Boulder rockers Firefall perform in Beaver Creek Thursday
Courtesy photo
Firefall blends layered harmonies into signature soft rock, country and pop sounds that have held up throughout the decades.
The band started in Boulder in 1974 with founding guitarist Jock Bartley, who is the only original member still in the band, and Rick Roberts, who had been in The Flying Burrito Brothers.
“Boulder was fantastic back in the day. It was so much fun and so dynamic,” Bartley said. “There were so many bands and national acts coming through there. I became one of the guitar players up there trying to make my way — I played with dozens of bands. There was a time in the early- and mid-’70s where a lot of the L.A. genres — musicians playing folk rock and country rock — moved to the mountains of Boulder.”
In 1973, Gram Parsons’ Fallen Angels stopped in Boulder, and Bartley ended up being in the right place at the right time.
“The last-minute guitar player they added from L.A. turned out to be not so good, so the manager (of the venue) called me,” Bartley said, talking about how he hightailed it down to the venue and ended up playing guitar for Parsons’ band.
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From there, opportunities opened up. He played with Emmylou Harris, and Parsons introduced him to a bunch of musicians.
He met Roberts, who replaced Parsons in 1970 in The Flying Burrito Brothers, while they both played in New York City (Bartley as part of Fallen Angels), and discovered they both lived in Boulder. A few months later, the two started jamming with bassist Mark Andes.
“It started feeling like a band,” Bartley said. “That first week of rehearsal, we had no band name or gigs, but we had 25 original songs of Rick’s and Larry’s (Burnett) to play. Four or five of those ended up on our album, (including) ‘Mexico,’ ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Livin’ Ain’t Livin.'”
The band’s biggest hit single, “You Are the Woman,” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard charts that year. Other hits included “Just Remember I Love You,” which reached No. 11 in 1977, and “Strange Way,” which settled in at No. 11 in 1978. The success of their debut album led to world tours with Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ELO, The Band and others.
Since then, Bartley said the band has been “nonstop touring, even after some original members quit or Michael (Clarke) died in the ’80s.”
“A lot of our songs have definitely stood the test of time. Three to four of them still get a lot of airplay on classic rock stations. To me, as the guy who’s been in Firefall forever, it all boils down to the songs and how people relate to the music that you make,” he said. “A song hits a listener in a certain way — (they think) ‘oh, I like that song or I hate that song, but some of the best songs around, they really hit the individual listener in an emotional way that the listener can relate to. Not only did we have really great musicians and players in the band … we also had a really distinct sound.”
In fact, people began calling it the “Colorado sound.”
While the band hit its apex in the late 1970s, in the late ’80s and ’90s, fans of ’70s music “got tired of the crap on the radio in the ’80s,” Bartley said. “There wasn’t a lot of great new music being put out in the ’80s, and (our) generation of listeners started demanding they play songs from the past, and suddenly classic rock had a resurgence in the ’90s, into the 2000s. Classic rock and ’70s bands were played on the radio more than anything new and were selling out stadiums. Classic rock revitalized all of our careers.”
Firefall was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2015. The current lineup includes longtime member Steve Weinmeister on guitar, mandolin, keys and vocals, Jim Waddell on keys, flute and sax, Sandy Fica on drums and newcomer John Bisaha, from The Babys, on bass and vocals.
“John is one of the best lead vocalists that’s been in the band, and we’re rocking now. (The lineup) is one of the best, most exciting Firefall bands I’ve ever had,” Bartley said.
They’ve released two new albums, and a third is scheduled to drop in a few months. Last fall, Firefall released “Friends & Family,” with 13 versions of songs by artists they share a rich history with, including the Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Spirit, Dan Fogelberg, Loggins & Messina and more. Some songs even include original band members contributing to the record.
“We wanted certain songs to sound kinda like the original or like our version of the song, and with other songs, we said, ‘Let’s take this to a new place.’ We’re respectfully and lovingly honoring not only those songs of those bands of the ’70s but also the music in general. That original music of that decade I don’t think will ever be duplicated again. I attribute that to the record labels. If you had original songs or an original sound or both, they’d sign you (in the ’70s). Then, if you got traction, they’d back you. In the ’80s, record labels started dictating to the bands what the bands should do, and it kind of put the lid on some of that great music that was made in the ’70s,” Bartley said.
Straight off a Rock and Romance cruise with about 18 other famous ’70s bands, Bartley said he’s looking forward to playing in his home state, where Firefall will deliver fan favorites as close as possible to studio recordings, as well as stretching out in tunes like “Mexico” or “Livin’ Ain’t Livin’.” They’ll also play their new songs off the “Friends and Family” album, which audiences should find familiar.
