There’s a quiet power in Thom Chacon’s music—an honest simplicity that leaks through the cracks of metaphor and stays long after the last chord. In Durango, he’s more than just a singer-songwriter; he’s become a local troubadour whose stories feel like essential conversations.
Chacon divides his life between two rhythms: the steady cast of a fly line over the Animas River and the strum of his guitar. As a longtime fishing guide, he spends hours in silence, attuned to water and stone. That same stillness informs his songwriting, which leans toward raw, unvarnished truths. “You spend enough time around 70-million-year-old rock formations, and you start to think differently,” he says. “It gives you perspective. It shows you what’s worth writing about.”
Family history threads through his work. His cousin, two-time featherweight boxing champion Bobby Chacon, inspired Thom’s debut album Featherweight Fighter. “Bobby taught me no matter how hard it gets, you’ve got to get up off the mat and keep fighting,” he reflects. Other influences range from Dylan and Prine to Kristofferson and Waits, but the details in Chacon’s songs are unmistakably his own.
After years in Los Angeles chasing the music industry treadmill, Chacon moved to Durango in 2006. Here, he found renewal and the freedom to write without the pressure of selling records. “I always write,” he says, “but I liked not having to worry if it was good or would sell.” That shift gave rise to a catalog of unflinching Americana: Blood in the USA (2018), Marigolds and Ghosts (2021, recorded live in Durango), and his latest, Lonely Songs For Wounded Souls (recorded live in Italy with Tony Garnier and Paolo Ercoli).
His career has led him far afield. He has opened for Jason Mraz and Los Lonely Boys, toured internationally, and—most memorably—performed at Folsom Prison. He is one of only three musicians granted permission to play there since Johnny Cash. “It was life-changing,” he recalls.
Chacon’s songs aren’t afraid of hard stories. Tracks like “Juarez, Mexico,” “Innocent Man,” and “Ain’t Gonna Take Us Alive” evoke the grit of overlooked lives, while others find hope in resilience. He also brings that spirit into film and television, appearing in The Outlaws and Wild West Chronicles. Now he’s developing a docuseries that merges his two worlds—fly fishing and music—while planning a European tour in 2026.
Durango may be the place he adopted, but Thom Chacon has given the community something in return: songs that echo the rugged terrain around him, carrying stories of endurance, empathy, and spirit far beyond the San Juan Mountains.
Where to Listen
Visit thomchacon.com for albums, videos, and songwriting sessions.
