Dave and I — and both of our wives — are ham radio operators. We were able to chat on the radio, and after about a half hour of pouring rain, we decided it might be nice to head into town and warm up. We drove into Ridgway and found a place where we could get some hot cocoa and warm up a bit.
Being pretty new in town, we decided to look around a bit. Dave’s wife Loretta is an artist, and she spotted what appeared to be a gallery. She wanted to go in, so we popped in the door.
It sure didn’t look like any art gallery I’ve ever seen: the first thing I noticed was a small recording studio. The open office had dozens of autographed photos of really well-known recording artists — top names in the business. I pondered, then rejected, the possibility that so many musicians had made the trek to this tiny studio to record.
As we looked around, I saw a Grammy Award. And then another …and another. And then a stack of parts for Grammys. As I was absorbing what I was seeing, the the owner of the place popped out to greet us. John Billings is an accomplished painter (his portrait of the late blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn was awesome), a jazz drummer. And as he offered little bits of information and he answered our questions, the reality of where we were hit us all.
