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The Old Time Revue is an evening house concert featuring a host of performances from some fine Montana old time string bands.

Musicians will play short sets, showcasing the best of their talent and skill on fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Performances run from 7 to 9:30 pm with a short intermission and a post-event open old time jam!

Featuring the following stringbands:

• Nobo
• Missoula Winders and Friends
• Bill LaCroix
• Second Thoughts
• FLAT Fiddlers
• The Woodhogs
• Hardy and Rod
• Lake Missoula Old Time Slow Jam

Suggested donation is $10 or $20 per family. All proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to support the Fourth Annual Old Time Social, an all-ages celebration of old time music and dance with three days of workshops, concerts, jams, square dances, and a grand cakewalk.

For over twenty years, Philadelphia’s Seamus Egan blazed a new trail for Irish music in America. At the head of the supergroup Solas, he toured the world and pushed the music in new directions, incorporating complex arrangements, stunning virtuosity, and elements of global and Americana music. His work defined Irish music for multiple generations and set a benchmark that still hasn’t been matched. As a composer, Egan put his stamp on film soundtracks, symphonic collaborations, and, most famously, co-wrote Sarah McLachlan’s smash hit, “I Will Remember You.” But what happens when a trailblazer needs to take a step back? Egan found himself asking that question when confronted with two major life changes: his band Solas went on hiatus, opening up more time for his own music making, and he moved from his long-time home in Philadelphia to rural Vermont. “Both things coalesced not by design,” Egan says, “but they came together at the same time. I liked the symmetry of it.” Holed up in his Vermont cabin, Egan finally had time to go through tunes and melodies he’d composed over the years. Inspired by this time alone with his music, he enlisted close friends and collaborators to make a new album of entirely instrumental music, Early Bright, to be released January 17, 2020. Throughout, the goal of Egan’s new work was to reweave the threads of the Irish roots music he knows so well with a more compositional perspective, drawing from classical influences like Bach, Segovia, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, and modern composers like Meredith Monk and Philip Glass.

Early Bright marks Seamus Egan’s first solo album in twenty-three years, following on the heels of his groundbreaking 1996 instrumental album When Juniper Sleeps. Much has changed since then, back when he was known for the blazing pyrotechnics and jaw dropping virtuosity of his first incarnation as a precocious child prodigy in the tradition. “What does virtuosity mean now?” he asks. “I think the most important thing to me is the musicality of something. That’s always been important, but it’s the conveyance of understanding and hopefully a little bit of wisdom in the note chosen and the space that’s left between notes. When you’re younger, you’re bursting with energy and you want to get the notes out! I think that as time goes on, you start to pull back a little and you realize you can say the same thing without as many notes. It can be just as impressive, just in a different way.” Egan was always known for his abilities on a wide variety of instruments, winning multiple All-Ireland Championships while still a teenager, and Early Bright sees him shining on these many instruments again, playing tenor banjo, nylon string guitar, low whistles, mandolin, keyboard, and percussion. And though he’s got a wiser outlook on the music now, his whistle playing “Tournesol” and his nylon string guitar on “B Bump Bounce” still race effortlessly around hairpin musical turns that would trip up any other musician.

From the first, delicate opening notes through to the melancholic, yet hopeful, closing track, Early Bright, showcases the virtuosity Egan has become renowned for, while also bringing his superb original compositions to the fore. He has written music inspired by childhood memories and ruminations on our yearning to connect and our need to be heard. The new album gave him a space to dive into his own vision of the music, unencumbered by a large band. “I had a strong notion of where I saw the arrangements going,” he says. “After making so many albums with the band you get in a sort of pattern. There’s a comfort in that, but sometimes you can fall into a rut as well.” With Egan returning to a focus on composition and arranging, the cohesiveness behind each track is all the more impressive since he doesn’t read or write music. Having learned entirely by ear as a traditional art, he brings a more organic view to composition than most classical composers. Joining Egan on Early Bright are renowned guitarist Kyle Sanna, New England bouzouki player Owen Marshall, vocalist/accordionist Moira Smiley, bassist Joe Phillips, and Juno award-winners The Fretless String Quartet, with string arrangements by Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist. Each of these musicians intimately understands Egan’s vision: to focus is on the melody first, and to make each arrangement an exercise in subtlety and restraint. It makes for a rich listening experience, and for Egan a chance to step away from the pressures and intensity of leading one of the most respected Irish bands in the world. “The whirlwind of band existence,” he says, “can take you away from the reasons you were doing it all in the first place: to play and write music.” With Early Bright, Seamus Egan was able to slow down, to focus inwardly on his own creative muse, and to fall back in love with the subtle melodies of the music.

Grammy-winning guitarist Bill Mize is a son of Tennessee, and a fitting representative of his state’s rich musical heritage. His critically lauded fingerstyle compositions are fluid and intricate, and their delivery masterful. One suspects an influential teacher, and one would be right. “I received most of my musical education from a cheap Zenith radio,” says Mize, who as a child drifted off to sleep to the decidedly non-sleepy lullabies emanating from Nashville’s WLAC and WSM and Knoxville’s WNOX.

Maybe that’s why critics speak of his ability to “transport” the listener; the music itself has been transported. The links to his Tennessee roots are unmistakable, but so are the elements of the far wider musical realm he inhabits, and the mixture is as intoxicating as Tennessee moonshine. With a twist.

Bill is a past winner of the Winfield National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition, and received a GRAMMY Award for his collaboration with musician and storyteller David Holt on the recording Stellaluna. Popular acoustic guitar compilations “Windham Hill Guitar Sampler” by Windham Hill Records and “Masters of the Acoustic Guitar” by Narada Records included works. In 2009, Bill’s music appeared in the Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” Mel Bay Productions transcribed Mize’s second CD, “Tender Explorations,” into a songbook, and his original compositions have been transcribed for Fingerstyle Guitar and Acoustic Guitar magazines. 

Beth Bramhall, Janet Haarvig and Beth Youngblood comprise the core of Ouzel, and perform a colorful set of original acoustic art music on violin, cello, accordion and piano. All three have performed as “side-women” for a number of other artists and ensembles; and have been heard as featured performers and in projects and live productions including concerts, film soundtracks, NPR, PBS, live theatre, and at new music festivals.

Tickets: $20 suggested donation

More information: www.billmize.com

The Timber Rattlers are an energetic bluegrass quartet from Missoula, MT. They pull inspiration from their traditional roots, but continue to push their boundaries in the realm of acoustic music. Each member has spent extensive time touring and in the studio. From the west coast to parts of Europe.

MEMBERS:

Jesse Brown – A violinist who has genre hopped many bands and instruments. He is most known for his years spent with “The Lil’ Smokies” both touring and writing music. You can also catch him playing with legendary Montana band “Mission Mountain Wood Band”.

Jamie Drysdale – A class act guitarist with on-point bluegrass runs. Naturally entertaining the crowd with his quick, witty humor. He is always writing unique and ear-catching originals. Also known for his touring/songwriting with the Jackson Hole band “The Random Canyon Growlers”

Dillon Johns – A recent graduate of the music program at The University of Montana. He now teaches elementary school music, passing on his extensive knowledge of music to the next generation. You can also catch him playing his groovy bass lines in the band “The Letter B”.

Caleb Dostal – A prodigy in the field of contemporary banjo. Caleb has been playing since he was 11. He first heard the banjo on some old CD’s around the house and fell in love with the sound, and from then on has had an almost inhuman drive to improve his ability and discover more of the possibilities that the banjo holds.

Rachel will be giving a concert and a workshop for all fiddle-players.  Bring your instrument.

Inspired by her Norwegian roots, Rachel has built a career around her love of music, performance, teaching, and Scandinavian tradition. She earned her BA in Music and Norwegian from St. Olaf College in 2007, followed by a master’s degree in Violin Performance and K-12 Teaching Certificate from Central Washington University in 2011. Rachel completed additional studies in both classical and jazz violin at the Music Conservatory of the University of Stavanger, Norway, also using the opportunity to polish her Norwegian language skills. Although violin is her main jam, Rachel is an avid Hardanger Fiddler (the national folk instrument of Norway), an aspiring violist, an enthusiastic conductor, and a novice improv actor!

Rachel’s love of playing music includes her dedication to teaching. She absolutely loves coaching summer camps such as the Seattle Rock Orchestra Summer Intensive, Icicle Creek Summer Symphony, and Pipestone Music Camp. Always inspired to wear many different hats, she also conducts the West Seattle Community Orchestras’ Debut Symphony. The group is a fun, full orchestra that consists of players of all ages (youngest age 8 and oldest 80!) who have 1-3 years of experience playing their instruments.

Fellow Pynins is an award winning contemporary folk duo with a keen and bucolic sense of vocal harmony and song craft. The live performance is a whimsically emotional escapade through the chasms of our, yes, feelings.. Dashed with spontaneous and clever banter, mirth and woe, you will probably cry and quite possibly laugh, a lot. Wielding claw-hammer banjo, Irish bouzouki, mandolin, and acoustic guitar the duo sings predominantly original music as well as reworked traditional ballads gathered from their travels.