Interview: Local Artist Spotlight – August 2017

Summer may be coming to a close, but there’s plenty of live music still happening throughout the greater Bozeman area. Though many talented out-of-towners have brought shows to Southwest Montana this sunny season, some of the best artists are from right here in The Treasure State! Here’s a look at some of our favorites with upcoming performances on the books.

RZ: You’ve got a country/folksy side, and an Americana/rock side. What leads to that variance in your sound?

CH: I think originally it started with my old guitar player. She brought that kind of rock and Americana vibe out of the music that was very country derivative to begin with. I really enjoyed it. I try to hang on to that. I try not to be “categorizeable,” I guess, in the country genre. I think that my writing lends to other things. And it’s also utilitarian. I play a lot of solo shows and I play band shows as well. We can fit a lot of different molds doing different sounds.

RZ: You’ve drawn inspiration from places all over the map. How much of an affect do your surroundings have on the music you create?

CH: They used to have a really large effect on the music that I was creating. As I’ve gotten further along in my career, I’m more nomadic for a couple of reasons. I’m on the road a lot now and I have two residences I’ve kind of figured out how to make work. I’ve come to realize that wherever I go, people are the same. I think I really just get a lot of inspiration from humanism and understanding that people really are quite the same no matter where you are geographically.

RZ: In terms of music, what might we be surprised to hear you listen to or are inspired by?

CH: I love soul music, old jazz, and R&B. I really love Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers. I mostly enjoy all music. I’m not a huge fan of heavy metal. But I really do enjoy the gamut of music. I listen to a lot of songwriters because I want to keep up with the craft, but if I’m on long drives in my car, I listen to jazz and I listen to soul kind of more often that I listen to country music or singer/songwriters. It’s a nice break I guess.

RZ: How do your personal music tastes affect the music you create and perform?

AJH: It’s funny because the music in my cd player [often includes] three Neko Case albums, Hozier, Bon Iver. I’m really liking that, [even though] it’s not the kind of music we play, although Neko Case does sort of sound country at times. It would be fun to adopt a bit of that edge with the sweet country. I’m a born and raised Montana gal, so I’ve got that kind of naivety and sweetness. It would be fun to add that Neko Case edge to the music in up and coming songs. A little more “pistol whip.”

RZ: You have quite a bit of original material. How do you find the balance between that and all the classic covers your shows are known to include?

AJH: A lot of what we cover is what I consider “older country” — Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Hank, Sr. — and then some newer acoustic bluegrass/Americana music like Gillian Welch. Alison Krauss is [also] a big influence. I [recently] bought myself a Merle cd, which I’m sad to admit is my first one, and I’m loving it!

RZ: Of your original material, do you have any particular favorites to play?

AJH: Favorite tunes. Off of This Town, I do really love the song that’s written about Livingston — even though it’s not a very positive song. It’s almost hard to say you really like one of your own songs because you don’t know if you’re sounding conceited or not. One of the favorite songs on Each Little Note is called “Simone,” which is written about the ghost of Boulder Hot Springs. They have a guitar hanging in their lobby area where people sit after soaking. So I took the guitar, missing a string, up to my room and wrote a song about this Simone who was a woman and a prostitute murdered in the 1920s by a baron. The Inn is supposedly haunted by Simone. She wanders the halls, not able to leave. She has her own suite on the second or third floor. You could stay in that room if you wanted to. That’s one of my favorite tunes.

RZ: How do you think this Pink Floyd tribute band has amassed the following and popularity it has in the time since 2007?

LF: A lot of it is the material. Obviously the material is gold. Not very far behind it is people we have surround ourselves with [and] who have joined us on our journey. We are family and we love to play music together, and it shows. We’re not afraid to go off the script a little bit. Sometimes we’ll pick a couple songs and mash them up together. Sometimes we’ll have songs where it’s say, Roger Waters singing, but we’ve chosen Jeni Fleming to sing. Or “Coming Back to Life,” a David Gilmour song off of The Division Bell, and Jeni sings it. It adds a whole new dynamic and kind of revitalizes it. We put some youthful energy into it and try to attack it with full force. We don’t nail everything perfectly, note-for-note, but that’s never been what we’ve been going for. We always just wanted to play the music and give absolute tribute to it. That’s what separates us between a tribute band and cover band. [We] have one band to focus on. You get to just focus on that music, that idea. We absolutely have fun with it and it really shows. I’ve heard this comment from more than a few people who say, “I necessarily don’t like Pink Floyd, but I love Pinky and the Floyd.” Not to take anything away from Pink Floyd, but they like our energy and our take on it. They like the band itself, not just us doing this particular music.

RZ: So Pinky is returning for the “Back to School Block Party” at Bridger Brewing. What is it about this particular outdoor show that keeps you and the concertgoers coming back?

LF: Oh my goodness. Well, for one, it kind of kicks off the school year. A lot of those folks, the people who just move into the dorms. It’s a nice college event. They can cut loose a little bit before they have to get into the full swing. Living in Montana and in this area, sometimes we aren’t afforded many outdoor shows during the summer. We’ll take all we can get because Montana summers are something to behold and to be a part of. It’s fantastic. We’ll knock on wood, keep our fingers crossed — sometimes late August can bring us some of that fall weather we don’t look forward to.

RZ: Your sound is a blend of old-time bluegrass and “newgrass.” How would you describe the latter to someone who might not be familiar?

MB: My take on newgrass is that it’s the same instrumentation as the traditional bluegrass genre, but instead of sticking with the repertoire developed over the last 80 or 90 years, it embarks in a new direction. Kind of creating your own sound. Instead of embodying the previous bands, you try to make your own thing. It’s just been a descriptor of this branch of American music. It’s not rock, it’s not jazz, it’s not country, and it’s not bluegrass — it’s something new [using] bluegrass instruments.

RZ: Is that achieved by using the instruments in a new way?

MB: It’s not really as much using the instruments in a new way, it’s kind of like learning a new dance move. You’re still dancing, and you’re still wearing the same shoes. You’re still doing the same thing, but you’re moving differently. Newgrass is kind of this umbrella that is used to describe something that’s not the way it was. It’s bluegrass, but we’re not on the East Coast of the U.S. — where bluegrass is from — and we don’t all have southern accents, and we didn’t grow up with the family tradition of learning all of the songs from your parents and grandparents. That’s not how most of us in the west became bluegrass musicians.

RZ: Where can people catch a Bridger Creek Boys show?

MB: We play at Red Tractor Pizza every Thursday [night]. Having a weekly repeater gig [has] been part of the lifeblood of the band. That’s something that’s pretty rare in the musical world and has been invaluable to the band. It’s kept our momentum going, it’s forced us to work constantly on our craft, [and] it’s a great way for our fans to stay connected with us on a regular basis. It’s very different than playing a big show because it’s usually intimate [with] not a huge crowd, but a steady stream of music lovers we get to interact with.

Read these and other interviews in their entirety at www.BoZone.com — then catch a show! •