Longtime concert promoter Ron Wilson, 66, remembers his very first show as a kid growing up in Grand Junction. He had been cruising around on his Schwinn Stingray when he stopped to listen to a group of musicians performing underneath a tree in Lincoln Park. They gave the curious kid a note inviting him to their concert that evening at Grand Junction High School. It was Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponies.

A few years later, Wilson was asked to help out his guitar teacher/concert promoter at an outdoor Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert at Mesa College, where his job was to walk around carrying a bucket with sand for putting out cigarettes. “I was a human ashtray,” he says.

By 1980, Wilson had started promoting his own concerts, beginning with the band America at the Mesa County Fairgrounds. “It sold out,” Wilson recalls. “I thought I was onto something really magical.” In the early 1980s, he also helped out the Denver-based Feyline Presents with Grand Junction shows by artists on their way to Denver.

Though there were a few local promoters in the Grand Valley during the 1980s, it was a tough time for selling tickets. The local economy had collapsed after Exxon Corporation pulled out its oil shale development project in Western Colorado overnight. Wilson left town for a few years, first to Denver, then Austin, Texas before returning to Grand Junction to start Sandstone Entertainment.

Downtown Grand Junction’s Avalon Theatre was in disrepair and boarded up back then, though city leaders were interested in fixing up the historic red-brick theatre. They asked Wilson if he’d use the venue if it was renovated.

Wilson’s first concert in the partially restored Avalon was John Mayall and the Blues Breakers in the early ’90s. “The theatre was rough, seats were bad, but it was a space. It was kind of exciting,” Wilson recalls. “Grand Junction was really hungry for music.”

A few years later, the Avalon underwent a major remodel, which created a more viable venue for major touring acts. While the theatre was closed for renovations, Wilson began promoting shows on the Front Range — Loveland, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins — as well as Rifle, Montrose and Durango. He found a niche in those areas for the smaller — 200 to 1,000-seat — venues. He continues to book concerts on both the Front Range and Western Slope.

Mesa Theater opened as a Grand Junction concert venue in 1998, and Pinnacle Venue Services came to town nearly 20 years later, drawing national touring acts to the Grand Junction Convention Center and the Avalon Theatre. “When they got here, they brought to Grand Junction a pipeline to the entertainment world,” Wilson says.

While Wilson is quick to say he’s not the busiest concert promoter in town, (even more important to Wilson than music is time for mountain biking and backpacking — especially with his two sons) he’s one of the earliest live music promoters who’s still around. “I know what I want and like and then go look for it instead of taking whatever,” Wilson says.

With a 1,090-seat capacity, the Avalon offers the type of listening experience expected at Wilson’s shows. “It’s more about sitting, watching the performance and paying attention to it,” he believes. “You go to get amazed at what you’re looking at (and hearing). During a 2023 Woods Brothers concert (which included a stunning light show) people were mesmerized; they were rapt, attentive, focused. Venues like the Avalon are good for that.”

His favorite show is whatever concert he’s enjoying at the moment, he says. One of the many concerts that stand out include a John Denver show promoted by community leader Brian Mahoney, who was a friend of the legendary musician. Wilson helped with the concert, which was a benefit for St. Mary’s Hospital and held at Mesa College’s Saunders Fieldhouse. Tickets were $20 and sold out fast. Denver requested a Navajo rug that Wilson borrowed from local collector and former Daily Sentinel publisher Ken Johnson, which Denver performed barefoot on that evening.

“It affects you,” watching musicians who are masters of their craft, Wilson says. “You’re in the company of greatness. It’s a rare experience. You share that hour-an-ahalf watching something great unfold in front of you.”

Originally published in the Winter 2023-24 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

The Music Man: Ron Wilson's Passion For Live Music