Montezuma County musician Odis Sikes was recently inducted into the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame.
He traveled to Thornton for the ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 25, at a bar called Dougie G’s Lounge.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Sikes. “I didn’t know there was a Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame.”
There were 10 inductees, in addition to a handful of awards, he said.
“They did almost like the Country Music Award thing,” said Sikes. “They had a female vocalist of the year, male vocalist of the year, musician of the year, entertainer of the year … they did a whole thing. It was nice.”
He said he was playing a gig last winter when a woman from the Front Range pulled him aside. She complimented his singing and told him her plans to nominate him for induction.
“I forgot all about it, I never saw her again,” said Sikes. “Then she texted me one day and said, ‘You’re gonna be inducted.’”
Susie Knight nominated him. She’s a singer and was inducted herself in 2023.
“His voice stood out to me. I like his tone, his vocals, his timing. I come from a family of professional singers, my mom and dad were classically trained. So I grew up with music,” said Knight. “All the technical parts of singing, he has that mastered.”
At the event, Sikes played Hank Thompson’s “A Six Pack to Go.” Knight said it was impossible not to dance, just like the first night she saw him perform near Ignacio.
“He knew exactly how to please the dancing crowd,” she said.
Sikes said he’s always loved music, and he’s still got the hi-fi turntable he listened to as a boy growing up in Texas.
“I’d sit in front of that and listen to the radio, or my dad had some Hank Williams records, some Hank Thompson,” said Sikes. “I’d sit in front of that thing and play records or listen to the radio.”
Before Sikes ever learned to play guitar, he served in Vietnam, in the First Infantry Division. He was 18 years old, and it was 1969.
It wasn’t until he returned and reached 22 or 23 years of age when he learned to play.
“I always loved music, loved to sing, but I didn’t know how to play guitar,” Sikes said.
At the time, he was still living in Texas. Newlyweds moved in a few doors down, and the new husband had just been released from the state penitentiary. But, he played guitar.
“So that’s how I learned how to play. From an inmate, an ex-inmate,” Sikes said.
Sikes got his start playing music in church; he never thought he’d play outside of that.
But he met some guys in a band and one of them asked him to come audition. He landed the part.
“We played one gig, and they broke up,” he laughed.
After that, some time passed, and then he met a guy from Aztec.
“He’d do a single, and he told me one time, ‘You play guitar, and you sing good. I’m gonna get you a job’,” Sikes recalled.
He took Sikes to a place in Mancos that’s not around anymore called the Silver Peaks, so he could meet the owner. He told Sikes not to worry about bringing a guitar.
“First thing the guy asked me was, ‘Did you bring your guitar?’,” said Sikes. “He wanted me to sing a couple of songs. Anyways, somebody had left a guitar there, so I played, and he hired me. I was kind of surprised.”
When Sikes first showed up to play at Silver Peaks, the owner said he hired a fiddle player named Red Greer to join him.
“My first thought was, ‘I hope he’s good because I’m not very good.’ I hadn’t been playing in front of people hardly at all,” said Sikes. “The guy was really good.”
The pair played together for a while and kept playing together, even after Silver Peaks closed. One fateful day, Rick Shields, who Sikes would play with in the future, went to watch him and Greer perform, since Shields’ dad and brother-in-law knew Greer.
After the gig, they asked Sikes to sing at a chuck wagon 9 miles upriver toward Rico. The site is now a gravel pit, but in 1988, it was where Sikes played music every night for three months straight.
Eventually, he started playing with the Shotfullaholes band, inspired by Sikes’ and another member’s service in Vietnam. Gabe Garcia, Cheryl Johnson, Darris Greer and Sikes made up the group.
“I didn’t think we were a great band, we were just having fun. But people liked us, and we played a lot,” Sikes said.
And then another four-piece band got together: with Sikes as the frontman, Rick Shields on bass, Eddie Fosnot on drums and Carl Johnson on steel guitar.
“We started playing and people started asking us to come back, you know, and then Ellis (Miller) came along and played with us, and he’s been playing with us ever since.”
Donny Johnson, Carl’s brother, would play bass sometimes. Ellis Miller plays everything: Guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano.
They’re called The Vanishing Breed Band and have been playing together since 2003.
“I’ve played with other guys, but these are the main ones,” said Sikes. “Be sure to put their names in there, because if it weren’t for them, I would’ve probably quit playing music a long time ago.”
The band plays traditional country music from artists that Sikes said inspire him most, who are “country to the core.” Artists like Merle Haggard, George Jones and George Strait, to name a few.
“We play … country classics,” said Sikes. “I couldn’t even tell you who’s on the Top 40 radio.”
At this point in the interview, a kind waitress at Blondie’s delivered three classic breakfasts to Sikes, his life partner, Melanie Filener, and a Journal reporter. Between bites, conversation continued. Filener broke the silence.
“For me, one of the neatest things you’ve done is play for Veteran’s funerals,” she said. “That’s been an honor.”
The song he plays is called “Another Old Soldier” by Mark Collie. Collie supposedly wrote the song about his dad, who was a veteran of three wars.
“I couldn’t tell you how many veterans’ memorial services they ask me to sing that song,” Sikes said.
He proceeded to tell a story about a friend of his who died a few years ago. The friend had served in Vietnam on riverboats.
That friend had heard Sikes play the song at another veteran’s funeral, and “he came up to me and said, ‘When I die, I want you to sing that song at my service,’” Sikes said.
So when he died, Sikes made a point to uphold the promise.
“I said, ‘Well, you know, I’ve got to sing this song. I don’t know his kids or anything, but he asked me to sing this song’,” said Sikes. “So I did.”
Filener emphasized how great it was to see him recognized a few Sundays ago.
Knight, the person who nominated him, echoed the point.
“We all realize that at this point in our lives, we’re not going to become household names,” said Knight. “It doesn’t matter … we love to perform; we love to sing. And to be recognized for the years and years of devotion to what we love doing is … an incredible honor and that’s why I’m so happy for Odis,” Knight said.
