The Ragbirds

“The Ragbirds have gestated a sound and experience so unlike anything you’ve seen in these parts, you may begin to wonder if you’ve teleported to another land”
-Cheryl Wilson, The Uncommon Sense Magazine

It was an incredibly beautiful and unusually warm fall day in Glenwood Springs Colorado, we were walking around this very interesting old mining town, looking at the old turn of the century stone buildings, the great architecture and it was sad to see so many shops for lease, thoughts of the days when this town was bustling, when everything that anyone needed was made either here or somewhere in the US, I suppose we were lamenting about the reality of  the current global market place with the pros and cons of specialized society.

As we were walking along, as chance would have it or maybe destiny, we saw a paper flyer taped to a window of one the old shops that read “The Ragbirds, Sunday November 16 at Steve’s Guitar in Carbondale, 8:30 PM”. The flyer quoted reviews that were definitely out of the ordinary like these;

“I feel like I’ve stumbled across a band that’s destined to achieve the same level of cult-greatness as The Innocence Mission, Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith, Sufjan Stevens, and yes, even Over the Rhine…. The Ragbirds debut album, Yes Nearby, is a work of astounding international eclecticism, mixing everything from reggae to Celtic to blues music along with plenty of world music into a unified, enchanting whole”
-Josh Hurst, Revealarts

“In an era of catchy but ultimately unsatisfying pop tunes, this is a welcome treat!”
-Roger Lelievre, The Ann Arbor News

“The first time I heard them play I was stunned….I heard their music and literally stopped in my tracks. Their music is not only inspiring and powerful, but a successful experiment in teleportation as well”
-Jamie Bradish, The Ypsilanti Courier

These are not the kind of reviews one typically reads about when you are thinking about a small time band playing in a guitar shop, very intriguing to say the least. A few minutes later we decided it was destiny that we had walked down that particular street and destiny that had our eyes land on that particular flyer taped in the window of that old shop, and who were we to stand in the way of divine intervention. This change in plans required a commitment to a very early wake up call the next day in order to meet the obligations of “real world”, we agreed and set our course for Steve’s Guitar Shop in Carbondale, Colorado. Thanks to an iPhone and Google we were able pin point the location of the shop just off Main Street in Carbondale.

The shop was closed when we arrived so we decided to have a brew at the pub just a couple doors up from Steve’s called the Black Nugget where we met Tiny, a New York transplant who was also a Sushi chef trained at one of the most elite culinary educational institutions in NY. Tiny poured us a couple local drafts and gave us the low down on this sleepy little town that appeared to have a heavier than normal artsy feel to it. Tiny’s dog walked freely through he bar looking oh so dashing in his Patagonia fleece pullover, more about Tiny’s dog later. Suddenly a young hunter began babbling to us at high speed about his hunting adventures, I strained at his drone and put forth my best “but I don’t give a sh&%” look but on and on he went, finally thank god he stopped, maybe the lift one eye brow look finally got through to him. I muttered something like “Better luck next year” and finished my first mug of beer.

We had another draft and then made our way to our lodging for the evening and mocked an attempt to work via our high speed Internet access point. Failing miserably (Epic Fail) at the work quest we decided to grab a bite before the show, but where? Enter Parker, the night shift front desk person at the lodge. Parker had a nice pony tail and cool wooden beads around his wrist, he gave me the Corporate discount solely because of the Haight-Ashbury T-Shirt I was wearing, which in turn started a long talk about the wild 70′s and windsurfing, and all the assorted recreational activities associated with said period, by the end of the conversation Parker and I were speaking on a very personal level which made me chuckle to myself, why me, why am I always running into these cool folks who I seem to be able to relate to so intimately? Parker said we MUST eat at Russet’s, an upscale restaurant that was started just a couple years ago by a Chef from Aspen and his wife and is now the eatery of choice of all the stars of Aspen, Being the stars of … our own destiny we decided we must take Parkers advice, even though Tiny had recommended a great cheeseburger place down the road. Russet’s was excellent and the waiter seemed to want to pour his heart and soul out to us and even showed us his iPhone with pictures of that evenings sunset, which bu coincidence, if there really is such a thing, I had taken photos of as well, see below.

After dinner we made our way to Steve’s Guitar shop, maximum occupancy 40 persons, now this was going to be intimate show that much was for sure.

We met Steve and his lovely wife who were trans-plants from L.A. many years before. Below is a painting of Steve by one of the local artists:

Being a guitarist myself this shop was a mind bender, and I felt like the proverbial kid in a candy store, their were vintage guitars and basses hanging from every square inch of the place including the ceiling. Steve told me he didn’t carry any particular line of guitars, just a little of this and that. In the corners were couches which gave the place a completely homey feel, just pick up an axe and settle in on a couch and pick a little, if it felt good buy it if not pick another, one things for sure Steve was way laid back and wouldn’t ever apply any pressure.

The shop had been a bank at one time and the original safe was still in the wall of the front room.

We made our way from the main room to the back room where first met Steve’s wife who was sitting quietly in a big soft chair in the corner, Apple laptop in her lap. She explained how Steve started by bring home and collecting old radio’s then came the guitars and amps. She told us the history of the place and a little about the adjustments they had to make moving from LA to this small town, she was a pleasure to talk to and was very hospitable and I felt almost like I’d been into some lost cousins home.

About then the band came in and began the pre-game show, tuning all variety of stringed instruments including guitars, violins and mandolins. The percussionists where banging on a variety of drums and percussive instruments. For a while we thought we might be the only two persons attending this Sunday night performance from this eclectic and eco friendly band from Ann Arbor, MI, who travel in a van that runs entirely on waste vegetable oil. In the end there was only a handful of very lucky persons who showed up for a knock out performance by a truly talented and passionate group of musicians. There music, all original, ranged from Celtic to Gypsy and back around to straight up folk with a world beat and intricate rhythms, it was immediately obvious that these players were versed in many musical genres and were a true World music band.

The band was a pure joy to watch, the infectious smile of the lead singer and song bird, Erin Zindle who wrote most of the songs and the tight world beats layed down by her husband and drummer, Randall Moore, the bottom was held tightly in place by the jazzy bass player, Dan Hildebrandt, additional percussion and harmonic leads were layered in beautifully by Tim Dziekan and last but not least was the newest player to join the band is Erin’s brother TJ who player some of the most tasty lead breaks I’ve heard in a while, he had really great tone control on both the hollow body electric and his acoustic. His backing vocals blending so incredibly beautifully with his sister, before I knew he was her brother I knew something was up with these two, seldom do two voices blend so beautifully together, must be the genes.

The band poured their heart out for almost two hours as if they were playing in a large packed venue not a small guitar shop with a handful of very, very happy patrons. We bought both their CD’s and a couple of their T-Shirts in an effort to help support this fantastic band. Check out their web site at: www.theragbirds.com also I vae attached a short video of their performance that night below, make you pasue the webiste music before starting the video, do this by pressing the Esc key or the red X at the top right of the browser;

PS. Remember Tiny from the Black Nugget down the street, well his dog showed up during the set and felt compelled to sit by us on the couch, see pic below:

Share and Enjoy

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 7:20 pm. It is filed under Live music reviews, Past shows, Photography and tagged with Carbondale, Erin Zindle, Randall Moore, The Ragbirds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.