The scene seems almost unreal: You're in a 100-year-old coach being pulled by a coal-fired, steam-powered, narrow-gauge locomotive heading up the mountain outside of Durango, and Colorado bluesman Robbie Overfield is throwing down a simple set of blues less than 5 feet away from you. Order another beer and manage your way into another coach - this one a gondola car, with its sides wide open to the wildflower-covered mountains outside — and Erik Boa & the Constrictors is laying down a searing, full-band set of blues for you and your new friends.
Dancing. Drinking. Blues music. New friends. All without getting off the (moving) train.
"That's the cool thing about the whole experience," said Bill Kight, marketing director with SBG Productions, which organizes the Durango Blues Train. "It's a moving experience. It's in its second year this year, and we're already half sold-out — and people are loving it."
The Durango Blues Train will depart Durango at 5:45 p.m. June 2 with seven live blues acts — two full bands and five solo artists — each performing on their own stage, rather in their own coach.
The territory is familiar to Colorado train enthusiasts: The route is basically the first half of the celebrated Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. And its highlights aren't all musical; The train reaches the Highline portion of the track — "one of the most renowned sections of the narrow gauge, near 400-foot craggy cliffs and above the wild Animas River," Kight said — before seeing the sunset over the San Juan National Forest.
"The train stops there and heads back to Durango," Kight said. "It's long enough to have a good time, but it doesn't put people out there for hours. Silverton is a six-hour trek. This trip is three hours, roundtrip."
The Durango Blues Train is a sister event to the larger, more established Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, which will take over the mountain town just north of Durango on Sept. 14-16 with headliners Phil Lesh & Friends, the B-52s and Gov't Mule.
The two blues-rooted events are so closely related that they even share acts. The Sugar Thieves were a crowd favorite at Blues & Brews last year, and this year they're one of the full bands playing a gondola car on the Durango Blues Train.
"Having the opportunity to charter a train and put blues music on it, it's amazing," said Kight. "It's heavily tied into the Blues and Brews festival ... And we have three returning artists from last year's train, too."
One of those artists is Erik Boa, who, with his band the Constrictors, had a whole train car a rockin' in 2011. Overfield will also return from last year, as will Big Jim Adam & John Stilwagen. New to the Blues Train this year are Todd and the Fox, Alex Maryol and Donny Morales.
Tickets to last year's event started slow, but it eventually sold out, and organizers are expecting a quicker sell-out this year — so much so that they're looking at dates in October for a possible second 2012 trip.
"It's a unique experience, and everybody enjoyed it last year," Kight said. "The music was good, and it wasn't too loud. People were able to move around freely. There's a car without music, to get your breath and get away from the sound. But even the older demographic didn't mind it at all.
"It's the blues music, and you're also on a 100-year-old train — and the views are unbeatable."
An artist plays the 2011 Durango Blues Train. (Denver Post file) 
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