Andy Hackbarth may be from Colorado but it's the Maplewood train station that features prominently in the cover art of his latest CD.

Why?

Maybe it's a super smooth ploy to court Maplewood — and South Orange — customers to his series of classes at the Adult School this spring (see the end of the article for the real reason!). Whatever the case, this award-winning songwriter is coming to town to share his knowledge. Hackbarth will be offering a great slate of classes for guitar and music lovers, including:

From Granados to Garth: Guitar Through the Ages — Thursday, March 1, 7-9pm in the Black Box Theatre — Explore the rich history and versatility of the guitar! This lecture and recital explores the guitar’s role in major music genres, including classical, bluegrass, jazz, rock, pop, folk and country. Before performing a selection from each genre, ANDY HACKBARTH discusses and demonstrates stylistic techniques and compositional characteristics, as well as how religion, politics, literature and pop culture influenced the instrument. Fun, casual and highly informative! www.AndyHackbarth.com Course: 0018. Fee: $10 

Building a Successful Independent Music Career — Saturday, March 3, 10am-12pm in the Black Box Theatre — Want to get out of the garage and into the real music industry? Multi-award-winning singer/songwriter and full-time touring musician Andy Hackbarth lays out a step-by-step blueprint for a career in the New Music Industry. Topics include: building an effective press kit, touring and booking from the ground up, the importance of networking and industry conferences, radio, film/TV licensing, managers, labels, agents and much more! Course: 0033. Fee: $45

The Art of Songwriting — Saturday, March 3, 1pm-3pm in the Black Box Theatre — Boost your songwriting skills with multi-award-winning Nashville songwriter and touring artist Andy Hackbarth ’s workshop, covering everything from basic techniques and song structure to tricks-of-the-trade and proven ways to make your song stand out. Workshop includes lecture, song critiques, music industry and publishing how-tos. You are encouraged to bring recordings, typed lyrics of your songs and/or instruments. A must for any aspiring songwriter! Course: 0062. Fee: $45

Register for classes here.

Hackbarth has played guitar since the age of seven and studied classical guitar since the age of 11—while his love of songwriting won out over his love of classical performance, he always incorporates classical pieces in his shows as he tours nationally.

Two interesting facts about Hackbarth:

• He grew up on a Colorado llama ranch.
• He was featured on MLB.com in 2007 for the song he wrote about the Colorado Rockies—it played throughout the state until the Rockies lost Game 1 of the World Series.

Some of Hackbarth's recent awards and recognitions include:

• Winner of National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Competition
• Winner of Music Teachers National Association Competition (CO and West Region)
• Finalist in three major international competitions, from a pool of tens of thousands of applicants: International Songwriting Competition (out of over 15,000 applicants); Billboard Songwriting Competition; International Acoustic Music Awards
• Finalist - Neale Silva Competition
• Named a "Top 10 New Artist" by Soundsugar
• "Denver Songwriter of the Year" — Nomination by Denver Westword Magazine

So what's the Maplewood connection beyond the new teaching gig?

Hackbarth's sister is Alexa Metrick, communications coordinator for the Adult School. "He came out to visit and I did a photo shoot with him around town, and he picked that photo for his cover!" said Metrick.

Sweet!