Cowboy Music In Montana

An early memory from my childhood is listening to cowboy music on my little record player.  

I loved all those songs about cowboys and Indians.  I wish I could remember what the name of my favorite song back then so I could find it, but perhaps it was just a little heard song on a short-run children's record that didn't survive the 1950s.  I think it might have been 78 rpm vinyl.

What I remember about that old favorite was the story featured a little boy on the wild west prairie protecting his cabin from flaming arrows and the like.  

The opening act at Music in the Mountains last night brought that cowboy spirit to the outdoor stage at Len Hill Park, including one of my old favorites that I haven't heard in years.

Sam Platts is a terrific singer with a deep voice that's perfect for cowboy songs, but the headliner for the evening was Chancy Williams, a former rodeo cowboy who is a little further down the country music career trail.

Chancy has a country rock vibe on stage, and like Rod Stewart and Faces, he and his band bring that party feeling to the stage even if his voice happens to be a little too shredded on a given night.

Julie said Chancy's band had been performing on the Professional Bull Rider stage before coming over to the park stage.  If he wasn't actually performing, my guess is that he was hooping and hollering in the crowd, cheering for cowboys competing in a sport he obviously loves.

As often happens at Music in the Mountains, the crowds increased considerably by 8 PM, as the teens and twenty-somethings get off work.  Lots of young ladies get dressed up in the country version of disco outfits, including short skirts with cowgirl hats and boots, although some wear more sarong-like styles you might expect at a Malibu Beach soirée.  The guys were more a mix between traditional cowboy garb and tee-shirts and ball caps, with more of the latter.

If Sam Platts is Bob Wills or Roy Rogers, Chancy Williams is Brooks & Dunn or Garth Brooks.

As can be assumed, a party ensued when fans from the PBR filtered over to the park and Chancy Williams took the stage.  I included three clips representing that fun second act performance, but I must admit that I liked Sam's old-style take better for the same reasons I liked having a lamp with a cowboy boot base and an old west scene on the shade.

This happened to be the week that our friends Karen and Randy from Redondo Beach were visiting.

While I thought it was the best concert of the season, Karen and Randy were less than impressed by cowboy music in the first set and opted out of returning for the second set, which I have no doubt would have been more up their alley.

However, earlier in the day Karen said she didn't like the Allman Brothers because they were too country, so it wasn't surprising that a country western show wasn't their cup of tea.

It would have been a great one for my old buddy Mike, who jokes that there are only two kinds of music, country and western.  This was a great showcase for those American west styles, and outdoors on a perfect Montana summer evening hit all the right notes for me and the rest of the crowd that merrily followed the music wherever it led.