{"id":2452227,"date":"2019-12-14T06:16:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T13:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/tony-vagneur-pretty-hip-party-broke-out-to-celebrate-aspens-hippie-past\/"},"modified":"2019-12-16T08:16:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T15:16:54","slug":"tony-vagneur-pretty-hip-party-broke-out-to-celebrate-aspens-hippie-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/tony-vagneur-pretty-hip-party-broke-out-to-celebrate-aspens-hippie-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Vagneur: Pretty hip party broke out to celebrate Aspen\u2019s hippie past"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The coming vortex of a convergence of constellations had not made itself known. And like all events of lasting historical significance, it came together piece by piece until it finally climaxed last Tuesday night at the Mountain Chalet.<\/p>\n

While sitting at a makeshift office in Crested Butte, totally divorced from Aspen and taking in some fall hiking colors with my partner Margaret, I got a strange call from a guy named Bo Hale. You might know him. He wanted to get together with me and wondered if I still played my accordion. \u201cNo, Bo, I haven\u2019t touched that beast in about 15 years and I\u2019m not thrilled about dragging it out again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI totally understand,\u201d he said, in that smooth way of his, \u201cbut think about this. This will be a low-key gig, just four or five songs for a special lady, coming up in December. You could do that, couldn\u2019t you? Maybe you should ask Buck Deane if he\u2019d like to join us?\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, at the time there were about two people I\u2019d consider playing that retired accordion with, and Bo and Buck were it. Hell, I\u2019d played with Buck back in the late \u201970s, early \u201980s and, man, we had some good times together. And Bo, I\u2019d heard him around at various places and respected his large repertoire and energetic performances. I took it as a compliment to be asked and before long, the answer was a reluctant \u201cOK.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I had another special project going, a reading of a book in progress. Jill Sheeley had asked if I\u2019d look at a book she was working on, detailing her life in Aspen, kind of as a hippie chick, but also as a newcomer who put down roots here in 1968 and did some amazing things, like writing books for 40 years and raising a family.<\/p>\n

Jill is a hard-working, talented writer, paying much appreciated detail to events and people of importance. I read her book, saw it updated three or four times before she sent it to the presses. I\u2019d never met Jill, but was starting to feel like I really knew her. That was maybe a year ago, or maybe longer, I don\u2019t remember, but it doesn\u2019t matter now.<\/p>\n

Buck\u2019s interest was piqued about the music gig, although recovering from a cold and we figured we might have a practice get-together down the road \u2014 it was late November.<\/p>\n

Jill emailed and we finally met over lunch, along with Marjorie DeLuca, talented graphic artist, cover designer and with whom I\u2019d worked with on Aspen Hall of Fame projects. Mention was made that Jill was going to launch her book at a signing Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, I can\u2019t do that \u00ad\u2014 I\u2019ve committed to Bo Hale for a music gig on that date.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be silly, Tony. They\u2019re one and the same event.\u201d<\/p>\n

You never know how to gauge a party like that, especially in Aspen, where people usually don\u2019t commit until the last minute. An article on the front page<\/a> of The Aspen Times doesn\u2019t hurt. The party room on top of the Mountain Chalet had about 40 chairs set out; the caterers were fervently working, hauling up the grub, and Tommie behind the bar was looking at a sea of thirsty mugs. Enough chairs for 40 and 200 people showed up, all ready to rock on.<\/p>\n

The third constellation was moving high in the sky \u2014 a resurgence of 1970s Aspen was happening all around us. The snow was fresh, the night air crisp, and there actually was parking for anyone who needed it. It was, as John Denver might have said, \u201cFar Out!\u201d It was definitely the coolest.<\/p>\n

Jill read from her book. Bo and his lovely bride, Vicki, warmed up the crowd with several duets. People I\u2019d thought to never see again were milling through the crowd, buying books like crazy, shaking hands of old friends; stories of years gone by were emerging from the depths like trout on a new hatch, and once the band fired up, folks were crowding around us in front, taking photos and videos like maybe we were really kicking ass a little bit.<\/p>\n

It was a stroll back through time \u2014 listening to Buck yodel again, priceless; Bo laying down some rock \u2019n\u2019 roll licks, and even a polka or two seemed to go over well. What a night. Vicki kept the beat going with a tambourine and sang backup with Had Deane and David Swersky.<\/p>\n

It was the kind of party you can\u2019t plan for, and probably wasn\u2019t envisioned, but it came off like the old days of locals loving Aspen and a good party. Thanks to Jill Sheeley for launching her book, \u201cThose Were the Days: Memories of an Aspen Hippie Chick\u201d on a most propitious night.<\/p>\n

Tony Vagneur writes here on Saturdays and welcomes your comments at ajv@sopris.net<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The coming vortex of a convergence of constellations had not made itself known. And like all events of lasting historical significance, it came together piece by piece until it finally climaxed last Tuesday night at the Mountain Chalet. While sitting at a makeshift office in Crested Butte, totally divorced from Aspen and taking in some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 02:09:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452276,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452227\/revisions\/2452276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}