I am a musician, luthier, and owner of Brightwood Music. I am also the husband of Barbara Hardt. We live in Gilpin County with Barb’s son Hayden, and two cats, two dogs and one lizard.

I became interested in The Mountain-Ear in early 2010. I had no prior experience with newspapers. Boy, did I learn a lot in a short period of time. There is no week that there isn’t a deadline. Think about living like that for over a decade.

I have picked up the papers down the hill and driven them back up to Nederland. I act as the occasional writer and podcast speaker. I am the labeler supreme on Wednesday from 1 - 3 p.m. My best position at The Mountain-Ear is keeping up with Barb.

I married into the paper. I love the people who love the paper, especially one of them.

I believe a local newspaper is very important to a community. It keeps the locals who read the local paper aware and open to ideas and news that will affect them. The life of a newspaper person seems like it is informing people but it is more like reacting to other people’s positions and reading what power they have on other people’s perceptions. This is a delicate balancing act and not for the faint of Hardt. It is fun to watch from across the room.

When we have some downtime I like to read good books and imagine I could go somewhere on vacation. I really like listening to music and the wonderful musicians who live in the area never fail to amaze me. I love being one of the musicians too.