Late spring brings with it the Red Lodge Songwriter Festival, a showcase of upcoming talent and the artists behind famous classics from Americana.
“They’ll tell how that song got married to the person that made it famous,” said Mike Booth with Rocky Mountain Songwriter Festivals, which organizes this and the Livingston Songwriter Festival later in the year. “In many cases, the theme of the song or the subject matter may be different than the way it was produced for somebody like Kenny Chesney or George Strait or Garth Brooks.”
He said the festival is an opportunity for people to look at a song as a piece of art and hear from the artist who created it.
“Sometimes, they’ll talk about what they were thinking about when they wrote the song, maybe something that’s very personal to them, maybe an experience they had, maybe just something they thought about on the way when they were shopping for groceries,” said Booth.
On top of six headliners, who wrote songs for popular figures like Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and the Chicks, formerly the Dixie Chicks, Booth says the festival will feature 18 up and coming professional songwriters. They come from states including Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Tennessee.
“Their songs have not been recorded, you won’t know the names per se, but when you hear them on stage and see them share the stage with other songwriters, it’s just an amazing collection of talent,” said Booth.
The Red Lodge Songwriter Festival runs from June 19 to 21.
