Distinctly Montana Magazine

BEN BULLINGTON, BIG TIMBER “Ben Bullington’s work draws life-breath from the earth, rivers, sky and people of Montana,” says Rodney Crowell, the Nashville songwriting legend who COUNTRY plays guitar and performs a duet on Bullington’s CD, White Sulphur Springs. White Sulphur Springs was inspired by the small town, where Bullington lived until recently and helped raise his three sons while working as a country doctor. FOLK/ From the title song: “Dreams don’t come easy on seven bucks an hour, Maybe it’s a matter of what kind of dreams you have. There’s trout streams, and the air is clean, and money don’t mean everything, in a place called White Sulphur Springs.” Ben grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and went to Vanderbilt University (“cause it was in Nashville”). After college Bullington worked in the oil fields of North Dakota, the Northern Rockies, and the Texas pan- handle before reaching the end of that trail in the central Amazon of Brazil. He moved to Charlottesville, Vir- ginia, and enrolled in medical school. Music was on the back burner while he started a family and practiced medicine on the Northern Cheyenne reserva- tion in Montana, a small coastal Alaska town, in the mountains of West Virginia, and finally back to Montana. When his youngest child was four, he started writing songs again in the quiet early morning hours. Those sessions provided most of the songs on Bullington’s first CD, Two Lane Highway, produced by Sean Devine of Livingston, Montana. This album was followed by White Sulphur Springs. Ben’s most recent is Satisfaction Garage, produced in Nashville. Mariss McTucker of Lively Times says, “Bullington sings with the just-right dusty voice that comes with years of observation. Get a cozy table at the back of the room and let the singer spin out the visuals.” Ben has a quiet, appealing presence that makes you want to pay attention. Livingston resident, former Sony music executive Joanne Gardner, inspired Bullington to expand his horizons and experiment with differ- ent musical forms. “When I met Ben, it was immediately apparent this man had a grasp of people and a deep understand- ing of the human condition, warts and all,” says Gardner. “I love the way Ben writes.” See www.benbullington.com and for scheduling see http://www.reverbnation. com/benbullington [Thanks to Maryanne Vollers for assistance in this section.] THE GREAT FALLS ORCHESTRA, CHOIR, AND ENSEMBLES CLASSICAL Gordon J. Johnson, Music Director and Conduc- tor, has been with the orchestra for 30 years. has 75 members plus an 80-voice choir. Members come from within a 200-mile radius of Great Falls. Aside from the orchestra, the pride and joy of the musical community are the Cascade Quartet, formed in 1980, and the Chinook Wind Quintet, performing since 1992. Not least is the Youth Orches- tra, whose players ex- cel in academics and music. 52 DISTINCTLY MONTANA • SUMMER 2011 It WILLIAM CAMPBELL

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