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The Guitar Fighting to Save a Forest – Rick Bass on the Yaak Valley’s Last Hope

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Rick Bass — petroleum geologist turned Montana Project director — explains how a 315-year-old spruce, felled during a Forest Service clearcut in Montana’s Yaak Valley, became the Black Ram Guitar. 

Jeff Bridges heard it once and commissioned six more. Now it’s touring with a busload of MFA students trying to get the Black Ram region of the Yaak designated as America’s first Climate Refuge. We talk old-growth forests, grizzly habitat, the politics behind a proposed 800-acre clearcut, and whether a guitar can actually stop a chainsaw.

Buy a ticket to the Black Ram Guitar Festival this October 2 in Bozeman, MT at The Ellen Theatre: BlackRamGuitarFest.org

Follow the students’ progress on their journey: GreenCurtainRoadShow.org

Check out this story about Rick and the Yaak in Mountain Outlaw: https://www.mtoutlaw.com/songs-from-a-climate-refuge/

And head to the Big Sky Events Arena for the free Wildlands Family Jam Saturday Aug. 1, from 10am to 12pm! 

Remembering Andrea Eastman (1940-2026)

A sad look back at a special conversation.

Our friend Andrea Eastman passed away August 26 and we wanted to remember her in her own distinctive words. Andrea was a legendary casting director (The Godfather, Love Story) and longtime Gallatin Valley local.

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Three elk walk through a grassy autumn landscape in Yellowstone National Park, with golden trees and mountains in the background.
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Joe Borden & Michele Veale Borden

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