Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/culture/page/18/)
Tucked into a corner just inside the front door of the Western Art Forum, a new gallery in downtown Billings, is an elegant blue easy chair. Gallery owner Kira Fercho, an artist known for her vibrant oil paintings, designed the chair and said it represents the kind of art—slightly Western but also mid-century modern—she wants to display and sell at the gallery. (more…) Continue Reading →
Some of the biggest names behind the biggest names in Nashville will be performing in Red Lodge next month. The occasion is the first Red Lodge Songwriter Festival, set for Thursday-Saturday, June 23-25, and it will feature songwriters who have penned hits for Blake Shelton, Miley Cyrus, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Randy Travis, Patty Loveless and Alison Krauss, among others. (more…) Continue Reading →
Sacred Harp singers who gather one Sunday a month at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Billings are resolutely informal. “No auditions required,” says a flier inviting all comers to the gatherings. “No musical experience required. No rehearsals or performances required. Continue Reading →
At least one of the artists featured in the “Bitter Pill” exhibition at the Billings Public Library deals with the problems of prescription drug abuse practically every day. Vanessa Ready is a nurse who works for RiverStone Health at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Many of the medical cases she deals with involve drug abuse in some way. “Sometimes when I work too much,” she said, “I wonder, is there any good left in the world?” (more…) Continue Reading →
Ben Steele was a 19-year-old ranch kid when he went to work for the Snook Art Co. in downtown Billings in 1937. “I did all the flunky work,” he said, including filling bottles of turpentine for the art-supply and framing business. The artist and writer Will James spent a lot of time at the store, and since he didn’t drive, another of Steele’s jobs was to drive James to his house on Smokey Lane on many an evening. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Band brought them together, and the Band is helping to define their sound. The Henge, which played an energetic set at the Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co.’s Garage Pub last weekend, had its genesis when Bryan Brooksby heard Austin Schilling play “The Weight” during an open-mic session at the Garage Pub. (more…) Continue Reading →
The longtime owner of a popular bookstore in Red Lodge has been hired to manage a cooperative bookstore that supporters hope to open this summer in downtown Billings. The Billings Bookstore Cooperative is also buying the entire inventory of Gary Robson’s Red Lodge Books & Tea, which should greatly accelerate plans for the Billings store. (more…) Continue Reading →
“Dearly beloved … we’re gathered here today to get through this thing called life.”
—Prince, “Let’s Go Crazy”
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Prince fan. If you’re not a Prince fan, you might be dating or married to one. Growing up, I wasn’t a Prince fan. When I was in high school in the late ’90s and early 2000s, he was a symbol, and I didn’t understand. “He used to be a Prince,” my dad, a now-retired Presbyterian pastor and musician, told me. Continue Reading →
Step by step, plans for a cooperative bookstore in downtown Billings are moving forward. Last week, the project got a certificate of filing from the Montana secretary of state, which allows it to begin selling stock for the venture. Organizers have commitments for more than $24,000 worth of stock and can now begin invoicing to collect on those pledges, said Carrie La Seur, one of three initial board members selected at a recent general meeting of the Billings Bookstore Cooperative. (more…) Continue Reading →
Nick Steen has been summoned back to Billings. He has returned to his hometown to command the kitchens at the Northern Hotel. With the four-letter word—CHEF—emblazoned on the fingers of his right hand, his intentions are obvious. Soon Steen will interweave his style of fire and ice through the hotel’s food offerings for events, meetings and the restaurants TEN and Bernie’s Diner. (more…) Continue Reading →
