Bard Hoff

Colorado based guitarist Bard Hoff has spent his career trying to find the middle ground between Keith Richards and Joe Pass. On one side is the rocker, adorned with tattoos, wanting to play loud. On the other is the jazz man, always cool as he picks his way through the standards. Hoff is the happiest when he can be both, which is what the audience at Elliot's can expect Saturday when Hoff appears with his trio. "Elliot's is the hippest place we play," said Hoff, who grew up on Fort Collins, the son of Hollis Bard Hoff, the radio voice of the Colorado State University football and basketball teams in the 1960s. "We can play anything -- Al Green, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone. We'll get people in there asking for Charlie Parker. Then Clinton, the bartendar, won't let us leave until we play Little Wing and Third Stone Fron the Sun." H off began his musical pursuits as a child, first playing the guitar when he was 10. It wasn't until a few years later, though, when the Beatles first emerged from England, that he considered music as a profession. "Anyone from my generation who plays guitar and says they weren't influenced by teh Beatles is lying," Hoff said. Of course, his first influences were rock musicians. But there came a time when Hoff decided to explore music, listening to and studying different styles. "It's when you open yourself up to music that you start hearing the jazz and the great country players," Hoff siad. "that's when you take the big head-long dash into it!" By the time Hoff turned 14, he'd mad e the decision to pursue music professionally. And he has continued that pursuit ever since. "If I was a teen-ager in New York or on the East Coast somewhere, I could have probably started playing a few gigs and worked my way into some studio time," Hoff said. "But let's be realistic. We're 40 miles from Wyoming here. When I was 13 or 14, I had to make my mind up that that's what I wanted to do." Hi sprofessional career has led Hoff around the world. He's performed on cruise ships and on tours throughout Europe. He has recorded with a variety of groups. And for the first time this year, Hoff released a CD as a solo project -- "Earthquake Weather," available through hapi Skratch Records. The CD is a seven-track collection of mostly original songs written by Hoff and his son, Devin Hoff, a professional bassist. "Devin took to music like a duck to water," Hoff said of his son. "He had some great educators here. The music education in the schools here is fantastic." Devin even joined Hoff on a tour of Europe, where the two learned first-hand the importance of music and art in European cultures. "Traveling to Europe is a real wake-up call," Hoff said. "They put such an emphasis on the arts." When not traveling, Hoff plays somewhat regularly around Fort Collins, including shows at Elliot's and occasional appearances at the Moot House. But those who have seen Hoff only at the Moot House haven't seen the true Bard Hoff Trio. "We have to scale back our show, because we're playing while people are eating," he said. "We don't want to get too heavy into it while they're enjoying their dinners." The Elliot's show promises to be a much harder-hitting version, Hoff syas. "At Elliot's, they see the real Bard Hoff Trio," he said.