Western Union
Sunday, July 12 // Door at 6:30 PM // Show at 7 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Louie and Kimberlee are founding members of Montana’s hottest Texas swing band Western Union, with bandmates David Horgan and Beth Lo from one of Montana’s most renowned jazz and R&B bands-the Big Sky Mudflaps. They have the distinction of being the only Montana band to play at the Montana Folk Festival (July 2016) in addition to opening for Marty Stewart (Sept 2015) and Colorado’s renowned Hot Rize (July 2015). Where jazz meets country, Western Union is Montana’s favorite “countrypolitan” western swing band, specializing in classic Texas Swing & Honky Tonk music. With electric and acoustic guitars, standup bass, pedal steel guitar, and drums – plus sharp-as-a-tack lead vocals and vocal harmonies — Western Union delivers the true-blue sound of grassroots America. All tickets are general admission. Artist Supporter Tickets are a way for patrons to provide more financial support to performers. For further information, accessibility, and inquiries please visit https://www.zootownarts.org/meet-the-zacc/about/.
Nick Shoulders w/ Riddy Arman
Friday, July 31 // Doors 7:00 PM // Show 8:00 PM // $20 ADV // $25 DOS Refugia Blues, the fifth album from songwriter Nick Shoulders, is a record of big ideas and small, intimate moments. Rooted in the acoustic stylings of Southern traditional music, it findsthe Arkansas native turning off his amp and stepping up to a ribbon microphone as a solo performer, singing in a voice that’s equal parts country croon, Appalachian yodel, and high-lonesome field holler. Shoulders’ interpretation of American roots music has always been more progressive and punky than the trucks-and-beers conservatism that passes for modern-day country, and Refugia Blues offers songs about climate collapse, radical anthropology, and generative disruption. It balances the macro with the micro, too, making room for love songs and personal topics, packaging humor alongside heavy insights. At once academic and accessible, Refugia Blues isn’t just a deep dive into southernness, but also into Shoulders himself. This is a raw, resolute version of American country music, stacked high with songs that go down easy but linger in the minds of those willing to invest the time. Riddy Arman is a Montana-based singer-songwriter whose music is shaped by stark storytelling, solitude, and the emotional weight of life lived on the move. Carried by a voice that feels both weathered and deeply intimate, her songs balance grit with vulnerability, blending stripped down country and folk traditions with unflinching emotional honesty. After gaining widespread attention through her viral Western AF performance, Arman released her debut album through La Honda Records and quickly established herself as one of the most compelling emerging voices in independent country music. Currently touring new material and bringing her deeply intimate live show across the country, Riddy Arman delivers the kind of performance that leaves a room silent in all the right ways
Salt and Shadow w/ Wes Urbaniak and the Mountain Folk
Saturday, July 11 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Fronted by two female vocalists whose voices weave and harmonize throughout each song, Salt & Shadow is anchored by atmospheric guitars, cinematic textures, and a cello that doesn’t sit in the background…it sings alongside them. The result is hypnotic, heavy, and deeply spiritual, echoing the moody expanse of Pink Floyd, the harmonic richness of Fleetwood Mac, and the emotional unease of Radiohead. Wes Urbaniak is an amalgamation of songwriting, storytelling and unique craftsmanship. His music is real, honest, bold and a little odd in the best way possible. The experiences of his life have created stories through his songs. He pushes the limits within the human mind while opening up the possibilities for the human spirit to explore what’s dwelling within. There are so many special things about this band and its music, its artistic – through reclamation – endeavors, and its call to persist through the hard things is exceptional. For instance, even the instruments represent the story of the music. Each instrument contains original reclaimed Red Rocks Amphitheater bench redwood – *Wes is the Luthier behind the magical matter. You should watch the band try to explain it in its most simplest way. By listening to the music and thumbing through the story you’ll discover one of the most beautiful efforts whispered into song in these times while finding what’s good and holding care for the world we live in. It has been a bit of a destiny for Wes Urbaniak to bring his music through these instruments out into the world.
Hudson Powder Company
Monday, July 27 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 ADV // $15 DOS Hudson Powder Company’s music is about synesthesia – where a person perceives certain sounds as having distinct colors or tastes. I have a mild case of it – whenever I hear a univibe pedal I get the feeling that the sound it is making is somehow purple. In my view, every band that’s worth anything does a kind of painting with synesthetic associations. A single sound might have a color, but the great bands and artists are the ones who knew how to make the right colors play together in some way. I don’t know of anyone ever trying to “paint” Idaho and the Inland Northwest in this way – trying to uproot this kind of mood that’s implicit in our landscapes. That mood was already in nature, wanting out. Our group is trying to let it out, in one way. But I do believe that the Lexicon LXP-1 Digital Reverb “sounds” like a blue sagebrush, the bass guitar “sounds” like volcanic basalt somehow. The lyrics to the songs are what they are, they just say what they mean like any other lyric. But they’re supposed to be set against a kind of backdrop – the high desert that most people fly over or drive through and never pay much mind to. There’s something there though, some kind of a landscape of sounds that has been mostly ignored… like a fossil. Thanks for reading. Spotify
Pine Hill Haints w/ Invisible Teardrops & Whip Appeal
Monday, July 13 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter
Shark Buffalo w/ The Absent Wilson Conspiracy
Tuesday, July 14 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Fast Get Away: an evening journey through contemporary jazz compositions and improvisation with Shark Buffalo and the Absent Wilson Conspiracy. (Painting by Paula Wittner) https://paulawittner.com/ Two bands, a handful of original compositions, and boundless possibilities. The Absent Wilson Conspiracy explores acoustic and electric jazz through spacious original compositions and contemporary standards. Drawn by a deep love of the collective improvisation at the heart of jazz, the ‘conspirators share a belief that the essence of a song is the shape of the story- its journey through emotion and sound. While each tune is written in the notes on the page, each journey is entirely its own, moving through the spaces between the notes and beyond. Who the hell is Shark Buffalo, that mysterious übergroup from a long-forgotten Missoula music scene of yore? More importantly, what the hell IS a shark buffalo? Do you picture a buffalo’s body with a shark’s head, like some kind of aquatic centaur? Or do you prefer to envision an elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton fused with the head and torso of a bearded bovinae? I digress. Shark Buffalo is comprised of a holy musical trinity: Keys, Drums, and Trumpet, with Cove Jasmin, Emmet Ore, and Nathan Crawford.
Deadharrie w/ Sophie Bell
Wednesday, July 8 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter Like a train glued to the tracks by its sheer weight and inertia, Deadharrie chugs on relentlessly. In the age of quick fixes and short attention spans, Harrie counters with lyric heavy, chronicles of love and longing, addiction, and the reconciliation of death in its many forms. Wrapping up his ninth studio LP in 2026, solo singer songwriter William Harries has no plans of slowing down, or hastening his pace for that matter. He simply wishes to sink further into his rhythm, honing his craft the old fashioned way. Songwriting in its truest form, impervious to the pressures of the modern world and self promoting nature of the music industry.
Edging w/ Bull Market & Flesh Hunks
Friday, July 10 // Doors at 7:30 PM // Show at 8 PM // $15 Edging is music to liberate the freaks and weirdos. From Chicago to a city near you. Bull Market is an investment firm based out of Billings, MT.
4 (More) Years of Daisy Chain Birthday Bash
Saturday, July 4 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 7:30 PM // $12 // $15-$20 Artist Supporter
Silkworm
Tuesday August 25 // Doors at 7:00 PM // Show at 8:00 PM // $25 SILKWORM is a storied and beloved rock band, revered among many of those in the know. From western Montana by way of Seattle and Chicago, “the Worm” is the subject of an upcoming book (Lay It Down in Full View), a feature-length documentary (Couldn’t You Wait: The Story of Silkworm), and gratifyingly detailed essays across a variety of publications both print and online. Most importantly, the band released nine richly distinctive, influential albums and “a bunch” of singles, EPs, and compilations over an eighteen-year period, as well as touring worldwide in North America, Europe, and Asia, notably playing every state in the continental USA except Delaware. Joel R.L. Phelps founded Silkworm in 1987 and left the band in 1994. Andy Cohen, Tim Midyett, and Michael Dahlquist continued on as a trio for many prolific, creatively fertile years thereafter. The group disbanded immediately–and apparently permanently–upon Michael’s horrific murder in July 2005. In late July 2024, the surviving band members realized they would be in the same place at the same time–at a weekend-long memorial for their longtime engineer Steve Albini. They decided to reunite officially for a short set there to pay tribute to their dear friend. Jeff Panall (Songs: Ohia and Tim’s band Mint Mile) joined them on drums. The experience of playing together as a quartet for the first time in thirty years was highly emotional and rewarding. The four of them discussed trying to regroup for some additional events…which led them to poking at the best possible options for doing so. After a quite successful summer and fall of shows in the central US in 2025, they are setting out on tour in May (central/eastern US) and August (western US) of 2026.JOEL R.L. PHELPS – Telecaster, vocals ANDREW COHEN – lead guitar, vocals TIMOTHY MIDYETT – bass, vocals JEFF PANALL – drums
