Pueblo native returning to promote first album about growing up in Colorado's Steel City

A professional musician is returning to Pueblo to release his first-full length album that’s all about growing up in the Steel City.

Andrew Jones, known professionally as Berkley, will travel back to Colorado in early September for a small tour. His first stop is Analogue Records in Pueblo, which he said he feels suits the official release of his new album called “Pueblo.”

It’s somewhat of a full-circle moment for Jones, who has not been shy in his professional career to sing or write about his roots and the city that early on helped shape his passion for music. His stage name was derived from Berkley Avenue, a road that runs between the Bessemer and Mesa Junction neighborhoods and where his childhood home is.

“If you’re from Pueblo, it’s interesting,” Jones said. “I wanted to name a body of work after it and not just a song because I think it’s worth asking about. I want someone to ask about Pueblo and where I’m from.”

Jones, a 2004 graduate of Pueblo Central High School who attended Colorado State University-Pueblo, said he decided to name the album “Pueblo” to show people they can have pride about growing up in the city, even if they’ve heard countless jokes about that or were shamed by others for it.

Jones, 37, said he frequently heard those types of quips during his youth and at times at public venues around the city where he’d play music with his band.

“There was always something you felt like you needed to apologize for or you would get really hard about it and just have a chip on your shoulder about being from Pueblo,” Jones said.

“I wanted to make this thing and have it be where you can be from Pueblo and proud of it, or you can be super casual about it and say it’s not a big deal because it’s a city full of life, people and art just like any other place.”

How Jones’ journey as a musician helped him use Pueblo as an inspiration for music

Jones is based in Portland, Oregon but spent some time in Texas and Los Angeles playing with bands. He would visit L.A. often while on summer or winter break from CSU-Pueblo. He’d perform at clubs, bars and other venues and write songs during his time there and then come back to Pueblo for school.

His career took a step further in Texas where he started to engineer and produce music for nearly a decade. He relocated to Portland in 2021 and continued to produce but wrestled with a desire to return to songwriting and “being an artist again.”

Jones had written songs in Texas but none that left him satisfied. He recalled his songwriting while in Los Angeles and knew he had wished to write about growing up in Pueblo.

Equipped with more experience, it then clicked for Jones, who realized that could help him write about life in Pueblo.

“I learned how to make friends, play music and fell in love in Pueblo,” Jones said. “This was the place where everything happened. All of the songs that I really wanted to write ended up coming from there and that became a way to decode how to write songs again.”

That arc led to a song on the album called “Pueblo Nights,” which Jones said is a nod to what Pueblo’s nightlife scene meant to him and a way to romanticize it.

Released as a single and paired with a music video, “Pueblo Nights” was met with a positive reception by Puebloans, particularly his former bandmates, Jones said. That helped drive the album to completion, he said, knowing they could share the artwork as adults.

How Jones weaves references to Pueblo in other songs from the album

Other songs on the album have references to Pueblo, including “Oldies,” which is a homage to a Pueblo radio station KDZA 107.9 that during Jones' youth played classic, older hits and one that partially sparked his affection for music. The song also was well received and in 2020 was listed by Central Track, a Dallas music blog, as one of the top 100 songs in the area that year.

Another song, “Fiesta Day,” was named after one of the Colorado State Fair’s most signature days on its calendar. Jones with that song wanted to relate what the atmosphere in Pueblo is like that day while intertwining some of his more personal moments.

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He referenced the Loaf ‘N Jug on Northern Avenue, a place he and his family would visit often during his youth, in “Your Place” as a way to acknowledge how “things can look the same” but be “totally different.”

Jones and his former bandmates from Texas will play some of those songs and others from the album at Analogue at 7 p.m. on Sept. 1 before traveling to Manitou Springs and Denver the next two nights, respectively.

Although Jones sang about his time in Pueblo throughout the album, it’s his hope that Puebloans can think about their own experiences living in the city when they see the song titles and listen to the lyrics. He told Lisa Wheeler, who runs the music blog Elk Bugles, that he’s “sure Pueblo will be an influence in how I approach my art for the rest of my life."

“I just love having anything from (Pueblo) that can make me feel like I’m just around the corner still,” Jones said. “Having the album done and having it named that and a single that people liked that has the name Pueblo in it, I just hope it keeps me there and hope Pueblo keeps me around, too.”

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Berkley, a Pueblo native, shares love for Colorado city in first album