PARKER: Rocks red, photos black and white

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 30, 2007 at midnight

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Since Red Rocks is the premiere place for rock 'n' roll, it only made sense to display famed photographer Chris Walter's black and white photos alongside awesome artist Malcolm Farley's painted portraits in the music venue's hallowed halls.

The show, A Visual Anthology of Rock 'n' Roll, opens today and runs through Labor Day inside the Southwest Airlines Heart of the Rock Theatre.

Sixty of Walter's photographs, capturing music legends including the Beatles, Bruce Spring-steen, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, along with 35 of Farley's paintings will comprise the tour that starts here, then travels across the U.S. The tour ends in New York City.

Walter and Farley met at Farley's Las Vegas gallery, and formed a fast friendship along with a business relationship. Farley became Walter's publisher, which gave the Denver-based artist the rights to reproduce the photos in paintings.

"His stuff is black and white, and mine is about as far from black and white as it can be," Farley told me over the phone as he was standing on the Red Rocks stage Wednesday. "This show is black and white meets color."

All of the limited edition pieces are for sale, with some of them signed by the performers. The traveling exhibit has caught the attention of TV titan Oprah Winfrey, who will have the talented twosome on her show sometime during the tour, Farley said.

"No one's really done this," Farley said. "Chris is the premiere rock 'n' roll photographer of all time. He started shooting Jimi Hendrix when Chris was 16. And no one's painted rock and roll the way I've painted it."

Both Walter and Farley will make appearances from 6 to 10 p.m. during the run of the free exhibit.

FINAL VICTORY: Victory American Grill, the one-year- old eatery owned by the Sam's No. 3 folks, closed Tuesday night. "We had a loyal fan base but not enough of them," said co-owner Patrick Armatas about the shuttered restaurant at 1512 Curtis St.

As to the future of The Denver Hospice Spamalot event that was supposed to include a party at Victory on Sept. 30, event organizers are trying to find another spot.

MUSICAL NOTE: Singer/songwriter Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals will perform a free concert at Twist & Shout, 2508 E. Colfax, at 6 tonight, but you must buy the band's new album Lifeline at the store today before the show to get into the concert.

THE SEEN: Auditor's office colleagues Dennis Gallagher, Denis Berckefeldt and RD Sewald lunching with retiring hot Denver fire chief Larry Trujillo at Racines on Wednesday. They gave Trujillo a goodbye bag that included two Gallagher pencils and a tape measure to keep track of the Trujillo kids' growth, and some clear wipes, "because as a pensioner and at his age, he needs to keep his reading glasses clean," Berckefeldt said.

EAVESDROPPING on a man talking about a blond woman at the Night Shift Saloon: "If you put her in a corn maze, she'd never come out."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMoun tainNews.com.

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