ll light up the house of a thousand guitars.”

Springsteen is big, but part of his appeal is that he also is a guy who hasn’t forgotten about the humble roots he came from. And he hasn’t forgotten his fans.

Besides dominating the stage with the swagger of a rock and roll king, the most impressive thing I’ve seen a major artist like Springsteen do is to meet and greet a thousand fans personally.

The occasion was the 2016 release of Springsteen’s memoir, “Born to Run,” and he did a very limited tour of bookstores that included a Denver stop at the Tattered Cover. I scored a ticket for my wife, who comes from the Jersey Shore, and I managed a press pass.

What I saw was a man stepping forward to shake the hand of each and every person in line and pose for a quick picture. Long after I was booted out from the press area, Springsteen stayed on the job until everyone got in — and that line snaked down the street and around the block.

Since then Springsteen treated fans to a one-man show on Broadway — for more than a year — notching 236 performances. In 2019 he also released an album, “Western Stars.”

Just like the writing Springsteen does on “Letter to You,” he really doesn’t have to work so hard but he does — on record, on stage and on the job with his fans.

I first saw Springsteen live on the Born to Run Tour in 1975 and I spent the next several weeks dramatically playing air guitar to the album. On “Letter to You,” everything that made Springsteen a rock and roll inspiration back then is all still there in 2020 on one particular track — “Ghosts.” Power chords, impassioned vocals, even a sing-along “la-la-la” refrain make this the album’s dynamic gem.

Springsteen is a mature artist, but by his recent output, it appears he isn’t done yet. Maybe this isn’t exactly “old age” or the “dying of the light” for him, but in any case, “Letter to You” is not going “gentle” in any way. Turn it up.

Recommended: Buy Some Local Music

Support Your Favorite Bard or Band!

Music needs an audience and local musicians are no exception in terms of being starved for ears thanks to the raging virus. Gigs are rare — or even if you could book one, there’s no real way to know whether it will happen.

One way to support local music — especially now — is to simply invest a little cash and buy a CD, or pay for a download or whatever your preference is, from your favorite local bard or band.

To stir the pot, here are a few suggestions.

Russ Hopkins: One name that might be familiar to longtime local music fans would be Russ Hopkins. As a seasoned performer and a recording studio operator, Hopkins contributed plenty to the NoCo music scene.

Today, Hopkins lives in the Berthoud area, plays gigs occasionally and, most importantly, continues to record in his private studio, collaborating especially with area guitar virtuoso and music arranger Jerry Palmer.

That brings us to Hopkins’ latest release, “Buffalo.” It’s a 2020 collection of traditional folk tunes that transcend the deceptively simple musical makeup of the songs to tell some riveting stories.

The characters in these stories are drinkers, lovers, soldiers, buffalo skinners, murderers, beggars and dreamers. As the storyteller, Hopkins stays out of the way as these characters reveal the dire things that have happened to them and their loved ones. He keeps the music — both vocals and the spare accompaniment — to a low simmer. This allows the collection of hard luck pioneers and jilted lovers who are gathered here to tell their gritty truths.

Have you ever really listened to the full lyrics of familiar songs like “Working on the Railroad” and “Clementine”? They aren’t kids’ songs at all and you can hear them here. Another familiar folk song, “Tom Dooley” — made popular in the 1950s by The Kingston Trio — is a grim tale of killing and the last thoughts of a condemned man.

It’s not all dark. “A Jug of This,” an a cappella ode to a favorite drink, is lighthearted — as long as everything comes back to that drink — and “Begging I Will Go” lets a proud bum have his day in the sun.

Hopkins vacillates between a traditional English folk music and a Western country folk sound — and those things are not necessarily unrelated — but what remains the same here is the distinctive voices Hopkins brings to life.

The production does feature some tasteful ear candy — some cool slide guitar and other touches — but for the most part, “Buffalo” is about setting the stage so the people in the songs can take over. And take over they do, spinning yarns of mischief and mayhem.

Find out more about “Buffalo” and Hopkins’ music at www.russhopkins.com.

Grace D Marie: Another area artist who has also recently released a CD is Fort Collins singer-songwriter Grace D Marie. Marie is known internationally as a leader in the Dances of Universal Peace movement, and that experience informs her music on “Life as a Garden.”

Much of the music Marie makes here is based on chants — the words repeat over and over again, allowing the listener to go deeper into the phrase, while the musical accompaniment keeps things steadily moving forward.

Marie is also more of a traditional songwriter, delving into her personal experiences — in Alaska and as a mother — to reflect on the deepness of life.

On “Life as a Garden,” Marie keeps the music clean and even. Finely mixed, the recording especially highlights a gorgeous sense of harmony with layers of voices supporting her clear, strong lead vocal work.

Marie’s music does not distract, but it soothes. It does not shout yet asks some important questions — in several different languages. It reveals and confesses with the same even keel.

The most powerful track for me was the last one, “Mitakuje Oyasin,” based on a Lakota phrase suggesting “we are all related,” a prayer seeking harmony with all forms of life. On “Life as a Garden,” Marie doesn’t just ask for harmony, she delivers.

Check out Marie’s site for info on “Life as a Garden” and her other releases at www.LifeasaGarden.com.

DIY: Go to your favorite local musician’s page and see what’s going on. If they’ve gotten some studio work done while everything else is on hold, buy it. Everything helps when it comes to supporting our creatives, so lend them your ears.

The Healing Soul of the subdudes

It’s January 2021 and the subdudes should be playing at The Armory. However, their two shows on January 7 and 8 — postponed from last June –have been canceled amid continuing virus restrictions.

But it was just what we needed to start a new year — some of that good rhythm and soul that makes up the music of the subdudes.

To get some anyway, I ordered up the subdudes’ latest release, “Lickskillet.” But before we get to that, let’s go way back to the beginning.

“The beginning” would be the subdudes’ first cassette tape. Self-titled, the 1987 tape included eight songs, including the one that put the band in the music business flow. That would be “On His Mind,” featured by Musician Magazine in its Best Unsigned Band Contest in 1988.

The song was chosen from a field of 20,000 entries, included on a compilation CD which led to a record deal, signed at the Colorado governor’s mansion — and the subdudes were living in Fort Collins when all of this broke.

The subdudes’ good news was breaking just as I was coming on to write about music in the Fort Collins press. I was writing about every kind of music but closest to my heart over those years was following the story of the subdudes. A lot of that had to do with access — if not the whole band, then several members lived in Fort Collins and since I was the “music guy” in town, I got to interview them for many years into their career, catching up to somebody or another when they were off the road.

That connection allowed me to chronicle the early years of the subdudes. Thanks to them, I got to interview New Orleans legend Earl King when he was in town to play with the band. Steve Amedee told me about a wild trip to L.A. to play and record with Joni Mitchell. I heard road stories and music business stories and recording stories. I got to meet famed producer Glyn Johns, who produced some tracks for the band, at Mishawaka one afternoon. This was just amazing core material for someone working on a music journalism career.

Loving the subdudes also became a community thing in Fort Collins that still endures.  Many loyal fans here today were there when the group left New Orleans, where the band was formed, and moved to Colorado in the fall of 1987. The subdudes brought with them a rich original music mixing rock, blues, country and gospel — definitely dance-friendly — their smooth harmony vocals offset by enough gravel and grit elsewhere to take things out to the edge.

The move found them welcomed in Colorado and the subdudes quickly became a regional hit. They played every conceivable place in Fort Collins anyway — from their regular gigs at The Page to a pizza place with the tables moved aside — and a core of fans would turn out to every gig, dancing in a kind of subdude ecstasy. A little bit like Grateful Dead fans, subdudes fans were agreeable with each other and just wanted to have fun.

I’ve kept up with the subdudes in more recent years like a lot of other fans in Fort Collins — a part of the crowd at their annual appearances at Bohemian Nights.

Until now. Their most recent album release is 2019’s “Lickskillet” and a lot of what made the subdudes a great group in their younger days is still strong. Of course, compared to that 1987 tape, the recording is so far advanced over those recordings from the dim past — “Lickskillet,” first of all, is a great sounding album.

Still, the basic elements from 33 years ago are clearly echoed today — songwriting with heart, impassioned lead vocals and super fine backing vocals, tuned to harmonic perfection. Let’s also not forget some raucous electric guitar, a lot of joy and some bitter-sweet sadness as well. There’s also some characteristic playfulness, which underscores one of the best tracks on the record, “Them Figs.”

Add in some rich horn parts for a little extra shine.

But it was the tune “Love Has the Power” that got to me directly. The refrain is “love has the power to heal the world” and that’s exactly what everyone needs about now, is a lot of healing. And I can imagine a room full of happy subdudes fans dancing and singing along — and getting “healed” as well.

Healing with the subdudes is not a somber experience, but an uplifting one. Between the music — rhythmic and expressive — and the message — full of down-to-earth soulfulness — the subdudes inspire. We need that so much, so their Armory dates will be sorely missed.

But thanks to “Lickskillet,” a choice slice of the subdudes’ healing soul music is served up any time.

The Poetry of Super Heroes

The challenge came down from my five-year-old grandson recently to write a “song” about Spider-Man.

So I wrote him a rap poem and here’s how it turned out:

Peter Parker

A spider bit him on the hand.
He felt a little woozy and could hardly stand.
The spider gave him all of his power
and Peter grew stronger with every hour.
Spider-Man was the name that he took.
At least that’s what they say in the comic book.
He could shoot out a web and crawl on the wall.
He could swing around a building and never fall.
Spider-Man made all the bad guys lose
and nobody would want to be in their shoes.
Peter Parker was really just a kid
but he became a hero with all that Spider-Man did.

What my grandson and I share is the knowledge that not only is Spider-Man cool, but also that his real identity was Peter Parker, who was bitten on the hand by a special spider and that gave him “spider powers.”

I came to this knowledge in my youth through comic books. There were a few TV shows, but mostly it all came from the colorful pages my brothers and I would pour over after we plunked our dimes on the drug store counter and took home our prizes.

Nowadays, these stories are mostly transmitted through the plethora of super hero movies featuring Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, Black Panther, Spider-Man and so many others.

But I don’t think my five-year-old fellow fan watches any of those. I figure that he knows about these characters mostly from the toy aisles in the store — full of brightly colored action figures.

I’ve also noticed that his other little friends know about these characters too — they wear super hero costumes at Halloween and pretend to be their favorites during playtime. Somehow they are all getting versed in the same lore.

I’m contributing.

After I read the Peter Parker piece to him, my grandson immediately assigned me a new “song” project: Batman.

That’s a tougher story, but I gave it a shot:

Bruce Wayne

During the day, he was a man who was rich.
But then at night he got a very dark itch
To put on a cape and put on a mask
And go out to do a hero’s task.
As The Batman, he fought a lot of bad dudes
Like The Joker and The Penguin- they all left in bad moods.
He comes in on a rope or a plane from on high
When the Bat Signal shines on a cloud in the sky.

My grandson is aware that Batman’s real name is Bruce Wayne and he knows about some of the super villains that he battles. But Batman’s origin is due to a childhood trauma, something perhaps better discussed later on.

And discuss it we shall, because swapping these stories will continue.

My super hero “songs” are so popular that my new assignment is Captain America. He’s the “super soldier” created by science who becomes the point man for the Allies during World War II, saves the world by jumping on a rocket but gets frozen in uncharted waters until a group of other super heroes — The Avengers — find him, thaw him out and make him their leader.

Now, how do you make all of that stuff rhyme?