James Dean Hicks, seen here at the 2017 Red Lodge Songwriter Festival, will be back this year.
For the third year in a row, Red Lodge will play host this month to a songwriter festival featuring some of country music’s best hit makers.
The third annual Red Lodge Songwriter Festival will run Thursday through Saturday, June 21-23, with music from Nashville luminaires as well as some of the best songwriters in Montana and Wyoming.
Among the featured songwriters this year is Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame
member Hugh Prestwood, returning songwriters James Dean Hicks and Montana’s own Kostas. New to this year’s festival are Helen Darling, Brent Jones and Wynn Varble.
All of them will perform their hit songs and tell the “inside stories” behind the songs that have been recorded by artists like George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, Conway Twitty, Dwight Yoakum, The Mavericks, The Dixie Chicks, Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, Patti Loveless, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and many more.
The performances will take place in the historic Roman Theater, the Front Bar, the Backyard at Sam’s Tap Room, the Pub at the Pollard Hotel, Lions Park, the Snow Creek, the Snag and Bone Daddy’s new event venue.
Fifteen songwriting performances will be held over the three days of the event. The majority of the songwriter shows are free. The three Nashville songwriters performances are ticketed shows. There are several ticket package options for the event. Tickets can be purchased online at www.redlodgesongwriterfest.org or at the door the day of the event.
On Saturday there will be a songwriting contest for the opportunity to open the Nashville songwriters show on Saturday night, June 23. One hundred aspiring songwriters will be able to submit their songs to the Red Lodge Songwriter Festival.
Contest entries are due Friday, June 1. Ten songwriters will be selected from these submissions to play and be critiqued by one or more of the Nashville songwriters. The top two will be selected to open the show on Saturday night.
New to this year’s festival is The Red Lodge Songwriter School. The two-day school is a unique approach to songwriting education: intensive workshops led by the experienced Nashville songwriters. Space is limited to 25 students.
The Red Lodge Songwriter Festival Inc. is nonprofit organization whose purpose is to provide opportunities for people to learn, grow and heal through music and songwriting. More than $10,000 was donated from 2017 event to the Red Lodge Music Department and Operation Second Chance.
