Bozeman will get a chance to hear some special music on June 5, when award-winning Americana artist Darrell Scott and friends pay tribute to the late singer-songwriter Ben Bullington at the historic Ellen Theatre downtown.

The show celebrates Scott’s 11th release, “10-Songs of Ben Bullington” (2015, Full Light Records/Thirty Tigers), which hits the shelves on May 19. The tour begins in Nashville that night, and fellow musicians Will Kimbrough, Rodney Crowell, Tommy Womack, Gretchen Peters, Barry Walsh, John Cowan, Tracy Nelson, Kenny Malone and Bill Payne will join Scott on stage. The Bozeman show on June 5 is the second of the tour, and that evening Scott will perform with John Lowell, Tom Murphy, Kris Klone, Joanne Gardner and Bill Payne.



Bullington is remembered with fondness by his fellow musicians, and Scott is given great credit by those same folks for his interpretations of the late musician’s work.

“Ben Bullington was a friend,” says Crowell. “I knew his heart. After listening to ‘10’ I can say, with all sincerity, Darrell Scott has created a masterwork. He’s captured beautifully with guitar, piano, and soulful voice, the very album Ben dreamed of. I know this as surely as I know the names of my children.” Mary Chapin Carpenter adds that “I love Darrell Scott and I loved Ben Bullington. To hear one great songwriter inhabit another’s work is a breathtaking experience, and it makes me happy to imagine that Ben’s gifts will live on through Darrell’s interpretations.”

Bill Payne, who collaborated with Bullington musically before his death, calls the CD “an inspired collection of songs...built on a structure of simple eloquence and honesty.”

“The tradition and art of story-telling is its heart and soul,” says Payne. “Cascading images of vast prairies, small-town America, back-country roads, love, loss, indignation, sunrises, solitude, skies filled with stars. Where words are important, and deeds have consequences. Performed with conviction and an open heart, Darrell has captured the essence of Ben’s writing, his truths and doubts and dreams not yet realized. It is story-telling at its finest, to be shared with those you love.”

Darrell Scott and Ben Bullington first shared time together at the behest of mutual friend Joanne Gardner, when the two divorced dads took their respective children camping. They did not “sing around the campfire” on that first trip, and in fact Scott did not even hear any of Bullington’s music until about a year before his death. That was at a Nashville writers’ round, something Scott said was on Bullington’s bucket list.

“THAT is where I began to hear his songs in earnest,” Scott said of that writers’ round; Will Kimbrough and Rodney Crowell both sat in on that experience as well. “It was all there: song after song of hearing someone who loved song as much as I loved song. My wish is for you to slow down for 52 minutes, put this recording (‘10‘) on, and hear two friends make new friends. I believe there is pure beauty here.”

Pure beauty should also be had at Scott’s Ellen presentation of “10-Songs of Ben Bullington” on June 5. This show is a Bozeman Folklore Society offering. Advanced tickets are available at Cactus Records and The Ellen Theatre, and can also be purchased online via Cactus and The Ellen. Ticket prices are $50 (limited seating), $35, and $25. This show promises to be a memorable one, and tickets are going fast.