Musician Annie Clements is rewriting the rules as a mom on tour, while raising kids in Big Sky
By Leslie Kilgore EBS STAFF
On any given day in Big Sky, you might find Annie Clements holding down the bass guitar on stage, teaching a student how to trust their ear, or heading home just in time to tuck her two kids into bed–music and parenthood is a rhythm she’s worked decades to perfect. It’s shaped by world tours, late night load-ins, family sacrifices and a deep belief that a career in music doesn’t have to disappear when motherhood begins.
“I like to say we’ve retired and moved to a ski community,” Clements told EBS with a laugh. “But we’re actually playing more music than ever before.”
Clements is a Grammy-level touring bassist whose résumé includes playing with bands like Sugarland, Little Big Town, Amos Lee, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, Jason Isbell and countless sessions and stages across the globe. She’s also a mom, a wife, a music educator, a Big Sky local and now the central voice in a new documentary that aims to change how the music industry supports working mothers.
The film, currently titled “Mom Bus” and scheduled to debut in 2027, follows Clements and other professional touring musicians as they navigate pregnancy, parenting, contracts and careers on the road. Its goal is simple and somewhat radical.
As Clements puts it: “Nobody ever asks the dude drummer what he’s going to do when his wife gets pregnant. It’s never a question for him. But for women, it’s always the question.”
Clements’ life in music started early. Her father Cranston Clements was a touring electric guitarist who played with legends like Dr. John, Boz Scaggs, Maria Muldaur and the Neville Brothers, to name a few. Music wasn’t a hobby in her household; it was a way to make a living and support a family.
“I grew up not only surrounded by music, but with the living example of how to make a living playing music,” she says. “There was never any fear about how it worked. I’d already seen it.”
With a successful attorney mom, her parents’ contrasting careers gave her a rare blend of structure and creativity. “I was very lucky to have these two very different people shaping the trajectory of my life,” Clements said.
By the time she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, she already had what her professors called “street knowledge”.
“They’d tell me, ‘You’re already ready to go work,’” Clements recalled. And she did, often scraping by in the early years.
She remembers a moment in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the start of her career, when a $300 gig as one of the orchestra members for a high school production of Singing in the Rain saved her from financial collapse.
“I remember thinking, thank God this showed up when it did,” she said. “That’s the story of the music industry. Right place, right time.”
Her first major break came with Sugarland, where she met her husband, producer and guitarist Thad Beaty, at an audition in 2006. From there, her career took off. Touring internationally, playing stadiums, recording albums and building a reputation as one of Nashville, Tennessee’s most trusted bass players.
But even at the top, the dream didn’t always support women who wanted families.
“I kept asking myself, how am I going to do this?” Clements said. “How do I have a family and keep my career?”
She pursued In Vitro Fertilization while touring, giving herself what she calls “a lifeline” and a choice. When she became pregnant alongside Maren Morris, the plan was to raise babies on the road together. Then the pandemic hit.
“The entire industry shut down,” she said. “I was seven-and-a-half months pregnant, and I had no idea what I was going to do.”
When touring resumed, bringing a child on the road was no longer an option. “That was really hard for me,” Clements said. “I was back to square one.”
Then, the opportunity for a new life in Big Sky entered the picture for both her and Beaty, through a long-standing friendship with hospitality visionary Rick Reese, who invited Clements and Beaty to help build a live music culture at Montage Big Sky. What started as a four-month stay turned into a permanent home.
“We lived at the Montage with our daughter for several months when we first arrived,” Clements said. “We turned a walk-in closet into our daughter’s bedroom. We fell in love with the area, the community, the beauty of this place. And once we realized I could still tour based out of Bozeman, we decided, let’s just stay.”
In Big Sky, Clements has found something she’d been chasing for years: sustainability.
“To get to do what I love, and then drive five minutes down the road and tuck my kids in,” she said “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
She and Beaty quickly became central figures in the Big Sky music scene, organizing songwriter retreats to community concerts. Clements and Beaty co-founded the band Tuesday Night Rodeo Club with Bozeman-based artist Amanda Stewart. Now a staple in Big Sky and the winner of Best of Big Sky’s “Best Band” in 2025, the band performs regularly in southwest Montana and beyond. Clements also teaches music to local students at her and Beaty’s Big Sky studio, bringing a teaching method that focuses less on sheet music and more on playing by ear.
“That’s why I teach kids to play by ear,” she said. “That’s how real music works. You listen, you respond, you connect.”
The upcoming documentary, Mom Bus, directed by award-winning filmmaker Dylan McGee, grew out of Clements’ lived reality. It features interviews with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, members of Little Big Town, Jason Isbell, and other industry leaders grappling with the same issue–how to keep families together without sacrificing careers.
While the documentary came to fruition, which spans three to four years of Clement’s touring life, she found herself touring again with Sugarland.
“Jennifer so generously invited Thad and me, and our two young children, to ride her tour bus along with her young son. This made it possible for us to accept the invitation to return to the tour with our family.”
Clements explained that she envisions venues offering on-site childcare, tour managers maintaining vetted caregiver lists, and the industry acknowledging that parenting musicians aren’t an exception, they’re the future.
“The ultimate goal is infrastructure,” Clements said.
She’s already advocating directly, asking venue managers simple questions: “Could you provide a small room backstage? Do you have a list of childcare providers?”
“This isn’t just about moms,” she added. “It’s about families.”
The message is personal, too. Clements’ own children are growing up the same way she did, surrounded by instruments, rehearsals and the quiet lessons of watching adults working together and supporting one another on tour.
“There’s no playbook for a career in music,” she said. “You learn by doing. And exposing kids to that early makes it feel possible.”
That legacy came full circle recently at the annual Big Sky community performance, “Her Gift, Her Creation” when Clements debuted an original song, “Mama Bear,” written for the documentary. Her daughter Nora joined her on stage.
“She just walked right out, stood next to me, stomped her foot on the beat,” Clements said. “It was so awesome.”
Since moving to Big Sky and raising her family here, success looks a lot different.
“I’ve been to the top of the mountain,” she said. “I’ve checked those boxes.”
What she wants next is impact. “I want to be a living example of what’s possible,” she says. “To show people a path forward.”
In Big Sky, she’s found a place where that path feels wide open.
“When I connect with someone from the stage and they feel seen, that’s what lasts,” Clemens said. “Whether it’s 10 people or 10,000. And to get to do all of that,” she added with a smile. “And still be there to read a bedtime story—that’s everything.”
