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Steamboat Springs — Dave Gerard has been coming to the Steamboat Springs area for about 20 years as a solo act, leader of a duo or the frontman for his band, Truffle.

This week, he and harmonica/accordion player Daniel "Moose" Bednarski will make stops at 9 p.m. Thursday at Old Town Pub and 8 p.m. Friday at Hahn's Peak Cafe. The cover charge for Thursday's show is $5; Friday's show is free.

"It's acoustic guitar and harmonica, but it's not like a coffeehouse sitting on stools and playing a harmonica," said Gerard, a singer-songwriter based in New Hampshire.

The shows feature traditional tunes, New Orleans R&B, blues and cuts from "The Zoomy Trail," Gerard's recently released solo album. Gerard took the name for the record from his grandfather, who used to take Gerard for walks on trails when he was young. Every trail, no matter where it was, was "The Zoomy Trail," Gerard said.

"I thought that was a great analogy for an album, is that every time you put it on, it would take you to a different place," he said.

For hard copies of the record, Gerard contracted a printer out of Portland, Maine, to roll each label on a letterpress from the 1930s, he said. The designers switched ink color each time the plates needed to be re-inked, giving every 50 or so copies a different color scheme, he said.

"It's a little bit of an underlying theme on the album, of trying to get back to a little bit of a human level in some of the songs," Gerard said.

Focusing on well-structured songs and solid, roots-style melodies, Gerard has released four solo albums and five records with his band, Truffle. Songs from the most recent solo album are available at www.thezoomytrail.com and www.gerardtruffle

.com, and a remix of the song "Dreamland" is streaming at www.exploresteamboat.com and www.steamboatpilot.com.

Gerard is scheduled for a radio interview and performance on KFMU 104.1/105.5 FM at 4 p.m. Thursday.