Trails are a big part of why living in Bozeman is so great. Friends make it even better. So who’s your trail buddy? Who do you call for early morning or after work walks on Peet’s Hill or Drinking Horse Mountain. Who’s your go-to trail running friend?  Our furry friends need companions too! Who is your dog’s favorite trail companion?

The Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT), has been building, maintaining, and enhancing trails on the Main Street to the Mountains trail network since 1990.  By building trails, GVLT is connecting people and building community. Share your trail buddy story (and/ or your dog’s trail buddy story) for a chance to win truly amazing prizes!

Here’s how to enter:
    •    Submit a photo of you and your trail buddy on the trails (or your dog and its trail buddy) to info@gvlt.org or post on the GVLT Facebook page, www.facebook.com/gallatinvalleylandtrust.
    •    Humans-Include a brief explanation of why you love your trail buddy and your favorite town trail. Dogs-Have your human include a brief explanation of why you love your trail buddy and your favorite town trail.
Submissions are due September 30th and winners will be announced October 3rd. Human winners will receive a free pair of Oboz footwear and Dee-O-Gee gift card. Dog winners will receive a bed and toy package from West Paw Design, dog treats from Dee-O-Gee, and a 5 lb. bag of lamb bones from Willow Springs Ranch.
Rules: Entries must be from the residents of the Gallatin Valley. Trail buddy entries can’t be groups of three or more, just pairs. You can enter just your buddy , your dog’s buddy, or both!

Visit www.facebook.com/gallatinvalleylandtrust or www.gvlt.org to learn more. Thank You to Oboz Footwear, West Paw Design, Dee-O-Gee, Willow Springs Ranch, Run Dog Run, and the Moose Radio for supporting this contest!

Please contact EJ Porth for more information. ej@gvlt.org or 406-587-8404 ext. 8

Tate Academy, the educational wing of The Ellen Theatre, announces the fall schedule which includes programs for young performers and adults in both acting and musical theatre. The goal of the workshops is to provide students with solid, technique-based theatre arts training, lead by professional teachers and artists. All classes take place at The Ellen Theatre.

The Fundamentals of Acting workshop focuses on creating three-dimensional characters and building a solid acting foundation. Exploring both voice and physicality, students participate in theatre games, guided improvisation and scene work to develop and hone acting technique. The Musical Theatre Workshop is designed for all students, from absolute beginners to experienced young performers. For those new to theatrical training, the course will serve
as an introduction to the world of musical theatre. For students who have had previous experience, it will offer them the opportunity to build upon those skills and further refine their talents. All students will gain self-esteem and confidence, while expanding their knowledge of theatre.

These workshops are not a competition. A nurturing but professional atmosphere will be fostered as students are shown the benefits of working together in the performing arts. Honing individual skills while working as a creative team will produce not only the best results on stage, but more than likely new friends along the way.

The fall session begins September 15th and runs until November 6th. Fundamentals of Acting for grades 4 through 7 meets Mondays from 4:00 PM to 5:45 PMand the fee is $145.00. For grades 8 through 12, Fundamentals of Acting costs $165.00 and is held on Tuesdays from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Musical Theatre Workshops are held Wednesdays from 4:00 PM to 5:45 PM for grades 4 through 7 at a cost of $155. For grades 8 through 12, the fee is $175 and the class meets Thursdays from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

There are two adult classes. Adult acting workshop is scheduled for Thursday evenings
from September 18 – October 16 at a cost of $90. The second is for Musical Theatre, also on Thursday evenings, and costs $95 for classes slated from October 23 o November 20th.

For more information about discounts for multiple family members and for attending multiple workshops, please visit the ticketing page attheellentheatre.com or simply call The Tate office at 585-6918.

Bozeman’s Coop gallery, The Artists’ Gallery, located in the Emerson Cultural Center will be featuring the art work of three diverse artists during the month of September. Dede Chrisman is a ceramic artist, Ann Wilbert creates jewelry with fused glass beads, and Tom Wolfe works in forged metal,
 
Chrisman began her relationship with clay thirty years ago. She finds working in clay as a way to journal. The responses she has while experiencing the environment are transferred into images in clay when in her studio. The Yellowstone geysers are reflected in her multi-fired bowls with the blue centers of the bowl surrounded by textured or crusty edges. Currently her work is influenced by a canoe trip on the Missouri River where she observed the cliff swallow nests and random trails the fallen rocks have left. She primarily uses a slab technique for clay, sometimes combining thrown components with the slab.
 
It may not seem like making small glass beads could possibly captivate a person for years, but such is the case for Wilbert. She finds that there are infinite possibilities with each attempt she makes at producing her lampwork beads. Although she feels she may never be a master of this art form she tries to capture something unique in each bead she creates.
 
Wolfe is inspired by the limitless possibilities of what can be done with iron, anvil, forge and tireless toil.  He creates functional metal work for the home and garden. His long-term fascination with the changes that can be wrought in the shape of steel when heated to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit keeps him coming back to the forge. After spending 30 years as the head of MSU’s horseshoeing program he has turned to making functional metal art while still using traditional blacksmithing techniques.
 
The Bozeman Artwalk will take place on Friday, September 12th.  Start your Artwalk at the Artists’ Gallery at 5:00 – then proceed to Main Street when the galleries there begin their Artwalk at 6:00. Come and meet the artists with a glass of wine.

Coffee lovers and artists of all ages are invited to submit drawings, paintings, collage and photos with coffee as their theme, or using coffee as a medium. To submit, email a photo of 1-4 artworks and your name, phone and email address no later than Sept. 1 to communityartbozeman@gmail.com. Artists will be notified of acceptance by email. Acceptance is based on space available and appropriateness to the coffee theme. The coffee artwork will be shown at Wild Joe’s coffeehouse, 18 West Main, with an opening reception during the Downtown Bozeman Artwalk on Friday, Sept. 12. For more information, find Community Art Bozeman on facebook or visit https://communityartbozeman.wordpress.com/

The first breakthrough paper to come out of a massive U.S. expedition to one of Earth’s final frontiers shows that there’s life and an active ecosystem one-half mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, specifically in a lake that hasn’t seen sunlight or felt a breath of wind for millions of years.

The life is in the form of microorganisms that live beneath the enormous Antarctic ice sheet and convert ammonium and methane into the energy required for growth. Many of the microbes are single-celled organisms known as Archaea, said Montana State University professor John Priscu, the chief scientist of the U.S. project called WISSARD that sampled the sub-ice environment. He is also co-author of the MSU author-dominated paper in the Aug. 21 issue of “Nature,” an international weekly journal for all fields of science and technology.

“We were able to prove unequivocally to the world that Antarctica is not a dead continent,” Priscu said, adding that data in the “Nature” paper is the first direct evidence that life is present in the subglacial environment beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.

Lead author Brent Christner said, “It’s the first definitive evidence that there’s not only life, but active ecosystems underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, something that we have been guessing about for decades. With this paper, we pound the table and say, ‘Yes, we were right.’”

Priscu said he wasn’t entirely surprised that the team found life after drilling through half a mile of ice to reach Subglacial Lake Whillans in January 2013. An internationally renowned polar biologist, Priscu researches both the South and North Poles. This fall will be his 30th field season in Antarctica, and he has long predicted the discovery.

More than a decade ago, he published two manuscripts in the journal “Science” describing for the first time that microbial life can thrive in and under Antarctic ice. Five years ago, he published a manuscript where he predicted that the Antarctic subglacial environment would be the planet’s largest wetland, one not dominated by the red-winged blackbirds and cattails of typical wetland regions in North America, but by microorganisms that mine minerals in rocks at subzero temperatures to obtain the energy that fuels their growth.

Following more than a decade of traveling the world presenting lectures describing what may lie beneath Antarctic ice, Priscu was instrumental in convincing U.S. national funding agencies that this research would transform the way we view the fifth largest continent on the planet.

Although he was not really surprised about the discovery, Priscu said he was excited by some of the details of the Antarctic find, particularly how the microbes function without sunlight at subzero temperatures and the fact that evidence from DNA sequencing revealed that the dominant organisms are archaea. Archaea is one of three domains of life, with the others being Bacteria and Eukaryote.

Many of the subglacial archaea use the energy in the chemical bonds of ammonium to fix carbon dioxide and drive other metabolic processes. Another group of microorganisms uses the energy and carbon in methane to make a living. According to Priscu, the source of the ammonium and methane is most likely from the breakdown of organic matter that was deposited in the area hundreds of thousands of years ago when Antarctica was warmer and the sea inundated West Antarctica. He also noted that, as Antarctica continues to warm, vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, will be liberated into the atmosphere enhancing climate warming.

The U.S. team also proved that the microorganisms originated in Lake Whillans and weren’t introduced by contaminated equipment, Priscu said.  Skeptics of his previous studies of Antarctic ice have suggested that his group didn’t actually discover microorganisms, but recovered microbes they brought in themselves.

“We went to great extremes to ensure that we did not contaminate one of the most pristine environments on our planet while at the same time ensuring that our samples were of the highest integrity,” Priscu said.

Extensive tests were conducted at MSU two years ago on WISSARD’s borehole decontamination system to ensure that it worked, and Priscu led a publication in an international journal presenting results of these tests. This decontamination system was mated to a one-of-a-kind hot water drill that was used to melt a borehole through the ice sheet, which provided a conduit to the subglacial environment for sampling.

Every day in Antarctica, he would tell his team to keep it simple, Priscu said. To prove that an ecosystem existed below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, he wanted at least three lines of evidence. They had to see microorganisms under the microscope that came from Lake Whillans and not contaminated equipment. They then had to show that the microorganisms were alive and growing. They had to be identifiable by their DNA.

When the team found those things, he knew they had succeeded, Priscu said.

The Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project officially began in 2009 with a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation.  Now involving 13 principal investigators at eight U.S. institutions, the researchers drilled down to Subglacial Lake Whillans in January 2013. The microorganisms they discovered are still being analyzed at MSU and other collaborating institutions.

Christner said species are hard to determine in microbiology, but “We are looking at a water column that probably has about 4,000 things we call species. It’s incredibly diverse.”

Planning to drill again this austral summer in a new Antarctic location, Priscu said WISSARD was the first large-scale multidisciplinary effort to directly examine the biology of an Antarctic subglacial environment. The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers an area 1 ½ times the size of the United States and contains 70 percent of Earth's freshwater, and any significant melting can drastically increase sea level. Lake Whillans, one of more than 200 known lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the primary lake in the WISSARD study, fills and drains about every three years. The river that drains Lake Whillans flows under the Ross Ice Shelf, which is the size of France, and feeds the Southern Ocean, where it can provide nutrients for life and influence water circulation patterns.

The opportunity to explore the world under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is an unparalleled opportunity for the U.S. team, as well as for several MSU-affiliated researchers who are part of that team and wrote or co-authored the Nature paper, Priscu said.

Christner, for one, was a postdoctoral researcher with Priscu and Mark Skidmore at MSU from 2002 through 2006. He is now associate professor of biological sciences at Louisiana State University.  Jill Mikucki, now an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, was one of Priscu’s doctoral students. Skidmore is a glacial geochemist in MSU’s Department of Earth Sciences.  Andrew Mitchell, now at Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom, was a postdoctoral researcher with MSU’s Center for Biofilm Engineering. Alex Michaud and Trista Vick-Majors are currently earning their doctorates in Priscu’s research group at MSU. Other MSU people on the team were Education and Outreach Coordinator Susan Kelly and Project Manager John Sherve.

The fact that MSU was so involved reflects the fact that it is pioneering a new field of science, Priscu said. MSU is the common ancestor of many scientists who study life in and under ice.

“I always tell my students when they come into the lab that ‘We are inventing this field of science. It’s working on life in ice and under ice. This field has never existed before. We thought it up. You are pioneers,’” Priscu said.

Appreciative of the opportunity to participate in WISSARD, Vick-Majors said she saw bacteria under the microscope within an hour after the first sample of water was pulled out of Subglacial Lake Whillans. Within days, she saw proof that the bacteria were active.

“It was very exciting. It will be hard to top,” she said.

She added that, “If you want to do microbial ecology in Antarctic subglacial environments, John is probably the person you want to work with. I feel very lucky to have gotten the opportunity.”

Agreeing, Michaud said, “Some of the graduate students joke, ‘How do we top this?’ We can’t.”

But the students can build on their WISSARD experience and gain a deeper understanding of Subglacial Lake Whillans and other subglacial habitats, he said. It’s not about going out and finding more novel habitats.

Christner said the team that wrote the paper in “Nature” is the dream team of polar biology. Besides the MSU-affiliated scientists, the co-authors include Amanda Achberger, a graduate student at Louisiana State University; Carlo Barbante, a geochemist at the University of Venice in Italy; Sasha Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California in San Diego; and Knut Christianson a postdoctoral researcher from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and New York University.

“I hope this exciting discovery will touch the lives (both young and old) of people throughout the world and inspire the next generation of polar scientists,” Priscu said.

Back to school time! Radio and television ads, store displays -- everywhere you go, reminding us it’s back-to-school time. It is an exciting time for kids and parents, but for families who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, back-to-school can be stressful. The cost of school supplies adds up fast and then, suddenly you realize your child has grown out of their only pair of nice pants! To relieve this financial stress, Family Promise of Gallatin Valley, The Salvation Army, and Bozeman Public Schools, with our new sponsor NorthWestern Energy, are teaming up to help low-income families get ready for the school year with Tools for School.
 
But, we need your help to make sure all of our youth are ready for school this year. Red Tools for School donation bins have been placed at businesses around town, including: Albertson’s, Rosauers, Safeway, Town & Country Foods on North 19th, Staples (both Bozeman locations), TJ Maxx, and Kmart. Donations needed include: lined paper, notebooks, pencils, pens, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, scissors, spiral notebooks, agendas, and backpacks.
 
To donate supplies, drop them in any of the bins around town, or deliver them directly to The Salvation Army located at 32 S. Rouse, from 1:30 - 3:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. Cash donations are also needed. Checks can be written to The Salvation Army. Indicate Tools for School in the memo line, and mail it to: The Salvation Army, PO Box 1307, Bozeman, MT 59771.
 
Families in need of school supply assistance can sign up at The Salvation Army from 1:30 to 3:00 pm Monday through Thursday, beginning August 18, 2014. Families will be contacted when supplies are ready for pick-up.
 
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please call Kara at 406/582-7388, Frank at 406/586-5813, or Anna at 406/522-6118.

The Downtown Bozeman Association, Cancer Support Community and our gracious event sponsors; Ressler Motors and Toyota of Bozeman, KBZK, Dark Horse Customs, Big Sky Collision Center, Nu2u!, Bozeman Lodge, Napa Auto Parts, Personalize It, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle, XL Country, TireRama, Northwestern Energy, Martel Construction, US Bank, Speedy Lube and Allegra Printing.are proud to present the 13th Annual “Cruisin’ on Main” Car Show Winners!  

We had over 275 entries this year, a record for the event, from around the region and awards in 13 categories as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Best in Show and People’s Choice.  We estimated over 6,000 spectators throughout the day and look forward to another amazing Car Show in 2015!  And….are winners for 2014 are as follows:

1st Place Ford – 1956 Thunderbird, Wendy O’neil
1st Place Chevy – 1957 Chevy Bel-Air, Vicki and Rudy Grossman
1st Place Mopar – 1969 Plymouth Roadmaster, Dennis and Linda Nitschke
1st Place Pontiac – 1957 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible, Tom Gerrard
1st Place Original/Survivor –1961 Corvette, Nick and Audrey Stanis-Lawek
1st Place Antique – 1928 Imperial Model, Derek and Stacy Johnson
1st Place Street Rod/Custom – 1951 Buick Roadmaster, Frank and Robin Morris
1st Place Muscle Car – 1971 Chevy Chevelle, Shaun Carnalan
1st Place Truck – 1955 Chevy Pickup, Rick Frain
1st Place Motorcycle – 1914 Harley Davidson, Bob Fabian
1st Place Import – 1954 Porsche 356-Pre A, Jim and Francie Hasbrunck
1st Place Special Interest – 1964 Jaguar XKE, Mike Potter
1st Place Best 2000 – 2014 Corvette Stingray, Dan Jones
People Choice:
    1st Place – 1957 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible
    2nd Place – 1951 Buick Roadmaster, Frank and Robin Morris
    3rd Place – 1956 Chevy Bel-Air, Colleen Lewis
Best in Show:
    1st Place – 1914 Harley Davidson, Bob Fabian
    2nd Place – 1951 Buick Roadmaster, Frank and Robin Morris
    3rd Place – 1928 Imperial 80, Derrick and Stacy Johnston


For more information about the “Cruisin’ on Main” Car Show, contact Downtown Bozeman Association at  www.downtownbozeman.org or call us at 406-586-4008.  

The exhibition will be displayed at Visions West Gallery in Bozeman from August 8th until September 10th, 2014. There will be a reception on the evening of the Art Walk on August 8th at 6:00 P.M. Theodore and Arin will be in attendance.
 
Showing works on paper spanning several decades, Theodore Waddell celebrates the landscape of the West and its relationship with the rancher and their herd of cattle. Using oil, encaustic, and graphite Waddell experiments with color and composition on paper. Perspective shifts from piece to piece with cows defined by negative space or just a few brushstrokes. Each painting offers a peek into his creative process. Waddell is a native Montanan cattle rancher and his paintings combine strong influence from the abstract expressionists whose legacy still prevailed in New York while he attended Brooklyn Museum Art School and figures like Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and Charles Russell who defined art of the American West. His work is collected by Museums across the country and resides in many important corporate and private collections.
 
Showing her work alongside Theodore Waddell is his daughter, Arin. Her paintings differ completely from her father’s although she claims the landscape of Montana as a strong influence. However, she’s more interested in flora and fauna and the human connection to the land. Her work examines relationships from unexpected perspectives, with a social and political edge, lightened by a dose of humor. An allegorical element enters her paintings, telling the viewer the beginning of a story but leaving enough unsaid for several endings. Her paintings have been shown in galleries and museums throughout the United States.
                                                                                                                      
For more information visit www.visionswestgallery.com or call 406.522.9946. Visions West Gallery is located at 34 West Main Street in Bozeman, MT and is open Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 5:30 PM.

Construction of a 36,000-square-foot building that will eventually house Bozeman’s second refrigerated ice skating rink will begin soon.
 
The Gallatin Ice Foundation says Martel Construction will break ground on the steel structure, which will be located on the west side of the existing Haynes Pavilion, on Monday, Aug. 11.
 
The groundbreaking concludes step one of the foundation’s ‘Raise the Ice Barn’ project, which also included construction of a new entry on the east side of Haynes Pavilion and parking lot paving, which were both completed late last year.
 
Chelsea Schmidt, development director for the Gallatin Ice Foundation, explained that construction will take place in multiple steps, and with step one complete, the group is now focused on raising $1.5 million for step two, which will result in skate-able ice.
 
“Our committee is working hard to get the money raised,” said Schmidt. “We are writing grants, looking at private and public partnerships and looking to the community for their support, as well.”
 
Currently, the Haynes Pavilion rink has skaters from 6 a.m. to midnight every day during the seven-month skating season, with no room for expanded ice times. The shortage of ice makes it difficult to meet current demands, add more skaters, offer public skating, host regional tournaments or provide training for competitive figure skaters.
 
Step two will include enclosing the building as well as installation of the ice plant, refrigerated rink slab and floor, mechanical room, building lighting and interim locker rooms, bathrooms and seating. Schmidt said construction for that could begin as early as April 2015.
 
Future steps will commence once the arena has a skate-able sheet of ice and is generating income. It will include permanent seating, expanded locker rooms, concessions, central entry and a skate shop.
 
The total project is expected to cost $4.5 million.
 
A celebration for the groundbreaking will be held at 406 Brewing Company, located at 101 E. Oak St., from 5-8 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 11, where $1 of every pint sold will be donated to the Gallatin Ice Foundation.
 
About the Gallatin Ice Foundation: Established in 2006, the Gallatin Ice Foundation (GIF) is a 501c non-profit organization that has spearheaded efforts to raise funds for the expanded recreational and competitive skating experience the community desires. Aligning forces of all ice users as well as the hockey and figure skating clubs, it has diligently focused on raising funds for a second ice sheet adjacent to the current rink at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds.

Good weather and great musicians combined for sweet success at two of this region’s favorite music festivals in July.

The fun began at Grand Targhee Resort with the 10th Annual Targhee Fest on July 18-20, and continued the next weekend at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs. These two festivals are as varied as the terrain they take place upon, perhaps lending to one observation by the producer of both festivals, Tom Garnsey, owner of Bozeman’s Vootie Productions. Garnsey said earlier this year that while Targhee Fest and the Red Ants Pants Music Festival are as different as apples and oranges, they are both delicious. He was right.

Ten Years Rockin’ the Tetons: Targhee Fest

Nestled in just below the jagged peaks of the Teton Range, Grand Targhee Resort (elevation 7,400 feet) offers a spectacular venue for a music festival, with plenty of room to camp within walking distance of the stage. The lineup at Targhee Fest was also spectacular this year, making it extremely difficult to pick a favorite act, and easy to sum up as the “best festival ever,” a description I heard time and time again (and could not disagree with). While Friday’s headliner Buddy Guy blew the crowd away with amazing guitar work and smoky vocals, the Royal Southern Brotherhood and the Wood Brothers also left many people impressed with their acts earlier that afternoon.

A cloudless Saturday morning greeted festival-goers at Targhee, along with the clip-clop of horses’ hoofs as groups headed out on morning rides. The breakfast smells of bacon and the like wafting across camp areas also served to stir folks out of sleep. Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola hit the stage at noon, summoning the faithful to head to the venue. They were followed by Robert Earl Keen, Amy Helm and the Handsome Strangers (joined by Bill Payne on the keyboards), the Hard Working Americans, and the Chris Robinson Brotherhood. These outstanding bands got the crew primed for the final act on Saturday, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. It’s fair to say that Saturday’s Targhee Fest entertainment would have been a hard act to match.

It’s also fair to say that Sunday belonged to the girls at Targhee Fest. Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds got the ball rolling onstage at noon, followed by Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers. Both these bands got the day started right. Trigger Hippy, featuring Joan Osborne and Jackie Greene, kept up the tempo, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band finished out the music on the main stage with style. But Bozeman’s Hooligans Band, featuring Garnsey on guitar and vocals and Bill Payne on keyboards, and joined by guest performers from the festival, sealed the deal on the first decade of Targhee Fest with an aftershow at the Trap Bar.

“The music was phenomenal, and the venue was perfect,” said Shannon Roberts of Bozeman, a first-timer this year at Targhee Fest. “We were down in front as much as possible. From the energy the bands were radiating, you could tell they loved being there.” Roberts also enthused about the venue in general and her fellow festival-goers in particular.

“Everyone was great, so friendly and respectful of other peoples’ camp areas, for instance,” she said. “It was my first Targhee Fest, but it certainly won’t be my last. I’ll be there next year.”

Red Ants in White Sulphur

The action shifted from the mountains to the meadows the following weekend at the 4th Annual Red Ants Pants  (RAP) Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs. Though this festival is less than five years old, it has already been ranked high in the list of the top 100 things to do in the Treasure State by the Great Falls Tribune (#22. Dance at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs: the Montana Bucket List).

The venue for the RAP festival, while not nestled away in the high peaks like Targhee, is in a high and wide prairie surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides. This festival begins in downtown White Sulphur Springs on Thursday night: the streets are shut down and live music begins. This year two bands with Livingston roots, Someday Miss Pray and The Bus Driver Tour, kept the street dance lively and got the festival rolling on a high note.

The music got rolling at the venue on the Jackson Ranch just north of town on Friday afternoon with The Hasslers, a Missoula-based band that was voted best band on the side stage last year, guaranteeing them a slot on the main stage this summer (Reports are that The Hasslers played long into the early morning hours in the camp area, to the delight of many and the chagrin of a very few). Jessie Veeder hit the main stage next, followed up by those hard-working Hooligans, who filled in for an ill Holly Williams, and Ian Tyson got the crowd warmed up well for Friday night’s headliner, Jason Isbell.

Tom Catmull’s Radio Static band got the festival started on Saturday, followed up by a band that was, for me, the big hit (and not totally unexpected) of the weekend, Baskery. Three sisters from Sweden comprise this alternative Americana band that wowed the RAP audience with their fresh, hard-driving sound and great stage performance. These girls should have a bright future in the music business. Retro rocker JD McPherson hit the main stage after Baskery, followed by the story-telling singer/songwriter James McMurtry. Matt Andersen kept the main stage hot for the smiling Josh Ritter, and Saturday’s headliner, Brandie Carlile, kept the audience animated with a delightful show and a real connection with the crowd.

It was warm on Sunday as the festival began to wind down, but the music stayed quite hot until the end. Red Molly, another female Americana trio, started the action on the main stage, followed by the hot sounds of the Black Lillies.

Three-time RAP festival favorite Corb Lund and his Hurtin’ Albertans returned to the main stage next, lighting a fire under a crowd undoubtedly growing weary as the festival wound down, and the festival grounds were still packed with people as Sunday’s headliner and country music legend Charley Pride made his way onto the main stage. Backed by a band of seasoned professionals, Pride did not disappoint the crowd gathered to hear him sing, and his performance was the perfect way to cap off another successful Red Ants Pants Music Festival.

While both Targhee Fest and the Red Ants Pants Music Festival have their roots in live performances, both events offer much more than music. Both events are considered to be family-friendly affairs, and both venues really showcase the some of the best scenery the region has to offer. See you on the festival trail!