Here’s a nice article about Mike and Tari Conroy, written by Will Moss at the Ravalli Republic circa spring 2009.  Visit the Ravalli Republic Online to read reader comments on the story. 

Home grown music returns
by WILL MOSS – Ravalli Republic
  

Mike & Tari Conroy

STEVENSVILLE – Home grown music at its finest is flat-picking its way into the Bitterroot this month, with the return of the Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association Oldtime Bluegrass Festival.

The festival will be held Saturday, April 18 in the Stevensville High School multi-purpose room. The music starts at noon and continues until 10:30 p.m.

Organized by the local bluegrass duo Mike and Tari Conroy of Conner, this year’s get together marks the festival’s 10th anniversary.

We’ve been in bluegrass a long time,” said Mike. “About 10 years ago we thought it would be fun to get together some of our friends – and everybody was real excited about doing it – so 10 years now we’ve been doing it.

The musicians like it so much that, every year I put out an e-mail in the spring saying it’s time to sign up bands, and within 24-hours I’ve got 18 bands signed up …. To come and play for free, that’s phenomenal.

This year’s line-up features bands from as far away as Missoula, Great Falls, Idaho Falls, Grangeville and Salmon including the bands Pinegrass, Three Rivers Bluegrass, the Salmon Valley Stringband, the Black Mtn. Boys, Ramblin’ Rose, Spring Thaw, the Accousticals, Uncle Bacca Juice and many more. Organizers Mike and Tari Conroy will perform as well.

We run 18 bands in 10 hours, so each band does a half-hour set. The first couple years it was kind of rough, but now we’ve got this big clock that we set on the stage - said Mike
It’s just like clockwork.

The Conroys, who focus their repertoire on old, traditional tunes such as “I’ll Fly Away” and “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” expect that folks will enjoy the range of bluegrass music on display at the festival.

We like the old-time bluegrass the best. To me, it’s really primal. It’s just got this old, primal mountain sound. I guess that’s what drew us into it - said Mike.

For older people, a lot of them hear songs that they haven’t heard since they were a kid, and it’s pretty cool to see that hit somebody’s face when they go ‘Oh! I remember that song,’ and see people singing with you,

Tari added - and at this festival you get [everything] from ours which is as old as we can play to some of the newer stuff and everything in between …. It’s good, clean, family kind of entertainment, so that’s nice.

The festival functions as the major annual fund raiser for the MRBA, which supports itself mainly through member dues.

Bluegrass is a real home grown music - said Mike.
It’s the kind of music that you’d sit around the house and play, which is what all these guys do. So, if you’re interested in, you know, banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and that kind of stuff, this would be the place to come and see what it’s all about.

Admission for the Oldtime Bluegrass Festival is $3 for MRBA members, $5 for non-members and free for children under 12 accompanied by an adult.

Later this summer, the Conroys will present a three-day festival at The Thomas Ranch south of Hamilton.

The HardTimes Bluegrass Festival will take place July 24-26 and will feature bands from Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and Idaho. On-site camping will be available.

For more information on these upcoming events, contact Mike and Tari Conroy at (406) 821-3777 or visit www.mtbluegrass.com.

Reporter Will Moss can be reached at 363-3300 or wmoss@ravallirepublic.com.

Dallas Olson, President

Fellow MRBA members,

On Dec. 5th we will hold our annual meeting at Ruby’s Inn in Missoula.  We encourage you to attend this important meeting as we will be electing officers for the year 2010.  We are in need of some people who are interested, to help as officers, board members, and some great volunteers in order to keep our club functioning and healthy. 

Please check out our website  www.mtbluegrass.com  and if you have any of the business cards Dallas had printed please give them to folks who are interested in our club.

Lois Malikie, Secretary Treasurer

A club is only as good as the members it serves.  It is necessary, in order to sustain a good club, to have dedicated officers and many volunteers to support them in their committees.  Everyone has to be willing to help out.  This is especially true at the time of our Spring Festival in April.  That is the time for many to aid as volunteers in attending the gate, merchandise and helping in the kitchen, so please be willing to pitch in for an hour or two. 

There will be a pizza supper and beverages provided by the club, at the meeting and for jamming afterward.  We hope to see many of you there from 2 PM until whenever the jamming is over.  Come join in the fun.  Let us know if you are coming so we will have plenty of pizza and drinks.  Either call or e-mail Lois at 549-2444 or postage_due@msn.com

Thanks,
Dallas Olson, Pres.
Lois Malikie, Sec/Treas

MRBA Board Member, Brian Herbel, in addition to being a passionate mandolin player, is also a gifted photographer.  If you happen to be in downtown Missoula in the next few days, stop into TacoDel Sol and check out the current show of Brian Herbel’s photography.  It’s truly amazing to see the world through Brian’s camera’s eye.  

Here’s a slideshow from of the Music set of photos on his Flickr site:

I’ve also heard rumor that Brian is now also singing as well as playing bluegrass and old-time music.

Some of us heard Bruce Lee tell this story of his ex-wife’s songwriting debut.  Here’s, the rest of the story.  Go to Billings Gazette Online.  to hear a sample of her song and to read reader comments.  Great job Terry (and Bruce on the melody).

ED KEMMICK Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:15 pm

Right connections help lyricist get her work recorded and on radio

JAMES WOODCOCK/Gazette Staff

 Terry Zee Lee relaxes at her West End Billings home. Lee has written a country song that is doing well in the United States as well as in Japan.  

Terry Zee Lee has been a leather clothing designer, the owner of a horse-drawn trolley and carriages and the organizer of a series of kite exhibits at the Billings Logan International Airport.

She’s still trying to get used to thinking of herself as a country music songwriter.

So far she’s a one-hit wonder, which isn’t bad considering she has written only two songs. She started writing the first one, “Heroes and Horses,” 17 years ago, and at first it was going to be purely about horses.

“The idea came into my mind that there had never been a song listing all the horse breeds,” said the lifelong horsewoman. In time, she began adding the names of late, great country singers and Western painters, imagining them up in heaven with various horses – Will James on a Paso Fino, Johnny Cash and June Carter on geldings and so on.

She sent it off to a few country singers over the years, with no luck. Then, last spring, with the encouragement of her husband, Drake Smith, she asked Billings country disc jockey Lonnie Bell for some advice.

Bell, who seems to know just about everybody in Nashville, sent her to Gene Kennedy, the owner of Door Knob Records, billed as the oldest independent record label in the Music City.

Kennedy liked the lyrics to “Heroes and Horses,” and asked her to get someone to write a melody for it and he’d give it another look. Lee recruited her ex-husband, Bruce Lee, a flat-picking guitarist in Billings, who came up with an old-fashioned waltz melody for the lyrics. He also gave her rights to the song.

That was in February. When Kennedy heard the song, Lee said, he invited her to Nashville. As a newbie, she had to pay her own way down and pay $3,000 for the studio time. Kennedy’s role would be to record, produce and promote the song.

Kennedy said 90 percent of the songwriters he works with are established artists. He said Lee would never have been one of the 10 percent who come in “off the street” if it hadn’t been for his friendship with Bell.

Kennedy originally hoped to have the song sung by Tommy Cash, Johnny’s brother, but he had a conflict at the last minute. As an alternative, Kennedy brought in Ernie Miller, who sings in Kennedy’s church but had never recorded a song before. The closest he’d been to the music industry was driving buses for various stars, including Ozzy Osbourne.

Lee flew to Nashville with her husband, daughter and granddaughter, and they all got to watch the song being made. Just before they went down, Kennedy told her she might want to write another song, since the studio was booked for eight hours and she might as well get her money’s worth. It took her relatively little time to come up with “Twenty-two Years Ago.”

“One takes 17 years. The other takes seven days,” she said.

After getting both songs recorded with a studio full of experienced musicians, Kennedy sent out copies of the song to 200 radio stations in April. To Lee’s delight, it soon made the Country Main Chart and has been climbing ever since.

Kennedy said the Country Main is a chart for mostly new artists and independent labels, tracking song plays on “secondary market” radio stations. If a song reaches the range of No. 30 to 25, he said, it will probably get onto the Billboard country chart, the industry standard.

As of Tuesday, Kennedy said, “Heroes and Horses” was No. 37 on the Country Main Chart. And in Japan, it was No. 4 on the play list of Real Country, one of the larger country music stations in that country.

Bell said the Japanese have long been big fans of country music. When he was in the Navy in 1958, he said, “they was playing country music in Japan like you couldn’t believe.”

Under her arrangement with Door Knob Records, Lee gets a nickel every time the song is played on one of the radio stations. This week it was averaging 1,400 plays a week. She’s not getting rich, but she’s still amazed.

“I can’t really appreciate it because I’ve never done anything like this,” she said.

Kennedy said the one who really appreciates it is Ernie Miller, the singer.

“He’s on cloud nine,” he said. “Cloud nine. He just never expected this.”

 Posted in Local on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:15 pm Updated: 9:50 am. | Tags: Terry Zee Lee

The Spokane Symphony brought Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers to town last month and are bringing Cherryholmes in November.

Here’s a video with Steep Canyon Rangers, Steve Martin, Cherryholmes and MORE

Date:  Nov 20, 2009
Time: 7:00 PM    
Location:  The Wilma

The Missoula Family YMCA is celebrating its first year of community music programs with an all-ages musical variety show on Friday, November 20 at the Wilma Theater. YMusic’s Jamophilia Extravaganza will feature adults, teens and kids who have participated in YMCA music programs, such as group classes in guitar, harmony singing, banjo, cello, fiddle and more. Two YMusic singing groups — the Missoula Coyote Choir and the Meadowlark Singers — will perform, as well as YMusic instructors, including members of Tom Catmull & the Clerics, Broken Valley Roadshow, Wartime Blues, Cash for Junkers and other leaders of the local music scene.

Learn to jam with other bluegrass minded folks when Nate Biehl leads a Bluegrass Band class this and every Wed. at 6:30 PM for five weeks at the YMCA, 3000 S. Russell St. $45/$40 members. Call 721-YMCA

When: Wednesday’s Oct. 21 – Nov 18, 2009, 6:30 p.m. 2009
Phone: 406-721-9622
Price: $45/$40 members
Location:  YMCA Missoula, 3000 S. Russell St.
Contact:  406-721-9622

this just in from Mike & Tari

i got my son working on a website for the hardtimes festival… we’re getting plumb high-toned… mike

 

The website address is www.hardtimesbluegrass.com.