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by Seth Rogovoy
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 31, 1996 -- Singer-songwriter and multi- instrumentalist Bruce Hayes was one of the most popular performers on the local club scene in the late-'80s, both as a solo artist and with his band, Wildlife. Alas, the Berkshires weren't big enough to support his prodigious talent, and so Hayes went off to Colorado, where he has re-established himself as a top regional performer.
Hayes has been back visiting his former stomping grounds these last two weeks on a guerrilla tour that has seen him popping up at many of his old haunts. If you've missed him so far, you have two more chances to catch him: tomorrow night at Jodie's in Great Barrington with his old band, Wildlife, and on Sunday night at La Cocina in Pittsfield, playing an "unplugged" show with special guests, including members of his band.
Back in Crested Butte, Hayes has formed his own record label, Ragged Mountain Records, which recently released "Pack of Dogs," a sampler CD featuring local musicians. Hayes produced and recorded the disk, which boasts 13 different acts on a total of 19 tracks, including three by Hayes himself.
"Cupid," the opening selection, highlights Hayes's phenomenal guitar picking, displaying his virtuosity as a cross between Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges. "Adventures in Travel" is a bit of progressive bluegrass showcasing Hayes's lightning-fast mandolin licks, backed by a group called the Ragged Mountain Ramblers.
The disk also includes two tracks by Reed Foehl, lead singer- songwriter of that other Colorado-by-way-of-Berkshire act, Acoustic Junction, and that band backs Hayes on one of his tracks. In fact, for about a year Hayes was a full-fledged member of the Junction -- a funny turn of events, given that Reed's sister-in- law, Sharon Foehl of Clarksburg, was for many years a vocalist and percussionist in Hayes's Berkshire band Wildlife. In any case, as anyone who has seen him perform knows, Hayes's is too wide-ranging a talent to be confined in someone else's band, and his amicable stint with the Junction was short-lived.
As for the rest of "Pack of Dogs," the album as a whole very much defines a specific "Colorado sound," a highly percussive, progressive-bluegrass-based folk-rock, on this disk very much colored by Hayes's presence on over half the tracks on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, dobro, bass and vocals.
Other highlights include "Ms. Moon," a sort of inter- generational epic ballad by Sandy Moon, Jim Sandy's Santana-like "Wildebeest," a world-beat number flavored instrumental powered by Hayes's Stratocaster, and a funny Western-swing novelty called "Johnny Cash," a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the country-rockabilly legend by a group called The String Cheese Incident.
In the meantime, Colorado has been good to Hayes. He won second place in the mandolin contest at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1994, first place in the mandolin contest at the Rocky Grass Festival in 1993, and he was the grand prize- winner in radio station KDHT's Colorado Sound competition in 1991. He toured Europe as the opening act for folk-pop singer Melanie in 1993, as well. Welcome home, Bruce!
Hayes will have copies of "Pack of Dogs" available for sale at this weekend's shows, along with a live cassette of his band, Wildlife. If you cannot make it to the show, you can order by writing to Ragged Mountain Records, Box 2448, Crested Butte, CO 81224.
No, not that kind of wired. He's on the Internet, or, more precisely, the ArloNet, the unofficial Arlo Guthrie Home Page on the World Wide Web. Over 23,000 cyber-visitors have checked into the ArloNet, which features a wealth of goodies about Guthrie -- who along with The Roches performs tomorrow night at the Night Shift Cafe in North Adams at 8.
Visitors to the ArloNet can read bios, interviews, articles and reviews, or check out his latest concert schedule. There's also a complete discography, a photo gallery, song samples, lyrics, guitar chords and a place where you can send messages to Guthrie or to other Guthrie fans.
A transcript of an interview with Guthrie conducted by users on America OnLine includes comments by Guthrie indicating that the future of Alice's Church in Housatonic, where the Guthrie Center and Rising Son Records are located, is in doubt.
"I don't know if we'll be able to keep the church for long," writes Guthrie. "It's costing us a fortune to be there and we haven't been getting the suport we need to keep it going. So we're making plans to give it up if we have to."
(This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on May 31, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.)
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