Dan Fogelberg And Company Exhibit Musical Craftsmanship July 8, 2003 By Jeff Mannix Special to the Herald

Dan Fogelberg performs at Echo Basin Ranch in Mancos on Saturday. Fogelberg attracted fans of all ages to the outdoor concert, all eager to reminisce.

MANCOS – Every once in a while, you have the good fortune to benefit from someone who is a real expert at what he does. Those times, unfortunately, seem to be few and continually further apart, but when you find a real craftsman or discover a genuine talent, it’s always a delight and usually not forgotten. On Saturday night, five such talented craftsmen took over the stage at Echo Basin Ranch in Mancos, led admirably and nostalgically by the veteran music maker Dan Fogelberg. The setting for Echo Basin’s series of ambitious concerts is perfect: a sloping hayfield – still with a number of wind rows of cut hay awaiting the baler – ringed by acres of giant pine trees, and open vistas of Sleeping Ute Mountain and what looks like the entire state of Utah. It’s breathtaking, really. The staff attending this event was courteous and seamlessly managed the parking and flow of Saturday’s crowd of a couple of thousand. The scene was set by nature and the stage by the lights, speakers, boxes and gadgets that came out of the back of two semi-trailers. Regrettably, the diesel generator powering this electrical phenomenon blew exhaust fumes across the stage and into the crowd, once the sun set and the breeze made its characteristic move up out of the north. Undeterred by smoke, extreme heat of the afternoon and almost frigid temperatures at concert time, the crowd assembled. They came almost as witnesses to a man whose music accompanied many of the peak moments in lives that had long since been relegated to memory. Fogelberg has the magic to illuminate bygone moments of passion, and his audience this night was swooning. Lawn chairs, chaise lounges and army blankets were strewn across freshly cut grass, upon which were middle-aged couples holding each other, mouthing familiar words and swaying languorously. Up on the stage, under a million watts of light and through the haze of diesel smoke that lent a diaphanous aura to the memory-making, five middle-aged musicians played with the benefit of 30 years of experience. The show was flawless. The sound was big, aided by and dependent upon an amplified drum set that had attached every accessory known to drum land. These guys had done this before, yet you got the feeling that they believed what they were doing came naturally; came from the place where perfection was sought; where inspiration was a matter of allowing the notes to escape on their own at just the right moment, without the histrionics of improvisation or showmanship or the uncertainty of the instrument. It most definitely was not their first rodeo, but supplanting that weary, one-more-time lethargy one frequently sees in other artists that peddle nostalgia, these guys were surgeons with sharp blades and a palpable desire to restore their raptured audience to the health and vigor of a younger and more idealistic time of life. One might guess that they themselves were transported to those days when the grasp was always beyond reach and life’s rewards were revealed in poetry and well-executed guitar licks. Dan Fogelberg has been playing his unique style of music since the 1960s, as has his gray-haired band. And his audience has been inspired since then by the sentiments he composed. This wasn’t an oldies-but-goodies concert – nothing that maudlin. There was a respectful, healthy relationship between the survivors on stage and those in the hayfield: they’d all grown up together, all shared lofty aspirations, all succeeded in following life’s path without losing touch with the beauty of romance. Saturday night at Echo Basin Ranch was a reunion, and a damn fine one at that. Jeff Mannix is a freelance writer and published author. Reach him at mannix@frontier.net .