Thunderous reverb of Yonder Mountain, Shooter Jennings set to fill Rialto black box
The tiring segue back into busy, post-holiday routines calls for a nice cocktail and a show! Downtown Bozeman’s Rialto features the perfect happy hour spot and fantastic live entertainment for the outing inclined. Here’s a look at some of the upcoming happenings.
First up in the new year is Yonder Mountain String Band on Friday, January 10th, just under a year after their last appearance at the downtown venue. The music starts at 8pm. Advance tickets to this all-ages show range $37.50 to $45. Doors at 7pm.
The Colorado-based progressive bluegrass outfit’s latest album, Love. Ain’t Love, is their most surprising, creative, and yes, energetic studio excursion to date. Songs like “Chasing My Tail” and “Alison” are rooted in tradition but as current as tomorrow, animated by electrifying performance, vivid production, and the modernist power that has made Yonder one of the most popular live bands of their generation. Melding sophisticated songcraft, irrepressible spirit, and remarkable instrumental ability, Love. Ain’t Love is a testament to Yonder’s organic, dynamic, and intensely personal brand of contemporary bluegrass-fueled Americana.
Shooter Jennings follows with a show on Thursday, January 16th. Austin country Americana band Mike and the Moonpies will open the show at 8pm. Advance tickets to this all-ages show are $26. Doors at 7pm.
For nearly two decades, Jennings has defied expectation while constantly expanding the parameters of country, rock n’ roll and beyond. The scion of American music royalty, he has affirmed his own place in histories still to come as a truly limitless artist whose ambitious experimentation spans myriad genres and creative platforms. Ever the outlaw, his latest release, Shooter, might well be his most truly idiosyncratic work thus far. With songs like “Fast Horses & Good Hideouts” or the raucous “I’m Wild & My Woman Is Crazy,” Jennings more than affirms his mission by returning to country’s original, if oft misplaced, mandate: singing songs about growing up and getting older, about going out and getting trashed. In short, making music for real people with real lives. With Shooter, Jennings truly puts his own mark on country music, living up to his extraordinary birthright with unparalleled passion, experience and heart.
Following on Saturday, January 18th is Justin Townes Earle. The music begins at 8pm. Advance tickets to this all-ages show range $25 to $40. Doors at 7pm.
Earle comes to Bozeman in support of his spring-released effort, The Saint of Lost Causes. The album is focused on America’s disenfranchised and downtrodden, the oppressed and the oppressors, the hopeful and the hopeless. There’s the drugstore-cowboy-turned-cop-killer praying for forgiveness (“Appalachian Nightmare”) and the common Michiganders persevering through economic and industrial devastation (“Flint City Shake It”); the stuck mother dreaming of a better life on the right side of the California tracks (“Over Alameda”) and the Cuban man in New York City weighed down by a world of regret (“Ahi Esta Mi Nina”); the “used up” soul desperate to get to New Orleans (“Ain’t Got No Money”) and the “sons of bitches” in West Virginia poisoning the land and sea (“Don’t Drink the Water”). These are individuals and communities in every corner of the country, struggling through the ordinary – and sometimes extraordinary – circumstances of everyday life.
The Rialto is located at 10 W Main St. in Downtown Bozeman. Peruse current happenings and buy advance tickets at www.logjampresents.com/rialto. Follow the Rialto on Facebook and Instagram for the most up to date event announcements. •