Rocky Mountain High

Thought you guys might like to see this Rocky Mountain News special feature on the old Caribou Studios here in the little town I live in. When I used to pal around with country singer Eddie Rabbitt, he used to wax poetic about the "little piece of paradise" in the Rockies where he wrote many of his number one songs...world is damn small:

Some of the greatest names in rock history -- John Lennon, Elton John, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, U2, Chicago, Joe Walsh -- recorded at the Caribou Ranch. The brainchild of frustrated record producer Jim Guercio, the ranch, just outside Nederland, grew to a legendary outpost in the music world with its own distinctive sound.

Stories abound from the studio's heyday, when it was constantly booked with the biggest names in music. A space heater fire ended an astonishing era at Caribou Ranch.

Now Guercio has swung the ranch's gates open for the first time since the fire to tell the story of the legendary studio that got its start after a missed flight.

Whenever he's in Colorado, Robert Plant hangs out at the Pioneer Inn...me, I prefer the microbrewery across the street. I will say, however, that the bar at the PI in the dead of winter, say late March, may be one of the weirdest places in the Known Universe...think bar scene in Star Wars