Compiled by Elliot Jackson
Anyone who lives in and/or loves the Central Colorado region will not have a hard time believing that the state of Colorado, in addition to being a prime destination for touring musicians, boasts a large number of musicians calling it home, either as natives or transplants.
The Western Slope, for example, was the unlikely home for the late British blues-rocker Joe Cocker (who recently died from cancer at the age of 70 on Dec. 22), best known in this country for his iconic performance of The Beatles’ With a Little Help From My Friends, as captured in the film footage of the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
But Joe Cocker is not the only legendary 60s British musician to have made his home in Colorado. Ginger Baker, who despite his incredible career as a jazz drummer will probably always remain best known for his work with the power trio Cream, also resided in Colorado, albeit on the Front Range in Parker, in the 1990s.
These are not even the best-known transplants to our inland shores, however. Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., of course, will for our lifetimes probably be the most famous musician associated with the state of Colorado, although he is better known by his stage name, John Denver. His Rocky Mountain High was adopted as an official state song in 2007.
Another famous Colorado transplant is folk singer Judy Collins, whose family moved to Denver in 1949. Her first public appearances as a singer were at Michael’s Pub, a club on Pearl Street in Boulder that was active in the folk music scene during the 1950s and 60s.
The 1970s folk-rock icon Dan Fogelberg, a native of Illinois, made his home first in Nederland, then on a ranch outside of Pagosa Springs for much his touring and recording career. While in Pagosa he performed many benefit concerts for the local humane society. He passed away at his home in Maine in 2007 at the age of 56 due to prostate cancer.
Boulder has been home to more than a few well-known bands, as well as individual performers and musicians. The rock band Firefall, for example, which got its start there in 1974, boasts more than one Boulder connection. Jock Bartley, one of the founding members, had been the replacement for Tommy Bolin (of The James Gang and Deep Purple) in the Boulder-based band he founded, Zephyr, (which also featured another notable Colorado guitarist who is still touring and selling CDs, – bluesman Otis Taylor. Jazz band leader Glenn Miller also got his start in Boulder, as a student at CU scrounging trombone gigs in the 1920s. The retro-fifties band, Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids also got their start at CU. They were also known for their role as Herbie and the Heartbeats in the 1973 George Lucas film American Graffiti.
Another famous Miller, jazz/blues/rock singer Hazel Miller, has her base in Denver. Denver was also the home to another hit band from the 70s, Sugarloaf, named after a mountain west of Boulder. (They are most famous for their chart-busting hit Green-Eyed Lady.) Members of Sugarloaf were active in other Denver area bands, including the garage surf band The Moonrakers (not to be confused with the Boulder-based garage surf band The Astronauts, who scored a minor hit back in 1963 with a tune called Baja).
Colorado has also become famous for its bluegrass-y spin on the post-Grateful Dead phenomenon known as the “jam band,” known for its long, eponymous instrumental improvisations and solos. Well-known bands that typify the Colorado sound on the “jam circuit” (as opposed to the chitlin’ circuit or the Borscht Belt) are Leftover Salmon, The String Cheese Incident and Yonder Mountain String Band, among others.
Speaking of bluegrass and jam bands, we have to mention the sensational bluegrass band Hot Rize, which helped to spawn the so-called “jamgrass” phenomenon. It features prominent Colorado musicians Tim O’Brien (who has also enjoyed not only a flourishing solo career, but also a duo career with his sister Mollie O’Brien); “Dr. Banjo” Pete Wernick (also a mean vibraphone player); and bassist Nick Forster, better known these days as the host of eTown, a radio music hall based in Boulder that has helped to boost Colorado as a musical hot spot nationwide.
We also have to give a shout-out to the musicians in the various incarnations and side projects of The Subdudes, who manage to stir the New Orleans vibe into Colorado mountain music.
It remains to be seen how many musicians might be lured into making their homes in Colorado, or at least planning a prolonged sojourn to the state, in the wake of the recent legalization of recreational cannabis, although an article published in September in the Denver-based Westword magazine purported to make a connection. (I find myself really wishing there was a terribly clever way to make a reference to Rocky Mountain High here, but I am haunted by the realization that there probably isn’t one.)
Well, maybe we will just leave it here with one last attempt to turn the tone around and promote a proper sort of Colorado elevation: the lyrics to the beloved song America the Beautiful were written by Katherine Lee Bates as a poem called, originally, Pikes Peak. Bates wrote the poem after a train trip to Colorado Springs to teach at Colorado College.
Note from the author: A week to the day after I submitted this article to the editor of Colorado Central, I received news of Joe Cocker’s death from lung cancer on Dec. 22, 2014. He was 70 years old.
When I moved to the Western Slope’s North Fork Valley in 1998, one of the first things I did was get involved with the community radio station, KVNF-FM, and it was there that I learned that Joe Cocker – the Joe Cocker! – was also a resident of the Valley. In fact, his house – a 17,000-square-foot pied à terre nestled outside the tiny village of Crawford – was something of a tourist attraction. So was the short-lived but fondly remembered Mad Dog Café, which Joe and his wife, Pam Cocker, opened in Crawford around the time I moved there; and which, while it lived, served as a home for many parties and gigs.
Joe had a history with KVNF – he was good friends with Bob and Candy Pennetta, who for many years have been involved with the station. (In fact, it was because of Bob’s friendship with Joe Cocker that Joe ended up moving to Crawford.) So it was not unheard-of for him to come to the station and sit in on Bob’s Friday night show, and Joe and Pam were among the biggest supporters of the new station building.
In fact, if I have any personal reminiscences of Joe Cocker, it is because of his involvement with charity: particularly The Cocker Kids Foundation, founded to promote services for children and youth in Delta County. Over the years, the Foundation gave grants to a number of programs and projects I was involved with, including the new Hotchkiss Library, where I had an office. I remember having the pleasure of showing him around the new wing when it opened. We mostly talked about the history collection, I recall, and I remember being struck by how unlike the “mad dog” image his demeanor was in person – how humble and soft-spoken he was.
A little guy with a giant voice and a giant heart – that is what I will always remember. Godspeed, Joe Cocker, and thank you for all that you gave us.
