Magical. Legendary. Those are the words that people fondly use when they speak of The Line Camp, a raucous roadhouse on U.S. 84/285 in Pojoaque that operated from 1979-1986. Those years coincided with the years I worked as a reporter/pop music writer at The New Mexican.

It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since the place opened. At 7 p.m. Friday, folks will gather for a reunion at The Catamount Bar & Grill in Santa Fe to swap stories. Two Line Camp favorites will entertain: the country/rock band Lawyers, Guns and Money and honky-tonk piano player Gary Eckard.

For a 20-something who had grown up in the Chicago suburbs, going to The Line Camp was like stepping into a cross between a Wild West saloon and the infamous bad-boy movie roadhouses. You felt like almost anything could happen, and it often did.

On a busy night, motorcycles, beat-up pickups, swanky Cadillacs with longhorns on the hood, Mercedes driven by Los Alamos scientists, and grasshopping lowriders from Española all crammed into the lot. Guys in T-shirts, old blue jeans and cowboy boots queued up on the old wooden porch alongside gals sporting everything from tight blue jeans to broomstick skirts.

The managers, brothers John and Julian Harvey, then 30-somethings, greeted you with smiles as the aromas of popcorn, beer, cigarette smoke and patchouli wafted in the air. Most nights, Godzilla, the resident cat, was at the front door.

"We just wanted a place where people could have fun," John, now a Los Alamos lab employee, said. Julian added, "We visited other bars and we saw that often the managers hassled people and we didn't want to do that." They wanted a place that was as comfortable as their old blue jeans.

The marquee was filled with national acts: Bonnie Raitt, Asleep at the Wheel, The Judds, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Los Lobos, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, J.J. Cale, Elvin Bishop, John Prine, Three Dog Night and many others. Local acts such as The Planets, Family Lotus, Bill & Bonnie Hearne and Lawyers, Guns and Money also drew big crowds.

People loved to dance at The Line Camp. The wooden floorboards were left from when it was the Pojoaque Tavern (1936-76) run by Candido Valdez as a popular dance hall and community center. (See the June 8 issue of The New Mexican.) "When we had a big crowd, people would also dance down the aisles between the benches," Julian said.

You just never knew who you'd see dancing or hoisting long-neck beer bottles. Photographer Lisa Law, who booked and documented shows there, remembers sitting with actors Jessica Lange and Sam Shephard, but they "were busy dancing and smooching most of the night."

Among the headliners who packed The Line Camp was country-outlaw musician Jerry Jeff Walker. Walker also recalled seeing Lange and Shephard there. "Oh, Sam he loved to dance," he said during a recent phone interview. "I had a lot of fun playing at The Line Camp. It was one of those last hippie places. They would come out of the hills in Taos and Santa Fe to see me play. I miss that old place."

Drawing diverse crowds was one of the establishment's hallmarks. "One of my fondest memories was from a Jerry Jeff Walker show," Law explained. "There was this (Pueblo) Indian guy who'd come in and wanted to give one of his small, black clay pots to Jerry Jeff. I helped get him to Jerry Jeff and later he came up and gave me a small brown pot with turquoise embedded in it to thank me. I still treasure that," she said.

"I loved that all kinds of people came to The Line Camp," musician Pete Springer said. "Hispanics, Indians from the pueblos, scientists from the lab, lawyers from Santa Fe and cowboys, they all showed up." The Line Camp booked many acts that particularly appealed to Hispanics. In 1981, when Tex-Mex accordion player Flaco Jimenez performed, he was joined on stage by then-Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragon. Local musician Jerry Faires, who ran the sound system, recalls that it was a benefit for an arts group.

"The Harveys were always letting people come in for benefits. I went up to an Española radio station to promote the show. A young DJ, who said he had political aspirations, offered to emcee Flaco's show. That guy was Nelson Martinez, who didn't go into politics but became a popular TV anchor," Faires said.

One of Los Lobos' first tours came to The Line Camp. In a Sept. 26, 2008, interview with Dave Kavanaugh of the Las Vegas Optic, Los Lobos drummer Louie Perez said, "New Mexico seems a little more steeped in culture than a lot of places. And that's very cool for us. Some of the very first dates we played were driving in a beat-up Dodge van and playing outside of Santa Fe in a place called The Line Camp. The shows were packed, and it was too hot and uncomfortable, but it was a lot of fun."

It wasn't just big names that drew big crowds. Springer of Lawyers, Guns and Money, recalls the strong appeal of the band's country/rock sound. "First of all, you had a lot of cowboys who would always show up. Then in the '80s, the Urban Cowboy craze hit. So pretty soon everyone was coming out in cowboy hats and wanting to dance."

Yep, everyone wanted to go country dancing, but not everyone was a decent two-stepper. So The Line Camp started offering country-swing dance lessons. My husband, John, and I even took a few lessons. We never really got the hang of it but could adequately shuffle around. We consoled ourselves, noting that those who were particularly good often swung out of their relationships.

Paula James, one of The Line Camp's popular waitresses, remembers that they all worked hard, but had a lot of fun. "I was always there in my little short skirt and peasant blouse and carrying those big trays. When it wasn't too busy, I'd strap on my four-wheeled skates and zip around the place. Also, if we weren't too busy, John and Julian would tell us to go ahead and dance with the customers. Some of the regulars taught me how to country dance," she said, "I loved all the bands, but my personal favorite was The Planets."

When rock 'n' roll faves The Planets came to The Line Camp, you could dance any way you wanted — some even hopped up on the benches. The Albuquerque-based band always drew a crowd. The Harveys had a saying on their T-shirts that said, "Come Hell or High Water I was There." John Harvey said, "Even in one of the worst ice storms, the place was packed for The Planets." (The Planets' lead guitarist Joe Don Davidson recently died in Lubbock, Texas, from cancer.)

The Harveys' sister, Jean, and brother-in-law Arie Brasser often helped behind the scenes at the family business. Brasser said, "We all had different experiences and different memories. But I remember a few strange yet amazing nights, like when The Judds played and by the end of the first show the mother said, 'My daughter is very sick.' We took her to the hospital and she had a 103 fever. So we had to cancel the second show!

"The Line Camp always had a lot of bikers. But most of them were great guys," Brasser added. "So one night there were three guys creating trouble, so this big group of bikers surrounded them in a circle and basically nudged them right out the door."

The towering red-headed blues guitarist Key Francis, who is now based in Los Angeles, recalled playing at The Line Camp with great affection. "It was really a great place. It had magic. You just don't find many places like that any more."

Asked why The Line Camp closed, John Harvey said, "The floors were wearing out, and we were getting tired of the liquor business. And of course, liability insurance costs were rising." While it was an era of increasing DWI awareness, he says the club never had any lawsuits involving DWIs.

Today the building is the Historic Line Camp Gallery, which specializes in tribal and ethnic art, particularly of the Huichol Indians. It is owned and operated by Mary and Alan Wreyford. "People come in all the time and tell us they met here, were married here or had an anniversary party here," Mary Wreyford said. "But we're getting our own reputation for being one of the hidden treasures of New Mexico."

So what was my favorite show during the roadhouse years? I loved John Lee Hooker, Doc Watson, Etta James, Los Lobos, Flash Cadillac, Taj Mahal, Jerry Jeff Walker and Gary P. Nunn. But I think the show I'll always remember was when Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten played there. The 90-year-old was frail and simply dressed. The crowd sat cross-legged on the floor, and she had everyone so spellbound you could hear a pin drop. She played her guitar, as she had always done, upside down and backward. She sang in a sweet, almost a gospel style. She played her folk song, "Freight Train," just as she sang it when she worked as a housekeeper in the home of folk singer Pete Seeger. It was magical.

There are many more stories, too numerous to annotate here. Swap them at the reunion or add your own to the online version of this story. And in case you're wondering, the line-up for Lawyers, Guns and Money is the same one that played at the club's "last waltz" party in May, 1986: Pete Springer, Charlie Daniels, Bill Parnell, Michael Murphy and Bill "J.W." Waganaar. And yeah, they still have beards — their hair is a little whiter and some of them are still lawyers.

IF YOU GO

What: The Line Camp Reunion

When: 7 p.m. July 10

Where: Catamount Bar & Grill, 125 E. Water St.

Cost: $5