Alex J. Chávez

Alex J. Chávez was born two miles east of Capulin, Colo., on November 9 (1922 according to his obituary, 1923 as noted on his album covers). He attended La Jara High School - six years ahead of Dorthy Sowards

After graduation, he would spend World War II serving three years in the United States Army, with the Seventh Army Headquarters.

Upon return to the United States, he attended the University of DePaul in Chicago, and received his Master's Degree in music from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Accompanied by his second wife Virginia ("Ginger") Stoudt Chávez (whom he married 1954), he moved to New Mexico, and began teaching choral music in the Albuquerque ISD, including Sandia High School.

As a regular at the Three Cities of Spain restaurant in Santa Fe, and the New Mexico Folklore Society, he would entertain audiences with the Mexican-American folk songs of his upbringing in the San Luis Valley.

In 1965 he financed and recorded his first LP, El Testamento - Spanish Folk Music of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado (Century Custom Records 22376), a collection of 14 traditional songs of the region.

Listen to "El Burrito"

"I believe this song to have originated in the San Luis Valley; specifically southern Colorado, because this is an area in which it is the most familiar to the people; also because researchers dealing with Spanish music of New Mexico origin do not number this among their collections." - El Testamento liner notes.

During this period of his life, Chávez would go on to perform at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C., as well as the Scottsdale Folk Festival - he also earned the coveted National Folk Association Burl Ives Award.

Leaving the Albuquerque School District, he took a position as the Assistant Professor of the Music Department at the University of New Mexico. In 1971 he recorded his second LP, Duermete Nino (Custom 39908). Pictured with two of his children and his wife Virginia on the album cover, his second effort has more of a family feel, with play songs and lullabies.

Listen to "Bailen Palomitas"

Chávez and his wife Virginia often appeared together during performances. Virginia Chávez , who was an English and speech major, would provide narrative background and translation during her husband's concerts.

Chávez, who fathered eight daughters and two sons, would retire to Ocean Springs, Mississippi in 1997. He remained active in his church choir.

He died June 20, 2007. He was 84.

El Testamento - Spanish Folk Music of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado has been recently remastered and made available on compact disc, through the University of New Mexico.

COMING NEXT POST: Norbie Larsen

The Narrow Gauge Line

Tom MacCluskey interviewed March 2010.

On July 4 1961, The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was designated as a U.S. National Landmark. To commemorate the authorization the city fathers hired Ernie Kemm - who in 1958 penned "Here's to Colorado," the state's official centennial song - to write a similar theme.

"We began performing together as a duo in Denver with Al Fike," said Tom MacCluskey. "Ernie was playing piano, I played drums, and sometimes piano."

When Kemm received the call to write the Narrow Gauge record, he had a regular gig at the Back Door in Denver. He enlisted the help of MacCluskey to arrange the recording, and put together a group of studio musicians.

"I actually hired some of the best jazz musicians in Denver to play on it," MacCluskey said. "I had Neil Bridge on piano, and Derryl Goes on drums, who later toured with Stan Kenton."

Recorded in Denver, at Western Cine Recording Studio, the record features the vocal stylings of 10-year old Becky Ann Todeschi, of Durango.

"I never even met her," said MacCluskey. "We laid down the instrumental tracks and she overdubbed her voice - she wasn't in the studio."

Listen to "The Narrow Gauge Line"

The b-side of the single - "The Sound of Silverton" - features sound effects of the train.

"...authentic on-the-spot sounds recorded at departure time at the D&RGW depot in Durango, will capture your imagination as you hear the train actually whistle, the drumbeats and bells of the dancing Indians, plus the call of "all aboard"....

Tom MacCluskey, who had previously never been to Durango, moved to the town in 2000, and is now a regular performer at the Mahogany Grille. He also hosts a Sunday morning classical music program on KDUR radio.

Visit MacCluskey bio on Mahogany Grille site.

Shortly after the release of the Narrow Gauge disc, Kemm released another record on the Spur label, "The Trail They Call the Navajo / Songs of the Navajos." He would also go on to record for the Denver-based Band Box label ("Here Kitty Kitty" / "Larimer Square" - Band Box label 369).

In 1965 Kemm left Colorado for New York City. He is now a regular cruise ship performer. He was unavailable to comment on this story.

Attempts to locate Becky Ann Todeschi were unsuccessful.

COMING NEXT POST: Alex J. Chávez

White Lightnin'

Interview with Ron Ellis conducted March 2010.

In 1966, at the young age of 14, Ron Ellis was a student by day and a rock and roller by night. "I was in different groups around town," he said. "I was in one called The Tangerine Dream, but later we found there was already a band called that. We thought it as original. We were playing Rolling Stones songs, primarily."

But the Pueblo teen guitarist's career took a different turn when his parents divorced, and he moved to California with his mother. Soon after they arrived, a tragic car accident took the life of his mother. Ron found himself back in Colorado. He enrolled at Pueblo East High School.

Around this time Ron, and his older brother Joe, picked up where they left off, and started playing around town. When they didn't have a gig, they would catch one of their favorite groups, the Trolls.

"We always thought if we could get one of the Trolls in our group that would be incredible - those guys were like the Rolling Stones in Pueblo," he said. "They were huge."


Taking their cue from bands such as the Rolling Stones, and the Kinks, the Trolls blend of British rock gave them local superstar status. Led by singer/guitarist Richard "Speedy" Gonzales, organist Fred Brescher, drummer Phil Head, bassist Monty Baker and lead guitarist Doug Rymerson, the Trolls issued a couple of 45s ("That's the Way My Love Is" / "Into My Arms" Ruff 1010 - 1965 and "Stupid Girl" / "I Don't Recall" Warrior 173- 1966). After attempting to make it big in California, the group disbanded in 1967.

After the band broke-up, Richard Gonzales put away his guitar, stayed on the West Coast, settled in to married life...and a regular paycheck.

"We had met Speedy's brother Leroy, who played drums. He said 'I know my brother will want to play with us,' so we went to California to ask him to be in our band," Ellis said. "Speedy’s wife wasn’t happy that he wanted to be in another group, and he was reluctant. He had a nine-to-five job and had given up the whole music thing."

But he changed his mind.

With the line-up complete, the foursome of the Ellis and Gonzales brothers moved back to Colorado, and under the guidance of local manager Tony Spicola, quickly made a local name for themselves as White Lightnin'.

"Speedy named the band," Ron Ellis said. "We were just kidding around and then we found out there were a number of bands named that."

A local nightclub owner, as well as media and public relations mogul, Tony Spicola saw potential with the group. He knew the next step was to get them in the recording studio. "He thought it would be good for his club attendance if we had a record to sell."

In 1969, just after Ron Ellis graduated from East High School, Spicola booked Norman Petty Studios, in Clovis, NM.

"I kinda knew who Norman Petty was," said Ellis. "We walked into to the studio, it was a great studio. He bought an old movie theatre and you would record on the stage. In the projection booth was the recording equipment."

After playing several songs for Petty, the producer decided on two for the band's single - "Leaves" and "Blue Man (Peace of Mind)."

Listen to "Blue Man (Peace of Mind)"

"When we were out in California, we were doing some gigs, but the guy at the club wouldn't pay us," said Ellis. "There was a person who lived nearby and said if we rolled 200 "whites" for him in tin foil he would give us 50-bucks. Leroy and I jumped in and started doing it. When we left the guy said 'Take as many as you want,' and I took some of them. After we left his house the police stopped us and took us in – those were the blue men. We were put in a room and interrogated. They called home in Colorado and then released us."

Listen to "Leaves"

"Leaves is a very personal song for me," Ellis said. "When my parents divorced and I moved to California with my mother, she was involved in a head-on collision, and died. I have a recollection of that being in the autumn. I looked around at the leaves dying and just wrote it–there aren't a lot of lyrics, it's mostly feeling.

While recording "Leaves," Norman Petty added strings to the arrangement. "We listened back and really didn’t envision that as part of the song - so we took it out."

After a successful recording session, the band headed back to Colorado - but Tony Spicola had other ideas for Ron Ellis.

"We took separate cars. I rode with Tony," Ellis said. "He showed me a contract, and told me that he wanted to work with me as a solo artist. I told him that I wasn't interested because my brother was in the band. It was kinda funny, Tony christened me with this name, I don't remember what it was, but that was going to be my new stage name."

Released in January 1970, on the band's own Sandoz label (Speedy Gonzales named the label after Eric Burdon's "A Girl Named Sandoz"), the record received extensive airplay throughout Colorado.

"We also played a lot of gigs," Ellis said. "But then Leroy started acting weird, and it was pretty embarrassing. He would play drum solos with his head - and we knew it was time to end the band."

For Ron Ellis' second act, he decided to go back to school. "I thought it would be a good idea for me to learn music," so I started taking classes at USC [University of Southern Colorado]," he said. "Joe and I went on to form The Ellis Brothers, and then we got together with [former Trolls member] Phil Head and formed Waco."

After Waco, Ellis found success in The Cows. "That was a fun group because for once I didn’t have to carry the show," he said. "We were kinda like Alice Cooper on fire - real crazy. We were playing Mothers of Invention type stuff. We played in the Springs and the mountain towns - but we only did that for about six months."

Ellis graduated from USC, and was offered a job there teaching classical guitar. "My brother thought I snubbed the whole rock world," he said.

He would go on to write a ballet, entitled Repetition, which would be performed at the local Sangre De Cristo Art Center. Moving to Albuquerque to pursue his master's degree in music, he came back to Colorado, and is currently teaching music at a Colorado Springs middle school.

Ron Ellis (2010)

Joe Ellis moved back to California, and plays bass for the group Blues Highway.

Attempts to contact Richard Gonzales were unsuccessful. Numerous sources indicated that Leroy Gonzales passed away, but this is unconfirmed.

"For me, Eric Clapton and all of those guys entrenched themselves in that rock lifestyle, but I really didn't feel that it was part of what I should be doing," Ellis said. "I came out of it pretty unscathed."

COMING NEXT POST: The Narrow Gauge Line

Bob Mickey

Interview with Ida Mae Mickey, Marcella Mickey, Jean Hasty and Eugene Birt conducted March 2010.

Bob Mickey's parents came to the La Junta area in 1916, where they homesteaded south of town. Moving into La Junta proper in 1921 he was born two years later, in a family who as spent as much time in church as they did working the farm.

But Bob Mickey had other ideas.

"He never wanted to settle down," said his sister Jean Hasty. "He followed his older brother to California, and worked at the Swift packing plant, and didn't like it, so he started driving a taxi, and then one day he took his guitar to a bar, and started playing."

Throughout the 1940s, Mickey would find himself in every honky tonk on the West Coast, playing for tips. After introducing himself to Tennessee Ernie Ford, he would go on to appear on the star's radio show, and pitch a song to the singer that he a recently written.

The song was called "All I Want for Christmas," said Hasty. "Ford went on to record it, and for the longest time Bob would get these little residual checks from that record."

For the next decade, Mickey kept busy working the bar circuit, but a trip back home to Colorado in 1953, before a booking in Santa Fe, would forever change his life.

"My mother invited him to go to church," said Hasty. "During the service he became converted. He called the bar in Santa Fe and told them that his life and priorities had changed, and he wasn't going to make the show."

Almost immediately the western-attired preacher became an in-demand evangelist, sharing his testimony at revivals. The nightclub audience he once played to for tips was replaced with packed believers who wanted to hear how this former honky-tonker found the Lord.

In 1954, friends attempted to set him up with Esther Mae Roberts - but he had his eyes on her cousin, 24-year-old Ida Mae, a Lamar chalk artist who often used her artistic talents to portray Bible scenes during church services.

"My parents were good Christians, and they knew that God forgives you, so they didn't have any problems with him and his past life," Ida Mae said.

The two married February 14, 1955.

"Bob was working with an evangelist and taking a correspondence course to become a preacher," Ida Mae said. "We went on a short honeymoon, and then started doing revivals together."

Jewell County Record – Superior, Kansas

March 30, 1967

Bob and Ida Mae would live out of a suitcase the first few months of their revival career, staying in church Sunday school rooms, or in a pastor's home. Realizing they needed to expand their living conditions, with the arrival of their daughter Marcella (in 1959), they purchased a trailer.

Coming back to Lamar for the birth of their daughter, the Mickey family went back on the revival circuit just three weeks after she was born.

After ten years on the road, in 1969, the Mickeys came back to Lamar, in part so Marcella could attend elementary school. They continued to travel during the summer. By 1975 the family again hit the road full-time, home schooling their daughter, who would go on to become a licensed practical nurse.

While touring California, Mickey recorded Country Gospel (Crusade 584). Released in 1974, the album contains numerous religious standards, a cover of Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light," and one Bob Mickey original composition, "It's Later Than You Think."

Listen to "It's Later Than You Think"

"The picture on the album cover was chosen because my grandfather had homesteaded south of La Junta and the cedar breaks on the front cover look like their homestead site," said Mickey's daughter, Marcella.

In 1991, after nearly four decades on and off the road, Bob Mickey returned to the Lamar area, where he pastored in and around southeastern Colorado, including the Holly Nazarene Church.

"He was a very good pastor," said current pastor Eugene Birt. "You never saw him without his cowboy hat on - except in the church building."

In 2001 Mickey was planning a trip to Seattle to celebrate his sister's 66th wedding anniversary, when his health began to decline from years of diabetes and heart failure. Just three days before he was to leave, he died.

He is buried in Lamar.

COMING NEXT POST: White Lightnin'

Sam Bachicha

Sam Bachicha interviewed February 2010.



Growing up in Branson, Colorado (pop. 77) – located a literal stone’s throw from the New Mexico state line, and about an hour from the nearest big city, Trinidad – forced Sam Bachicha to create his own entertainment.

“I used to hunt for arrowheads, and go rabbit and deer hunting,” he said.

His father would entertain the family, playing a variety of string instruments, but a freak accident nearly brought an end to the music.

“He worked on the railroad, and one day while unloading rail, he accidentally got a finger on his left hand caught under a sliding rail, and about one inch of his finger was severed. After the remaining part of his finger healed, he tried playing the guitar, but it was very painful for him.”

His father decided to sell his guitar.

“Some time later, he borrowed that same guitar for a few days. When he started playing and singing, I sat right there and listened until he stopped. I loved it. I asked him to teach me. He showed me how to place my fingers for an open D chord, which was one of the easier chords to reach for a small hand.”

When his father returned the guitar, he went out bought his son his own.

“A few months later I was asked to play at a PTA meeting. I sang and played “Jambalya.” At the conclusion of my song, the people would not stop applauding. My mother went back stage and said, ‘They want you to sing another one,’ but I just started to learn how to play and only knew one other song.”

So his encore was “How Much is That Doggie in the Window.”

Throughout high school, he would attend dances held across Las Animas County – reinforcing his decision to pursue a career in entertainment. “I would go see Roy Green’s Frisco County Ramblers, La Junta’s Sunflower Valley Boys [featuring Lloyd Hall on vocals], and the Nightriders, out of Raton.”

Branson School

After graduating Branson High School in 1957, he set off for the U.S. Air Force. His talents as a performer entertained officers in Washington, D.C., until he left the service in 1965. When he returned home to Colorado he found work at Taylor’s Supper Club in Denver.

“We had a Las Vegas style comedy and musical performance group, called Synchrony.”

In 1980, Bachicha came back home to Southern Colorado, settling in Trinidad. While he became a real estate agent, he also found steady work as a performer. Preparing for a concert in front of a hometown audience in Branson, he decided to write a song about his upbringing in the rural area. Not to slight his new home, in Trinidad, he proceeded to write a similar anthem. In 1983 he recorded both.

Listen to "Branson"

Listen to "I Like Trinidad"

“I recorded at Jay Salem’s studio up in Denver. I worked with him when we were both in Synchrony. I played bass and rhythm guitar, and he played the guitar. We used a rhythm machine for the drums.”

He named his label Transac – the name of his real estate company, and short for transaction. The record was sold at Virgil’s Record Store in Trinidad, and during his live performances. While all 2000 copies of the record sold out, he never considered sending it to a major record label.

“It’s kind of hard to break into that business, so I really didn’t even try.”

Sam Bachicha

At 70, Bachicha shows no sign of slowing down. Currently he appraises real estate, and continues to perform throughout Southern Colorado.

“I did about 106 dates last year – about nine dates a month. I keep pretty busy,” he said. “I still love it. I want to play and sing until I am no longer able to do so, or no one wants to hear me anymore, which ever comes first.”

He is in the process of recording a full length CD of 15 original songs.

COMING NEXT POST: Bob Mickey

The San Luis Valley Rhythms of John Overton

Interview with John Overton conducted January 2010.

No matter how hard he tried, John Overton could not win the Sargent High School talent show.

"The first band I was in, in Monte Vista, with Eugene Mestis and his cousin Leroy both on guitar - we could never beat the comedy and acting skits that would always win." So the drummer learned how to play one of the most intensive songs to perform on his instrument, The Sufaris "Wipe Out."

"We placed second."

After graduating in 1974 he started playing with Anthony Dupont, and Tony Sanchez, in the local band, The Crusaders. "We’d play weddings and clubs, with a mixture of Spanish, country and oldies music." As often was the case, the members of the group suffered from personal conflicts, and broke-up almost as soon as they formed.

While attending Adams State College, he joined the band Los Chicanos - but the act only lasted a few months. A series of jobs would follow with other local groups, including Brown Magic, Alias Tube and Dusty, Badd Boies, and Camino.

While trying to find stable work, he saw an ad in Rolling Stone. "It was for Musician Referral," he said. "You pay $50, and I got put on a drummers list - and all of sudden I started getting calls for work."

One of the first gigs came from a Nebraska band, Diana Kay and the Country Riders. "They were in Montana, and needed a drummer for their tour, so I drove up with my gear from Monte Vista all the way to Montana." The job would take him throughout North Dakota, Wyoming, and Canada.

After the tour was over, the phone would ring again.

"I played in the soul band, The Coffey Show," he said. "They were out of Chicago."

Animo
(left to right: Anthony Dupont, Jake Medina, John Overton
and Timi Medina)

In 1985, the local group Animo was looking for a drummer. Popular around the San Luis Valley, the group would often pack clubs with their signature Hispanic garage rock sound.

Listen to "Amanda."

"The guitarist Anthony Dupont and I were in The Crusaders, and Jake Medina, who was the bass player, is married to my aunt, so I knew the type of music they were playing, and just fell right into it."

Timi Medina also played guitar in the band.

The group would record a full-length self-titled cassette, with a mix of bilingual songs, but by the release of their second single ("Mi Floresita" / "Mil Amores" - Fussia 6001) in 1986 Animo would begin to unravel.

"Anthony got mad and left the band, so we brought Leroy Maestas in - then Timi left the band."

Alma
(left to right: John Overton, Vernon Pedilla, and Jeff Jacquez)

The following year Overton would go on to form his own band Alma, with Jeff Jacquez and Vernon Padilla. The group would release two singles on Denver's Fasttrack Records.

Listen to "Louie Louie."

The band's song "Middle of the Rainbow" would peak at #2 on Monte Vista's KSLV weekly radio hit list in October 1988.

Indian Nickel

For the past five years Overton has performed with the local band, Indian Nickel, which includes former Alma keyboardist, Jeff Jacquez.

COMING NEXT POST: Sam Bachicha

Eddie Y. Eldon

Interview with Eddie Y. Eldon conducted December 2009. Interview with Richard Yaklich conducted March 2010.


Before Eddie Yaklich had even graduated high school, he was a star. Growing up in Avondale, 15 miles east of Pueblo, he turned pro on the national rodeo circuit before he had gotten his diploma, in 1954.

After getting drafted and serving in the U.S. Army, he went back to the rodeo in 1961, where he continued to excel in bull riding, bronc riding, and bareback. Touring on the national circuit his sport took him west, where his photogenic "made for Hollywood" cowboy looks landed him a job as a TV and movie stuntman.

Under the advice of Willie Nelson’s manager Al Picinni, he also changed his name. “Al said I really needed to do it, if I was going to be a success,” he said. “I had this nickname back in Colorado, 'El Donnie,' and so I decided to shorten it, and make my last name an initial."

And so was born Eddie Y. Eldon.

“I did stunt work in Tucson, where they were shooting westerns,” he said. “I would get $15 a day and a ham sandwich.”

Eldon was soon in demand. He worked as a stunt double for Clint Eastwood on Rawhide, as well as other western-themed shows. He also did stunt work on numerous movies, including Disney’s Run Appaloosa Run.

While living in California he met Rose and Joe Maphis, who were part of the successful country music TV show Town Hall Party, which broadcast throughout the west coast in the 1960s.

At the urging of Joe Maphis, Eldon decided to try his hand at singing – something he had only previously done while working aboard his dad’s tractor in Avondale.

Listen to "Austrian on the Bayou"

During his California recording career Eldon, who was also a prolific songwriter, released several self-made records on both the 3J and World Label Music labels, from 1978-1982. He would go on to tour with Bozo Darnell and Wynn Stewart.

Listen to "Song Bird Singing"

In a unique way of distributing the discs, he would pilot his own Cherokee 235 to radio stations around the country. “Whenever I would see a radio tower, I would land the plane, get out, and drop off the record – I really didn’t have any money to get these on the charts.”

Listen to "There Ain't No Road Signs"

He moved back to Avondale in 1983, where he built a studio, formed his own publishing company, and continues to record.

"I was always impressed with my dad's musical insight," said Eldon's son Richard Yaklich. "He was well ahead of national trends and was doing some highly imaginative arrangements and orchestrations in his recordings before anyone else was. I sometimes wonder if that was a reason he did not get further in the business."

COMING NEXT POST: The San Luis Valley Rhythms of John Overton.

The vocal talents of Cañon City High (1974)

Interview with Mark Means, John Merriam and Jeff Saviano conducted January-February 2010.

Hail the mighty black and gold, hail the Tigers brave and bold.
Hail to Cañon City High, sing her praise to the sky.
To her we will ever sing, to her highest honor bring.
In the future as of old, hail the mighty black and gold.

Long before FOX had a hit TV show about a glee club, Lou Means lived the real thing. The Cañon City High School Music Director orchestrated four different singing groups on campus - Modern Choir, Concert Choir, Girls Glee and the Tiger Tones.

In 1974, Means was known as the "King of Pop" around CCHS - teaching his students not only the archaic melodies of "Greensleeves," but also Beatles and Rolling Stones songs.

"Oh yeah, dad made choir fun," said Mark Means, who graduated from CCHS in 1976, and was a member of the school's Tiger Tones singing group. "We didn't sing the old standards, we sang what we heard on the radio."

Lou Means grew up in Nebraska, where he too was a singer and songwriter. He moved to Colorado with a master's degree in music, and made his home in Cañon City.


It was Means' idea to record an album of songs performed by the four groups. He set up a mock recording studio in the high school choir room, and convinced the school to pick up the tab for the recording equipment. The groups recorded Christmas standards, along with a mix of modern pop songs, including Righteous Brothers, Carole King, and Paul McCartney hits.

Listen to "Another Day"


"He was a pretty cool teacher, and everybody liked him," said John Merriam, who sang in the modern choir, and was one of the guitar players on the album (and who is incorrectly listed as Fred Merriam on the LP - Fred is his older brother).

The LP was given to choir members and sold around town. The success of the record prompted Lou Means to record similar releases in 1975 and 1977.

Means retired from CCHS in 1990. He passed away in 2008.

Pictured on front of album - Jeff Saviano (guitar)

Choir alumnus include Jeff Saviano, who went on to become a disc jockey at KRLN in Cañon City, and later in Colorado Springs. He is now a criminalist.

"Lou was great," said Saviano. "He was also instrumental in getting a grant for me to attend the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU-Pueblo) when I went off to study psychology. After I went to college, Lou allowed me to arrange some pop music for the CCHS choirs."

(Photo courtesy of John Merriam)

John Merriam started a long, successful career in radio, also getting his start at KRLN in Cañon City, then moving on to KDZA in Pueblo, right after graduating from CCHS, in 1975. He would go on work at Los Angeles powerhouse KHJ. He came back to Colorado to forecast weather at KOAA-TV, from 1979-1981. He then moved on to radio stations in New Mexico and Texas, before settling in Michigan, where he has a voice-over business.

Allen Blackwell went on to front his own successful Colorado band, Big Al and the Hi-Fis, and JoAnn Ewing, is a member of the group Sierra Gold, which includes Richard Baca profiled here.

Mark Means moved to Albuquerque and runs his own film and video production company Fire Creek.

COMING NEXT POST: Eddie Y. Eldon

March 30, 1980

Interviews with Zella Richardson, Shauna Campbell and Dianne Maes conducted January 2010.


Zella Richardson stood outside the University of Southern Colorado’s Massari Gymnasium, surrounded by hundreds of people. The threat of being trampled couldn’t keep the 17-year old East High School junior from attending the biggest rock concert to ever come to Pueblo, Colorado in recent memory—Van Halen.

“I did extra babysitting jobs so I could get tickets," she said. "It was my first concert—ever. I was very excited”


The band's itinerary for the first few dates of the World Invasion Concert Tour, or what was dubbed by the band as the Party 'til You Die Tour, included mainly smaller cities, such as Great Falls, Eugene, and Spokane - a chance to work the bugs out before hitting the larger arenas. The Pueblo show, which doesn't even appear on the official concert tour list, would be the last small market stop in support of Women and Children First - the follow-up to their successful sophomore effort Van Halen II - released just four days before the Pueblo show. When tickets went on sale, they sold out in just a few hours.

"At the time, there was this record store in the Pueblo mall, and I remember having to go there on a Saturday morning, and there was this crazy line," said Dianne Maes. "I didn't know if we were going to get tickets." The 16-year old Central High School freshman (Dianne Alonzo) made plans to go with several friends. "My parents were strict but my dad went to a lot of concerts in his day, and so they always let us go."

"I was a huge Van Halen fan," said Shauna Clarke. The Rye High School graduate attended the show with her fiancé Sam Biondolillo, and friends Danny and Charlie Garrett, along with their girlfriends. "I was shocked that they would be coming to Pueblo."

Ticket holders started arriving at sunrise the day of the show for an opportunity to get close to the stage, once the doors opened. By noon several hundred people crammed in front of the entrance.

"I was there with my friends Bobbi Richards, Marty Vallejos and Marnie Berrian,” Richardson said. “We got there at 11:30 for a 7:00 p.m. concert. There were people smashed up against the doors - but it wasn't reserved seats, and we really wanted good seats."

Just four months earlier, on Dec. 3, 1979, 11 fans of The Who were trampled to death as they waited outside Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum for first-come, first-sit general admission seats.

“When the doors opened, everybody started running,” Richardson said. “It was kind of scary because I weighed like 98 pounds soaking wet, and I was about five feet tall.” She found a seat in the bleacher section, on the left hand side, about 30 feet from the stage.

Shauna Clarke and her party found a spot in the back of the gym. "All I could see was the light show, but I could hear the music, and people screaming and going nuts."

Dianne Alonzo and her friends found seats five rows from the stage - dead center. "We had folding chairs but we stood the whole time," she said. "David Lee Roth threw one of his bandanas in the audience, and my friend Gary Lucero caught one and one of Gary’s friends caught one of Alex Van Halen's drum sticks."

(March 31, 1980 - courtesy of the Pueblo Chieftain. Click to enlarge)

Of course, as history would go on to record, the concert would not be remembered for the band's setlist.

At the start of the 1980 tour, Van Halen added specific demands in its performance contract, in an effort to make sure the promoters actually read the document. On previous tours concert organizers only skimmed the contract and in turn, provided inadequate accommodations for the group's massive staging needs - putting stage crews in danger.

In the case of the Pueblo show the band decided to add "no brown M&Ms" to their contract, as a means of checking whether the venue was properly honoring the whole of the document. If they found the candies it would be assumed that there were legitimate technical and safety concerns.

When the band got to the dressing room they found brown M&Ms.

The night of the Pueblo show, the band's heavy stage sunk on top of the brand new Massari Gym floor, causing about $80,000 worth of damage. Upset by the apparent lack of regard for the rider, the band trashed its dressing room.

(April 1, 1980 - courtesy of the Pueblo Chieftain. Click to enlarge)

(Author's note: After originally agreeing to be interviewed for this story, one of the members of the University of Southern Colorado student-run Concert Crew, the group responsible for helping to arrange the set-up of the Van Halen show, declined to talk about that night.)

In 2008 the Web site The Smoking Gun obtained the original Pueblo contract.

In 2007 Blender Magazine published its 100 Days That Changed Music issue. Coming in at number 65 was the March 30, 1980 Van Halen show in Pueblo, Colorado:

March 30, 1980 - Van Halen find brown M&Ms backstage

After a show at the University of Southern Colorado, in direct contravention of the clause in the band’s contract, to be precise. They trash the dressing room, immortalizing the benchmark for all absurd backstage demands.

Zella Richardson is now the event coordinator for the Pueblo Better Business Bureau.

Shauna Campbell and her husband Chuck ran Pueblo's Sports Garden Events Complex. She is recently retired.

Dianne Maes works as a lab tech at a chemical manufacturing facility.

COMING NEXT POST: The vocal talents of Cañon City High School (1974).

Tiger Records

Interview with Ed Rutherford conducted December 2009.

(Photo courtesy of Jim and Pam Sisson)

In the mid 1960s, if you wanted to have a nice dinner, enjoy a cocktail, and listen to live music in La Junta, Colorado, there was just one place in town—the Country Club.

For Ed Rutherford the Country Club was literally a second home. The hot spot, located just down the street from the house where he grew up, was owned and operated by his parents, W.G. “Ole” and Frankie Rutherford.

Jim Stone, Hank Snow and Ole Rutherford

(picture courtesy of Ed Rutherford)

“My fondest memories of my dad and the Country Club was the music, and dancing with some of the regulars, and my dad getting on the band stand and singing “Long Tall Texan” but his version was “Short Fat Texan.”

In 1966, Ole Rutherford decided to get into the record business. Gleaning the talent pool of the more popular performers at the Country Club, he decided to make a local country duo, Jim and Lyn Stonecipher (spelled Stonecypher on a few occasions), his first official release on the new Tiger record label - named after the La Junta High School mascot.

Jim and Lyn

“Jim and Lyn shortened their last name to Stone, and they had a band called the Blue Marks,” said Rutherford. “Art Hollar played the steel guitar, Danny Tracy played the lead guitar, Terry Stone played the drums, while Jim played bass. Terry was Jim and Lyn's son and Danny was Lyn's son by a previous marriage.”

The first two records on the new label ("I Wish I Never" / "So-Called Friends" - Tiger 101, and "Little Patch of Blue" / "Boy and Girl in Love" - Tiger 102) were recorded in Denver. The songs feature happy married couple duets, which were a staple of their live shows at the Country Club.

Listen to "Boy and Girl in Love."

“I remember going with my dad to radio stations and visiting with disc jockeys to play the records,” said Ed Rutherford.

By 1967, Jim and Lyn decided to sign with a national management firm, J.B. Artist Promotions, and release a third single, which was recorded in Nashville. However, the couple's release of "Heartbreak Ship" and the flip "Tears are Falling," had more of a love lost feel than their previous love eternal tunes.

Listen to "Tears are Falling."

Shortly after the release of the third single, the couple would divorce. Lyn would go on to remarry and move out of the area.

Before the record label folded in 1968 Ole signed another local performer, and audience favorite at the Country Club, Mac McClanahan and the Rhythm Busters. While his rock-tinged "That Nonsense Stuff" and the slower b-side "No Sweeter Love" (Tiger 104) received local radio play upon its release, it would be rediscovered some 30 years later, as part of the modern day rockabilly resurgence. "That Nonsense Stuff" would go on to be considered a “pertinent” rockabilly record on Terry Gordon’s extensive Rockin' Country Style Web site, and appear on at least three rockabilly compilations.

Listen to "That Nonsense Stuff."

Ole Rutherford died in 1972. Frankie Rutherford continued to run the Country Club, but sold it off in 1976.

The Country Club (date unknown - photo courtesy of Jim and Pam Sisson)

The property is now home to a popular Mexican food restaurant, Mexico City Café.

COMING NEXT POST: March 30, 1980.

Arkansas Valley Wranglers

Vic Clay, Leonard Kasza, Chet Calcote, and Frank Bowen interviewed December 2009.

Gene Clay wasn’t always known as the founder of the most popular country band in Lamar, Colorado, The Arkansas Valley Wranglers (more commonly known as the Ark. Valley Wranglers). The southeastern Colorado fiddler had a day job.

“Daddy was the owner of an auto repair shop,” said his son Vic. “He was a part-time musician, mostly weekends and for special dance events.”

In 1949, when Gene wasn't fixing cars, he and his pre-teen son Vic played dance halls around the region. But by 1953 the father and son act decided to expand the band and soon added the talents of Lucille Doney on piano, and Gilbert Austin on drums, along with teenagers Leonard Kasza on steel guitar, and Las Animas fiddler, Chet Calcote.

“I regularly performed during a Saturday evening country music show on KLMR radio in Lamar when I met Vic and Gene,” said Leonard Kasza. “I was only 14 or 15, and wasn’t old enough to drive yet, so my Mom would take me to the radio station."

The Wiley High School student, who played both mandolin and steel guitar, was quickly recruited to join the band.

Chet Calcote recollects a similar experience. "I was a Las Animas High School sophomore. I was playing guitar and singing for school functions and my folks thought I should be on the KLMR show - so they drove me over there. Afterward Vic and Gene asked me to join."

Top row (left to right) Gene Austin, Gilbert Austin,
Leonard Kasza, Vic Clay, Chet Calcote
Front row John and Vera Spencer, Henrietta Crabill
(Lamar Dudes and Dames), Gene Clay, unidentified
(Photo courtesy of Vic Clay)

With the line-up complete, the Ark. Valley Wranglers performed at nearly every available venue in the region, including the Spot 50 Tavern in La Junta, and the Eagles Club in Lamar.

“We played lots of Elks clubs, VFW halls, American Legion halls, high school dances and proms,” said Vic Clay.

In 1955 both Leonard Kasza and Vic Clay joined the U.S. Army. Chet moved to Pueblo to attend college. The original Wranglers took a hiatus, but Gene Clay continued to remain active in the local music scene.

About that same time brothers Frank Bowen and Dave Warren’s country rock band, The Rhythm Ranch Boys (not to be confused with Speedy Ross and the Rhythm Ranch Boys out of North Dakota) had an idea for a record. Knowing very little about recording or the music industry, they turned to Gene Clay. “He had some pull at the local radio station. He said he would help us, but wanted to put his band’s name on the record.” So the Rhythm Ranch Boys morphed into the Ark. Valley Wranglers.

Recorded at KLMR in the fall of 1956, the partnership of the Rhythm Ranch Boys and the Ark. Valley Wranglers produced the Bowen and Warren composition, “A Broken Heart.”

Listen to "A Broken Heart"

"Lyric writing was something we just picked up,” Bowen said. “We usually wrote when we were doing chores, or driving.”

The flipside, the Bowen and Warren composed “Rock and Roll Blues” was a set to a “Heartbreak Hotel” style melody, and featured Warren's popular impersonation of Elvis Presley, who owned the record charts in 1956.

Listen to "Rock and Roll Blues"

“We knew that every woman was after Elvis so we figured that no matter who you were, if you had a girlfriend, you better be careful,” said Bowen.

The record was issued through Starday, on the band’s own Cimmarron label.

“I remember when the label sent us the records. We had boxes and boxes delivered to us, with these postcards enclosed that we sent to disc jockeys to get them to play the record,” said Bowen. “We probably sent out over 200 across the country.”

(Left to right) Frank Bowen, Dan Smith, Vic Clay, Dave Warren,
Gene Clay, Milt Porter, Lucille Doney
(Photo courtesy of Vic Clay)

Frank and Dave would spend the next year with the Wranglers, when tragedy struck – their guitar player Willie Allen was killed in an automobile accident. “Another member of the group joined the Navy, and we all just kind of fell apart,” Bowen said.

“I moved to Denver and I started the String Alongs [not to be confused with the “Wheels” group of the same name]. We played in night clubs and bars doing some country and old rock.”

Vic Clay continued to work in the music industry, after he was discharged from the U.S. Army, in 1958. He found success playing guitar for the Rex Humbard ministry. After his time with the Cathedral of Tomorrow, he began recording spiritual artists, including J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, The Florida Boys, The Hoppers and The Cathedrals. He and his wife Toni have received numerous Dove Award nominations for their production work. Currently he lives in Nashville.

Chet Calcote went on to host the Rocky Mountain Round-up on KCSJ radio in Pueblo (as Chet Lee), as well as the weekly Colorado Corral program on KCSJ television. In 1958 he moved to Tulsa to play bass in Leon McAuliffe's Cimarron Boys, of which he was a member for four years. He moved to the Texas Panhandle, where he performed in the house band at the Country Barn Steak House for twelve and a half years. He is also a member of the jazz band, Pizzazz, as well as Charlie "Sugartime" Phillips and his Sugartimers. He has been inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame in 1999, the Western Swing Music Society of the Southwest and the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Western Swing Music Society in 2007.

Leonard Kasza worked in several Austin, TX area bands, including Grassfire, Blue Norther, and Cedar Valley. He currently plays steel guitar for the Taos New Mexico-based band, Kim and the Caballeros. "Although Gene Clay didn't teach me to play the steel guitar, he taught me to be a musician. An enduring piece of advice he gave me was give the audience all you have; leave them wanting to hear more," he said. "Being in the Ark. Valley Wranglers was a great experience."

Frank Bowen continued to perform and record in Denver, after he left the Ark. Valley Wranglers. He moved to North Carolina, where he worked in the insurance industry. He is currently retired.

Dave Warren never performed again, after his time with the Ark. Valley Wranglers. He went on to work for the Denver Police Department. He is currently retired in Missouri.

In 2006 the original Ark. Valley Wranglers, Vic Clay, Leonard Kasza and Chet Calcote, reunited after 52 years to form the Retro Wranglers. They recorded a CD, Yesterdays Dreams. The Retro Wranglers' version of Bob Willis' "Please Don't Leave Me" is featured in the 2009 motion picture soundtrack Did You Hear About the Morgans, starting Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker.

COMING NEXT POST: Tiger Records