By Kyle Kirves
In a state that prides itself as hallowed ground for music and musicians — and is a dream destination for many guitar-case-carrying transplants — you would be hard-pressed to find an artist more authentically Coloradan than Antonio Lopez. Lopez, an Alamosa native and now Longmont resident, is a Front Range favorite whose singer-songwriter aesthetic is often bluer than cloudless Colorado skies and dusty with red rock sandstone.
Upcoming shows
Antonio Lopez is playing at Rail on the River in Berthoud at noon Saturday, June 25.
Lopez also headlines a fundraising concert on Thursday, June 30, for Foundation Music School, a non-profit music school and music therapy provider in Fort Collins.
“I've lived here my whole life and I find it a very welcoming and inspiring place to make music,” Lopez says of his native state. “I have met people all over Colorado and everyone — musicians, yes, but everyone really — says that the music scene is really built on a sense of community. It’s about communal effort and collaboration rather than competition. I think we all shine together and recognize the mutual benefit of that.”
A lifelong musician and student of music, Lopez jumped in at an early age, like most of us, through school programs in choir and band. By middle school, he had traded in his clarinet for the guitar and began composing his own songs shortly thereafter.
“I actually started out listening and playing more metal-type music,” Lopez admits, smiling, but he now feels comfortable and in his own element as a member of the rich guild of singer-songwriters. And, like his fellows in that rich tradition, Lopez pulls a lot from his own life and experiences.
With “Roots and Wings,” his latest album, “the songs do have a lot of personal narratives and stories from life.” Indeed, the record plays like a photo album of snapshots from Lopez’s experience and stories, while some are just inspired from it and lean on his vivid imagination for amplification, like a novel that is fiction but comes from real-life experience.
“It’s like a creative writing exercise sometimes, where just the seed of an idea takes root and kind of grows on its own. Sometimes the song just kind of figures out where it wants to go and I go along with it,” says Lopez of his process and craft.
“Creativity is like water. It just flows,” Lopez says of his songwriting process, which doesn’t necessarily follow any established pattern of music first, lyrics second or vice versa, though his lyrics do lean on his own personal stories. “A lot of it is my own personal narrative, or stories from or about my family. Some of it is representative of struggle and triumph.”
When asked what makes Colorado such a great place for music, Lopez cites the supportive music community and several venues that are personal favorite performance spaces, including Denver landmark Swallow Hill Music Center. “Swallow Hill is an outstanding place in terms of venue and producing really great Colorado acoustic music. It’s legendary for a reason,” he says.
Live, Lopez puts context around some of his more personal pieces with descriptive intros, giving them narrative depth and allowing them to more fully resonate with the audience on the first listen. It makes the audience eager to explore those word-pictures again. And again.
Personnel on Lopez’s records varies, but a typical Antonio Lopez Band lineup might include: Chad E. Mathis (bass), Christopher Scott Wright (drums), and Jonathan Sadler on the somewhat out-of-the-ordinary marimba. The instrumentation makes for a musical combo that is at once familiar and exotic.
“I really love playing with and off of the other members of the band,” Lopez says, “and I’m really fortunate that we’ve been able to stick together through all of the pandemic things the past few years.”
Lopez changes things up though (if the performance I took in is any indication) with a solo set midway through live concerts. It brings an intimacy to the shows that makes it feel like the songwriter is speaking directly to you, telling you his story in lyric, guitar and keyboards.
Sometimes, Lopez chooses to leave words at home and just perform with an instrument – maybe allowing the listener to come up with their own story.
Not content to just perform for that community, Lopez dedicates himself to serving it in ways that go beyond just performance. Actively involved in organizations that promote better learning and living through music, Lopez served as executive director of now defunct Sound Bridge music in 2020 to see if there were ways to support musicians during the pandemic. Now, he serves on the board of Longmont Creates, a non-profit supported by the city that serves as a platform and voice for craftspeople of all kinds – musicians, brewers, artists and artisans – anyone with a creative bent.
“With Longmont Creates I feel I’m in a place where I can really contribute from an experiential and expertise perspective and bring that musician’s voice to this team and serve musicians and the broader community,” Lopez says of his involvement.
While many musicians live and play here, Antonio Lopez is both “from” and “of” Colorado – something that manifests itself in his music and his mindset, his creativity and his commitment. In the form of his music, he makes Colorado somehow portable and a little easier to take with you every day.