The Tank

Denver is a sleepy place at 6:00 on a Saturday morning.  I can't say Kelley and I were any different as we packed our gear into the truck and headed west on an empty I-70 for a quiet corner of Colorado.  If you read my piece last fall on high school football on the Eastern Plains then you already know our road trips tend toward the interesting places in our state that are hard to find. (For the record Casa Bonita is not interesting)  This morning found us heading northwest to a place neither of us had ever been... with the hopes of experiencing something truly beautiful.

Heavy Metal

In the northwest corner of Colorado, very much off the beaten path is a musical instrument well worth the five hour drive from Denver.  It's a place known simply as The Tank,  its part studio, part concert space, and part church to music lovers.  On a hill outside the town of Rangley is an empty water tank that stand 65 feet tall and is approximately forty feet across.  For as long as locals can remember people have been crawling through a three foot round hole at it's base to sing or play music that sounds like it comes straight from heaven.

Home on the Range(ly)

Rangley, Colorado is a place diluted by low gas and oil prices.  Pump stations still dot the high desert landscape but the drilling boom that brought new families and money to town has dried up, leaving Rangley searching for another well to tap.  These days the main street isn't vibrant but it is welcoming and the folks we met were upbeat and hopeful.  The White River snakes through town and is a lovely and underutilized sportsman's paradise.  Then there are the ATV trails, the college, and a new classic car museum.  But the true source of Rangley's relevance just might be The Tank.

Tank Deetz 

Exactly when and how The Tank became apart of the Rangley landscape is a mystery.  Even it's intended reason for being there is mostly conjecture.  What is clear is that it came from somewhere in Colorado, maybe the Arkansas River Valley, sometime in the late 1960s. Originally owned by the Rio Grande Railroad, it was hauled to that hill in pieces and reassembled, possibly by the power company, who may have intended to use it for something related to hydroelectric power.  But the tank was never again filled with water after the rebuild, apparently because the sandy soil was deemed an insufficient base for that much weight.  I do know that if you ask those who love The Tank why it ended up where it did you will get one definitive answer... "To bring beautiful music to the folks of Rangley and the rest of the world".

People of The Tank

Located just outside of town up a steep gravel road, The Tank sits on a large enough flat spot for itself, a welcome trailer and a dozen or so cars.  Over the last few years volunteers saved it from the scrap yard with a Kickstarter campaign and cut an actual door into the side to bypass the crawl (which you still have to do to get the proper experience).  Now The Tank is open on Saturdays to musicians, adventurers and amateur writers who want to be blessed by it's sounds.  We were met at The Tank by three ladies who volunteer their time as protectors and tour guides.  Everything I learned that day was thanks to them.

No shoes are allowed which adds to the sanctity of the place as you step inside.  The space is completely empty save for one chair and blankets laden with musical instruments of all kinds.  On one side is an oversized xylophone made from large metal pipes, and played with a rubber hammer. It's open for any and all to play their guitar, sing, or just bang on pipes and metal dishes if you're musically inept like myself.  Kids swing those noise makers above their heads or play kazoos. Even whistling sounds amazing.

It turns out that trying to describe what The Tank can do is really hard.  Sound in there doesn't so much as echo as it does roll around and around above you.  The reverb lasts for so long that you're forced to play or sing very slowly so as not to create a jumbled mess.  One guitar sounds as if you're listening to an entire orchestra.  Video helps but you need to go see it for yourself to truly soak it in.

Tanking

When you drive all that way to check out something new all you can hope for is to learn something and enjoy the journey.  But when you get both of those things and get to meet great people who share their talents, you have to count yourself as lucky.  When we arrived at The Tank a lone guitar player was just putting on his shoes to leave.  It turned out that his name was Sean, a local pipeline worker checking out the sound for himself.  I guess we managed to twist his arm because he stayed and played for us and hung out for an hour or so.  He played us a couple songs including one by Jake Owens.  I couldn't tell where his voice began and or where the echo took over.  One man and his guitar sounded otherworldly, like an elf choir in The Lord of The Rings.  All I could do was close my eyes and lean against the wall.  Trust me it was better then church.

Volunteering that day to welcome road warriors like us to The Tank experience was a young lady named Sam.  She remembers the days when her grandmother lived down in the bottom land below the Tank.  Musicians used to come knocking on her door with an extension cord in hand in hopes of powering their recording equipment.  Sam has been crawling through that hole to sing inside that metal amplifier since she was eight.  A feat which had earned her the moniker "Voice of The Tank" around those parts.  It was a quiet Saturday so Sam and the other ladies that were volunteering that day joined her to sing for us.  Sean told me to lie down on my back in the middle of the floor and let all the sound wash over me.  It started low and slow, then built into this crescendo that I am struggling to describe.  Astonishing, stunning, breathtaking, that's the best I can do.  The angels singing to the shepherds announcing the birth of Christ might just have some competition. Watch Kelly's video below and see for your self.  I guarantee you've never seen me get all Pentecostal before.

Go

Do yourself a favor and add The Tank to your travel plans.  If that's not feasible because you're Canadian or something then at least add it to your bucket list.  Just having it on the list helps get you there sometimes.  Go to the website tanksounds.org and spend some time exploring and listening to the music they have posted.  If you make it to Rangley go to Giovanni's for pizza.  You can't miss it right there on the main drag.  Oh and if it's warm be sure to bring your swim trunks because you're going to want to jump into Kenney Reservoir on your way out of town.  We sure did, but five hours of wet shorts was a deal breaker.

"You don't play an instrument in The Tank, you play The Tank with your instrument"

                                     -Bruce Odland