Check Out This Oral History Of Missoula’s Music Scene
When I first moved to Missoula from New York, I knew things were going to be different, and I was honestly a little bit worried about what I was going to do with my free time. Working for the radio station back home, I ended up having access to a lot of concerts both in and around New York City - how could the concert scene in Missoula possibly stack up?
Turns out, I didn't have to worry at all - Missoula's music scene is probably my favorite thing about the town. Within my first year of living here, I had gotten to see a ton of artists that I had never seen live before that had been on my list for a long time - Blondie, Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, Social Distortion, Cake, Ben Folds, Guster, AJJ, The Mountain Goats, Mumford and Sons... for music fans, it's a pretty rad place to live.
And that's not even getting into the incredible local bands that are consistently doing incredible work in Missoula - and as someone who only moved here a few years ago, an education on the history of live, local music is something I'm very interested in.
And that's where this comes in - Dr. Leif Frederickson from the University of Montana recently unveiled the Missoula Music History Oral Project, which dives deep into the bands, the venues, and the people that have made Missoula's music scene so special going all the way back to the 1960s. Thirteen interviews with different figures were conducted in 2019, but now another music lover - Callie Morris of the Montana Area Music Association - is working with Dr. Frederickson to conduct more interviews for an even deeper look into local music from Missoula.
You can check out the collection of interviews on the university's website. Do you have a favorite music memory from Missoula?