This sat January 10th will be the MRBA jam at Ruby’s motel in Missoula.. Potluck at 6pm.. jammin before and after….Usually several different jams in several different rooms. Come join in the fun….ALL BLUEGRASS LOVERS WELCOME …Mike Conroy
Our 16th annual MRBA Oldtime Bluegrass Festival will be April 18th again at the Lone Rock school, north west of Stevensville Mt.. (1112 three mile creek). Music starts at 12 noon and continues nonstop til 10 pm… 18 bands will be featured -admission $5 for adults and $3 for MRBA members, 12 and under free with adult.
For more info Tariconroy@webtv.net or 1-406-821-3777
Hi all. as of january 2015 i will be the new president of the MRBA. My plan is to get more things going on, and to involve more people- including kids, new members and seasoned veterans in our bluegrass music association.. We’ll start off with the winter Ruby’s motel jams January 10, Feb 14 and the march jam is a week later than usual- march 21…see calendar
A Brand new event starting January 31st in Stevensville at the Chantily Theater will be the MRBA Hootenanny.. We’ll have a sign up sheet there for folks to take turns playing in front of the crowd.. Not just for bands, individuals are encouraged to pick backup musicians from the many folks there and play on stage. Or you can bring your own group. The store next door will be open for jamming and warming up to play. Invite anyone that loves bluegrass to come join in the fun. times a waistin- let’s get to pickin and grinnin.. mike conroy
Hootenanny poster–
The MRBA is having an old time Hootenanny at the Chantilly Theater in Stevensville on January 31st 2015… We’ll have a sign up sheet for folks to take a turn playing on stage. This is not just for bands, if you would like to pick or sing on stage there will be many musicians there willing to back you up… We also can use the business next door for warm-up and jamming. Come join in the FUN.. MRBA’s Fearless Leader and Head mop squeezer– Mike Conroy
| Event Date | January 31st 2015 |
| Event Time | 1-4 pm |
| Event Title | MRBA Hootenanny |
| Event Location | Chantily theater on main street Stevensville |
| Event Contact phone or email | 821-3777 |
Business Meeting at 2:00 DECEMBER 13 2014.
Following the business meeting there will be jamming around 3:00, followed by potluck dinner at 6:00, and more jamming to follow. The association is furnishing the main course. Please bring a side dish or dessert and a door prize (something musical or funny, not expensive).
bring your instruments and your songs and come have a good time with us at Ruby Inn on north Reserve, Missoula MT
Jim Widner’s daughters are having a 90th birthday party for Jim at the Darby clubhouse on Sat -October 11th from 2pm to 6pm. They will have a sign up sheet there for musicians to take turns playing on the microphone…Potluck at 2pm… Come join in the fun…
Jim Widner has lived in the same apartment in Darby for nearly a half century. He settled there after the band, the Snake River Outlaws, split and went their seperate ways. He never stopped fiddling. Widner was crowned national champion at old fiddle contests on a two occassions. In a small apartment on Darby’s main street, there lives a living legend.
Sixty years ago, Widner was a member of a band called the Snake River Outlaws. In the 1950s, the four Idaho musicians made the airwaves sing from a small stage inside the Sunshine Bar at the corner of Missoula’s Woody and Alder streets. “It was Montana’s skid row back then,” Widner said. Gathered close to the microphone emblazoned with the letters KXLL, the young men played a popular style of old-time country music that ended up aired on radios in a half-dozen Western states.
After band members married and went their own way, Widner started entering fiddle contests on his weekends away from work at the Darby sawmills. He was crowned national old-time fiddle champion on a number of occasions and folks from everywhere took notice.
“Anywhere we go, when people learn where we live, they ask us if we know that fiddler from Darby,” said Mike Conroy, the organizer of Hardtimes Bluegrass Festival, “He’s the only living legend that I know.”
Jimmy Widner’s apartment is filled with memories of times when people stood and clapped as he made his fiddle sing. “A fiddle can do just about anything if you know how to make it do it,” Widner said, as he leaned back in his kitchen chair. Just behind him is a wall filled with a packed trophy case, photographs and other mementoes of his musical career. “I’ve given back quite a few of my trophies,” Widner said “I just didn’t have room for them here.”
Born into a musical family – his dad was a fiddler who worked on the railroad – Widner didn’t really take to the fiddle in his younger years. But that early introduction to music came in handy after he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II. Widner spent a good deal of time on troop transport ships moving back and forth between the Pacific and European theaters. He found that some of those ships had a collection of musical instruments that soldiers could check out for a day.
“I learned to play by ear,” he said. “I didn’t really have any particular teacher. It is a gift that the Lord gives you for music. We played whenever we could just for our own enjoyment.” When Widner came home from the war, he managed to get his hands on a better fiddle and began to practice. Eventually he teamed up with Vern Wilburn and began playing at bars for $3 a night. The pair met an itinerant singer who went by the name of Wild Bill Lloyd, the Snake River Outlaw. The three sang together until they found Lloyd dead in the car that he lived in by the railroad depot.
About that time, there was a young kid named Orval Fochtman hanging around the bar and singing to tunes on the jukebox. They enlisted him and Wilburn’s brother to become the Snake River Outlaws. The four were tired of Weiser and so they piled into a 1937 Chevy panel van that had been used as a doughnut wagon and headed north. They ended up in Missoula and the Sunshine Bar.
“We had a monopoly on that town back then,” Widner remembered. “It was really something to be inside the Sunshine Bar when we were playing. You could see winos brushing elbows with people in mink coats. You couldn’t even get inside the bar on a Saturday night, it was so crowded.” Those who couldn’t squeeze in the door would stand outside and dance to the music drifting out of the open windows of parked cars from the performance being broadcast on the radio.
With his earnings, Fochtman purchased a reel-to-reel tape recorder and recorded the group’s live radio program. The Western Folklife Center eventually ended up with those tapes and had the music digitally recorded to produce a CD. These days, Widner is done with contests and other huge events. But he can sure still play. For folks with a good ear like Conroy, Widner hasn’t missed a beat. “There is absolutely no one that sounds like Jimmy Widner. I can be clear across the grounds at the finals and hear his fiddle and instantly know it’s Jim Widner. Many people play music, but Jim just feels the music in his own special way,” Conroy said.
“Sometimes some of those folks will stop by my place and we’ll talk about those days,” he said. “There are getting to be fewer and fewer of them too. It’s been quite an honor to be part of all this. It’s just disappearing fast,” Widner said. “That’s what happens when you get older. There’s just not that many around who remember those good old times.”
Snowbowl Presents
The David Grisman Sextet
September 14TH 2014 at 5PM
TICKETS ON SALE MAY 15TH 2014
Limited VIP Packages& “Early-bird” prices for General Admission available!
Tickets available at www.SnowbowlMountainMusic.com
Bluegrass legend David Grisman takes the stage with “The David Grisman Sextet” for the inaugural concert of the new concert series “Snowbowl Mountain Music” at Missoula’s local ski hill Montana Snowbowl, Sunday Sept. 14th 5PM. Local favorites “The Lil’ Smokies” will open.
Tickets go on sale Thursday May 15th. Tickets will be available online at snowbowlmountainmusic.com. A limited number of “VIP” packages ($65) will be available to purchase which include premium seating & parking and a special commemorative concert package. A limited number of “Early Bird” tickets ($35/$32 Adult/Student & Senior 65 ) will also be available until sold-out for General Admission. General Admission tickets will be available at Rockin’ Rudy’s and a dedicated box office location at a later date TBA.
About the Artist:
An acoustic pioneer and innovator, mandolinist/composer bandleader/producer David Grisman has forged a unique personal artistic path for nearly half a century, skillfully combining elements of the great American music/art forms — jazz and bluegrass with many international flavors and sensibilities to create his own distinctive idiom — “Dawg” music (the nickname given him by Jerry Garcia.) In doing so, he’s inspired new generations of acoustic string musicians, while creating his own niche in contemporary music. His career is littered with recording and performance collaborations with the biggest contemporary artists of our day including Sam bush, Jerry Garcia, Del McCoury, the Grateful Dead, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, and James Taylor.
In the 30 years since forming the seminal group the David Grisman Quintet, David’s ensembles have won numerous polls and awards, headlining major jazz, folk and bluegrass festivals around the world.
Come enjoy an evening with David Grisman under an open sky at the base of Montana Snowbowl, offering an epic experience in-synch with the natural beauty offered at Missoula’s local ski hill.
Sam Bush, a well-known mandolin player, will headline this year’s River City Roots Festival in downtown Missoula. The annual music, arts and culture festival is set for Aug. 23-24.
Bush won the 2009 Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement award, is known as a founding member of Newgrass Revival, and is considered the originator of “Newgrass” music. His most recent album “Circles Around Me” was No. 3 on the U.S. bluegrass charts.
Bush will play from 8:30-10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24, on the Main Street main stage. The rest of the 2014 line-up will be announced at a later date.
Roots Fest is an admission-free festival that drew more than 15,000 people last year. The two-day event also features a juried art show, a four-mile competitive and fun run, a family fun festival in Caras Park, and a 15-vendor food court on Ryman Street. The 2014 event will also include a stand-up paddle board competition to be held on the Clark Fork River.
