West End communities are mourning the passing of local musician C.R. Dobbs, who passed April 5 in an accident on Norwood Hill. The singer-songwriter was a beloved entertainer in the local area. A regular performer at the Motherlode on Highway 141, he’d recorded some of his own music and was the subject of an upcoming West End podcast.
Last Friday night, to give people a space to grieve, Brock Benson opened up Paradox Cycle with a sound system, and the Motherlode also opened its doors, too. Dobbs’ style of music filled the air. The late musician, who focused on guitar, played rock and roll and country, including many songs from the 1990s.
Benson, for whom the death was painful, said the community always rallied behind Dobbs.
Alex Case found a friend in Dobbs, who was actually a former classmate.
“One day I bumped into C.R. when times were rough,” he said. “He heard me out, and he got me into to working at Redd’s Ranches, clearing fields for irrigation with him. I was beyond thankful for the work.”
Case and Dobbs worked for months clearing , irrigating, working cattle and literally “moving mountains of boulders daily.” Through the Paradox Valley heat and the occasional flash flood, Case endured more hardship. But, Dobbs made sure he was alive after an accident when a pressurized irrigation bell hit him in the face.
“His concern — my brother, my friend — was there, and he helped me up again,” Case said. “My jaw was three times its size. He checked in on me while I mended for a few days, and then I was back to work again, and we continued doing all we were asked.”
Case said he spent the last few years with Dobbs, getting to know “all he went through in life and all he was going through again.”
Dobbs was and had been enduring many personal health problems, due to kidney disease.
“I know I will never have a stronger friend, a more generous friend,” Case said. “He is my brother … it’s the same for so many others who called him their friend, because he was a damned good person with talent unmatched.”
Richard Linnet, owner of the Motherlode, said Dobbs was a gifted storyteller and a great songwriter.
“He had a way of growling and hissing through songs of hard times and broken love that was totally authentic and stirring,” he said. “He could shift easily to a soft and sentimental ballad with a sweet lamenting voice. He put all his heart and soul into his music.”
Linnet first met Dobbs when he moved to Naturita in 2007, shooting a documentary about the proposed Pinon Ridge Uranium mill in Paradox Valley.
“I was spending way too much time at the down and dirty 141 Saloon,” he said. “C.R. played pool in the saloon tournaments and performed music around town. We became fast friends. I asked him to write and record songs for the documentary.”
Dobbs, who had had worked in mines, wanted to sing songs of hope about the mill opening and creating much needed jobs in town.
“Sadly, the songs never got written, the mill never opened and the film never got finished,” Linnet said. “It was a story without an ending. But when I opened the Motherlode bar in 2021, C.R. was the first person I asked to perform there. Like Mr. Bojangles, he played for drinks and tips, always refusing payment, although I could talk him into taking cash when his audience didn’t show, which was rare.”
Linnet said the pool tournaments were always crowded and noisy, but Dobb’s voice and guitar soared above the ruckus.
“He had die-hard followers who showed up at the Motherlode just for him,” Linnet said. “I was one of them. That’s how I’ll always remember C.R., alone on stage, belting his heart out, telling powerful stories of sadness, love and hope.”
