Songbird Cellars is finally home.

The only urban-winery in Pueblo recently completed a move from its location on Victoria Avenue to 129 E. Abriendo Ave., in the former bookstore next to the former Broadway Theater.

"This is home," Chris Huggins, owner of Songbirds Cellar, said. "The junction is, kind of, right in our mix of things."

With a listening room set and already having seen its fair share of tremendous acts and a winery just a few weeks away from operating, Huggins and co-owner Ashley Comiskey are excited about the future of Songbird Cellars.

"There are so many things we're going to be able to there," Huggins said. "We're very excited. We think it's going to be a very good fit in the neighborhood."

The beginning

Huggins purchased Songbird Cellars -- then called Songbird Cafe and Music Hall -- from Rod White in 2011.

The business was originally called the Gateway and was owned by Huggins' grandfather in 1961. Some 50 years later, Huggins purchased it and ran it as a restaurant and music venue for a season.

The grind of the restaurant business prompted Huggins to make a change.

"You burn yourself out, especially with the restaurant," he said. "I got finished with a season in Beulah and one day I was sitting on the porch and decided I wanted to do a winery and brand the wine with musicians who would design the labels and just have fun with it."

Huggins had been a sommelier and a hobbyist wine maker. With a new goal and having met Comiskey while working at Sangre de Cristo Hospice to help raise money, Songbird Cellars and winery was born.

The live music stayed as a means to attract people from Pueblo to Beulah.

"We had to figure out how to get people to drive out there," Huggins said. "I felt that if we brought in traveling musicians that aren't playing Pueblo -- maybe bigger names -- then people would drive out to Beulah."

Finding the right space

Though clients came out to Beulah to see local and national acts alike, Songbird Cellars faced some difficulties being located in the mountains.

"You had some inconsistencies of only having Friday and Saturday and not having people drive out in the snow," Huggins said. "You also have to be more in tuned with the market and what you're competing with. You have to be more aware of what's going on in town."

In 2015, Huggins and Comiskey set up shop on Union Avenue, and then moved to Victoria Avenue in 2016.

This past March, Songbirds moved once more, this time to the East Abriendo location.

"We wanted to create something special," Huggins said. "This location just had the right feel. It's the right presence and the right part of town. It took a bit to find that in Pueblo."

The move was made to accommodate hosting the winery, a music room and providing flexibility in what Huggins and Comiskey could do with the space.

"There's so many things we're going to be able to do here," Huggins said. "In the first month and half here we've had poetry, a school event, a library event, a political event, music and a private party."

The listening room

The first thing clients will notice when walking into the new location is the cozy, folk-art themed listening room adorned with comfortable chairs, tables, a good-sized stage and two gorgeous blown-glass chandeliers. Old instruments are hung on the walls, from guitars and cellos to saxophones and trombones. Not to mention three Matt Taylor-crafted murals painted on canvass and hung on the left wall.

"We made sure that if you're going to sit there and dig in that you're comfortable," Huggins said. "We want this to be a living room, you're coming into the Mesa Junction living room. It's kind of like being at a house concert."

The room creates an intimate feel for the audience and artists, capturing the folky feel that Songbird has long been known for.

"From the beginning, we got into the folky-type thing, and folk music is community music," Huggins said. "By sticking to that it brought everything together. We do things so that it feels right and fits the whole picture. It isn't cut-and-dry and corporate built."

A green room sits atop a mezzanine across the stage, adding to the intimate experience.

"It's a really cool space just because (artists) aren't walking out of a back room that's closed off," Huggins said. "They're with the vibe of the show. They're more in the moment."

The entire building serves as one large-scale piece of art.

"We have any type of art," Comiskey said. "Whether it's music, or wine or labels or decor it's all one big art project."

The winery

The basement is where the urban winery will be located, once the equipment is moved from Beulah. It gives Songbird more room to expand their wine making and distribution.

"We have plenty of space, so it'll be a decent sized winery," Comiskey said.

The space will be used to ferment and produce wine, as well as house local fruit.

"There's a small vineyard west of City Park," Huggins said. "Hopefully this year we'll have a Pueblo-grown and produced wine."

Tours will be offered once the winery is in place and fully licensed.

In the tasting room, Songbird has a machine to engrave custom glassware and labels.

As the winery piece nears finishing, excitement continues to build for Huggins and Comiskey.

"Once we get everything under one roof, that'll open some doors for us," Huggins said. "We're on track to start distributing nation-wide. As this comes together and as the wine pieces come together, with this sort of cult following around the labels we've already done, we have big artists looking to design labels and distribute the wine. We're getting phone calls from really surprising artists. It's pretty cool."

The music

From local standouts like The Haunted Windchimes to nationally known acts like Trout Steak Revival, Songbird Cellars has always attracted big-name folk, Americana and roots musicians.

"Routing for Pueblo is phenomenal," Huggins said. "There's been such a void, and I think Pueblo has a better setup for live music, even more so than Springs."

In the first month in the new location, John Craigie, Willy Porter and Carmen Nickerson, Willy Tea Taylor, Joe Johnson and Grammy-nominated Yarn have all appeared at Songbird Cellars. And in the months ahead, acts like the Accidentals, the aforementioned Trout Steak Revival and Flobots are slated play in the Mesa Junction.

"It's a great room because people listen and engage differently," Huggins said. "It's a different style of show. That's why this space is so special. It's not just what we're trying to create, but what the musicians are trying to create.

"They love coming in and playing our rooms, and with the following and loyal fan base it all becomes one, which is pretty cool."

Artists and bands have sought out performing for Songbird, based solely on the venues' stellar reputation

"There's been times I get goosebumps from some of the acts that want to play here," Huggins said. "A lot of it is worth of mouth. You can throw money at some of these acts, but them to want to work with you, you have to have the right people whispering in their ears and telling them it's a solid room and it's going to build their fan base to play Songbird."

One such act was Colorado-based folk hip-hop group Flobots.

"They went outside of management and contacted us to play at our room in Beulah," Huggins said. "You go from John Craigie to Yarn to Flobots. But, they're all still folk music."

Blue-collar winery

Songbird's charm as both a music venue and winery is largely in part due to the do-it-yourself attitude and work ethic of Huggens and Comiskey.

"We're just the blue-collar wine guys and gals now," Huggins said. "There's more pride in that when you're able to create something on your own."

In a blue-collar town like Pueblo, that notion seems to be deeply appreciated and respected by musicians and clientele.

"That's the true community of it," Huggins said. "You get to be part of creating something from the ground up and you're not just joining a scene."

Huggens and Comiskey run the company themselves and have created dream jobs as a result of their determination and grit.

"I was pruning grape vines in Pueblo while on the phone negotiating a contract with a national act," Huggins said. "If I would have thought I'd be doing that 10 years ago .?.?. I'd think that was the dream job. It may not be on a huge, grand stage, but that opportunity for us would only happen in a great town like Pueblo where you have to do it yourself and make it happen."

A growing energy

As Pueblo's folk and art scenes grow, Huggins and Comiskey feel an artistic energy surging.

"There's something happening in Pueblo right now and there's a rumble," Huggins said. "We're excited to feel it. The arts and music scene is something people are talking about."

In the Mesa Junction especially, art and music has been a major component to the continued attempt at improving the city's image.

"If we can promote the Mesa Junction in the right way, I see this being the next trendy neighborhood in Pueblo," Huggins said.

In helping with that, the junction has welcomed Songbird to the neighbored.

"We're very lucky," Comiskey said. "Everyone is willing to work with us, and building ownership has been great."

Songbird's following has eased the transition to it's Abriendo location, with a mix of regulars and new customers.

"Our client base is really more family," Huggins said. "The people who buy and support and share, that trickles out to the musicians who play here, too."

"You really get to know people," Comiskey added.

With a new location, a new energy and new neighbors, there is quite an optimism fermenting for Songbird Cellars' future.

"This year is the year," Huggins said. "Everything has felt right."

Though how and where that optimism takes Songbird is yet uncertain, there's one thing for certain: "We're not moving," Comiskey joked.

llyons@chieftain.com