The Music Guru

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000

The Music Guru Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/10/2020 - 00:00

Joshua Nelson

As a journalist for the Denver Post, G. Brown (Jour’79) covered music for nearly 30 years. Today he’s executive director of the Colorado Music Experience and author of On Record, a three-part book series focusing on popular music from 1978-1998. Volumes covering the years 1978, 1984 and 1991 kick off the series.

What is Colorado Music Experience?

CoME is a nonprofit cultural and educational organization, a unique repository established to preserve the legacies of Colorado music history. It's an evolving archive of podcasts, documentary-style videos, interview-based profiles and photo galleries.

What's your favorite trivia fact about Colorado's music?

Hmm. How about the Serendipity Singers, the polished folk-pop ensemble organized at CU? In 1964, their song “Beans in My Ears” was banned in Boston — because it’s dangerous to put beans in your ears!

What was the genesis of the On Record series?

Collectively, my photo files provide an amazing, one-of-a-kind visual history, and while I mostly remember all the fun I had, it turns out that I worked pretty hard as a writer — I conducted 3,248 interviews in a 26-year span. On Record is the musicians speaking to their music in a particular year. It serves as reference as well as high-end nostalgia.

As a music journalist interviewing musicians comes with the territory, but what was one time you were starstruck?

My first interview, with Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, a hero of mine. It was a scene out of the movie Almost Famous — I was 15, and I showed up backstage at the Denver Coliseum wearing my brown wool 8th grade graduation suit and tie.

What's your favorite memory from your time at CU?

Boulder was a happening place in the ’70s. Attending classes during the day and working at the legendary Tulagi nightclub at night was a dream lifestyle.

Photo courtesy G. Brown

As a journalist for the Denver Post, G. Brown covered music for nearly 30 years. Today he’s executive director of the Colorado Music Experience and author of On Record.

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How Tulagi Got Its Start

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

How Tulagi Got Its Start Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

The Tule

During winter break 1971, around Christmas, a disheveled band took the Tulagi’s stage on The Hill. The heater was broken, the club was frigid, the crowd was small. One of the musicians strummed a banjo in gloves.

G. Brown (Jour’79), then a �鶹��Ѱ��freshman, (legally) served 3.2 Coors beer from the bar and listened skeptically.

“I remember them saying, ‘We’re going to be the biggest band in the world,’” said Brown, now executive director of the nonprofit Colorado Music Experience. “I was thinking, ‘What are you talking about? There’s 30 people here.’”

Less than a year later, the band toured the country with “Take It Easy.”

“The Eagles were off to the races to become the biggest American band of the 1970s,” said Brown.

In its 1970s heyday, Tulagi, located at 1129 13th St., hosted star acts, including the Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt and ZZ Top.

“Bonnie Raitt was the only artist to help me clean up,” said Brown. “She picked up a broom.”

Founded in the 1940s, it was first located in what is now the Fox Theater, according to Boulder’s Daily Camera. In 1948, the owners changed the name to Tulagi, after one of the Solomon Islands. (A tropical painted mural served as the stage backdrop for the venue’s entirety.) The club moved next door in 1951.

“We did quite a bit of dancing at the Tule, ’cause it had a nice dance floor,” said Larry Knadle (Bus’60).

In 1969, Sink owner Herb Kauvar took over Tulagi, said his son Rick Kauvar (EPOBio’75). Music promoter Chuck Morris brought in the famed 1970s performers.

After Morris left to open his own nightclub, Tulagi struggled, Rick Kauvar said. In 1973, Herb sold it to three men who defaulted on the lease, and the club changed hands again.

And again.

Still, Tulagi endured into the early 2000s, hosting acts like Big Head Todd & the Monsters and The Samples.

Anne Thurman (Mktg’87) met her husband of more than 30 years there.

“It was April 1987 … Bahama-Mama Tuesday,” she said, recalling that David Thurman (Fin’87) called her by the wrong name after their initial introduction. “He was calling me a couple days later asking for a date. Luckily, he then remembered my name is ‘Anne.’”

The end came in 2003, when state tax agents seized Tulagi, according to the Camera. The Fox Theater bought the business. The building’s owners converted it into commercial rental space. Today it’s occupied by a yoga studio and a pizza parlor.

The Tulagi sign, in its slanting script, remains — a reminder of good times past.

Photo courtesy William Wardwell

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