In early April, Red Ants Pants company founder and owner Sarah Calhoun had a party at her White Sulphur Springs headquarters to announce the lineup for the third annual Red Ants Pants Music Festival.

Though the festival, held the last weekend of July (with Thursday night and Friday tacked on for good measure) just outside of White Sulphur Springs, is a relatively new gathering, the popularity of the event speaks for itself. Last summer, over 8,000 people attended the Red Ants Music Festival.

The lineup announcement party has also become an annual event. Friends and fans gather at Calhoun’s store to share the food and drink they’ve brought to the party, meet new folks, and, of course, hear what bands will be entertaining the audience when the festival rolls around. The April 6 lineup party was slated to be streamed live on the Internet, with YouTube clips of each band bolstering Calhoun’s announcements.

“Hopefully all of the tech will work,” Calhoun told the dozens of people waiting to learn the 2013 lineup. “If not, we’ll just tell you who’s playing, drink more beer, play some music, and carry on. If the weather holds, we‘ll have a bonfire to follow, although I did hear there actually is a thunderstorm coming in.”

The ball begins on Thursday night, July 25, at 9 p.m., with the street dance in White Sulphur Springs, this year featuring the Teka Brock band out of Wyoming. This five-piece band plays a self-described brand of “country with a splash of southern rock and a twist of bluegrass” that should provide the perfect fit for early festival-goers’ fresh dancing feet.

Around mid-day on Friday, the festival grounds proper opens up on the Jackson Ranch just outside of town. The first act to hit the main stage, at about 4 p.m., will be Montana’s own Ben Bullington. The songs Bullington writes about southwest Montana certainly do let a listener know a little bit about that country, even if they’ve never been there. Also a doctor (once one of two physicians at the time in White Sulphur Springs), Bullington is the only performer that will have appeared at all three Red Ants Pants festivals.

Bullington is scheduled to be followed up on the main stage at 5 p.m. by Greg Brown. Brown, a singer-songwriter of some note, has had his material performed by the likes of Willie Nelson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Carlos Santana, and more. Rolling Stone magazine has called Brown “a wickedly sharp observer of the human condition,” and the artist has been nominated for two Grammy awards.

At 6:30 p.m., internationally-acclaimed folk artists The Wailin’ Jennys take over from Brown. The Wailin’ Jennys are Nicky Mehta, Ruth Moody, and Heather Masse, “three distinct voices that together make an achingly perfect vocal sound.” First performing together as a “one-night-only” act at a tiny guitar shop in Canada, the Jennys have come together to create and perform some of the hottest music on the folk-roots scene.

Americana artists Donna the Buffalo do the main stage at 8 p.m. Describes as “a soulful electric Americana mix infused with elements of cajun/zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country, Donna the Buffalo is such a popular act they even have their own Internet “deadhead” group of sorts, which dubs itself “the Herd,” and keeps track of the band’s doings online. The band has toured for over 20 years and doesn’t plan on ending the run anytime soon.

Canadian Corb Lund finishes up main stage duties on Friday at 10 p.m.

“I’ve got one foot in old-fashioned cowboy music,” says Lund, “but I treat it with some abandon and irreverence. The reality is we don’t live in that world anymore–yet the cowboys were kind of punk rockers in their day.” Lund’s music ranges from rockabilly to Western swing, and cowboy balladry to country rock, with an occasional yodel thrown in. Rained out on Friday night last year, Lund went on to take the main stage after Emmylou Harris’ set on Saturday night to the delight of the crowd, and he will certainly get a Montana-style welcome back to the festival this year.

Saturday’s show begins with the banjo and vocals of Kendl Winter at noon on the main stage. Winter, who has lately been doing solo performances, will joined onstage at the Red Ants Pants festival by her band the Summer Gold. She will be followed up at 1:30 p.m. by Montana’s own Martha Scanlan, who has been hitting it big as a songwriter since a 2004 appearance at Merlefest, where she won awards in two categories. This will be Scanlan’s second Red Ants Pants festival appearance.
At 3 p.m., Amy Helm, daughter of music legend Levon Helm, takes the main stage. Helm was schooled in the world of music by her famous father, whom she also performs with. She is comfortable with both the mandolin and the drums, and her powerful voice both stirs and soothes. She is set to release her first solo album later this year.

Todd Snider takes the main stage at 5 p.m. Rolling Stone magazine calls Snider “America’s sharpest musical storyteller,” and listeners at the festival will probably agree that Snider can weave a musical yarn with the best of them.
A mixture of folk, country, southern rock, and swamp blues await festival-goers on the big stage at 7 p.m. with the Texas and Louisiana sounds of the Drew Landry Band. He’s shared the stage with the likes of Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Dwight Yoakum, and Robert Earl Keen, who will be playing the main stage at 9 p.m. following Drew Landry’s performance.

Keen, who has been performing since 1981, has a stellar reputation as a singer/songwriter and performer among his peers.

“Robert Earl is a keen writer, singer, guitar player, and human bean,” says country music legend Guy Clark, who performed at the first Red Ants Pants festival, and the crowd at this year’s festival is sure to agree with Clark regarding Keen.
Folks may be feeling a bit bedraggled by the time Sunday morning rolls around the festival, but the Boston string band Joy Kills Sorrow is certain to raise peoples’ spirits and get ‘em back up to the festival grounds from their campsites when they hit the main stage at noon. Joy Kills Sorrow will be followed up by the Canadian roots band The Deep Dark Woods at 1:30 p.m., and the Heartless Bastards, a rock band hailing from Austin, Texas, takes the stage at 3 p.m.

Country music legend Merle Haggard will wrap up this year’s Red Ants Pants festival beginning at 4:30 p.m. Haggard’s ability to blend elements of jazz, rock, blues and folk into country music, and his ability to ignore his detractors and simply make the music he wants, have added up to much more than the 40 number ones hits that Haggard has chalked up over the years.

“I’ll tell you what the public likes more than anything,” Haggard told the Boston Globe. “It’s the most rare commodity in the world–honesty.” And Haggard has stubbornly stayed true to himself and the music he wanted to make regardless of what others have thought or advised.

Our advice is to hit the third annual Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs this July for some of the best times and the best music to be had in southwest Montana this summer. For festival and ticket information, go to redantspantsmusicfestival.com

Pat Hill is a freelance writer and music lover from Bozeman Montana.