Never has the phrase "whistle while you work" applied more than in the case of this week's Boomer and Beyonder.

Since he was a young man, he's been immersed in the music culture, continuing his father's legacy, and relocating to his dream place, western Colorado.

Gary Smith, a guitarist, arranger, producer, and former college professor, has had a lifetime of music, which started in Alaska and ended up here in his dream location, the Grand Valley.

"(My) father was a professional musician, played sax and trumpet, had a store in town (Anchorage, AK), and I started playing music," explained Smith.  "I took piano lessons when I was probably 11 or 12, and I started on the guitar when I was 12 or 13."

Next came the Navy, some time in California, college, a budding music career, and marriage.

Smith took the time to look back on his time in the Navy, saying, "I was on a destroyer, guided missle destroyer, and it turned out that there were several other musicians on board and we formed the ship band. And the captain used to love that he had a band on board because when we would go to replenish, you know, pull along one of the replenishment ships, he would have us up on deck playing music and taking requests from the other ship."

His music, along with his wife's career, his young son, and a friend's suggestion led to moving to Grand Junction.

"In those days you could take a flight from LA to Grand Junction, and we did. We spent four days here, and it was Kathy that moved us. The reason is, the people in Grand Junction are so encompassing in the sense that they take you in and you feel like you've known them forever and ever."

Entertaining, producing albums, writing, and arranging music all worked with his  career as a professor.

"I taught at Mesa College for 20 plus years," he said.  "And one of the stories I always told students was number one, you never say no when somebody asks you to do something. You always say yes."

He says there's a reason he has worked with such a long list of famous musicians and entertainers.

"The music community is quite small," Smith explained.  "And so once you're playing at a certain level, the people you tend to meet know other people... you're not very far from anybody in the business."

Did he make the right move coming here?

"We have the high country, so if I want to go up to the lakes and the streams and what have you, we have that. And we have the red rock country. So we kind of have the best of all worlds here," he explained with a smile.

Gary's record label currently has 39 albums available for download on over 200 websites around the world, including: iTunes, amazon.com , and E-music.com.  Gary can be reached at gary@garysmithproductions.com.