Durango’s historic steam train continues to find ways to entice riders on board.
Saturday’s Brew Train is the first of the 2015 series of rolling beer-tastings with music. The bluegrass band The Badly Bent will perform when the train stops at Cascade Canyon.
The Badly Bent are Mark Epstein on banjo, dobro and vocals, Pat Dressen on guitar and vocals, Cindi Trautmann on fiddle and vocals and newest members Jim Stanley on bass and Fred Hoeffler on mandolin and vocals.
The addition of Hoeffler and Stanley came at a time when Epstein, Dressen and Trautmann were redefining the band. They would practice in Schneider Park during Dressen’s lunch hour, attracting a colorful audience of characters who occupy that park during the workday. That core spawned the newest lineup.
“That was the genesis for starting this thing over again,” Epstein said in an interview at KDUR studios. “Then Jim got in touch with us – the timing was great for that. Pat ran into Fred at the Pickin’ in the Pines Festival last fall and said, ‘Hey we should talk to this guy and see if he’d be interested.’ So, it was a fortuitous set of events, and the timing couldn’t be better.”
Hoeffler has history with Epstein, sitting in with the banjo player’s former band for the Rockygrass band competition back in the ’90s, while also playing with bands in and around Arizona.
Stanley came late to the bluegrass game, after years of playing in country rock, surf and jazz bands throughout Southern California. When he relocated to Durango, he put the feelers out for any and all musicians to play with.
“He emailed anybody who knew how to play the guitar in Durango, not just guitar, but any instrument,” Epstein said. “He put his feelers out, and we were one of the groups he contacted. He said, ‘I’m a bass player. I just moved to town. If you have any interest in having a bass player let me know,’ and the timing worked out.”
There’s kinship within the community, where fun and socializing remain the driving inspirations for playing music, enabling people to come and go in the informal jam sessions. There’s camaraderie from the shared knowledge of the songbook that adds to the creation of the music at any level.
“You can take a song to the state of Virginia, to Washington, or to Japan, and everybody knows the song ‘Old Home Place.’ You can play that song no matter where you go,” Epstein said. “I don’t think you can do that with some rock ’n’ roll stuff. It’s the social aspect, it’s social music.”
Brew Train is also scheduled for Sept. 5 and Oct. 3.
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s best
Friday: Country music with Wild Country, 8:30 p.m. Billy Goat Saloon, 39848 Highway 160, Bayfield, 884-9155.
Saturday: Bluegrass with The Badly Bent on the Brew Train, 10 a.m. $99/$149. Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, 479 Main Ave., 247-2733.
