BandWagon Magazine - July 2012

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Neanderthal Kelly Langley-Cook BandWagon Magazine Spencer Korey Duncan’s black and white photo gallery, which debuts this July at BandWagon, has more meaning than what is often produced by a college student with an SLR. Imaginative and bold, Duncan brings to life several characters, covered in mud and caught dancing, fighting, awake, alive, and expressive.

While many young artists would lean towards the pornographic, Duncan’s photography is far more mature than some “edgy” boob shot.

“Neanderthal” is more of a highfashion shoot, with provocative poses and sharp stares. Duncan has a supreme reverence and understanding of the human figure In “Neanderthal,” each shot is a testament to Duncan’s consistent vision. The story is of cavemen and women caught in a freak glacier and preserved for thousands of years.

As they awaken and travel to the modern cities, they are awed and frightened. Each photo speaks to loyalty, community, protection, fear, and wonder.

“Neanderthal” has flavors of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, with the severe eyes of the subjects seeming to grapple with choices and chaos.

His subjects are appropriately brave and vulnerable on the other side of Duncan’s lens. They speak to the viewer with both familiarity and foreignness, which creates an

enjoyable need to stay and study each image for a while.

Duncan’s previous work includes photographs of New Orleans and New York City shot from the perspective of an outsider. “I am an insider in some parts of my own community – one of my goals is to be transparent. If someone wants to put me in a [stereotypical box] they can.

Label me if it helps to understand me better, but that is for you. Like most people, I don’t fit necessarily.

I am a gay Christian man. I don’t like being politically correct. I like challenging beliefs and having my beliefs challenged. I don’t want to be stagnant. That’s my biggest fear.

I always want to be moving and experiencing something new and have things affect me. “ The challenge of “Neanderthal” for Duncan is autobiographical.

Show up to the premiere on July 1st and expect to have all of your senses engaged. With live models covered in mud, music by local favorite Paul Beveridge and Company and Denver band Ancient Mariner, The Neanderthal show promises to be a sensual delight. If the pictures alone don’t bring out raw emotion for the viewer, the performance will.

Having a chance to shoot this show both in Laramie and in Greeley and share it with the Northern Colorado community has opened Duncan’s eyes to how much his life has changed. The blessing that

has been poured on him is that everything changed when he moved to Greeley; his time in Laramie was done.

This show, much like the Neanderthals Duncan imagines, will open our eyes to see the new life in front of us.

“Neanderthal” opens First Friday July 6th 5-9pm at the BandWagon: 921 16th St. Admission is free.

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

ALBUM REVIEWS Beach House Bloom

Scotty Anderson BandWagon Magazine

With their latest album, Bloom, Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally continue to do what they always do: hone their craft and create beautiful music. Listeners demand much from artists. They want something new and fresh, but they are sometimes critical if it is different. It seems that Beach House has done the impossible in creating a perfect followup to their critically-acclaimed Teen Dream. The new album is fantastic, much like the former in sounds and textures. The Baltimore duo seems to understand perfectly how to connect to their listeners emotionally. Bloom isn’t just an album, It feels more like an experience that compels listeners to join.

The album begins with “Myth.” One has an immediate sense of relief when Legrand starts singing. The track has a familiarity to it, as though there might have been a version of this song many years ago. This is their way of taking listeners to an emotional place. The

album continues on a lazy, dream-like pace that one would expect from the duo. From there the album shifts to a slightly more up-beat feeling with “Wild,” which captures the fleeting feeling of youth. Tracks such as “Troublemaker” evoke the very essence of what makes this band amazing. The last two songs “On The Sea” and “Irene” develop a somewhat different sound than what listeners have come to expect from the duo, but it doesn’t feel out of place on this album. The ability to incorporate new sounds without changing their relationship with the listener is what sets this album apart from the rest. With Beach House, the music isn’t so much about telling a story as it is about capturing a single brief moment that can last forever.

When asked by The Village Voice about the title of their new album, Legrand stated, “It’s an abstraction of many feelings and it’s a broad spectrum. For us, the album Bloom has many things inside of it, and forces inside of it. To find a word or a set of words we felt curated the whole thing, Bloom was it.”

The album’s May 15th release was

highly anticipated, so much so that even leaked versions of the album were getting premature reviews all over the Internet. Bloom is the type of album that continues to get better with each listen. It continues to impress even after mulitiple listens. Albums such as these are few and far between, and the listeners’ experiences are extremely cathartic. Only time will tell if Bloom will be able to attain the acclaim that Teen Dream was able to garner. In the meantime, it is a beautiful sound to hear.

Essential tracks: “Myth,” “Wild,” “Troublemaker,” “New Year,” and “Wishes.”

Motion City Soundtrack Go

Mikey Unruh BandWagon Magazine

Motion City Soundtrack was notable circa 2005. In the height of poppunk’s popularity and the rise of the emo fad, their music contained enough brokenhearted whining and fast, upbeat pop rock to be relevant in both scenes.

As both genres became over-saturated with bands doing the exact same thing, the novelty wore off and no one band remained particularly notable, leading to the disbanding of many similar acts.

However, MCS continued on, doing what they know they do well.

Go may not be anything new, but it is Motion City at their best. Released on June 12th, the record is timed perfectly for summer nostalgia, especially considering how much the album sounds like all the highlights from their previous releases. The opening track “Circuits and Wires” is a hail to their earliest days, focusing more on their punk roots than the more pop-oriented direction they headed. On the other hand, “True Romance,” the following track, includes prominent quirky synthesizers, big choruses and tons of

catchy, radio-ready hooks, putting it in league with their later work.

Like every MCS record, there are a few acoustic guitar-driven songs that have more in common with late ‘90s alt-rock than their obvious influences.

“Son of a Gun” is one such track, but instead of leaving it as a stripped down, pseudo-acoustic track, they bring in the synths and the rest of the band to fill everything out as the song progresses.

The middle of the record contains a number of slowed-down, heavilyproduced tracks that are less engaging than the rest of the record, but they don’t warrant skipping.

Go plays like every other Motion City Soundtrack album, with a number of cycles from energetic rock tracks, to slightly more mellow pop tracks, to personal, low-energy tracks. Unlike their previous records, though, there are a number of tracks that fit somewhere in between. These tracks aren’t the strongest songs on the album, but they are the only real break from past formula.

“Happy Anniversary” is one of the tracks that stands out the most, containing a little bit of all that they’ve done before, but much bigger. Lyrically,

the majority of the album is familiar talk of lost loves, broken hearts, and pining for someone from a distance, and “Happy Anniversary” is no different, except the delivery sounds more passionate, even for a band known for emotional honesty.

This may not be the most unique album, but it is definitely one of the best pop-punk albums that will be released this year. While their peers continue to try to stand out in a scene that is already overdone in nearly every way possible, Motion City took the smartest path and just made a record that played on their already large number of strengths. And while it may not become your favorite release this year, it could make a great soundtrack for a montage of your summer.

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

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Curren$y

The Stoned Immaculate John Hann BandWagon Magazine Curren$y’s new album The Stoned Immaculate was released the first week of June 2012 and has been making an impact. The album drop was highly anticipated due to the fact that it is Curren$y’s first album with a wide range of producers. The album’s producers include Pharrell, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, DJ Toomp, and Bink. Along with other beat makers, the album has a great line up of featured artists such as Wiz Kalifa, 2 Chains, Big K.R.I.T. and Wale. Considered one of Curren$y’s biggest albums yet, The Stoned Immaculate inludes tracks with a fly swagger and smooth style.

On the track “Showroom,” Curren$y discusses his class and what his life is now like living on top with the Jet Life. Curren$y also talks about the hard work put into his raps. In the second verse he says that he is “dropping record after record like them bitches slippery/I like nice shit and I know how to get it/Hustle

dumbass, it’s not rocket science or quantum physics/Get on task fool, trapped ‘til a trillion.”

Curren$y has been working to get out his raps, and his drive for nice things and money is what keeps him going. Like most rappers, he says that now that he has made it in the game he is trapped in it until he makes mad cash, whether he likes it or not.

His hard work and dedication shows that he loves the rap game, and with the success of this album he is right in saying he has some time before he can leave to keep his fans and industry happy.

The Stoned Immaculate shines with the help of talented producers, featured MCs, and, of course, Curren$y himself spiting on his tracks, making it a monumental release for his career.

This album is bound to change his career now that mainstream media and music producers are finally recognizing him has a signed rapper, bursting with talent and ready to make more albums. While all the tracks on this album are good, “Showroom, Chasin’ Papers,” “That’s the Thing,”

and “Fast Cars Faster Women,” are exceptional tracks that show a wide range of Curren$y’s rap talent and style. Curren$y’s mechanically smooth deliveries, his perfect lyrical timing on every beat he hits, and his witty lyrics demonstrate why he deserved to be signed by Warner Bros. Curren$y pushes the grind and it has brought him to his current level of rap dexterity, precision, and talent, hopefully leading him to many more successful albums in his booming music career. Don’t forget to check out this new album and see for yourself how Curren$y’s hard work has finally landed him at the top of his game.

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012 The Ghost Inside Get What You Give

Lucas Wingfield BandWagon Magazine Well, the new The Ghost Inside album is out, and it really sucks. I’ve given it my fair share of listens and I just can’t come to terms with it. It just flat out sucks. I’ve been a very loyal fan of The Ghost Inside for as long as I can remember listening to heavy music – Hell, The Ghost Inside have been one of my greatest influences for years as a musician, but I’m afraid that they’ve left their fans high and dry on their newest release Get What You Give.

I should really blame myself for getting my hopes up for this record.

The Ghost Inside recruited the lead singer of A Day to Remember, Jeremy McKinnon, to produce the album.

McKinnon actually has a lot of names under his belt, including The Devil Wears Prada, For the Fallen Dreams, and pop-punk outfit Veara. As much as I was intrigued to hear the final product from the two, I knew right away that the signature sound of The Ghost Inside would be buried with their previous album Returners. The harsh vocals still remain, but the lyrical content and lack of creative

guitar work doesn’t even come close to delivering as well as their previous releases.

The song structure of every single song on this disc is the exact same.

The lead singer, Jonathan Vigil, will open the record telling you about how “lost at sea” he is and how he is always “sinking.” This will be behind an upbeat gallop and some of the signature emotional chord combinations that The Ghost Inside has adopted. After a chorus that may or may not include singing, there will be a point in the song where the guitars ring out and the drums will make thundering down-beats to suggest that a heavier part is coming.

All of the instruments will cut out at the same time and Vigil will say something to the effect of “No hope, no bed, Nowhere to hang my head,” “My

innocence is gone,” or my least favorite “Only the strong survive.” The song will end with a breakdown that has some kind of four-note lead variation to jerk the heartstrings of anyone that can relate to the lyrics, “All my life I’ve been waiting for something/ That never came, it never came.” You could argue that The Ghost Inside has perfected their own formula, but in reality they cranked out a record for their label in two months that sounds like a diet version of every song they’ve written before.

If you pick this disc up at the record store, make sure you put it back down and keep browsing. You could listen to literally thousands of different bands that have the same tough-guy teddy-bear lyrics and the breakdowns that should be named letdowns. Maybe they didn’t understand

with the piano, flute, and slide guitar.

Matsson’s unique and passionate singing voice along with his superior songwriting and guitar skills make a powerful combination.

This new album showcases Matsson’s skill as a songwriter and a musician on a deeper level than his previous albums. In the title track Matsson sings, “When you’re painted like a warrior though you know it’s

a raining war / When the first who spoke but wasn’t really there / was your heart.” Matsson’s lyrics tend to be metaphorical and creative. He sings about life, love, pain, and happiness, using memories or snapshots of nature. Matsson writes in a poetic and cerebral way that ultimately seems to make a deeper connection with his fans.

Matsson’s current tour includes

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the meaning of their own album title Get What You Give, because It looks like The Ghost Inside are doing just that.

They’re getting a lot of really pissed off fans because they gave us a really shitty record.

The Tallest Man on Earth There’s No Leaving Now

Jordan Wood BandWagon Magazine In 2006, Swedish native Kristian Matsson, The Tallest Man on Earth, began recording music in his home with minimal instrumentals and recording equipment. Matsson has released two EP’s, and three albums since he began in 2006, and now tours internationally. Often compared to American folk legend Bob Dylan because of his unique vocal tone, combined with his instrumentation, he sets him apart from other modern folk musicians. Matsson is known to be soft-spoken and shy during interviews, but a charismatic performer who captivates his audiences when he is onstage. He is a unique artist who prefers to play without a band when he tours. When asked in a June interview why he chooses to perform by himself

he explained that “when you play with a band, you connect with each other onstage, and you become a family....but when you are alone on stage you are forced to make connections with the audience. It really is a beautiful thing.”

This personal connection with Matsson’s audiences is not only felt in his live shows, but in his recorded work as well. Matsson has released two EP’s, and three albums since he began in 2006. In June he released his third album entitled There’s No Leaving Now. It features ten tracks of similarly simplistic music that fans enjoyed in his previous full-length albums Shallow Grave (2008) and The Wild Hunt (2010).

There’s No Leaving Now, however, has a slightly different feel than the previous albums, including a more airy and cheerful sound and optimistic lyrics. Matsson also experiments

stops in Europe and the United States, including two sold-out shows at New York City’s Town Hall, and one in Los Angeles. In a recent interview during his sold out June 10th show in Boulder, Matsson was asked about the frequent comparisons of him to Bob Dylan.

Matsson explained, “I enjoy his music, but this is me. This is what I do, and it’s all I have to give.”

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

FILM REVIEWS Prometheus 2012 - 124 Minutes - Rated R Jay Wallace BandWagon Magazine When it was announced that Ridley Scott was working on a prequel to his sci-fi/horror masterpiece Alien, the Internet (and myself) got curious.

Prequels in general are pretty rare, even more so when crew members from the original film are involved, particularly if they have a resume akin to Scott’s. Why would a guy with a couple Oscar nominations under his belt go back to the bloody, scary well of one of their first films?

Then came news that his prequel to Alien wasn’t actually going to be a prequel at all. It would take place in the same universe as the original film, but would be its own film. Or would it?

Did I forget to mention he hired on a scribe from J.J. Abrams’ Lost? Whether that was good or bad, interest peaked considerably amongst guys like me.

What was Scott up to?

Prometheus takes place in 2089, revolving around archeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace, star of the Swedish film adaption of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green).

The two scientists and lovers have discovered multiple ancient paintings from disparate cultures across the world, all depicting an identical star map. The two think this is an invitation from the human race’s predecessors/ creators, which they call “Engineers.”

Cut to 2093. Shaw and Holloway awaken on board the research ship Prometheus. Apparently, they were

able to convince Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce, in old age make-up) of the Weyland Corporation to build the ship and attempt to search for these Engineers. They arrive on the planet, and in due time, they come face to face with a threat that could end the human race. And they’re not shiny black aliens.

Not yet, anyway.

If it weren’t for the appearance of some key bits from Alien, it’d be easy to think this was a completely unrelated film. Alien was a horror film about space truckers fighting off a shiny, black monster who pops out of your chest after you’re raped in the face by an albino space crustacean. The film was an allegory for rape and (along with John Carpenter’s Halloween) created the modern horror movie heroine with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

Prometheus, on the other hand, is a science fiction film about creation, and naivety about creation. The film could either be an argument for atheism or an argument for never meeting your God, both saying the same thing: no one should really know why we were created or who did it. Rapace’s character is played as a Christian in search of God, simply wanting an answer to the question, “Why are we here?” She soon discovers that she shouldn’t have asked.

I’m not particularly sure it’s a strong premise for a science fiction/ horror film. It’s an intriguing premise, but not for a blockbuster intended to be a spin-off from one of the best horror/sci-fi movies ever made. It’s not boring or lacking spectacle, but

the general idea of the film – do we really want to know why we’re here? – doesn’t seem like a strong enough core concept to build a film like Prometheus out of. The movie is lacking something more substantial.

What I found most intriguing about the film walking out of the theater, studying up on the film online, and discovering it had a R-rating. It’s surprisingly tame to the point where I thought I was watching a PG-13 movie. Granted, this is intended to be a science fiction film with horror/action elements as opposed to a horror film with sci-fi elements, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in that regard.

The shadow of Alien hangs over this film greatly, and it might leave viewers feeling underwhelmed.

In the general, the cast is great.

Rapace leads the film wonderfully as true-believer Shaw, with Charlize Theron backing her up as the hardas-nails company woman Meredith Vickers. I wish there was more of Idris Elba as the captain of the ship, Janek.

Michael Fassbender as android David is a terrific punch-clock villain, but don’t expect him to be a carbon copy of the androids of Alien and Aliens.

In general, Prometheus is a great, intelligent popcorn-muncher – I’m willing to say it’s the most artful blockbuster of the year that’s not Dark Knight Rises – but for those like me who knew it as a pseudo-prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien, there stands a good chance it won’t meet initial expectations. 6/10

his time to finding Kevin and any clues related to him. This leads him to stalk a man wearing a jersey with the name Kevin on the back, hopping a ride on a delivery truck and having a number of run-ins with his brother, Pat. Pat’s marriage is falling apart, and he believes that his wife, Linda (Judy Greer), is cheating on him.

Despite his efforts to learn the truth, his mother pressures him into helping keep Jeff on task as he attempts to fix the door. By the time the two finally do cross paths, however, Jeff has already moved completely past the repairs, and has focused his attention on finding some meaning in the seemingly random occurrences of his day.

Pat is the quintessential doubter, denying that Jeff’s phone call and the following string of events have any significance, and it could be argued that he is entirely correct.

The events that bring the brothers together over and over again have little to do with each other and Jeff’s quest to find Kevin quickly becomes the only consistent thread running through everything happening.

Meanwhile, the boys’ mother, Sharon, frustrated with life, her stay at home son, and her uninspiring job, discovers that she has a secret admirer among her coworkers that turns out to be more than it seems. While the portions of the film dealing with her office romance feel more like a side story than a piece of the larger picture, they are

compelling and engaging, especially when the way events play out are unexpected. Writer/directors, Jay and Mark Duplass, take a tired concept and make it feel fresh.

Movies dealing with similar themes are often predictable, dismissing obvious plot points as a symptom of the subject matter, but Jeff, Who Lives At Home never feels like that.

It’s Jeff’s search for destiny, it becomes increasingly questionable whether or not fate is the guiding force, though he continues as if it is. It is Jeff’s devotion to finding his purpose and Pat’s honest struggle with his wife that bring out the best moments in the film.

Segel and Helms deliver incredibly real, familiar performances that perfectly play on the strengths they have shown in previous work but develop into deeper, more sincere characters. Jeff remains a positive character, even when discouraged, a dichotomy personified well by Segel when Jeff feels underwhelmed by his presumed purpose. Rather than feeling slighted by fate, he says that he feels like he should have done more, and proves it when given the opportunity. In the end, its his search for meaning that brings his family together just in time to witness the discovery of his true purpose, though it is never explicitly revealed whether Jeff was really guided by fate or if his search simply led him to an opportunity worth calling destiny. 9/10

Jeff, Who Lives at Home 2011 - 83 Minutes - Rated R

Mikey Unruh BandWagon Magazine

To describe Jeff, Who Lives At Home in general terms would be a disservice. It’s a film about destiny, seizing the day, and the value of family, but those themes hardly encompass its uniqueness. Even noting that the film stars Jason Segel as Jeff, and Ed Helms as his brother, Pat, doesn’t give an accurate sense of what kind of movie this is. It is a comedy, but it doesn’t rely solely on jokes or comedic situations to keep things moving, in fact many of the most driving and captivating moments are the more serious ones. The film isn’t an attempt at creating something new, but rather a reinvention of an idea usually reserved for low budget indie films, focusing largely on the serendipitous and coincidental nature of life, but how that pans out in each of the character’s lives is different.

Like the title states, Jeff lives at home. He’s a thirty-year-old stoner who ascribes meaning to life’s chaos after watching the M. Night Shyamalan film Signs and deeply connecting with it, probably due to his marijuana use. After receiving a call from someone named Kevin and being tasked by his mother (Susan Sarandon) with repairing a slat in her pantry door, Jeff sets out into the world. Pulled in different directions by his desire to find the meaning of the call and his responsibility to his mother, he eventually devotes

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Luke and the Cool Hands Alive n’ Kickin’

Joe Lee Parker BandWagon Magazine Luke Shilts is no stranger to being an entertainer. He comes from a musical family and started young as a prominent member of his high school band back in Dodge City, Kansas.

Additionally, for six years he hosted his own daily talk show on local 1310 KFKA radio. So to front his own classic country band comes naturally for this gifted and charismatic local personality.

Formed less than a year ago with area veterans Dave Hopkins, Ron Akin, Dave Guzman, and Bill Steinmiller, Luke and the Cool Hands brings some diversity to the Greeley scene. They specialize in good times and great fun, while keeping true to their classic country roots. The band performs songs from ‘70s- and ‘80s-era artists such as George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Brooks and Dunn.

They also pepper in some rock favorites by Bob Seger and The Doobie Brothers along the way.

Luke started by performing originals at open mics and even did some karaoke to build his voice and work on his moves, but it didn’t take him long to feel he needed to grow beyond the clubs and coffee shops. That’s when he met up with Deena Wolfe, the owner of Fort 21 here in town, which has been serving up classic country to fun-loving locals since the early 1980s and still holds true to their vision. Luke knew it was a match made in heaven. All he needed was a band.

He had tried his hand at group projects before, but they never got off the ground. Little did he know that the Cool Hands were looking to take things to the next level themselves. As a group of four seasoned musicians, they were mostly playing small parties and one-off nights at smaller

clubs. With all the members in their early 60s, they weren’t looking for their next big break at stardom. Rather, they found themselves caring more about the quality of the music than the size of the crowd or venue.

Formed from the ashes of the once-touring and successful local country-rock band Lash LaRue, the current Cool Hands line-up features Steinmiller on bass, Akin on lead guitar, Hopkins on pedal steel and Guzman on drums.

With Luke fronting the band on vocals and rhythm guitar, they’ve all found what they were looking for. Their camaraderie and shared musical vision is evident both on and off stage.

Bringing greatly under-represented, live country in the bars of Northern Colorado is a niche that Luke and the Cool Hands were all too happy to fill. Playing clubs like The Boot Grill and Widow McCoy’s in Loveland and Fort 21 here in Greeley, they’ve also found a loyal fan base to support them.

If you find you’re hankering to get your boots out, cut the rug a little and jam out to some classic country and rock hits of the ‘70s and ‘80s, check them out. Luke and The Cool Hands will be rocking the Greeley Stampede on July 3rd at Island Grove Park and can be seen playing regularly around Greeley. You can find an updated schedule on their web site at LukeAndTheCoolHands.com.

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Greeley Hat Works: Nothing But Passion Local company prides itself in handmade custom hats, and rightfully so

Jay Wallace BandWagon Magazine Get talking with Trent Johnson, 40-year-old Greeley resident and owner of Greeley Hat Works, and you can tell the guy loves what he does.

“I use two different felt makers in Europe and one domestic,” Johnson said, explaining what goes into making his hats. “I’ve been to all my felt makers, and I actually, from the get-go, get to help design what kind of fur, the quality of the fur, degrees of stiffener in the crown and brim. I get to start from the very, very beginning and design what the hat body’s going to be like before we even start building it.”

Greeley Hat Works initially started in 1909 as Greeley Hat Works and Shine Parlor. It became known for its custom hats thanks to Ben Martinez, who was the store’s shoeshine boy. In 1932, Martinez bought the company and changed his name to Martin, because, as Johnson said, “Nobody would bring their hat to a Mexican.” The company switched hands a couple times, with Martinez still working there.

Susie Orr, whom Johnson worked under as an apprentice, bought the company from Martinez and learned the trade from him.

During Johnson’s last year as an apprentice, he made sixty custom hats. In his first year as the owner, 120. Last year, the company made 3,500 hats. They send hats to sixty stores in the United States and twelve overseas. Each is handmade from scratch, using antique equipment.

“I don’t think anyone makes new [equipment]. I’ve never seen any,” said Jay Funk, 65, the company’s renovator, as he demonstrated an old specialty sewing machine used to sew the sweatband onto an old hat he was restoring.

Obviously, Johnson doesn’t do work alone. Funk’s job is cleaning, shaping and restoring

Pictured Top: Sharon Guimen, demonstrates preparing and attaching a headband to a hat.

Pictured Below: Jay Funk, 65, works on attaching a sweatband to an older hat he’s restoring for a customer. Greeley Hat Works regularly restores hats from clients in all 50 states.

Pictured Background: Greeley Hat Works on 8th Ave in beautiful Garden City.

older hats for customers. Sharon Guimen, 53, acts as quality control finisher. Damon Smith, 36, is a production manager who started as a customer when he played with local bands.

“What happened was I needed a hat to play with The Hi*Beams, because they were a country band,” Smith said. “So I came in to get a hat from Trent, and I didn’t know anything about it. So we had a nice long talk about what style of music we played and where we were going to be playing so what kind of a hat would be appropriate for that.”

Later, Johnson called Smith up asking for additional help. Smith quit his previous job in daycare and has worked for Greeley Hat Works for eight years.

“It isn’t like you hire a hatmaker,” Johnson said. “You hire somebody that is artistic and passionate, and you try to translate their natural abilities into hatmaking.”

Johnson, originally from Pueblo, moved to Greeley in 1990 to go the University of Northern Colorado, specifically business school. Johnson said he didn’t have good enough grades, however.

“I didn’t want to be a teacher because my dad was a teacher,” he said. “I went to school there, and I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction, so I went to school to be a teacher.”

While going to UNC, the owners of the hat shop had a ranch outside of town, where Johnson would take his hats to get shaped and cleaned.

Subsequently, he got hired to work on their ranch.

“In my spare time, I started hanging out in the hat shop,” Johnson said, “and that’s how I ended up getting involved with Greeley Hat Works.”

Johnson graduated in 1995 and bought the company in January of the next year.

The big news for Greeley Hat Works happened a few years ago,

when former president George W. Bush stopped in Greeley, commissioning the company to make a hat. Johnson said it came about from his work with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, for whom he acts as the official hatter.

“When he was coming to Denver, they asked me if I would build a hat for him,” Johnson said.

“When I said yes, they got me in touch with the White House, and I had to go through a whole bunch of preliminary security, because they don’t want some communist who doesn’t pay taxes building him a hat.”

After he was reelected, Bush asked for a new hat from Johnson, inviting him to the White House to present the finished hat. Subsequently, the Bush Administration commissioned Johnson to build gifts on his behalf with his signature and Presidential Seal.

Johnson has also made hats for the likes of Steven Tyler, Toby Keith, The Band Perry and Charlie Sheen “before he went crazy.”

Despite those clients, Johnson said his bread-and-butter are salt-ofthe-earth, normal working people.

The company doesn’t exclusively do cowboys hats, though. They also have their Avant Garde and Dress lines, consisting of custom fedoras and dress hats that wouldn’t look out-of-place on Mad Men. Johnson said he began pushing those lines five years ago when hats started to become more prominent in fashion and indie rock scenes.

“It’s not like the stuff you’d buy at Target,” Johnson said. “We sell $30 hats, but those aren’t the ones I make. My stuff is obviously going to be a little more expensive, but it’s all hand-made and we could design stuff specifically for certain people, which makes it fun if they want a certain theme.”

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

The Sod Buster Inn Bed and Breakfast “There’s Room at the Inn”

Joe Lee Parker BandWagon Magazine Musicians, do you need a place to play? Actors, have you been searching for a great place to perform? Music students, how about a gallery to host your recitals? Singers, perhaps you’re in need of a unique venue to showcase your talent?

Well look no further than right here in Downtown Greeley.

Located on the Historic Monroe Corridor at 1221 9th Avenue, the Sod Buster Inn can provide for all that, and so much more.

Not to mention, it’s one of the most beautiful places anywhere in the area.

Owners Stephanie and Derek Boulton are musicians themselves, so it’s only natural for them to do everything they can to promote the arts and reach out to UNC Students.

Together, they’ve traveled extensively and lived in some of the world’s best locals.

As entrepreneurs they are extremely well connected and have world-class taste when it comes to hosting families and events.

As luck would have it, they were planning to relocate from London to the United States in order to be closer to their own family. It was a fluke that they

happened across the Sod Buster while looking for a business they could run from home and still pursue their passion for the slopes. Like many, they hadn’t even heard of Greeley but one thing led to another and soon they were the proud new owners of a premier bed-andbreakfast and active Downtown residents.

Built in 1997, the threestory inn was adorned with all the classic country charm of its historic surroundings and outfitted with all the modern conveniences expected by today’s discriminating traveler. After a brilliant start, it eventually fell on hard times and was run by some less-thanenthusiastic hosts That’s what initially attracted the Boultons; the place was in decent shape but they knew they could breathe some new life into it.

So with a great deal of TLC and a bit of elbow grease, the place was transformed into what it now, a stunning example of success. The restored Carriage House from circa 1887 is a work of art in itself. Also in keeping to their British roots, they serve a classic cream-tea in addition to a perfect English breakfast.

The couple is extremely community-minded and belong to committees and boards throughout the area. They’re

proud supporters of the UNC Opera and hold Dinner and Opera evenings during the season. They participate in First Friday art events by hosting local musicians both indoors and, in the summer, on their extensive veranda. The acoustics of the main room are outstanding while the space is warm and intimate. They’ve even recently added a newly refurbished baby grand piano that gets a great deal of play from locals and guests alike.

For dinner parties, weddings, showers, live music and events; the Sod Buster Inn can definitely accommodate. They’ve even launched the Greeley Events Group, a one-stop shop of local businesses that can help you plan and furnish your event from start to finish, no matter how large or small. The bottom line is that it’s a great untapped performance venue just blocks away from UNC that’s ready, willing, and able to host and promote events. So next time you want to hold and intimate concert and need that special, unforgettable place; drop in at the at the Inn and say hello.

You’ll be glad you did.

It close to campus and a great place to recommend to friends and family. Visit TheSodBusterInn.com for more information.

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Montgomery Gentry Austin Wulf BandWagon Magazine Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry have played together in bands since 1990. It wasn’t until 1999 that the pair formed the now nationally-known Montgomery Gentry. Since then, they’ve rocked stages all over the country, not to mention their many top-40 country hits. Together, the duo has released seven albums, including their latest record, Rebels on the Run, which dropped in October 2011. Over the years, they’ve had over twenty songs hit the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with five tunes reaching the number-one slot.

The two vocalists, both Kentucky natives, first performed together as members of two different bands with Montgomery’s younger brother John Michael Montgomery. Early Tymz, founded by the elder Montgomery in 1990, and Young Country both featured the trio. Young Country split up when John Michael set off for a solo career. Nine years later, they

Justin Moore John Hann BandWagon Magazine Originally from the small town of Poyen, Arkansas, Justin Moore grew up loving country music and the small town lifestyle. Following his love for country music, Moore has become well accomplished with his songs and albums in the country music industry, and will be making his way to the Stampede to show off some talent. Performing tracks from his newest album, Outlaws Like Me, featuring hit songs such as “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” “Bait a Hook,” and “Til My Last Day.” Justin Moore songs characterize him as a young, small town boy from the country who loves fishing, a cold beer, and living in a place where everyone knows each other. Although Justin Moore has only been in the country music industry for a few years, he has been excelling through the charts with his Valor Music Label since 2008. His hit song “Small

Town U.S.A.” was number one on the charts in 2009, followed by “Blackwoods” in the same year that topped out at number six. As of last year, Justin Moore had released three top ten country music songs with his most resent hit song “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” and continues to grow in popularity in the country music scene. Justin Moore also balances a family life on top of his career with his wife Kate and his two young daughters, Ella Kole born in February 2010, and Kennedy Faye born November 2011.

Justin Moore’s upbeat style and small town country twang is sure to impress and entertain avid country music fans looking for a good show.

His heart filled lyrics, jamming guitar, and ambitious spirit on stage in performance makes him a major highlight at this year’s stampede. Come witness this small town, young hearted artist, steal the stage and bring his hit songs to life for all country music lovers.

formed Montgomery Gentry, and the band was signed to Columbia Records, who released their first six albums.

Montgomery got his start in music at 13 as a drummer for his parents’ band, Harold Montgomery and the Country River Express.

Both Montgomery and Gentry performed in the Kentucky club scene during their teens. Their debut album as a duo, Tattoos & Scars, came out in 1999 and was received positively—Thom Jurek of Allmusic called it “one of the best pop records of the year.” The album was certified platinum two years later.

In early 2011, Montgomery Gentry signed to Average Joe’s Entertainment and released their latest single, “Where I Come From,” later that year. The song peaked at number eight on the country charts and still gets regular play from country radio stations. Expect these award-winning musicians to keep churning out hits and drawing crowds to venues like the Greeley Stampede for years to come.

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012 Jay Wallace BandWagon Magazine

Luke Bryan Mikey Unruh BandWagon Magazine The Greeley Stampede always features a number of country acts, but also provides a night of rock music as well, so there’s musical entertainment for all Stampedegoers. Past rock acts include The All-American Rejects, Poison, Cheap Trick and, this year, Skillet and openers We As Human.

Skillet began in Nashville, Tennessee in the mid-‘90s. Over its long career, the band has gone through a number of lineup changes and experimented with a number of styles, ranging from grunge to electronic rock, and finally settling into a hard rock sound similar to Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, or Papa Roach. Unlike many of its peers, Skillet has a dedication to spreading a positive message, making them a popular act among Christian youth groups, though their solid sound has gained them much notoriety among secular circles as well.

Skillet’s 2003 album, Collide, and 2006 album, Comatose, each received a Grammy nomination and their most recent record, Awake, won Best Christian Album

at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards and was certified gold, selling just under 900,000 copies. The band has also toured with a number of notable acts, both mainstream and Christian, including Creed, Stone Sour, Trapt and Kutless. Their songs have been featured in many TV shows and video games, and most recently their song “Awake and Alive” was featured on the Transformers: Dark of the Moon soundtrack.

After playing a few festivals and select shows this summer, including the Stampede, the band will return to the studio to complete their ninth record, scheduled for release sometime this Fall. Skillet and We As Human will play Sunday, July 1st at 8 p.m., making it the ideal night for any hard rock fan to spend some time at the Stampede.

Skillet

Georgia-born country singer Luke Bryan is among the artists playing at this year’s Greeley Stampede, and fans have every reason to be excited. Bryan got his start as a songwriter for the likes of Travis Tritt before becoming a recording artist himself, striking his first hit single with “All My Friends Say.” His other singles include “We Rode in Trucks,” “Country Girl (Shake it for Me),” and this year’s “Drunk on You.” Bryan was encouraged by his family to take up music at a young age. At 14, his parents bought him a guitar, and a year later his father was taking him to a local club near their Leesburg, Georgia home to play with local country singers.

Friends and family encouraged him to move to Nashville, which was his initial plan when he graduated high school. His brother Chris died on the day he planned to move,

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however, which stopped him in his tracks.

He enrolled in Georgia Southern University and, following his studies, worked for his father’s agricultural business. His dad made him quit after a year and forced him to move to Nashville in 2001.

In 2007, his debut album I’ll Stay Me was released, featuring “All My Friends Say.” He’s since gone on to release two more albums and five EPs, earning four platinum singles, two gold singles, and his most recent albums went gold and platinum in the United States.

The Academy of Country Music Awards named him the Top New Solo Vocalist and Top new Artist in 2010, while the CMT Music Awards named his music video for “I Do” USA Weekend’s Breakthrough Video of the Year the same year.

Bryan won another CMT Music Award this year for Video of the Year, Male Performance, for “I Don’t Want This Night To End.”

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Jay Wallace BandWagon Magazine

Great White

L.A.-based hard rock band Great White is opening for Creedence Clearwater Revisited at the Greeley Stampede this year. Playing a sound not unlike a harder BachmanTurner Overdrive, their biggest hit single was “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” in the late 1980s.

The seeds for Great White were laid in 1977, when former lead singer Jack Russell asked guitarist Mark Kendall to join his band, forming Dante Fox with future Ozzy Osbourne bassist Don Costa and drummer Tony Richards of W.A.S.P. A couple years later, the band name was changed to Great White, inspired by Kendall’s appearance on stage with his blond hair, white suit, white shoes and white guitar.

By the late 1980s, they were headlining for the likes of Jon Bon Jovi.

Kendall, drummer Audie Desbrow and rhythm guitarist/ keybordist Michael Lardie are among the original band members

of Great White – former lead singer Jack Russell split off to form Jack Russell’s Great White, with Scott Snyder on bass and Terry Ilous as the lead vocalist.

Great White got some unwanted attention a few years ago due to a fire that broke out at The Station, a Rhode Island nightclub. The incident was caused when the band’s pyrotechnics set fire to the stage, resulting in the death of the band’s guitarist, Ty Longley, and the show’s DJ. Great White’s tour manager, Daniel Biechele, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2006, but released on parole in 2007 with a surprising amount of support from the victims’ families, some of whom said he wasn’t guilty.

The nightclub owners received similar sentences.

The most recent album Great White has released is Elation, in May of this year. Once Bitten, their 1987 album, went platinum a year later, while their 1989 follow-up Twice Shy went double platinum the same year.

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Gay in Greeley How GLBT-Friendly Are We? Austin Wulf BandWagon Magazine

Greeley is “a backward-thinking town” where “you gotta be careful” if you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. “I get the homophobic vibe here,” says one gay man who wished to remain anonymous. (For the purpose of clarity, he will be referred to as “Michael.”) He has lived here for two years and is almost 40. When he moved to Greeley, he learned through word-of-mouth to be wary about being openly homosexual. “I was told that you really have to reel it in,” he says.

Though he is out of the closet and has been for most of his life, he uses caution when not with people who he knows are accepting.

And, though he does have a close circle of GLBT and otherwise supportive friends, Michael has experienced some homophobia in Greeley. “I was at a party,” he says, “and a friend’s boyfriend called me ‘Matthew Shepard’ as a derogatory statement.”

(For those who aren’t aware, Matthew Shepard was a young gay man who was beaten due to his sexual orientation and died, due to his injuries, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins in 1998.)

Michael thinks the insult was made in jest, even if it was in poor taste.

But for every thoughtless off-color joke, there are plenty of real instances of hate. In July 2008, Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old transgendered Latina, was beaten to death by Allen Andrade.

During Andrade’s trial, a conversation was admitted as evidence in which he told a girlfriend that “gay things must die.” Andrade was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Rep. Jared Polis, in an opinion piece for the Denver Post, wrote that “more than 125 incidents of anti-gay or anti-transgender violence occurred in Colorado in 2008 alone.”

According to some, though, gay life in Greeley isn’t all that bad, if you know the right people. Alyse Infante is a young gay woman who graduated from Greeley Central High School in 2005. “I can’t really recall anyone being hateful to me for being gay since [I came out.] I was bullied as a kid, up to the beginning of high school, for not being feminine or girly enough. I’ve always been worried about being openly gay in this town, but I realized how many people got my back and it doesn’t scare me at all.”

Another young woman, who identifies as bisexual, has had a similar experience living in Greeley. (She also asked to remain anonymous. For clarity, she will be referred to as “Ann.”) She found a large supportive community at the University of Northern Colorado.

“There were a few [social GLBT outlets] at the University,” Ann says, “but they weren’t around for long because the college community was so accepting.”

She and others have found that, unlike some parts of Greeley, UNC is primarily a gay-friendly place.

Being bisexual, though, Ann has a unique perspective on being part of the GLBT community in Greeley. “I’ve found it’s hard to tell people you’re bisexual,” she says, “because the reactions I get most often are either you can’t be bi—that you’re confused about your sexuality—or that you’re lying. A lot of people act like bisexuality doesn’t exist.” This is true across the country: Many, both straight and gay, believe that bisexuals are either gays who haven’t accepted their “true sexuality” yet or straights who are lying for attention.

In high school, Ann dated a girl and at the time identified as a lesbian. “A lot of people do sort of identify their sexual orientation by who they’re dating,” she says. “To them, saying you’re bisexual is a threat. Like, you might leave them for someone of the other gender.”

Dating can be an issue in a conservative town like Greeley, whether you’re bisexual or simply gay. “A lot of my friends have to date outside of town,” Ann says. “They can’t find anyone here, so they go to Fort Collins or gay clubs in Denver.” In the gay scene, it can be especially difficult to find a date if you’re male.

“I don’t really know any gay guys,” says Michael. “I’ve met a few and they’re either on meth or completely in the closet.” But there is no shortage of gay men in this town. A quick look through Craigslist’s casual encounters section reveals a host of men—some of them married, most of them looking for discretion—seeking out sex with other men. Searching gay-friendly dating sites like OkCupid turns up quite a few men who want relationships with other men. So why, then, can’t they go downtown to meet men?

Ann offers an explanation: “There are more out women than men in Greeley. I think it’s more acceptable for women to come out as gay, partly due to straight mens’ fantasies. One of my friends, when she came out, had guys treat her differently.

They’d want threesomes, things like that... It was more of a sexual thing.” As for men, she says, “everyone’s worried about who’s gonna find out they’re gay.” Fear of homophobia makes it harder for gay men to meet each other in public.

And safe places for them to meet are few and far between in Greeley.

The last club to have a weekly GLBT night was Whiskey River. Rusty Boyd, the owner, says the club shut down its GLBT night because it was poorly attended.

“We

have a lot of gay people that come out on some nights,” he says, “and we thought, ‘We’re progressive enough, let’s try a [GLBT night.]’ But either it wasn’t the right night or we weren’t the right place. It just faded away.” El Patron’s hosts a monthly drag show and, currently, that’s the only explicitly queer public event in town.

Maybe that’s why

Greeley’s gay population treks to bars in Denver every week to dance and meet singles and new friends. A gap exists in this town’s nightlife scene, and some brave entrepreneur could fill it. “I know there’s a large population of gay men in Greeley,” Michael says, “and if they came out of the closet they could push this town into the 21st century.”

BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

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BandWagon Magazine Greeley’s live music and entertainment magazine JuLY 2012

Foot Prints A Creative Story By: Zach Martinez Leroy and I and a few other boys from Windsor approached a small meadow to play baseball there and to take advantage of the day without school that the snow had brought with it. It had been a long, cold winter. It was the first warm day of spring. Warm, being a relative term of course, seeing as how the temperature was probably below freezing. The sun was out, however, high in the cloudless blue sky and casting its light onto the pristine, snow-covered ground. Snow fell in September of the previous year, causing crops to fail and men to lose their jobs.

None of our parents could even spare the fifty cents to buy a real baseball, but I found some old twine, which I balled up and stuffed into one of Daddy’s old socks, and Mamma stitched a seam across the open end. Leroy found an old piece of scrap wood, and his Daddy helped him fashion a sort of makeshift bat out of it. We stuffed fill-dirt into four burlap sacks, and before the sun reached its stoop between the horizons, we had ourselves a baseball game.

I imagine we looked rather odd out there, swinging, throwing, and running in wool mittens and down jackets.

Some of the boys wore their daddy’s boots on account of their families being unable to afford shoes that fit, but none of us could have cared less. The sun had returned, bringing with it the promise of new life and freedom from the shackles of winter, and we, like the father who ran to meet his son on the road, welcomed our prodigal sun with open arms and high spirits. The snow was fresh, untouched, and its even surface resembled the frozen river the ran along the edge of the meadow.

Leroy was pitching, his sandy blond hair protruding slightly from red stocking cap. His throwing hand was cherry red and stiff. He constantly had to breathe on it as if to thaw it out and bring it back to life. I played shortstop, second base, and the outfield. Straight behind the pitcher’s mound, I waited anxiously for the crack of the bat that would send a pop fly in my direction, but Leroy was a good pitcher. He shook his head as the catcher and he decided on his next pitch. Soon, after minutes of silent decision-making, the right pitch had been selected; he wound up, raised his left foot, and threw the ball.

“Strike,” Johnny, the catcher, called, as he threw the ball back to Leroy.

“No sir,” said the batter. “The was a ball for sure. I couldn’t of hit that with a barrel lid.”

“You couldn’t swing a barrel lid neither,” Leroy said with a laugh.

“It was a ball,” players from the other team protested.

“I hit Johnny square in the middle of his hands,” Leroy said. “How could it have been a ball?”

Soon the two teams converged over the home plate, arguing about whether or not the Leroy had struck out the batter. There was yelling and a few shoves and pushes, and after a few minutes of arguing, we decided not to call the pitch at all and replay it. But just as soon as the matter had been resolved, one of the boys noticed something moving in the trees along riverbank.

“Hold it fellas,” he said.

We looked, and saw a small group of Indian men riding horses. They wore long coats and ten-gallon hats, from

which protruded their long, black hair, braided in two tightly wound cords.

“My daddy says they is going to kill us all if let them be,” Leroy whispered.

“What does your daddy know,” the batter asked, “except pulling beats?”

“Every body shut up,” I said.

“They’re looking at us.”

They were in fact looking at us. I made eye contact with the leader, and as he passed through the trees, he seemed surprisingly nonthreatening.

He was old, with lines in his face that rivaled the Grand Canyon. Sure, I was afraid of him. I’d heard the stories of what happened to Mr. Meeker only a few years earlier and the stories of Daniel Boon and Buffalo Bill, and prior to making eye contact with that man, I would have been no less surprised to see a devilish tail unfurl from beneath his coat and horns sprout from underneath his hat than I would have been to see Leroy strike out every boy in Windsor. However, he seemed as afraid of me, as I was of him. They road on, silently glancing at us from time to time. And we stood equally silent.

“Go back to hell,” Leroy yelled unexpectedly.

“Nobody wants you here,” another boy yelled, and soon, we all joined in taunting them.

The Indians had arrived a few weeks earlier and camped along a bend in the river a few miles down. Many of the people from town were nervous about their presents. They knew the Indians had left their reservation, but no one knew why. Some suspected them of foul play. My father had never said anything about them being there, but I’d heard the other adults and children, and I was worried.

We continued to yell, and I found a rock in the snow and threw as hard as I could at the group. The rock struck the leader in the head, and the other boys began to throw snowballs and laugh as the Indian dismounted and sat under a tree. I stopped, but the hail from the rest of the group continued until shouting was heard behind us. It was my father.

“What in the hell are you boys doing?” he yelled.

The group turned to see him crossing a small bridge and running toward us, his face still black from the soot in his workshop. He wore his heavy leaver apron and gloves, and I thought to myself that his look was far more devilish than the men we had assailed.

“Answer me, boy,” he said.

I realized that the rest of the group had run off, leaving me alone in field, and I had nothing to say for myself. My father grabbed me by the collar of my coat, and pulled my face close to his.

“Boy, get your ass home,” he said, and he ran off toward the Indians.

They were holding a small cloth against a bleeding gash on leaders head. I realized that the meadow was trampled over, and the serenity of the undisturbed snow was gone.

My father, who was a pious man, never beat me, save twice when I really deserved it. Most of my disciplining came from a stern conversation and a bible verse, and most of the time his disappointment stung more than the worse strikes from a switch. But that day, my father returned with a twig he’d found on his way home from the meadow. He took me to the shed, made me lie across a chair, and expose my bottom. Then he put a bible in my hand.

“Exodus 21:23-25,” he said.

I flipped the pages, passed the plagues of Egypt, and found the writing of the law, where I stopped.

“Read it aloud,” he said.

“If there is any further injury,” I said, “than you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

“What does that mean?” he asked me.

“That what you did to someone else is going to be done back to,” I said.

“Then do you understand why I have to do this?”

“Yes sir.”

He sighed and struck me, five times.

Tears streamed down my face, but whether from the pain of the switch, or knowing what I’d done to be wrong, I can’t say for sure. Somehow, I believe it to be later, because when a punishment is rightly administered, the pain seems somewhat less than when dealt unjustly. But after the last blow, when I expected it all to be over, my father continued.

“Matthew 5:38-39,” he said softly.

Once again, my little fingers flipped as fast as they could, past the genealogy of Jesus and the birth narrative, to the Sermon on the Mount.

“You have heard it said, ‘an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

“Do you understand?” he asked.

“No sir.”

“Read Luke 10:25-37.”

It was the Parable of the Good Samaritan, in which a teacher of the Jewish law asks Jesus who is a neighbor.

Jesus responds to the man by exulting a Samaritan, who helps a dying man along the road when Jewish men passed the dying man by. I thought it was a strange way to end his lesson, and I admit that I didn’t know what he wanted me to understand. He left me alone in the shed. The kerosene lamp that hung from the ceiling blew out, and I sat in the darkness for hours, pondering the lesson over and over, but the meaning felt hidden behind a convoluted metaphor.

After a while, the sun began to set, and it grew colder and colder. Just as I was about to return to the house, I heard a whinny from the direction of the river.

I poked my head out from the door.

The leader of the Indian group road across the bridge on a white speckled pony with a child in front of him. His head was bandaged, and immediately I thought that he’d returned for revenge.

My father, however, walked out of our house to meet him. They exchanged a handshake, the Indian dismounted, and my father lead the pony toward the shed.

“Paul,” my father called for me.

“Paul, get out here.”

Timidly, I emerged from the shed, too ashamed and scared to hold my head up. I watched as my feet sank into the ankle deep snow as I walked toward the two men.

“This man here is Seven Spots,” my father said. “He’s the man you hit with that rock earlier. I think you probably have something you want to say to him.”

“I’m sorry sir,” I said.

“Boy,” my father said. “You look a man in the eyes when speak to him.”

I lifted my head to meet his gaze.

I hadn’t realized how tall the man was until then, and I thought he was probably the tallest man I’d ever seen.

He was at least a full head taller than

my Daddy, and that made him all the more intimidating.

“I’m sorry sir,” I said again, this time looking directly into his eyes. Seven Spots put his hand on my shoulder and smiled.

“It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong,” he said.

“Dinner’s not quite ready,” my father said. “My wife’s making a stew.

Should be done soon. Won’t you come in and relax a little.”

“Love to,” Seven Spots said. “Thank you, Jethro.”

Seven Spots took the little boy by the shoulder and led him in front of him.

“This is my grandson, Little Wind,” Seven Spot said. “I thought you two might get a long.”

The two men went inside and left Little Wind and I out in the snow. They boy was almost my height, maybe a little shorter. His skin was dark, like his grandfather’s, but for all the marks of age on Seven Spots, this boy equaled in marks of youth. His skin looked soft and was stretched tightly over his broad cheeks. He wore no hat, but his black hair was wrapped in the same tight cords and hung in front of his shoulders.

“What’s your name,” he asked.

“Paul,” I said.

“Sister Mary Anne calls me Abednego,” he said, “but my family calls Little Wind.”

“Which do you like better?”

“I want to be called Benny. Would you like to fish with me?”

“The water is frozen over,” I said.

“How will we get the fish out?”

“I’ll show you. Come.”

Benny led me to a frozen pond just off from the river. He carried a satchel and a strange saw. With his strange saw in hand, Benny led me out onto the pond. He pulled a chisel out of a small pouch he wore on his side and broke a hole in the ice, just big enough to fit edge of his saw into it. The saw had a flat nose, and it curved slightly along the blade so that the blade for a sort of crescent shape. Benny cut a small hole, about a foot across, in the ice and dropped a line and bate into the hole.

“My grandfather taught me how to ice fish,” Benny said. “He said that our people used to use buffalo jaws to make the saws.”

We waited quietly for a short time, without a bite. I’d fished in that pond before, but never in the winter. I could see the meadow from where we sat. A light snow began to fall, and I imagined our footprints slowly being filled. I thought if it snowed hard enough, they would disappear. We didn’t catch anything, but after a while, my father called from the house. Benny and I returned and ate the stew my mother had made.

After dinner, Seven Spots, my father and mother, and Benny and I sat in front of a fire in the main room of our house.

My father and Seven Spots smoked their pipes. My mother fell asleep on my fathers shoulder, and rested on my knees next to the fire because it hurt to sit on my bottom. My father asked Seven Spot why the Indian band had come to the Poudre.

“We had to,” Seven Spots said.

“Traditionally, my people come from this valley, and so it was where we ran to when we were in trouble.” He spoke quietly and puffed on his pipe for a minute or so. “A man from our band killed the son of the mayor of Roosevelt, the town near our reservation. The

mayor gathered a posse and attacked a group of hunters thinking the murder was among them. The same thing happened again a week later. Our chief knew we were in danger there, so we left, and we came to our home land.”

“People in town are afraid,” my father said.

“I know,” Seven Spots said. “We all know, but for generations, in times of distress, we’ve come to this valley to seek guidance. We don’t know how to deal with the problem at Roosevelt, so we will ask the creator.”

Seven Spots looked at me.

“I understand what it’s like to be afraid,” he said, “and I understand what fear can do. We are told that in the beginning Wolf gave Coyote a bag of sticks and told him to carry the sticks over the hills to the sacred valley. But Coyote let some of the sticks out of the bag before the valley. These sticks were the people, and all the people that were left out of the valley warred, and continue to war, against the people of the valley.

“Some of my people believe that this story means that anyone who is not Ute is our enemy, and we should fight against them. But a wise man told me once that is actually means that the valley is like a road or a way that allows the river to pass along it, and so the meaning of the story s actually that anyone who lives like the Ute, or follows the way is our people also. For this reason, Paul, I accept your apology. Thank you.”

Above the fireplace hung an old Winchester repeating rifle. It was my grandfathers. It had a custom, pearl inlay over the chamber and a hand engraved stock. It was the first thing my grandfather bought with his money from his first harvest at the homestead. Seven Spots seemed to notice it as soon as his story was over.

“That is a lovely rifle,” he said.

“It was my grandfather’s,” my father said.

“I’d like to have it.”

My father rose carefully, trying not to wake my mother, and he took the rife down from its braces.

“Then it’s yours,” my father said, and he handed the rife to Seven Spots.

Benny and Seven Spots left soon after.

A few weeks later the Indians moved on. I never saw Benny or Seven Spots again. The sun stayed for the rest of spring and melted the snow in the mountains and around our home.

The river flooded that year because of the heavy snowmelt, and the river brought with it the nutrient rich soil from the mountains. Leroy and I and the other boys played baseball through the summer, and in the fall, the harvest yielded more crops than any other year people could remember.

During the first week after the harvest, on a Monday, I awoke to what sounded like a horse whinny coming from our corral. Daddy had sold our horses the past winter, and so I immediately concluded that I was dreaming and tried to return to sleep.

Soon, however, I heard it again. I slipped my feet into my house shoes and walked over to the window. In our corral sat two white and grey speckled ponies, and my father rested with his boot on the lowest rung of the corral and his elbows flung over the top. He shook his head and laughed.

Zachary Martinez is a graduate student at UNC, seeking his MA in English with an emphasis in creative writing. His work had appeared in the Sun magazine and other publications, and he is a frequent contributor to the BandWagon. Follow his blog at ZacharyMartinezWrites.BlogSpot.com

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