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When we played Ebbets Field we had a dressing room that was a large suite on the second floor of the Brooks Tower (The club was on the first floor) and we would practice or relax there before and between shows.

If we were opening for someone we often shared the space.

On this gig we were opening for David Steinberg. A brilliant thinking man’s comic, David was very focused before the show, running through his act in his mind off in a corner and very quiet. This was when I first began to suspect that comedians who were so outgoing and seemingly carefree onstage, might be very different offstage. In fact most comedians are quiet or even a bit dark. It’s a much tougher gig than you might guess.

David asked us to back him on stage on Shell Silverstein’s “Freakin’ At The Freaker’s Ball” so we practiced that with him. After he did his act he called us back up and we backed him on that and the crowd loved it. David knew how to sell it!

Back in the 1970s, Denver was still regarded as a Rocky Mountain “cowtown,” a blip on the national music radar screen that didn’t reap the consideration of most Americans. Ebbets Field, the town’s premiere concert venue of the decade, helped change all that.

Located downtown on the ground floor of the 40-story Brooks Tower building near 15^th and Curtis streets, Ebbets Field could only stuff 238 patrons into its bleacher-style seating space. Ick-orange-and-brown shag carpeting covered the floor, the walls and the ceiling. It was previously Marvelous Marvs, with even cheesier red velvet wall covered interior. You know the kind of place that had signed pictures at the front entrance of everyone who played there… and that was a very impressive list. The Righteous Bluegrass Band started out getting booked at Marvs by Chuck Morris who managed the club. Morris knew the boys from their inception, booking them back in his Boulder beginnings into the miniscule Alley ID and then Tulagi’s, a vast club he hand carried to national attention. The band played many times at Marv’s and Ebbet’s, almost as a house opener for a zillion headliners.

Ebbets became a stopping point for a long list of name entertainers who would become giants in music, including Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel and Dan Fogelberg. Every genre—rock, blues, folk, country, jazz, folk and comedy—found a home at Ebbets Field during its four-year run. Practically any evening was a concert engagement.

The room was a perfect formula for the band and they killed it in there. Not only as a band but were asked to be the backup for some performers showing up without one, like Helen Reddy, their least favorite backup band gig. Helen had several big radio hits including I Am Women, Delta Dawn and Angie Baby. Not the most lithe stage performer, the Aussie songstress did EXACTLY the same thing, same moves, same asides every show for a week. They backed Tanya Tucker who was like 15, a flavorful performer. Backing Doug Kershaw there and at festivals was a grand test in patience, you never knew anything about what was next.

But the most exciting moments was watching this one young comedian cut his teeth there, trying out the most fantastical brand of nonsense ever seen. He played banjo too so there was some great backstage jamming with the band. I think to the person in that small room they would say they never laughed harder, struggled more for life-thriving breaths than watching Steve Martin at Ebbets. He had no recordings out yet, but you watched him methodically dial in the guy who’d become one of the biggest recording and stage comedic acts in history. From arrow thru the head to taking the entire audience out of the club and pied pipering them past bars and restaurants in bouts of hilarity before hailing a taxi, yelling out the window as it drove off that he’d be right back. The crowd slowly dispersed when…yes…he never came back. Quite the closer!

One time after the RBB played their food additive rebellion song “Preservative Pie” a weird guy stood up yelling what a great f@cking song it was — eventually Alice Cooper sat down. The following two nights Alice sold out the Denver Coliseum and made sure the band were his guests one night, mentioning them in his press conference and they got invited to his birthday party after with someone popping out of a giant birthday cake according to Eric.

Music lovers on the Front Range and beyond loved the whole Ebbets Field vibe. That was it — a distinct vibe, like no other! Bands arrived in Denver and checked into the aging pre-refurbed Oxford Hotel. (Tom Waits was often seeing smoking on the front stoop, just cause it was his kind of place.) Artists came out between-show interviews in the lushly decrepit dressing room. The stage was located where the bar was, making it the lowest focal point of the room—so as the spotlights went up, all that an act saw was a jury of bodiless bobbing heads. ListenUp, the local audio/video retailer, professionally recorded hundreds of shows for either simulcast on free-form radio stations, such as KFML-FM and KBPI-FM, or re-broadcast. Oh, and the bathroom was oddly visible just to the right of the stage, so Steve Martin would sometimes play tricks on people who went in there during his show. Imagine that.

Bob Ferbrache hung out at Ebbets after school and eventually got employed as a gofer. “I sold sandwiches there—it was just ‘whatever’ to hang out and see free shows,” he explains. “The Mahavishnu Orchestra was only a five-piece band, but John McLaughlin was literally standing in a two-foot square engulfed in keyboards and drums and what have you. There was always broken glass around—and when Lynyrd Skynyrd played there, Ronnie Van Zant was in his bare feet.”

To showcase the Ebbets Field legacy, Ferbrache has released a sampler of his photography to the Colorado Music Experience. This photo gallery reflects the variety of musical styles that graced the tiny Ebbets stage.

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After Robert left the band would he drift aimlessly?

Well how about writing a # 1 country song with Michael Woody. Sheesh.

Yuma, Colorado not only spawned Robert and Scott but also their compatriot  Michael Woody.

   Their high school rock band. Scott left, Woody black leather jacket and Robert string tie!

The Desert Rose Band was an American country rock band from California founded by former Byrd and Burrito Brother Chris Hillman along with Herb Pederson and John Jorgenson in 1985. Bill Bryson on bass, JayDee Maness on pedal steel and Steve Duncan drums. The band charted several hit singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Track charts including the Anderson/Woody #1 hit…

 He’s Back and I’m Blue. 

YOU SING !!
Lyrics above, clear your throat and sing along with this music-only track…

And here’s Woody’s version, a shade bluegrassy….

Old Joe Clark & Salty Dog

We idolized Doc, just like the rest of the world and being on the bill with him was the greatest treat!!

Before the show Doc and son Merle were upstairs of the Tulagi concert hall on the Hill in Boulder and overheard the RBB warmup upon before they went on before him. Somehow a plink led to a plunk and Doc was right there picking AND grinning with the boys who were trying to act at ease — but just honored he wanted to stir up a half hour jam. The band would later open for Doc on a pacific northwest tour. Here’s a sample of two classic tunes with Eric’s banjo, Dick’s fiddle, Robert’s mando and likely Scott on bass or someone on bass and Scott on his Stradivarius spoons. Listen carefully for Doc’s breaks.

OLD JOE CLARK AND SALTY DOG

The RBB added yet another member…a street-smart pigeon they named Rufus who gigged with them on many a Tour, and in a John Astin feature-film western, eventually retiring in Des Moines after green-washing the iconic white jacket of another guest on a Chicago TV appearance… Col Sanders! 

Babyface Braunschweiger (Roger) here. When I first flew into Denver and then rode the bus into Boulder CO in 1973 with my brother Mike, I was a fairly spoiled New York brat with long hair and a nice Fender Precision bass and a fairly strong voice. Boulder was at the time, one of the centers of musical enlightenment and I was really excited to get to play music there. It was “Happening Baby!”

I had been a pro player in New York for years and was pretty certain I could get something good together. That old bit about how if you can make it there you’ll make it anywhere, is kinda true because NY is a tough town and you’d better have some skills or forget it.

I had already been in the Union since 18 working for the Steven Scott Orchestra, and had been signed to The Tokens, had a single out on the radio “First Spring Rain” by our band who The Tokens renamed: The Canterbury Music Festival (Guess they thought “We Ugly Dogs” was too acurate.) and also hired as staff writer for Bright tunes Productions. But much of my opportunities had dried up and I was itching for a change, and one day I just thought I‘m going to Boulder Colorado. My brother Mike wanted to go too, so it was set. My band however was not so happy and to this day I hear about it!

Very soon I was asked to join a country-rock band called Rocking Horse, put together by Bob Murphy who sang, played guitar, pedal steel and wrote original tunes. I was lucky enough to have Bob give us all a place to live in a beautiful barn at Hidden Valley Ranch. Bob was a caretaker there and it was a dream spot for a band to live and rehearse. And we were a pretty good band. We did tunes by bands like Poco, The Eagles, and other similar country-rock material, and some originals.

Boulder is a pretty small town and we eventually met almost everyone in music there. Robert and Scott came over and listened to us practice at the barn and I became a huge Righteous Bluegrass Band fan, going to some of their performances and marveling at their amazing talent and their hysterical show.

Eric’s five string banjo skill was incredibly even and Robert’s mandolin work fast and clean. Robert and Eric would often play double fiddles, double mandolins, double banjos, sheesh! The number of instruments the band would play, (and play well) in a show was crazy!

Mike’s drum-work had to be creative, in order not to overpower bluegrass instruments, so he did a lot of brushwork. On special numbers he played a washboard with thimbles on his fingers and a little red horn and bicycle bell mounted on the top. His washboard solos were killers … ring, ring, toot!

Scott’s standup bass was solid and his solo’s powerful, (not easy on standup). On some shows he’d play tuba, and his spoon playing rolled ’em in the aisles. And Earthquake His’self was also the voice of the band, telling stories with exquisite timing that had the crowd roaring with laughter.

The Righteous Bluegrass Band shows were astonishing to witness. The crowds loved these guys and so did I!

We also did some casual playing and singing together and it was immediately apparent that Robert and I had a very strong complementary vocal blend. I have a strong bass voice and Robert has that clear high voice and that’s always a good combo. Scott had a good ear for harmony and so we had one hell of a three piece harmony going.

Wandering around Boulder with the guys was such a blast and their band was very well known, so I got to chum along when they would walk right in to venues like Tulagi because they had played there. Often they would just go to the dressing room off the front and meet the act headlining that night. We were young, over-confident, and it was just a hell of a lot of fun. And for me, it was about to get interesting!.

There were three TV Specials — two in Denver and one in Tulsa. A random band fan found this one and posted to YouTube. It was shot by Producer Chris Curtis at KRMA-TV Denver, with location shoots on Loveland Pass at 12,000 feet in the snow, a symphony hall and in the TV studio. One of the first times the band had been in a studio recording and the first of many TV appearances.

Here’s a pic of our single “Loveland Pass” written by Robert Anderson.