Colorado Cowboy

He was taller than average and wore a straw cowboy hat to cover his baldness. His grin was almost shy, filled with mischief as he told stories about Colorado and Nashville, shaking his head and stepping back at the punch line with a hopeful look toward his audience. When he began to sing, I thought of syrup being poured on hot pancakes or ice cream melting - his voice was rich and the words blended almost to the point of being hard to understand. His songs were poetry, beautiful words and metaphors - most were nostagic and impossibly sad - they were life songs about broken hearts and lonliness, dying, the pain of change and loss, memories of lost things. Yet all seemed to suggest hope and a very gentle sense of faith and optimism. There was an indelible spirituality in his lyrics. When he changed gears in the second set and sang about cities and their slogans - based on bumper stickers - his audience laughed out loud and he gave them that little boy smile after each song. At the end, everyone stood, clapping and calling for more. He was a joy to listen to and a pleasure to shoot.

I'm always struck by the genuineness and down to earth qualities of the house concert performers. No matter what they sing or play, they are real - with families and troubles and mortgages. They are gifted and they share their talents openly. Their stories are true and their humor ironic, touching, and creative. They are, for the most part, folk singers and bound to a tradition of story telling and
protest, of songs based on actual events, of the emotional journeys we all take. They take living and set it to music and the evenings with them become very intimate and very special.

The Colorado cowboy's name was Chuck Pyle and his music stirred the souls of all who heard.