this just in from Great Falls

Stone Soup Productions presents

Who: MONTANA SLIM STRING BAND
         from San Francisco
What: original & traditional bluegrass

When: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010 @ 7 PM
Where: 1ST ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH (726 – 2nd Avenue North)
How much: $10

Tickets at: Vintage Sellers (105 Smelter Avenue in the 2J’s Complex),
– Planet Earth (116 Central Avenue),
– Penny’s
Gourmet To Go (815 Central Avenue),
– First English Lutheran Church
office (112 – 8th Street North)
– or out-of-town folks may call
406-771-1544 to reserve tickets. 

Yep, the name says Montana but they’re actually from San Francisco, and this is one very talented young outfit.  Montana Slim were in alists in the 2009 NorthWest String Summit Band Competition and they’re working their way around the western United States right now in support of their CD “Slim Pickins.”  Sandy & I were down in the Bay Area at Thanksgiving and we got to catch two brilliant sets of original bluegrass music at The Connecticut Yankee so when MSSB called to say they were going to be coming up through Montana, we figured we’d better throw a Stone Soup hoedown.

Brent McClain: mandolin, vocals
Jesse Dunn: rhythm guitar, vocals
Sean Duerr: lead acoustic guitar, vocals
Turi Hoiseth: fiddle, vocals
Dave Lockhart: upright bass

My favorite review of MSSB’s music:

“A lone mandolin announces their arrival. Like much of the full-length
debut from the Montana Slim String Band, it’s a classically high
lonesome sound adapted to something quite non-Bill Monroe. While the
pluck and snap of the instruments harks back to a fine lineage of
mountain music and bluegrass, there’s subtle modernity to their tales,
appealing boy-girl harmonies and nuanced playing. Montana Slim is a
direct descendant of fellow S.F. region granddaddies Old And In The
Way, and they exude a similar love for good songs played with open
feeling and strong sincerity. From the remodeled sea shanty that begins
this 11-track song cycle to the speedily picked ode to love’s
intoxicating fullness that closes the collection, Slim Pickins
encapsulates a very pure string band aesthetic that’s likely to flip
the wig of anyone into Hot Buttered Rum, Chatham County Line and other
contemporaries. But like these peers, there’s a personal thread
stitched into the traditional vibe, a line of color that emerges in
pockets and accents that stray off the beaten path. This ain’t no
“jam-grass” but it’s clear there’s plenty going on upstairs in this
classy, strongly musical ensemble that I think Mother Maybelle would
have loved.”

– Dennis Cook, Jambase

http://www.myspace.com/MontanaSlimMusic
Click the link above and you can listen to some of their songs.  I strongly
recommend “Don’t Fly Away” and “Whiskey Ain’t My Wife.”

This band, well… dare I say it? Yes, I do!  This band kicks butt!  Tight harmonies, solid pickin’, great original songs, and fine covers all say that the future of acoustic music is in VERY good hands with young people like Montana Slim String Band. 

Don’t look for a piece in the Trib’s Hot Ticket because once again I’ve gone and missed the deadline (d’oh!), but if I’ve learned anything in this town over the years it’s that I can always count on friends to share things around by word-of-mouth.  Your help, please?  Maybe even forward this email to some friends? 

Here’s hoping we’ll see you this Saturday night for music that’s guaranteed to chase the winter blues away!

+ Tim Christensen