Hoops hero, jam superstars and the Toasters
by Chris Aaland
As if people needed another reason to dislike me, I’ll admit that I’m a lifelong Duke fan. A kid that I used to play pick-up games with in Denver who was a few years younger than me named Marty Clark was the sixth man on a couple of Mike Krzyzewski-coached teams in the early ‘90s.
Though their campuses sit just 7 miles apart, Duke blue and Carolina blue don’t go well together. It’s tough to find someone who roots equally for the Blue Devils and Tar Heels. While no one can dispute the greatness of UCLA (11 national titles) or Kentucky (eight), the two rivals have combined for nine total championships in their history.
 Seminal jam band Leftover Salmon plays the ACT next week on Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday at 9 p.m. |
This Blue Devil supporter, though, cried Carolina blue tears when he saw news of the passing of retired UNC Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith last Sunday morning at age 83. Smith was a fierce coach with a stern scowl and a revolutionary basketball mind. Moreover, he was a champion of civil rights and liberal politics, a place that few marquee coaches in the college ranks – especially the Deep South of the 1960s – would dare venture.
Just as Jackie Robinson broke down color barriers and Martin Luther King led marches, so did Smith (see this week’s Top Shelf list for a few examples). So tip back a pint in his honor, say a prayer or go shoot hoops with a kid in his honor. I know I will.
The hot ticket in town is Leftover Salmon featuring Bill Payne, co-founder and keyboardist for Little Feat. The seminal Colorado jam band plays back-to-back nights at the Animas City Theatre on Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. Doors are at 9 p.m. each night. Salmon is back in full force, fueled, as always, by the yin-yang twin voices of founders Drew Emmitt and Vince Herman. Payne sat in for a few dates last summer, including Telluride Bluegrass, and has since joined as a full-fledged member with A-list credibility.
When the band reunited in 2010 for a string of dates, Andy Thorn filled in on banjo for Matt Flinner. Salmon essentially captured lightning in a bottle, adding an emerging songwriter and proven string wizard with both North Carolina and Colorado roots to the group. Thorn goes way back in Durango as a founder of the Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band along with Travis Book, Anders Beck, Robin Davis and Jon Stickley. Thorn’s influence can be heard on the past two recordings, “Aquatic Hitchhiker” and the brand-new “High Country” CDs. The latter was produced by Los Lobos saxophone player Steve Berlin. This will be a hot ticket. If it hasn’t sold out by the time you read this, it most certainly will by Tuesday.
The ACT also hosts reggae legends the Toasters at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Now celebrating their 34th year, the Toasters headlined a past Ska Anniversary Party & Brewer’s Invitational at the World Headquarters in Bodo Park a few weeks ago. Back in 1981, they became synonymous with American 2 tone ska music. They were named one of legendary CBGB’s top 20 core artists alongside such acts as the Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads. Their Durango date also includes opening sets by Oatie Paste and I-Gene.
Indie folk-rock duo You Knew Me When plays a free gig at Ska Brewing at 5 p.m. today and a $5 cover show at the Mancos Valley Distillery at 7 p.m. Friday. After uprooting from their Nashville home and full-time jobs in 2012, the husband-and-wife duo have recorded one album with a second slated for an April release and hit the road. Instrumentation includes piano, ukulele, glockenspiel and guitar.
Spend Valentine’s Day with the opera as The Met: Live in HD showcases a double bill beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Vallecito Room of the Student Union. Tchaikovsky’s lyrical fairy tale “Iolanta” and Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” are featured.
The sixth annual Silverton Skijoring competition takes place on notorious Blair Street this weekend. If you’re new to the area, horses pull skiers through the streets in an Old West meets New West extravaganza. Papa Otis brings its brand of mountain folk rock to the Hungry Moose at 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday as part of the festivities.
Over in Telluride, the 16th annual Telluride Comedy Festival includes such performers as Jason Mantzoukas, Seth Morris and Paul Scheer. The event runs Thursday through Sunday at the Sheridan Opera House. Then on Fat Tuesday, the Sheridan presents a Fat Tuesday party with Zach Deputy.
Moe’s bill is highlighted by Funked Up Fridays with DJs CK and Baby Bel at 8 p.m. Friday and a Valentine’s Party with DJs Ralphsta and Squooze at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Elsewhere: Kirk James does solo blues at 6512’ Restaurant & Lounge at 6 p.m. Friday; and Pete Giuliani goes solo at Paradise Pizza in Purgatory from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday.
This week’s Top Shelf list is dedicated to the late Dean Smith, whose accomplishments off the court far overshadow his accomplishments on it:
1. Signed the first African-American student-athlete, Charlie Scott, to an athletic scholarship at North Carolina in 1966. This was a ballsy move in the South; Smith was greeted with calls for his firing and worse. In doing so, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s color line was finally smashed.
2. Joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant in 1964.
3. Helped UNC graduate Howard Lee purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood in 1965.
4. Opposed the Vietnam War.
5. Recorded radio spots encouraging a freeze on nuclear weapons in the early 1980s during the heart of the Cold War shortly after the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan.
6. Strongly opposed the death penalty.
7. Spoke out in support of gay rights in the 1990s.
8. Graduated 96 percent of his student-athletes, a figure that’s unattainable in today’s one-and-done Division I hoops scene.
9. Traces his basketball lineage to the sports inventor, James Naismith, with just one degree of separation. Smith, who won an NCAA title as a player at Kansas in 1952, was coached by Phog Allen. Allen was coached by Naismith.
10. Continued to send hand-written birthday cards and make personal calls to his former players, assistant coaches and their immediate family until his health faltered.
Can’t you just feel the moonshine’ Email me at chrisa@gobrainstorm.net.