One Time

Through the face of great adversity, Grand County band One Time continues to entertain a growing fan base.

More than a year has passed since the band lost keyboardist Craig Thompson to cancer. But members continue to rock on with him in their hearts and have found a new member to help fill the void.

Andy Moore, who plays electric guitar, now joins the ranks on stage as of this past July. Along with guitarist Matt Holliday, bassist Tom Camillo and rhythm guitarist Chris “Willy Williamson,” they offer what Williamson calls a three-guitar assault with Ian Morlock on drums.

“We are still working hard to deal with the loss of our dear friend, but the music has taken a more passionate turn and the band is tighter than ever,” Morlock said. The last five years, he said, have been the “real work years,” but that they “just rock harder these days.”

Their music is Southern-rock and jam oriented, incorporating anything from classic Johnny Cash to Snoop Dogg and favorites by Widespread Panic.

“It’s a real comfortable fit,” Moore said. “I’m glad that they opened up their band to me. They’re all really great musicians.”

Moore’s musical passion was fired up listening to his sister play Grateful Dead songs in their Indiana home. He also gains inspiration from the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, “and skiing powder.” (In fact, as long as his playing can accommodate his skiing, he’s pretty good to go, he said.)

His dad, stepdad and an uncle played guitar but “the Dead” was the first guitar band that really caught Moore’s attention. Soon after, Andy took lessons from several different teachers. Later on, he honed his skills at Indiana University and studied audio recording.

With a jam style all his own, reflecting a bit of his blues background, Moore started playing with Williamson during open mic night at the Crooked Creek Saloon. And while One Time was out guitarist Matt Holliday who was a ranch guide this summer in Meeker, the band became what Williamson jokes was “One Moore Time.”

“Andy adds a mellow rock tone that just fits well with what we are doing right now,” Morlock said. “He has a unique style that just fits. He is super talented and loves his guitar.”

Moore has also played with bands Filthy Mustache and Space Heater and the One Time band has played almost 50 shows this year (including at the New Orleans Jazz Festival). Performances opening for Bonorama at the Fox Theatre in Boulder and recently in Keystone were particularly memorable for Moore.

The band, which has been together since 2001, has about three new pieces they plan to showcase. Moore estimates he has about four or five originals he is working on. His favorites to play are Willy’s “Cinnamon Breeze” and “Jack and Jill.”

“Their style lends themselves to my kind of playing,” he said of the songs.

As always, their shows and their tunes encourage people to “just have a good time.”

“After all,” Morlock said, “there always is a surprise or two at a One Time show.”

On a side note, the band will be joined by several other local musicians for Craigstock West in the Denver area Nov. 9. Participants include Jed Henry, Stereomaid, Hunker Down, Jake Royall and the Empty Suits. Proceeds go toward a National Gene Test Fund to help fight cancer. - Cyndi McCoy

One Time was once Fraser Valley’s little secret, a small southern-rock band with the kind of soul and grit that filled local pubs with dancing feet. The band still draws local crowds throughout Winter Park and Fraser, but like most good secrets, One Time’s talent couldn’t be contained on this side of the Divide for too long. Today the band’s five musicians have close to 125 shows under their belt, which include venues throughout Colorado, Wyoming Idaho and Utah, and they plan to continue touring after this summer. “We want to press on,” said Chris Williamson, rhythm guitarist and vocalist for One Time. “If we can grow, other things will fall in line . . . we can be tighter. ”Williamson and his four band members feel they have been fortunate with their band’s success, especially coming from a resort town where it’s difficult to stay together. In fact the band did split up for a short period in 2002 when the original bass player for One Time, Mike Hoge, left for Boston to go to dental school. “Everybody vacated the area,” said Williamson, who himself left for Seattle. Ian Morlock, One Time’s drummer who joined the band in 2000, left for Atlanta, Georgia. Matt Holliday, lead guitarist, vocalist and song writer, moved to Meeker, a town three and a half hours away. But it didn’t take long for things to fall back into place. The band even found a new bass player, Tom Camillo, who grew up in Buffalo, New York, and keyboardist Craig Thomason, from Kentucky. All five band members grew up under different musical influences ranging from Frank Zappa to Widespread Panic, but the differences in style is what makes the group come together. “It’s like the Olympic rings,” Williamson said. “We’re not on top of each other, but we have this crazy cross-over . . . there’s all different combinations and ideas, which brings in all kinds of influences, from folk songs to jazz to bluegrass. It’s nice to mix it up.”

The band does get a lot of influence from the Grateful Dead, Williamson said, along with other southern rock bands such as the Allman brothers. But One Time plays more than 100 cover songs, according to Camillo, which allows them to cater to whatever crowd they’re playing to. The band also has 15 original songs and a “fist-full waiting in the wings,” Williamson said. He added that it has been difficult in the past for the band to get together and write songs.
“This summer, our goal is to get together and write music as a band.”
Williamson, 38, was one of the original players in the band. He and Holliday, who lived in the Valley at the time, met up in 1999 through mutual friends and started playing songs together, “a two-man acoustic guitar deal,” Williamson said. The band slowly evolved since then. Holliday, 34, from Montana, mostly grew up in Denver. He recently decided to move there permanently again with his wife and two daughters — a welcome change for Holliday who for years used to drive almost four hours to get to gigs. Camillo, 31, now lives in the Winter Park Highlands. Camillo knew Holliday through mutual friends as well, so when the band was “looking” for a bass player, (Williamson said the band wasn’t really looking for one, Camillo luckily just fell into their laps) he got a call from one of the band members asking him if he’d like to play with the band sometime. But Camillo was a guitar player, not a bass player. “I told them, ‘as long as we get together before a show and practice some songs’ . . . so they call me the day of the show and say ‘hey we’re playing at the Pub.’ I was thrown in the fire pretty quickly.” After two and a half years, Camillo has played 118 shows with the band. “I actually consider myself a bass player now,” he said, smiling. Camillo is also a realtor at Century 21.

The man who called Camillo was Ian Morlock, 28, who plays drums for the band. Morlock joined One Time late in 2000. He was in the same circle of friends as Holliday and Williamson and sought the same shows as they did. One night while the two were playing at the Winter Park Pub, Morlock, who had a unique drumming background in symphonic percussion, decided to play along with his Djembe, a west-African drum.
“He would play bongos . . . he had a background in a lot of different percussion,” Williamson said. “Then one day he said, ‘I bought a drum kit.’ ”Morlock has been with the band ever since. “We all just hit it off,” Williamson added. “It was so easy . . . people just joined to have fun.” Craig Thomason stumbled into the band at a Widespread Panic CD release party in Denver. The band had been asked to play by Cecil P-Nut Daniels, a well-known horn player from San Francisco who has played along with Widespread Panic in the past. The band felt honored that Daniels was asking them to be the backing band at the party — Daniels used to play with One Time in Winter Park, and he was always encouraging the band to grow. Although Holliday couldn’t make the gig, the rest of the band members couldn’t resist the opportunity. So Daniels arranged for a keyboardist to join them that night. “This guy with long hair and a big Kentucky accent comes up to us and says ‘I heard y’all were looking for a keyboard player,’” Williamson said in mock drawl. Thomason played along well with the band, so they asked him to join them at the Pub for Rock Fest in a few months. Like Camillo, Thomason didn’t get much practice time. “It was a three-gig weekend with no repeat songs,” Williamson said. “We played like 75 to 100 songs that he hardly ever played before.” Thomason, 29, was hired after just one set, and now plays keyboards for the band as well as writes songs and sings.

Other members of One Time include their manager, Scott Anderson, the owner of Ice Box in Fraser, and Stefan Krueger, who the band loosely refers to as the roadie, “but he’s really entertainment relief,” Camillo said. “We call him ‘Captain Ridiculous,’” Williamson added. “It’s a laugh a minute with this bunch . . . there’s not a lot of tension. ”But the band knows that a huge amount of their support comes from their fans. “We can’t thank those people enough,” said Camillo. “If it weren’t for them, I’d still be playing in my living room.”
Williamson added that they were very appreciative to everybody who comes to the shows and to the owners who let them play at their venues.
“The town has gotten so much more supportive of local music and music in general in the last five years . . . a lot more local acts are playing right now then they have been. It’s been really awesome.”
Camillo added that there was a strong community among bands as well in the Valley. “We’re out to see Hunker Down just as much as they come to see us. It’s that kind of relationship. Everybody’s there to support each other.”
“Everybody should support live music,” Williamson said later.
One Time plans to take some time off this summer between select shows to write new songs and have a new CD by the end of the season. Their current album, One Time Experience, is currently available on their Web site, www.onetimeexperience.com. Fans can also download live recordings at archive.org.
When asked where they got the name One Time, Williamson shrugged.
“Some crazy guy named Hal. There was a period when Matt, Ian and myself played in Meeker and this guy would always say, ‘Hey man, throw me a Budweiser one time,’ or ‘Hey, throw me that magazine one time.’ Someone said we should call our band One Time. It just stuck.”
One Time prides itself for not being the typical “jam-band” that so many bands get termed. It’s a strong rock band, Camillo said, but it’s not all instrumentation. The players use three-part vocal harmonies and solid song structures. “Yeah we might be plugged with the jam band term, because it’s such a lose term, but we have things that define us a little better.”
Both Camillo and Williamson agree that their band’s success has been unique for a small-town band who’s members all moved to the Valley for the ski-bum experience. On one of the Valley’s local channels, Channel 17, One Time, along with Huge in Germany and other local bands, were featured on “Bands of the Day,” which talks about living in a tourist town.
“People come here ready to have a good time,” Camillo said. “If we can be the ones that can provide that excuse for everybody to party, that’s why we’re here.”

One Time will be playing at the Winter Park Pub this Friday night (for free) and Fontenot’s on Sunday, with a few surprises, Williamson added. “We’re looking forward to this weekend. It’s going to be a blast.”

- Stephanie Buss