In the summer of 1998, I drove to Dover, NJ to see one of my favorite singer/songwriters, British rocker
Graham Parker, play a solo acoustic concert at a community arts center that felt more like someone's lakeside summer house, minus the lake. Before the concert, Graham was walking around the outdoor compound chatting with everyone like he was their old friend.
At one point, someone asked Parker how he spent his free time in the Catskills, where he and his wife had resided since the early 80s (they still live there). Graham mentioned that his favorite ski area there was Belleayre because it was old-school, good for families, and there were never lift lines. At the time, I was still 2.5 years away from my first season as a downhill skier and had never been to Belleayre, but I made a mental note of his recommendation.
Fast forward to 2010, when he recorded a concept album of sorts, Imaginary Television, featuring title songs for ten TV shows that don't exist. I downloaded it, but for some reason never got around to it until this morning (Parker has a huge catalog, so there's plenty of material to keep busy with). I was shocked to learn that one of the songs, titled "Snowgun," has Belleayre Mountain in the chorus! In an
interview, he explained that the imaginary TV show for this song was "about this guy who is a snowboard freak and that’s all he does and he alienates himself from people. It’s really about loneliness." It's a very hummable tune and I think that Belleayre should adopt it as the ski area's official song.
If you'd like to hear it, go to
7:00 of this youtube clip complete with a homemade video shot at his house and a quick selfie of him sitting on the Tomahawk lift!
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