Moe Cooley likes a good story. He also likes a good song, and he knows that behind every good song there’s a story. Cooley’s no stranger to either, as he’s a musician who has kicked around music scenes for decades; whether he’s running with a music scene in Austin or Southwest Colorado, he’s someone who wants to showcase lesser-known songwriters in a concert setting and get the story behind their songs.
If you go
WHAT: Erik Nordstrom, Josie Loner, Easton Tripp perform the Storytellers Concert Series.
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9.
WHERE: ZU GALLERY, 48 W. Main St., Cortez.
TICKETS: $10 at door.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.zugallery.com.
That’s where Cooley’s Storytellers Concert Series comes in. With help from Willie Perritt and Jimmy Feltman, people Cooley describes as the “face and sound man of storytellers,” each show features three regional songwriters banging out a handful of songs, with each song preceded by a narrative that digs into the how and why of the tune.
The Storytellers Concert Series will wrap for the 2025 season next week, when Erik Nordstrom, Josie Loner and Easton Tripp all take the stage at Cortez’s Zu Gallery.
It was a couple of years back when Cooley was out in a bar, noticing the lone singer-songwriter on stage was being ignored; it made him want to up the musical offering.
“I thought, man, what if we had like two other people up there, and we just like, do a singer in the round,” he said. “I got two other guys, we had our first one, and it went well so we just continued.”
The continuing resulted in featuring three different artists performing monthly from April to October. Next week’s series will feature Nordstrom, who has written hundreds of songs, many heard via his bands Farmington Hill and Lawn Chair Kings. Tripp is a Cortez local who has been writing songs for 17 years, his songs of late exploring what it’s like to grow up in a small rural town, while Loner, a self-described “romantic” also digs into tunes that are life-reflective.
“We flip a coin for whoever wants to start, and then you play your song, tell your story and it goes over to the next. It makes it easy to do five songs each,” Cooley said. “It’s not a real burden on anybody, and it’s a good way to burn about two hours of your night on a Thursday.”
While it has bounced around a handful of spaces, it’s a musical idea that turns any space into a room where the music, and the stories behind the music, remain the focal point. The concept is to come, keep your mouth shut and listen to some music.
“It’s a listening room thing now, people actually listen,” Cooley said. “They may have their beer, but they’re all sitting around and they are paying attention.”
The idea is to feature lesser-known musicians, people who write songs on the regular, but rarely play them out in a social setting. The pool of creative musicians in Southwest Colorado is deep, and this series showcases that creativity. Many people may think to “make it” as a songwriter you should be in a bigger market. Nordstrom likes to dispel that thought.
“I’m always impressed with the amount of talent we have in the Four Corners, you know, music, visual arts and so on. And with music, it’s not an easy place to be in a band. I think a lot of us are content to be in this region, and a lot of us are creating wonderful works of music, and so yeah, I’m just so stoked about events like Storytellers, to give an outlet for that,” Nordstrom said. “In addition to the scenery, and to the people here, I think events like this make it inspiring to live here and to keep creating, and to not get hung up with saying, ‘I’m not in Nashville’ or wherever.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
