Cafe Whyoming – Famous Music and Espresso,
Old Downtown Laramie

Craig Maxwell, keyboard player and creative driving force who joins what becomes the supergroup ESO, is as worn out as the late-1970s. Ever searching for an elusive peace, he is confronted by both discovery of Native American blood, and incessant pressure from the material culture dominating American life. Against a tableau of Rez highways, deep blue water, dreams, fine arts, double espresso coffee, and even stronger, honorable women, Maxwell cannot escape an outsider’s need to belong. Unexplained prodigious talent, a creative life, and even tribal kinship will not be enough. As he comes to grips with love and experiencing profound loss, a glimpse of the path to his survival is revealed.

Coltrane and Miles; Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler; The Tubes, Sam and Dave; Botticelli, T.C. Cannon, and Henriette Wyeth—an army of musical composers, performers, and artists spanning centuries and styles paint the backdrop for Pacific waves breaking off Laguna Beach, late afternoon winter shadows on the massive adobes of Santa Fe, gently flowing summer creeks of Central Pennsylvania, plunging headlands and Minnesota forests above Lake Superior, and the sweet aroma of just- ground coffee at the Cafe Whyoming in Old Downtown Laramie.

Print Reviews and Mentions

An excerpt of Cafe Whyoming was featured in the June 2003 Annual Art issue of Santa Fean
Magazine: “a picaresque debut novel … .”
“… for anyone who has made a cross-country trip … Maxwell’s musings from the front seat of his ‘mint, classic Healey’ will touch a familiar chord.” The Daily Courier, Prescott, AZ (July 2003).
Other Books of Interest: Native Peoples Magazine (January/February 2004).
Arts & Resources – Winds of Change Magazine (Winter 2004), the American Indian Science
& Engineering Society.

Cafe Whyoming, copyright 2003 by Craig V. McConnell, author of Grayscale and From Dulce

Published by Big Lake-Niman Books, Tijeras, NM
biglake-nimanbooks.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9726171-0-9
High-quality, perfect-bound trade paperback
Printed on natural paper; UV-resistant matte, cardstock cover; shrink-wrapped
First edition – 2,170 copies
6 x 9 x 1.2 in., 405 pages