PUEBLO — If there is such a thing as a rock star for the Pueblo senior set, his name is Leo Samora. At 81, and 40 years into his musical performance career, Samora is as busy as he ever was, performing as often as three times a week at assisted-living facilities throughout the city.
Always looking the part in tightly trimmed moustache, black hat with a guitar pin, a shiny eagle pendant necklace and rings on nearly every finger, Samora has been a fixture on the nursing-home circuit going on 20 years.
“A lot of musicians don’t like to play for these residents because they feel sorry for them and it’s hard to get through the performance,” Samora said. “But not me. I love playing for them, and I feel like I’m brightening their day.”
Accompanying himself on electric keyboard with built-in drum machine and backing accompaniment, Samora draws from a pool of about 1,000 songs.
“All my life I’ve sang mostly country and Spanish,” Samora said. “But I can tell you this: The people at those homes don’t like the slow stuff. They want it fast. That’s why I play rock ‘n’ roll.”
Although Samora got a late start as a performing musician, he has made every moment count.
As a child, Samora said he enjoyed singing and strumming a guitar, but his performances were relegated to the occasional school assembly. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, when he was nearly 40, that Samora decided to form a band.
“I always liked singing, and my father encouraged me to sing around the house,” said Samora, who is self-taught on guitar and keyboard. “But I never did pursue it. It was only when a friend of mine, who liked the way I sang, invited me to join a band that I decided to give it a shot.”
Rather than be a sideman, the longtime Pueblo Army Depot employee decided to form his own group, which became known as the Modern Antiques.
With Samora on guitar and vocals, the Modern Antiques quickly made a name on the wedding and party circuit throughout southern Colorado.
“We played all over — Rocky Ford, Walsenburg, Cañon City, Colorado Springs, Pueblo,” Samora said. “Before long, we also started playing at the VFW and Moose lodges. People loved our Spanish and country music.”
Performing with Samora was his son Tony, who at age 12 was an accomplished drummer.
Today, Tony leads his own popular Spanish-themed band, Bad Habitz, a fact that makes Samora swell with pride.
“I love to follow Bad Habitz and dance to their music,” Samora said. “They have done very well for themselves.”
After a 10-year run, Modern Antiques dissolved, but Samora was far from finished. He launched another group, Destino, which gigged around the region even longer than Modern Antiques did. Always a stickler for style, Samora always appeared on stage well-dressed and demanded that those who played with him did the same.
While with Destino, Samora learned to play keyboards and eventually branched out as a solo artist to play for those in assisted-living facilities.
In addition to providing a fun and energetic respite in the lives of his listeners — and, in some instances, dancers — Samora’s music is the elixir that keeps him both young and motivated. It also offers other benefits.
“It gets me out of the house and out of trouble with the old lady,” Samora said with a smile. “But my wife trusts me when I’m out playing, even though a woman might occasionally give me a look or so.”
