Steamboat Pilot & Today

Better Than Bacon

Steamboat Springs — Better Than Bacon has an 80-year-old fan on its e-mail list. Guitarist James Yearling said the man told him they were the only ones who reached deep into blues history for funky covers.

But Yearling, who gave up his magazine writing career to pursue musical fulfillment, said the band also isn’t afraid to “bust out a Maroon 5 song” or spice things up with its original repertoire.

The band’s throwback spirit, coupled with driving guitars and a clear enjoyment of playing music, brings all types of people out to Bacon shows.

“We get a lot of middle-aged folks, and we do the jam band thing,” Yearling said. “As far as the scene is concerned, we fit that jam band scene because as long as the floor is moving, we’re not going to stop it. We’re not going to stop a song just ’cause that’s where it ends.”

And they’re not going to stop playing anytime soon, because for the newly formed Better Than Bacon, a Fort Collins-based “folk and roll” band, fate seems to have found them.

The quintet has played more than 50 shows across the Colorado region since its inception in May.

The band will play at 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday at The Tugboat Grill & Pub in its first Steamboat appearance. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Instead of busy, exciting or overwhelming, it just feels right to Yearling.

“This is kind of the band where we pick the songs we want to play that we’ve never been able to play with other groups,” Yearling said. “We just started small, and people accepted it. Every place we’ve played has either rebooked us or invited us back.”

Everything began in January, when Yearling and acoustic guitarist Ryan Zwanziger found each other through the online music world, only to discover they were next-door neighbors.

It was the beginning of the so-far serendipitous history of Better Than Bacon.

The two instantly meshed and found themselves able to share songs they had written and held on to for more than 10 years.

Three more band members filtered in, including Andrew Waltman on electric bass, Ty Monteleone on drums and Ehren Crumpler on electric guitar.

Waltman is a new addition to the band, for the simple reason that he was working the soundboard at a gig the night the band found out bassist Pat Moorhead was leaving.

Yearling likened the band’s composition to the Allman Brothers, with Zwanziger’s percussive acoustic plucking acting as the keyboard, and a charged interplay between Crumpler and Yearling’s guitars.

“At least our mentalities and where we come from is totally throwback,” Yearling said. “But we don’t have the money or the fame.”

To see success in a short period of time in the over-saturated music market on the Front Range is heartening to Yearling, who, like the rest of his band, has played music in one form or another for most of his life.

“Music is all around us,” Yearling said. “Your air conditioner is humming an E flat. We view music as the lifeblood of human existence, of history, folk culture and entertainment. To get people to respond to your music is amazing. We couldn’t have expected it any better.”

But to answer the question on everyone’s mind, Yearling responds an emphatic “No.” This band is not better than bacon.

“We just love bacon too damn much,” he said. “The only thing better than bacon is having people remember your band name.”