Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 37 A e Snake River Outlaws provided a bridge between an old-time music tradition that reached back into the early nineteenth century and the more modern country music sound that emerged after the 1960s, which influenced country rock by way of the folk revival. e Outlaws anticipated, if they did not inaugurate, a sort of local, homegrown emphasis on music that would be the hallmark of many Montana bands, including such nationally recognized acts as he Lil' Smokies, the Mission Mountain Wood Band and Rob Quist and Great Northern. ROB QUIST AND STEVE RIDDLE In 1971, one of the more dramatic chapters in Montana music history was opened when Rob Quist and Steve Riddle met each other in Missoula. Quist was a young kid from Cut Bank, way up on the high line, not terribly far from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Steve Riddle was born and raised in Libby, up in the equally remote, very northwestern corner of the state... Steve and Rob wound up together in the UM glee club, called the Jubileers… ey hooked up with another singer, Terry Robinson, who also strummed a guitar. "Terry was one of the 'good casting' cogs in the wheel that brought coolness to the band," Steve Riddle explained. And it didn't hurt that Robinson was incredibly tall, handsome and personable… ey recruited Christian Johnson, an experienced rock-and-roll guitarist, and a drummer named Greg Reichenberg. ey also settled on a name, the Mission Mountain Wood Band, in honor of the impressive mountain range that rises along the eastern shore of Flathead Lake. MARTHA SCANLAN e cowboy life attracts many songwrit- ers and musicians to Montana, including Martha Scanlan. In the early 1990s, Martha was a shy young woman up from Wyoming who started playing bluegrass and bluegrass guitar with local musicians in Missoula in house parties and jam circles around town... Not long after arriving, she crossed paths with another bluegrass and old-time music fan named omas Sneed. Before long, they were playing every chance they got... Being one of the featured bands on the T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack for the film Cold Mountain really put them on the musical map. e players all went their separate ways in 2005, and Scan- lan struck off on her own. Being on the Cold Mountain tour exposed her to all kinds of music — old gospel, Irish ballads and strains of old-time and Americana that cross-pollinated with the old country and Dylan and Van Morrison she had grown up with. She began to focus more honing her songs and developing a distinct, Americana voice out of her experience in old-time music and her love for old-school country. Her musical journey then culminated in an album of original songs called "Tongue River Stories." In it she weaves together several threads of distinctly regional influence into a rich tapestry of distinctly Montana Americana. Scanlan explained, "ere's a beautiful congruence in music and work- ing with cattle and horses — it's all about the flow, finding the current in things." Quite often, Scanlan's lyrics rise to the level of poetry, so vivid are the scenes she evokes. Americana musicians in Montana continue to cultivate that sense of camaraderie and good times against the backdrop of the inimi- table Big Sky Country and the sublime lonesomeness of the West, and as a result, they continue to contribute to an American stream of music as full of time and history as the wide Missouri itself. A ME RICANA MUSI C ROB AND STEVE'S SHOWS ALL OVER MONTANA: distinctlymontan.com/ quist A VIDEO OF MARTHA AND HER BAND IN A SMALL MONTANA CABIN: distinctlymontan.com/ martha SEE & HEAR WATCH CONTINUED

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