{"id":125218,"date":"2026-04-18T17:56:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grateful-all-the-way-until-we-are-dead\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:36:48","slug":"grateful-all-the-way-until-we-are-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grateful-all-the-way-until-we-are-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Grateful all the way until we are dead\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Formed
Formed more than a decade ago, members of State 38 have spent years navigating the rough and tumble terrain of the live music world. Now, in Southwest Colorado and with the band, they\u2019ve found a home. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Members of Southwest Colorado band State 38 remember their early days playing cheap bar gigs, when waves of smoke drifting up from a sea of patrons negated any desire for a post-show cigarette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hung my clothes outside every night and I got a can of that spray stuff, not Glade but like that,\u201d said drummer and vocalist Jim North.<\/p>\n

Their jam-band sound harks to a time when you could smoke indoors, the Grateful Dead was in its heyday, and long, meandering instrumentals were just what fans craved.<\/p>\n

State 38\u2019s spontaneous grooves, best experienced live, might be just what this modern era needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be an end of an era for live music,\u201d said guitarist Billy Kneebone. \u201cI\u2019m thankful that there are some young people that are doing this. But when I was young, we were all doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live music is not going away quietly. State 38 played WildEdge Brewing Collective\u2019s ninth anniversary party in Cortez this month to a lively, full house. The band arrived early and finished late, watching old-timers and hipsters jamming to a nostalgia revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur running joke is how many songs into the set do we go before we throw away the set list and just get more in the wing it mode,\u201d said vocalist and guitarist Eric Johnson.<\/p>\n

\"State
State 38 at WildEdge Brewing Collective on Saturday, April 11. From left to right: bassist Damian Hagge, vocalist and drummer Jim North, guitarist Billy Kneebone and vocalist and guitarist Eric Johnson. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Four paths marked by tough work and desperate passion<\/div>\n

The interplay between drums, guitars, bass and vocals is a minor miracle, considering the winding roads each member took to State 38.<\/p>\n

Kneebone\u2019s first concert with his 10th-grade band marked the beginning of a volatile love affair with gig work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time we got a gig in a bar, and none of us even drove yet. \u2029My father had to drive us to the gig,\u201d Kneebone said. \u201cAnd at the end of the gig, they gave us some money and my jaw kind of dropped like, \u2018All this and money too?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t easy. Kneebone worked late-night gigs, playing four-hour sets for $50 a pop and keeping irregular hours to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re on tour, you\u2019re driving five hours through a blizzard. You get to the venue, and the kitchen\u2019s closed and you can\u2019t have any food. Oh, and you got to start early. \u2029Oh, by the way, at the end of the night, you\u2019re not getting paid,\u201d Kneebone said.<\/p>\n

Still, the pursuit of those rare moments of musical transcendence kept him going. His meeting with bassist Damian Hagge was equal parts chance and fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just hanging outside Walmart with my bass and Billy found me. He said, \u2018Do you have any tie dye shirts?\u2019\u201d Hagge said. \u201cI said \u2018No sorry I don\u2019t.\u2019 He said \u2018That\u2019s all right; you can play anyway.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After years in commercial music, playing saxophone riffs for house tracks, Hagge left the corporate world for a software day job and nighttime bass routine. A self-described \u201cjazz guy,\u201d improvisation is where he thrives.<\/p>\n

North felt a similar incongruence. He was a rambunctious child, unable to sit still during strict and repetitive piano lessons. His parents, both ex-marching band drummers, and his mom a concert pianist, struggled to keep him contained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a 2-pound, 3-ounce premature baby, so I spent three months in an incubator. \u2029And when I finally got out, it was on,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

His nature led him to the drums. Sixty years later, after a turbulent youth that once left him without a home or car but still one drum set, he credits music as life-saving.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrumming and music has been one continuous stream through my life that I appreciate more now than ever,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very fortunate to have met these guys, and they let me do what I do and dig what I\u2019m doing,\u201d North said. \u201cI\u2019ve found a place where I fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson came to music later than the others. After moving to Southwest Colorado 20 years ago, a few guitar lessons sparked what would become his first experiences performing live.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first time playing live or stepping on a stage was actually in this community,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAll I had was a guitar sitting in a closet when I moved here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The on- and off-the-stage synchronicity of State 38 is miraculous, considering the grand twists and turns of each member's life that led him to find his musical brothers. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
A rocky debut before awakening the dead<\/div>\n

State 38\u2019s early shows at Blondie\u2019s Trophy Room were humble. Most patrons treated the band as background noise. It seemed their most attentive audience were the taxidermy deer heads peering down with their eerie black eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s in the back drinking, and we\u2019re in the main room with some friends and people that care about the music,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFireball Friday,\u201d Johnson said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

But while bar patrons were more engaged in the clack of pool balls and the slam of a fresh pint on their table, something among the band members clicked.<\/p>\n

Kneebone remembers North\u2019s first drum solo at Blondie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy jaw just dropped. Because at rehearsal, he didn\u2019t do anything; he just did his drum part,\u201d he said. \u201cOur first gig, he took it solo at Blondie\u2019s and I was just like \u2018Whoa, where\u2019s Jim and why are you in his body?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The early performances of State 38 were defined by the blues, country and classic rock. But as the band shifted toward jazz and jam-band improvisation, Kneebone said they began attracting a loyal audience that kept coming back, most of them devoted Deadheads.<\/p>\n

They provided a unique sound that people in the region were longing for, and began naturally shifting to a Grateful Dead style that was deeply inspiring for all of them.<\/p>\n

Some like Johnson and Kneebone were classic Deadheads, but North came to appreciate the music much later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful people, and we will be dead at some point. And we want to be grateful all the way until we are dead,\u201d North said, adding, \u201cI\u2019m also appreciating their music a lot more than I had, because these guys were more engaged in it for longer than I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the death of Grateful Dead founding member Bob Weir in January, State 38 felt a renewed sense of purpose in carrying that musical tradition forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of, in a strange way, reignites appreciation and interest, and almost an obligation now to keep carrying the little torch of what they\u2019ve done,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado joined the United States 150 years ago as the 38th state, hence the band\u2019s name. State 38\u2019s logo also honors Southwest Colorado in particular, depicting Sleeping Ute Mountain. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Leaving their own legacy<\/div>\n

State 38 has had its ups and downs, but the music has carried them through it all. Earlier this month at WildEdge Brewing Collective, they carried the music to the crowd\u2019s delight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done gigs all over the world, right? \u2026 Southwestern Colorado really has a specific vibe which is really good for playing live music,\u201d Hagge said.<\/p>\n

Their June 13 gig at Mancos Brewing Co., scheduled for 5 p.m., invites Southwest Coloradans, Deadheads and non-Deadheads, to celebrate 10 years of State 38.<\/p>\n

With no recorded albums to their name but a few videos, the band thrives in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what legacy I leave recording-wise,\u201d North said. \u201cI want to leave a legacy that when I go, somebody goes, \u2018Man, last night, that drummer was on it. \u2029He was on fire. Oh, he passed? Oh, that\u2019s sad, but man, last night \u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southwest Colorado band State 38 commemorates a decade of jams, talks about Grateful Dead, gigs and legacy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-125218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128422,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125218\/revisions\/128422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125218"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=125218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}