Turning the Tables on Tom Catmull

Saturday Dec. 31st, 2011

I phoned Tom Catmull at his home in Missoula for this interview and we talked about a wide range of topics ending up with a discussion on his upcoming show at Norris Hot Springs.

JG: How’d you get to Montana?

TC: I’m from Texas originally, just north of Houston – a town called Spring or Klein, Tx. My mother, father, my grandfather, we all had ties to Yellowstone. My grandfather was a ranger out there. My mom and dad met out there, Dad was a busboy and became a ranger. We ended up going to Yellowstone a lot as kids. Every summer we’d make the big trip from Texas up there. When we started getting old enough – I’m the youngest of 6 – most of my older siblings ended up going to Yellowstone for summer jobs. I went up in 1990 after I stopped going to school for a little bit and ended up getting hooked on it and was there summers and winters between 1990 and 1994. When I wanted to go back to school but wasn’t done with the mountains yet, I ended up in Missoula over Bozeman – cause Bozeman was too close to the Park (laughter) I wanted to go a little bit further.

JG: It was too hard to think about school with Yellowstone right there, huh?

TC: Yeah. What was happening is when I was IN Yellowstone and people would move to Bozeman their apartments and houses became hostels! I was one of ‘em, I’d go sleep on people’s floors all the time. I thought, if I’m going to go to school, I should probably distance myself a little more from the park.

JG: So you ended up in Missoula…

TC: Went to school from 94 to 97, got a degree in history, I’d been playing guitar a little bit since I was about 15, played a little more in college and when I went to Yellowstone in the winter when the skiing was bad I was playing a lot. When I moved to Missoula, a friend had also moved and we ended up doing an open mic at a local bar in town and then another and that all turned into a regular gig at the Top Hat Bar. Picked up another one and it slowly snowballed..I was waiting tables, which is basically what I’d been doing for 20, 25 years and as the years went by I ended up drowning out the wait jobs til it all but disappeared. Now I’m just playing and I give some guitar lessons as well – I have six or seven students and I’m just playing music.

JG: Were you a good waiter?

TC: (hesitates) I was okay. (laughter) I was not bad – depending on the night and my mood. At one point I wasn’t getting any better and I started caring less, even though I liked people which worked to my advantage but the last couple of years I was like…alright..

JG: Get your own damn coffee.

TC: Exactly. (laughter)

JG: When did you add songwriting to guitar playing?

TC: When I moved to Missoula. I was doing some gigs with a couple of players who called themselves the Spectacles, and one half of that duo was a guy named Larry Hirschberg, who has become a really good friend of mine. He wanted to jam and he’s a really good songwriter. I’m not a jammer guy, more of a song structure, start to finish guy. He told me right off the bat – “You should be writing songs.” With that encouragement I wrote a song called “Sandbox.” One song leads to another and pretty soon you’ve got enough for an album, and people are asking where they can buy it and you don’t HAVE it, so I pulled out a credit card and abused it for $1500 and then you have a CD!

JG: When did you know you were really, really good at it?

TC: Still waiting on that..


JG: No, come on. Tom, I think you’re a great songwriter and I love the humanity and the observation and the humor is a lot of your songs.

TC: Thanks, I appreciate that.

JG: Sometimes when someone starts a story song you wonder if you really want to stay around til the end, with yours I’m always glad I did.

TC: Oh, thanks, that’s good to hear. I know that I like doing it and know it’s a strange skill. There are a lot of musicians out there but not a lot of songwriters. It’s a weird exercise in creativity and imagination as any art form is. There are so many different ways to approach songwriting and each time you go see someone else who does it you learn something – EVERY time. It’s extremely fruitful in that way. I love doing it.

JG: How do you find Bozeman is different than Missoula as far as musical tastes – or what people enjoy or seek out?

TC: It’s interesting, when I moved here, Missoula had a strong punk scene. There was a pretty hard edged indy scene going on and there was also some pop stuff. But it was all under the umbrella of indy college music, and it seems like it’s still into that – that music works here in the downtown area. Not saying we don’t have our cover bands and some country here and there, but Bozeman feels more like an American Roots town. It has room for straight country and room for people like Little Jane and the Pistol Whips or all those bands that play Chico. Bluegrass catches fire a little more there than it does here. We’re doing a lot of original American Roots oriented, so it works well for what we do.

JG: How do you like playing at Norris? How do you like the bubble?

TC:   I Loooove the bubble!   People talked to me about Norris and I resisted a little while and finally I went to go check it out. Pulling up to that place is classic. It’s like the classic strange Montana gig – you’re kinda in the middle of nowhere and out of the dust rises this organic food shop and hot springs. (laughter) A bunch of people are hanging out and that Dome – you play in there? I can’t believe it. When you go in there in the winter and it’s closed, it’s like being in a studio. It’s totally comfortable in there and I’m playing solo – no one to even talk to – it’s like a funny personal moment for two hours. But they’re out there, and they listen and they love it.

JG: Sometimes because you are on your own and you can’t see them you are more brave…

TC: Exactly. It’s like playing in your house.

JG: And they feed you well.

TC: They DO feed you well. They treat you really nice, that’s the thing with any show – if someone is treating you well it ends up being nice and you feel welcome. It’s enjoyable to be there.

JG: Maybe it gives the waiter in you a chance to be waited on?

TC: (laughter) Well, there it is. Everybody loves it.

JG: We look forward to having you out often, Tom.

Tom Catmull will perform at Norris on January 15th. The entire music schedule, plus menus and operating hours, directions, etc can be found at www.norrishotsprings.com. For more information on Tom Catmull, please go to www.tomcatmull.com.

 Joanne Gardner is the music booker at Norris Hot Springs, and regular contributor to Bozeman magazine.