Monica LaSalle, Nederland. As I walk into the library, there is a quiet hush with an occasional giggle from the children’s area. Patrons quietly work on computers or read books and periodicals, while some are at the desk with questions or comments about current events, a book check out or questions about a book search. 

In this peaceful enclave, I find Michael Sivcovich working with a woman who was giving him feedback about an interaction with a bus driver over a stop she had attempted to utilize. With the patience only a librarian can muster at times, he focuses on her and her story and makes comments about her experience with incredulity, concern or humor when appropriate. Finally, he is able to find a seat with me for a brief moment to discuss life. 

Michael moved to Nederland 5 years ago but had visited the area many times prior to relocation. Having been born in St. Louis, he began dabbling in music from an early age, playing bass from the time he was 10 as well as dabbling with drums and piano. He played in jazz bands in middle school so that by the time he was in high school, he had already joined a punk band playing gigs that usually had him and his band mates making a mere $5 each. 

Having always been drawn to R&B, funk and the Motown sound, he was traveling around the Midwest and South in a band by the time he was 19. All this traveling eventually brought him and his band to Nederland, where he was drawn to the special vibe of the scene. One of his fellow band mates was close with the Leftover Salmon family, which opened up many opportunities for them whenever they played St. Louis, allowing them to perform openers in the area. These connections really gave him an opportunity to see what working hard to get started could do in the music business. 

How exactly does such an active musician end up working in a library? Michael actually hails from a long line of educators and while he initially spent 2 years of post-high school education in business school, his love of lacrosse continued to nag him enough to switch to an elementary education degree at a different college where he could resume playing lacrosse at the same time.  

He smiles as he tells me that his family all approved of his switch, stating they all believed him to be a born educator. To further prove the point, he pauses in our discussion to address a small child that turns out to be his son, Rowan, a 1st grader at Nederland Elementary, and soon followed by his older son, Julian, a second grader. With school not in session for this particular day, his boys came to work with him and were anxious to get the children’s’ computers booted up. Once again, I see the patience and kindness of a man born to work with children as he explains to them how to get the computers started and if they still did not work, he went to help them. They run off to allow us to continue talking.

Having gone so far as to complete his Master’s in Education in human development, Michael describes how he immediately sought out teaching jobs in the St. Vrain and BVSD school systems upon his arrival to the Front Range but found it difficult due to being so new to the community. He says there was lots of competition and requires being in a position where teachers and principals can see you and get to know you from around the community. 

He took a job working at Aspen Grove preschool for a few years, which had the added benefit of being in partnership with Boulder Journey School and offers courses in conjunction with UC Denver. He also enjoyed being able to stay in Nederland while he continued his education, which is what led Michael to be in the right place at the right time to get his current job at the Nederland Library as head of youth services. The job allows him to exercise some skills that he didn’t know he had. He says it is fun to be a part of the professional adult world, but when he goes into the school to talk to classes, he gets an itch to be back in the classroom, something he thinks he may someday resume.

Michael sends his boys on their way again after rescuing one of them from a first aid “emergency” and switches gears back to our discussion, all the while humming with energy that is so characteristic of the many musicians I am blessed to know.

He tells me how he and his wife had moved first to Longmont while they waited to find the right house for their family, spending 3 months looking. Although he has only been in the area for five short years, he has managed to play in the bands Ragged Union and Psychodillo, traveling around the west with them, as well as playing in multiple jam bands around the Nederland area. 

He is a regular at the Thursday night Branding Iron pick as well as the Very Nice pick and is often seen with his standup bass and his favorite cronies, banging out Americana and Bluegrass favorites all over town. His current band, The Punkabillies, recently went on a short tour down south as far as Florida. 

As he talks, I suddenly remember seeing him at Nedfest last year in a penguin costume dancing with all of us in the kid’s parade, immersed in dozens of children with a shaker in his hand as we all toured the venue floor shaking what we got. 

“Everywhere you go is your classroom, especially here,” says Michael. He then asks me if I am familiar with the story of Chris McCandless and how when he lay dying in a school bus in Alaska, he carved, “Life is meant to be shared,” on a wooden plank. He tells me that he has done what he can to stay present, share and exchange in this life, that he believes every experience has value and not a second should be minimized. Encountering this man, educator, musician, father and lover of life, one can surely bet you walk away feeling blessed with his infectious appreciation for the now.

(Originally published in the May 16, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)