At the Treehouse Cafe on Colorado Springs’ north side, a lively band of acoustic musicians is making itchy fingers.
They come with their guitars, a fiddle, some sheet music, and a circle and fill their Saturday mornings with a good old-fashioned bluegrass and Americana jam session. It’s one of many jams offered monthly under the umbrella of Black Rose Acoustic Society, a nonprofit organization celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Group leader Kelly Hagerman kicks things off with “Fox on the Run.” “It’s an old song, but it’s a good song,” he tells the other three guitarists. Twice a month, Intermediate Bluegrass is held at Calvary United Methodist Church, including Bob Ukman, who started playing nine years ago when he was 60 and now leads novice guitarists.ใปWe are holding a jam. Sure, you might not be able to hit every note correctly, but that doesn’t matter, he says.
“Every sound you make is music,” Ukman said. “You just have to figure out how it fits. When you don’t know the chord progression, it’s just a snare drum.”
He demonstrates making percussive sounds on his guitar with feathers hanging around his neck.
“I’m half a meter behind you guys,” he says mid-song.
โIt happens,โ says late addition Katie Champlin Hagerman, joining in with the honeyed sound of a fiddle.
Midway through the two-hour jam, guitarist Danny Cuevas leads a rollicking rendition of “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.” The musicians each bring their own chords and voices into the mix, and the energy of their circle vibrates throughout the coffee shop, surrounding the other patrons. One person is sitting in a two-top, drinking a drink and tapping his fingers on the table.
BRAS was born in the early 1990s from a group of local musicians who shared a love of acoustic music. BRAS Board Member Emeritus Bob Lord explains that acoustic music is music played on traditional front porch instruments such as guitars, mandolins, fiddles, and double basses. It wasn’t electronically amplified.
They dreamed of meeting at each other’s houses across the city and finding a central meeting place.
This vision finally came to fruition in 1994 when musicians Charlie Hall, Hope Grietzer, and Marie Stewart held an event at the Black Forest Community Center and invited anyone who wanted to play acoustic music. That was the night BRAS was born. And the next year, the organization held its first concert in a large and cozy log cabin in the middle of the forest.
BRAS filled a gap in the community. At the time, there wasn’t a place for people to gather and play music, Grietzer said.
โIt opened up a world of community and connection, allowing me to make music with other people and learn old songs from centuries ago and new songs that are still being composed today in traditional genres,โ Gleatzer said. He spoke from Ithaca, New York, where he currently lives. “It was an intergenerational thing. It didn’t matter your socio-economic level or your political motivations. It had nothing to do with the music. It was global solidarity.”
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Since then, this all-volunteer organization has included Roger McGuinn, Ricky Skaggs & the Kentucky Thunder, Mason Williams, Carla Bonoff, Chris Thile, John McCutcheon, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton, Tommy Emanuel, We’ve welcomed hundreds of nationally known musicians to our stage, including Beppe. Gambetta, Blue Canyon Boys, The Lifters, Bill Hahn.
โWe only play 21 shows a year,โ Lord said. “That’s why our booking guidelines are strict. We’re very particular about who we let on stage. We want the quality to be high and we want it to be fun.”
For decades, BRAS has permeated every corner of the Pikes Peak region and has survived through ticket sales, membership, and donors. Many people mistakenly believe that the organization is based in the Black Forest, as bimonthly concerts are still held at the community center, but BRAS events are held throughout the city and are not held on many days of the week. .
โWe were successful because of the people,โ Lord said. “They both enjoy and crave a place to gather and experience their shared interests. This kind of music is a common interest for many people. Most of the music you hear in public is overproduced. We’ve lost a lot of soul. We host what we call homemade music, and people respond to it.”
Numerous events are held at numerous venues each month, including open jams in a variety of genres, including pop, rock, gospel, and gypsy swing. Open mic and monthly showcase events at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. Monthly songwriting workshops at All Souls Unitarian Church. Contra Dance with Pikes Peak Traditional Dances Monthly at International Dance Club. We also have year-round classes taught by professional musicians who volunteer their time.
“If you’ve never been to Black Rose, you’re missing out on a local musical treasure,” said BRAS Jean Ambassador Michael Watley. “Partly because it’s a really good listening room, which is very unusual. There’s a lot of music playing in bars where people are talking. We’ve got Gillian Welch at 32 Bleu downtown. โ (2004). She was amazing and people were talking about her. โ
Watley was in his 40s when he first discovered BRAS.
“It was never too old,” he said. “I bought my daughter a guitar and I didn’t know about Black Rose. Charlie was teaching a guitar class and after one session I said to my daughter, ‘You know what? ‘s father also participates in the class.
Watley currently leads his own open jams and teaches classes on guitar, mandolin, how to jam, and more. He is also a regular at open mics, performing Warren Zevon’s “The Werewolf of London” in September.
โJam is very approachable,โ he said. “People think you have to be good, but if you know a few chords, that’s all you need. Some jams can be intimidating, but as a general rule everyone is welcome. And it feels like a community.โ
Life with an instrument under his arm has become so rewarding that Watley quit his tech job in June to pursue music full-time.
“It’s not about the money, it’s about the fulfillment,” Watley said. โI have achieved my new life goal of spreading and reaching people with the joy of music.โ