The Steamboat Pilot & Today

The last time Jonathan Tiersten played at The Tugboat Grill & Pub, he showed up at 6 p.m. — about four hours before showtime — to absorb the local atmosphere.

After about three hours of absorption, Tiersten admits there might have been some drawbacks to chatting away with locals and visitors at the bar.

“I think by the time I got up to play, I was pretty shnokered,” Tiersten said on the phone from his home in Fort Collins, offering his best spelling of a word that has a lot to do with playing the bar rock circuit.

Offering up original, pop-conscious rock along with a spread of cover tunes that ranges from Pink Floyd to Snow Patrol to Bill Withers, Jonathan Tiersten and Ten Tiers will play at The Tugboat three nights in a row this weekend, starting today.

A natural entertainer who later this fall will be featured with the late soul singer Isaac Hayes in a movie called “Return to Sleepaway Camp,” Tiersten talked to 4 Points about playing a bar that has history, playing like David Bowie and playing at the Democratic National Convention.

4 POINTS: What brings you back to The Tugboat?

JONATHAN TIERSTEN: It’s one of my favorite places to play in Colorado. There’s the history of the place. But one of the coolest things, the last time I walked in there, the first three people I meet, the first couple was from France, the second was from somewhere in the Middle East, and then the third person I met was from New Orleans, and I was like, ‘That’s The Tugboat.’ It’s a ski town with people from all over the place, but it doesn’t have that pretentious feel that you can get in other places. …

The bar is alive and breathing. You have to change yourself to fit the bar; it’s not that the bar is sort of this shell where people come in. It’s like people from all walks of life can come in and feel comfortable.

4 POINTS: How did your gig at the Democratic National Convention go earlier this week?

JT: I played at Green Frontier Fest, and it was at the Denver Performing Arts Center. I was just playing solo acoustic, and (Denver Mayor) John Hickenlooper and the governor were there. Daryl Hannah was there, and I’ve had a crush on her since — well, for a long time.

4 POINTS: Daryl Hannah from that movie with Tom Hanks?

JT: “Splash.” When they cleverly put her hair in all the right places.

4 POINTS: Do the classic rock covers you play come out in your original songs?

JT: It’s kind of hard not to grow up listening to a lot of classic rock ’n’ roll, and I think what informs it right now is that the classic rock meets all that college radio I listen to. My new producer said I sound like a British folk singer. He would say that, ‘If I didn’t know you, I would think you were British,’ and that I remind him of David Bowie.

4 POINTS: Do you like David Bowie?

JT: I saw him when I was really young, and I love his dramatic flair, and that’s what I try and portray to the audience. I don’t want them to go away and feel like they were listening to a jukebox. I want them to go away and feel like they sort of shared something with me. …

It’s not because we’re so amazingly better than everybody else. It’s that I think the whole idea of playing is to try to make a connection with the audience, so everybody thinks they’re involved.

4 POINTS: How do you make that connection?

JT: If I had one word, I think I would call it authenticity. If they sense that you’re authentic and that you’re really into what you’re doing, then they sense that you’re letting them in.

Everybody gets to be a rock star. I don’t think people give themselves enough credit for how much they know about music. Even people who don’t think they know much about music — they do, because it’s so pervasive. … Which is why I listen to talk radio in the car.