Walking after midnight

A life remembered and a week to remember

by Chris Aaland

Last Wednesday was supposed to be a victory. We were past the halfway point of KSUT’s fund drive, raising a huge chunk of our operating budget for the year. And I was flying solo for the first time – running the board, playing my own CDs, coming in and out of national programming fed by satellites and computers. Aside from some initial help from my boss and buddy, Bruce Campbell, no veteran DJ babysat the rookie this time. Sure, I had nearly 20 years of experience at KDUR, but its control room is spotless and high-tech … kind of like the Death Star. KSUT is located in a retrofitted old house … more like the Millennium Falcon.

Joined by my pledge-pitching guest, Kynan Kelly, and phone volunteer, Steve Miller, we fundraised for an extra two hours rather than just spin music. As usual, my mother had the show cranked up at her home in Eaton, just north of Greeley.

At the halfway point, right after playing a Patsy Cline song commemorating the anniversary of the 1963 plane crash that took her life and those of country stars Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas, my cell phone rang. The call was from my stepdad, Bill Raines, so I sent it to voicemail. Kynan and I joked that he must be calling in his pledge; Mom had two days earlier. Three minutes later, I got a text from my little brother. I started the next song, picked up my phone and read that Mom had suffered a massive heart attack and it didn’t look good. I soldiered on out of necessity – nobody was there to take the controls – and finished the show to the best of my ability. Then I called Billy at 9 p.m.

“She’s gone.”

I told my mother I loved her nearly every day. Sure, it was usually “Love ya’, bye” to end phone calls. But in the past three years, with the deaths of my son, Gus, and both of my grandmothers, a step-mom and my beloved dog, Luna, we tried to put meaning into those simple words.

But I never thanked her for everything in my life. For bringing me into this world as an unwed, single mother who was raised a strict Lutheran in conservative Colorado Springs. Her pregnancy surely brought her no small amount of shame and regret back in ’68. For giving me the best life possible, whether in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Pasadena, Texas; a singlewide on a ranch near Rifle; or a suburban home in Wheat Ridge. For driving from Tucson to Durango to stay with Otto while Shelly and I cradled Gus at Children’s Hospital in Denver as he died. For comforting Shelly in an Albuquerque hospital as my heart lay in a cooler, a metal machine delivering blood to my brain and body. For keeping our family in Durango after Shelly and my twin firings on the same day a year ago. 

For embracing all the eccentricities and bad behavior of her three children and the colorful cast of characters we befriended. For surrounding us with beauty … flowers and nature, family and pets and music. Lots of music.

Mom listened to my show, “Tales of the New West,” each week and was a regular guest on my old “Cask Strength” show on KDUR. She nurtured my love for country, folk, rock & roll and R&B and joined me in exploring bluegrass and alt-country. I put a little bit of Mom into each column and each radio broadcast. And, sometime last Wednesday night when Patsy was out “Walking after Midnight,” Mom took her last breath. We were separated by nearly 400 miles, but connected by the clumpety-clump beat as Patsy’s band sauntered behind her vocals. Close your eyes and listen close enough, and it sounds like white horses pulling a hearse carrying a white-haired woman. Strangely, it’s not sad. Listen closer and you can hear a faint heartbeat of a grandma cradling her grandson for the first time in more than two years.

Mom loved music. While “Top Shelf” rambles into other areas of popular culture, it’s usually about music. And Mom would have wanted me to get back on the air, sit down at my computer with headphones, go see some live shows and share her passion with others. This week marks one of the busiest and most remarkable strings of concerts I’ve ever seen in Durango. So go out and dance, laugh, cry and even toast Judy Raines, who died last Wednesday at age 67. Toast her with a red beer – not an amber or red ale, but a glass of Bud Light or Coors spiked with Snap-E Tom, which, aside from a glass of red wine at dinner, was the only alcoholic beverage she would occasionally indulge in. Here are this week’s highlights (check out the “On the Town” section for all the stuff that didn’t fit):

The Motet returns to the Animas City Theatre at 9 p.m. tonight (Thurs., March 13). This Boulder-based jam band has reinvented itself constantly throughout its career, from drum-driven world music to electronica-fueled noise to full-on ’80s-style R&B and funk with echoes of Prince and Rick James. Their seventh album, “The Motet,” is the early frontrunner for my album of the year.

The New Orleans Suspects played an epic set last summer at KSUT’s Party in the Park. If you want to relive that vibe – or, perchance, you missed it – then catch the quintet at 9 p.m. Monday at the ACT. Featuring members of the Neville Brothers (drummer Mean Willie Green), the Radiators (bassist Reggie Scanlan), the James Brown Band (sax player Jeff Watkins), the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (guitarist Jake Eckert) and Outformation (keyboardist CR Gruver), they combine all of the sounds of the Crescent City … jazz, rock, Gulf Coast R&B, funk and more.

Patty Larkin returns to town for the umpteenth time when she plays the Durango Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The folk songstress and guitarist has carved a niche due to her ethereal and ambient urban-folk sound and songs that tug on personal heartstrings.

KSUT and the Henry Strater Theatre team up to bring rockabilly sweetheart Eilen Jewell at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Jewell and her band melt folk and classic country sensibility with rockabilly and surf energy … simply imagine Loretta Lynn (whom Jewell honored in her fourth album, “Butcher Holler”) fronting the Blasters and you get the picture.

KDUR celebrates its 40th anniversary from 6-9 p.m. Saturday at Ska Brewing with live music from The Rebel Set. I cut my radio teeth at KDUR from 1987-94 and again from 2002-13 – parts of 20 years … so you can guess where I’ll be watering down on Saturday night. Celebrating an entity that’s 40 years old and still in college is reason enough to attend; The Rebel Set, a three-piece garage rock band from Phoenix, is an added bonus.

If bluegrass is your thing, the Travelin’ McCourys featuring Bill Nershi, of String Cheese Incident, play Telluride’s Sheridan Opera House at 8 p.m. Monday. If you need a refresher, the Travelin’ McCourys include the entire Del McCoury Band sans Del and usually recruit a ringer of a singer/guitarist.

And the Banff Mountain Film Festival stops at the Smiley Building at 7 p.m. Saturday. Enjoy cold beer from BREW, food from Zia, and watch some incredible mountain films and learn more about the evening’s two beneficiaries – Rocky Mountain Wild and San Juan Citizens Alliance.

In honor of Mom, this week’s Top Shelf list recounts what I think were Mom’s favorite artists. Some I know were; others I’ve guessed based on the number of records and CDs in her collection or requests she’d make on my radio show:

- Willie Nelson – her all-time favorite. I still spin her scratchy, worn-out vinyl of “Red Headed Stranger” and “Wanted: The Outlaws.”

- Emmylou Harris – In many ways, Mom looked and acted a bit like Emmy.

- The Beatles – Grandma and Grandpa tried to prevent their three daughters from listening to or watching the Beatles because of the way they swayed their hips. Epic fail.

- Eagles – Every one of their records was in regular rotation on Mom’s  turntable.

- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” brought ’70s  hippies together with classic country stars from the Greatest Generation and proved to be a musical link between Mom’s and Grandpa’s music.

- Johnny Cash – Strangely, she came around to the Man in Black later in life as he gracefully and dramatically resurrected his career.

- Jimmy Buffett – Each day of family hunting trips to Norton, Kans., ended with Jimmy Buffett on the cassette deck as we started the end-of-day happy hour and watched prairie sunsets.

- Robert Earl Keen – I took Mom to several of REK’s shows and she  instantly fell in love. She owned nearly all of his CDs.

- Steve Earle – Ditto. For whatever reason, Mom’s politics leaned right. But she respected Earle and loved his music.

- Ray Charles – Mom also loved ’60s R&B and Ray in particular. These will be favorite additions to my collection and songs I’m anxious to share with Otto.

I stop to see a weepin’ willow cryin’ on his pillow? Email me at chrisa@gobrainstorm.net.