Joe Kline / The Bulletin file photoSigur Ros, Les Schwaub Amphitheater, May 2013

This is my final column for The Bulletin.

You’ll see my byline in next week’s GO! Magazine, as you have for the past three months. But eagle-eyed readers might’ve noticed the word “For” between “The Bulletin” and “Ben Salmon.” That “For” is small but important: It means I’m a freelancer, writing for the newspaper on a contract basis. It means I’m not a staffer.

I was a staff reporter for nearly nine years, from April of 2006 until mid-March, when I left my position as music reporter and editor of GO! Magazine to take a job in the marketing department of a local company. (I am staying in Bend.)

To be completely honest with you, I think I was pretty good at the job. Running GO! Magazine was a weekly treadmill of detail-oriented chaos, but it was also a blast, and I think our little team did a killer job of putting out the best and most comprehensive guide to arts, culture and entertainment in Central Oregon every seven days.

Covering the local music scene was also a blast. When I was hired to do that job, it was the fulfillment of a dream that I’d been pursuing since high school, when I fell deep into obsession with music and I realized that I could string a few words together into something that made sense.

“If I could somehow combine the two,” I thought, “that’d be a pretty sweet job.”

I was right. I didn’t know much about Bend before I moved here, but I sure did learn about its community of musicians and music lovers. I learned that this small town plunked down on the sunny side of Oregon’s Cascades was home to an inordinate number of creative minds with musical talent, not to mention a small number of folks who had worked really hard to put Bend on the map for touring bands.

The greatest compliment I can give Central Oregon’s music scene is this: I was never bored. There was always something to write about, whether it was a big rock star or an underground rapper or a local rootsy band or student jazz players. A world-class folk festival. A punk band gone global. Bass-heavy DJs redefining the term “boom town.” So … many … jam-grass bands.

I tried get beyond the folks who make noise on stage and shine a light on the non-musicians who are vital to making music happen: the venue owners, the promoters, the audiences, the recording studios. The entrepreneurs and risk-takers. It takes guts and money to put together an album and put it out into the world, or to open a rock ‘n’ roll bar in the middle of a sleepy town. Their efforts should not go unnoticed, or unappreciated.

I saw a lot of shows. I missed a lot, too, including some I regret missing. I worked hard to provide compelling and comprehensive coverage of Central Oregon’s scene, and by the end of my time at The Bulletin, I could almost do the job in my sleep. Which is not to say it was easy, simply that I’d spent enough time doing it that I could rely on muscle memory (and my colleague David Jasper) to get a music section together each week.

And that was the main reason for my move. I felt like I could sit in my corner of The Bulletin’s newsroom and keep doing what I was doing forever, or I could do something that’s hard: change. Change jobs, take on a new challenge, learn new stuff, develop new skills, mess up more often. And hopefully grow.

The short version: It was time.

(The Bulletin has hired a new music reporter, Brian McElhiney, whose byline has started appearing this week, so stay tuned!)

Before I split, I want to do a couple things:

• I compiled a list of my favorite concerts I saw during my time at The Bulletin. I probably forgot a few, but the list accompanying this article is a pretty good representation of the live-music experiences that blew my mind over the past nine years.

• I want to thank some people for making the past nine years awesome: Denise Costa, who gave me a shot at doing what I love and was my boss for years. Julie Johnson, my other boss for years who put up with me, my missed deadlines and my made-up words, for the entirety of my time at the paper, with just a cubicle wall between us. The two GO! Magazine designers I worked with the most to make the section look great: Althea Borck and Tim Gallivan. They are patient, patient people. And to David Jasper, Jenny Harada and the rest of the folks who ever contributed to GO! Magazine.

• Finally, thanks to the musicians and music lovers who make Central Oregon a good place to care deeply about music. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had such a fun and fascinating job for the past nine years. The local scene isn’t perfect — the ebb and flow is endless, and there are things I’d change, for sure — but as I always tell people, it sure does feel more vibrant than I’d expect from a town of Bend’s size and location. I had a great time immersing myself in it. And that won’t change, by the way. I just won’t be writing about it here.

Last but not least, thanks to you. Thanks for reading this rambling, self-indulgent column, and more importantly, thanks for reading GO! Magazine. I appreciate it.

Now click around to the other music stories today. Go check out the Event Calendar. Find an event that sounds interesting and go support art and the people and places that make it happen.

That’s what all of this has been about all along.