Los Lonely Boys are playing tonight in Grand Junction, Colo., at a festival called RockJam. I’m currently in Grand Junction, my hometown, and I’m longing to see that show. Los Lonely Boys goes on at 7 p.m. followed by Huey Lewis and the News (I’m actually curious about Huey as well, and have come to respect that band over the years).
Los Lonely Boys
A better option for me, however, is to watch the red-hot Rockies play the Padres tonight with my dad, a huge Rockies fan. He’s 87, so we don’t have an endless amount of seasons left together.
Los Lonely Boys play tomorrow night in Durango, Colo., then on Wednesday at the Cascade Theatre in Redding.
Grand Junction, Durango and Redding. These are the three towns in which I’ve lived the majority of my life. I wonder if the Garza brothers are aware of this? I’m sure they’d be fascinated.
When Los Lonely Boys came to Redding two years ago, I remember how much time and care they put into a session with kids from the Plus One/YMCA mentoring program. Before the show that night at the Cascade, Henry Garza was so open and unassuming. He let me pick up one of his Strats and I marveled at how heavy his strings were, just like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
"It’s like working out, man. It makes you tough and strong," he said of playing with the heavy gauge strings.
Henry plays and even sometimes moves like Stevie Ray. But he brings his own unique texture to the conversation. He and his brothers Jojo and Ringo certainly sing, breath and perform their music as a single unit. This is some seriously high-powered Texican blues.
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I’m not calling them the next Black Uhuru (particularly because four of their members are white), but I caught the Fort Collins reggae band Dub Skin on Wednesday night at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon in Telluride. This is an excellent reggae group kicking all original tunes with irie grooves.
I bought their album and have been enjoying it, too. But you can download their music for free at dubskinmusic.com . Check out the track "African."
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My travels continued from Moab, Utah, east to Telluride, one of the most gorgeous places in Colorado. It’s kind of odd and haunting to see the massive mountains like 14,017-foot Wilson Peak all bare at this time of year.
Wilson Peak (with Lone Cone off in the distance).
I camped in a scenic spot called Gold King Basin, which afforded excellent views of Wilson Peak, Mount Wilson, Lizard Head Peak and the far-away Lone Cone, near Norwood, Colo.
Telluride has really become Aspenized over the years with high-end luxury condos and mansions (Oprah and Tom Cruise have homes there), but the historic downtown district still has a hint of that sleepy Colorado mountain town I remember from my childhood.
Downtown Telluride
The Brown Dog Pizza pub/restaurant downtown was a nice hang and a good place to watch the Rockies game. The owner, however, is a huge Red Sox fan, so the prime flatscreen goes to Boston. A massive wooden scoreboard displays the Sox’s 2004 win over the Yankees to go to the World Series.
The New Sheridan Hotel and the Floradora Saloon are still there. It’s still Telluride. And in winter, it’s certainly one of Colorado’s best places to ski.
• Traveling north to Grand Junction, I noted how much Ridgeway has grown (and why wouldn’t it, such a beautiful setting and not in a tight canyon like Ourah).
Black Canyon National Monument
• And even though it was less than two hours away from the place I grew up, I’d never been to the Black Canyon National Monument. What a breathtaking canyon.
