The Black Lillies, Americana’s rock-and-rollers, return to Southwest Montana
by Skip Anderson
Cruz Contreras is a fit man, maybe approaching 40, maybe a year or so past. His salt-and-pepper hair flops down in locks when he stomps the pedals with his dusty cowboy boots to control the sound of his guitar. The effect is an enviable blend of ruggedness and playfulness, and the trials of the past decade or so seem to have engrained a confidence into him regarding what might be just around the corner. Sometimes that might mean a lineup change to his hard-touring band The Black Lillies. Other times it might mean a thief steals nearly everything he owns. But, as children play on a sun-splashed hillside in front of a stage erected behind the Bozeman Library, what’s just around the corner will be his band performing “Earthquake” off their 2018 album, Stranger to Me. The Black Lillies reliably wowed audiences with the stirring song at shows over the past year, just as they did as the Sunday headliners at last summer’s Sweet Pea Festival.
Its three-part harmonies breathe an airy buoyancy into the song, pointing to CSNY as much the Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road.” In fact, it’s easy to imagine country music’s Little Big Town taking it to the country/crossover charts. Although, it’s unlikely Stephen Stills performed shirtless while wearing oversized bear-claw slippers like freewheeling bassist Sam Quinn did last summer in Bozeman.
“That was one of the loosest shows of the run,” Contreras tells The BoZone. “In that environment, we can really be ourselves. We don’t have to act too proper or too polished – it’s easy just to be yourself. At least a couple of guys were playing without shirts, and Sam had a raccoon tail clipped to his bass.”
The Black Lillies may be based some 1,900 miles from Bozeman, but that doesn’t stop the foursome from Knoxville, Tennessee, a city on the western periphery of the Great Smoky Mountains, from playing in Montana with notable regularly. In fact, they’ve got three upcoming Montana dates set, including Bozeman’s Live from the Divide venue and syndicated radio program on April 17th, followed by a show at Pine Creek Lodge in Livingston on April 19th. They’re also slated to play Missoula’s River City Roots Festival in late August.
“I think we’ll be back in Montana in July, too. I just don’t know when or where yet,” Contreras says. “I feel a connection and a kindredness with Montana. Bozeman has a mountain culture undercurrent to it. And, my musical upbringing was in the mountain culture with microbrews and outdoor life, so it’s easy to relate to the people out there. Plus, the brand of music is a great fit out west. Bozeman is obviously a great place, and I love touring in the west in general. The drives between shows are beautiful and so inspiring.”
It’s a good thing for Contreras that he likes it out here. The band’s tour van – a Mercedes Sprinter – died after the last summer’s Sweet Pea gig. Fortunately, that was the last stop on the western leg of their tour and had scheduled the next week or so to be off.
“That was a great week, actually,” he says. “I got to see American Aquarium at Live from the Divide, and Robert Earl Keen and Lukas Nelson on the lawn at [Montana State University]. I saw Ian Thomas play at The Ellen, and I got to see Turnpike Troubadours [at the Old Saloon in Emigrant]. I also got to fish on the Yellowstone. I really enjoyed myself.”
Before the Sweet Pea gig, however, the band filmed the video to “Midnight Stranger” in the Sip ’n Dip Mermaid Bar and Tiki Lounge in Great Falls. If you blink, you might miss bassist Sam Quinn in swimming behind the bar in mermaid regalia – shirtless, of course. But, blink all you want and you still won’t miss country artist Jason Wickens, also the co-owner of Live from the Divide studio, who plays a prominent role that offers a twist at the end.
The Black Lillies, founded in 2008, has remade itself over the years. Today, Contreras is the lone torchbearer of the original lineup. But make no mistake – this is no ragtag outfit of road-weary musicians hanging on for the sake of hanging on. The Black Lillies are focused and energized, building on its reputation for musicianship, showmanship, and rock-and-roll energy, not unlike the Mavericks circa 1990s (minus the support of a major label).
The Black Lillies formed in the wake of Contreras’ divorce from Robin Ella, who was also his bandmate at the time in Robinella and the CCstringband, an eclectic ensemble that walked the line between bluegrass and “old timey jazz,” as Contreras puts it. Almost immediately, he began writing the songs that would comprise the Black Lillies debut record, the critically acclaimed Whiskey Angel (2009). Interestingly, the band’s first performance would be the album’s release party. Contreras hadn’t even bothered to name the band until the record was nearly complete. Almost as an afterthought, he lifted the name from the album’s 10th track, a mournful ode to a failed relationship, “Where the Black Lillies Grow.”
“If I had to name the band now, I probably wouldn’t choose ‘the Black Lillies,’” Contreras says. “When we started out, people thought we were either a heavy metal band, or we’re an all-girl band, or that we’re all black.”
Though it’s easy to see the that band is none of these, what it is, he concedes, can be hard to define.
“There was a time that the type of music we play was called alt-country. And maybe that’s what we are,” he says. “But, with our blues and rock influences, maybe that’s why we’re called Americana quite often, too.”
The Black Lillies would find success early, playing Bonnaroo, the Grand Ole Opry and CMA Festival/Fan Fair shortly after forming. They’d play the venerable Mountain Stage and showcase at AmericanaFest, too. They’d tour, averaging 175 shows per year for nine years, according to a post on the band’s Facebook page. And they’d make records and replace band members as circumstance warranted. In January 2016, however, the Black Lillies would face a nightmare scenario that every touring band surely considers each time they lock their gear up for the night: thieves absconded into the damp Houston night with their van and the trailer attached to it, which contained their instruments, PA equipment, etc. – everything a six-piece band would need to be self-sustaining on the road for weeks on end. All told, the loss was about $140,000. Insurance and fan support helped cover a portion of the loss. But it was a devastating blow, nonetheless.
“Shortly afterward, two of my most veteran guys left the group,” Contreras said. “After six years on the road, we were tired. There’s that moment when you look across the room at each other and ask, ‘How are we going to do this?’”
Instead of packing it in, he opted to rebuild. By 2016, the current lineup would be in place, comprised by strong musicians each of whom is also a songwriter: the aforementioned Sam Quinn (bass, previously with the Everybodyfields), Dustin Schaefer (guitar, previously with Micky & the Motorcars), and Bowman Townsend on drums.
“Through the lineup change and the changing chemistry of the band, I became preoccupied with a team mentality,” Contreras says. “Respect became really important to me, and I think that helped bring out the best in all of us.”
To introduce the new lineup to its sizable fanbase acquired through years of crisscrossing the country time and again, the Black Lillies launched a weekly Facebook Live campaign called “The Sprinter Sessions,” featuring acoustic versions of new songs, some of which Contreras swears the band finished writing minutes before the webcast began. These weren’t high-production performances – they were streamed live, often from inside that Mercedes Sprinter (hence the name). It was a months-long coming-out party, of sorts, conveying Contreras’ confidence in the new songs while showcasing the respective talents of the new band.
“In some ways, ‘The Sprinter Sessions’ made us the band we are today,” says bassist Quinn, who joined the Black Lillies in 2015. “Because we were writing the songs on the road and performing them so quickly after completing them, I think that took some pressure off Cruz to do as much as he had been doing beforehand. Now, he can be a player more than just the lead guy, and maybe enjoy himself on stage more than he had for a while. We don’t do that play-monkey-play bullshit anymore. There’s a lightness to what we’re doing, and that lightness comes from being in a band that’s writing very good songs and putting on very good shows.”
With the new lineup in place, the Black Lillies started planning its next record. It launched a crowdsourcing effort to fund the production of Stranger to Me (Thirty Tigers, 2017). And one donation in particular would lead Contreras to writing the song that would eventually become backbone of the album: the aforementioned “Earthquake” (watch a live performance on the band’s official YouTube channel). A couple from Colorado – fans of the band who had become friends with Contreras over the years – had donated to the funding campaign. In return, he wrote a love song for them.
“I ended up writing ‘Earthquake,’” Contreras says. “I sent them the song. But I also knew that I wanted to put it on the record. The husband is a combat veteran, which is reflected in the original lyrics. So, I asked them if they’d mind if I changed it up a bit for the record.”
By early 2018, the band headed to Echo Mountain studio in Asheville, NC, armed with a newfound lushness. The result is Stranger to Me, a 13-song record that runs the gamut from straight-up rock and roll, to alt-country and blues, which pretty much means they fall under the nebulous, catch-all umbrella of Americana – a genre whose common denominator may be as simple as a one-two punch of strong songwriting and lack of major-label support.
“I understand why people say we’re Americana,” he says. “But if you see the Black Lillies perform live, you’re going to see a great rock and roll show, plain and simple.”
Also plain and simple is the fan-centric Patreon website the band recently launched (www.patreon.com/theblacklillies). Behind a contribute-what-you-want paywall, fans will find exclusive content such as a new generation of the band’s popular “Sprinter Sessions” videos, live chats, and possibly duo performances with Contreras and his younger brother Billy Contreras, a seriously talented fiddle player.
“Billy and I have been talking about doing a duo project of some sort for a while now,” Contreras says. “It won’t be the No. 1 thing for either of us. But it’s definitely something we might present on the Patreon page.”
If you weren’t lucky enough to score tickets to the Black Lillies sold-out Live from the Divide show, Contreras & Co. bring a Friday night performance to Livingston’s Pine Creek Lodge on April 19th. Local country artist Ian Thomas will open at 7pm. Advance tickets to this all-ages show are $20 at www.pinecreeklodgemontana.com. Tickets will also be available at the door for $25, depending on availability.
Sandwiched between the Gallatin and Paradise Valley shows, the Black Lillies will play Helena’s Lewis & Clark Tap Room on Thursday, April 18th at 7pm. Ticketing and further information is available at www.lctaproom.com.
Learn more about band at www.theblacklillies.com or find them on Facebook for updated tour details and other announcements. Their latest album, Stranger to Me, is available now.
Skip Anderson is an award-winning music journalist previously based in Nashville, Tennessee. He relocated to Bozeman in 2016. •
