On a cold November afternoon, I met local super pickers John Lowell and Tom Murphy at the Bozeman Co-Op for lunch. We covered a wide range of topics, on and off the subject of their upcoming shows at Norris Hot Springs. There was a lot of laughter…

JG: Briefly tell me how you got to this area..and how you found the music scene here.

TM: I moved to MT in 2003 with my friend Holly Heinzmann who had interest in purchasing Norris Hot Springs. She ended up buying the place in 2004 and I helped her get that place started and had a big hand in getting the music program started out there. Within a short time I began to meet amazing musicians faster than I ever had in my life. People like John Lowell, (Lowell rolls his eyes) Quinton King, Russell Smith, lots of great players. Immediately got into some bluegrass jams which turned into bands and through jam sessions got to meet more people practically every week. I’m still playing with most of those folks right now.

JL: I was already playing music before I got here so that helped. I got out of college in Flagstaff at Northern Arizona with a business degree and all my friends were looking for jobs with big corporations, walking around with suits and ties interviewing. I decided I was just going to go skiing. Since I used to live in Montana when I was young, and I’d been coming up to the Yellowstone area to work summer jobs during college, my mom suggested I go to Bozeman. It was a college town like Flagstaff, has a ski area right outside of town like Flagstaff, I thought “done.” I just moved here, sight unseen and spent my first night in town in a sleeping bag in Lindley Park.

JG: Were you arrested?

JL: No, I got up too early for them to find me. (laughter) Spent my first evening looking through the newspaper and listening to music at what at that point was called Al’s Bar, right now it’s the 317. It’s had many names over the years, but then it was Al’s. I moved to Lindley Park after dark.

JG: How did you hook into the musicians – just started looking around for them?

JL: There used to be a music store called the Back Porch Picking Parlor. A guy named Steve Carlson owned it and it was on the second floor of the Bozeman hotel – right above Al’s bar. That was my second stop. My first stop was the campus, looking for a house to live in on the notice board – or a roommate, then the Back Porch Picking Parlor, which was a gathering place for acoustic musicians around here. There weren’t all that many, at that point.

JG: What year was this?

JL: 1980. September of 1980. The music scene has grown considerably since then. I used to know every musician in Western Montana, as far as bluegrass and acoustic music goes, but not anymore. I don’t even know them all in Bozeman anymore. The music scene has grown along with the population – people like Tom  moved here…good musicians. It’s been great.

TM: Same thing for  me. I was hoping great musicians would be here but I was here for a few months and didn’t really meet anyone and kept looking for the right kind of jam session and hoped to hook up with some folks. A friend told me about a bluegrass jam over at the Sourdough Cafe and I decided to go check it out, showed up one winter evening in 2003 and there were 10 or 12 amazing bluegrass players that welcomed me into the jam with open arms. I imagine most of those people I’m still in contact with right now, still playing music with.

JG: How many people do you reckon make their living as musicians in this area?

TM: That’s a loaded question. Make a living?! (laughter all around)

JG: OK, how many people are full time musicians?

TM: I don’t probably know all that many. I’m in a position where I’m trying to make it as a full time musician, but I’m only supporting myself right now. I’m doing my best.

JG: How’d you meet John Lowell?

TM: I met him in my living room. I used to host a bluegrass jam…

JL: I was living in his basement.. (laughter)..he just hadn’t noticed me..

TM: It was a Tuesday night jam session and I’d met all these new guys from that Sourdough jam and one by one a new person would show up, a friend of a friend. My friend Ben Upchurch was working at Weber Mandolins (instrument makers in Logan) where John was and he brought John along. I was completely intimidated.

JG: What are your recollections about meeting Tom?

JL: He was Sooo nervous. (laughter)

JG: What are your MUSICAL recollections?

JL: Actually I didn’t notice he was nervous at all.

TM: I was hiding it well.

JG: I would love for you to tell me about John’s playing. And then I’ll ask him to do the same about yours.

JL: Be nice.

TM: That first winter that I got into Montana I found out that Kane’s River was from this area. I didn’t know a whole lot about Kane’s River at the time, but I knew of them – knew they were a national bluegrass act. I was anxious to check them out, so they had a cd release party that winter. I went to the Aleworks and saw them at their cd release party and it was a really, really great show. I remember sitting there with my friends and looking up and saying, “Man, that guitar player is killin’ it up there.” That was the first time I actually saw John play, or heard John play and I was very impressed, very excited with the fact that he lived in this area. Getting to meet him, once I got over my nervous issue…I had the opportunity to play with John in small jams or a one on one basis and got to get up close to that wonderful tone, and timing and attack and rhythm and his singing, too. It was a very fun thing. We connected pretty quickly at that point and started talking about the possibility of maybe playing some gigs together.

JG: And that’s actually happened. You guys are in a band together now, right?

TM: Yeah, we’ve been doing everything from duets up to five piece bands since early 2004. We’re playing a duet gig at the Big Sky ski resort, we play a trio gig with our friend Kevin Fabozzi called the Lone Mountain Trio and then John and I have a four piece bluegrass band called the Two Bit Franks with Russell Smith and Jeff Shouse, doing a lot of original material. Primarily featuring John’s original pieces.

JG: John, it’s your turn to tell me about meeting Tom.

JL: Like Tom said, I was working with Ben Upchurch at Weber and he said there was a new mandolin player in town. They were having a jam at his house and this guy was really good. I love to meet new people, especially if they’re good. I found their house over on Lamme and showed up one snowy winter’s night and I was the first one there. You and I sat and played two or three tunes before anyone else showed up, didn’t we?

TM: Actually the very first time you showed up with Ben and there was a gathering but shortly thereafter was my birthday and I had a music party and John was the first person that showed up which was my birthday gift. We probably played for an hour before anyone else showed up. That was our first time of playing just us and it was really cool.

JG (to JL): He’s pretty good.

JL: Tom Murphy? He’s more than pretty good. F*#%+x great!

JG: He blows my mind on a regular basis. He also seems to know every song that’s ever been written in any genre. It’s unbelievable. AND remembers the words to them. What do you feel he brings – tell me about his playing.

JL: Tom brings energy. He constantly raises the bar for me. When we do that duo up there at Big Sky – playing counterpoint to Tom is like…the energy level goes way up. It’s awesome…and he’s fast! And he’s creative. I like that.

JG: Let’s talk about Norris Hot Springs. You guys play there individually and in groups of all kinds. From a musician’s perspective, what makes that place unique?

JL: I play there because it’s fun. They treat us very nicely there.

JG: What’s it like playing in the Dome? Does it feel like a bubble?

JL: It was offputting at first, and I do like it better in the summer time when the sides are up and you can show up in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt and barefoot..in the wintertime it’s usually dark and you have that wall down and…

TM: It’s like playing by yourself.

JL: Exactly. Since you can’t really see anyone cause of steam and dark, it’s like you are in your own little microcosm, and you’re playing for yourself. They just happen to be on the other side of the wall listening.

TM: It’s a little bit like playing on a radio station. You know that they’re out there but you don’t really see them. But you do hear them…what I always like about it and from the beginning tried to help create out there was a real living room environment. There’s a nice rug there, you sit back and get a friend or two and are able to play music in a very casual environment. You end up having fun – just like you would at any jam session. You know you have a time slot that you’re filling and there’s people listening but you are mostly entertaining yourself or the people you’re playing with. The benefit after all that – you’ve had a great old time and you think “no one even knew I was here” and you walk out there and person after person comes up and tells you what an amazing experience it was, having heard you up there. Now that I know that’s happening, I’m more confident that people are having a good time out there. We’re just providing a nice background setting to their soaking experience.

JG: I would disagree that it’s only background. I think a lot of people come out on nights when you guys are there – to listen to what you’re doing. It’s not background music. There are some great pickers out there on any given night. Tom, I think you really started all that.

TM: I see that – I guess what I meant is that we’re not doing anything so distractingly loud…if you’re on the other side of the pool you can still have a nice conversation with that really great vibe, but if you want to scoot on a little closer and check it out, it’s going to be an amazing show with top notch pickers. John and I play out there together, but we play a lot of places together. So sometimes he’ll play solo or get somebody else or I’ll get somebody else cause we love playing with different folks. It’s like having friends come to your house to play music. It’s a great place to play.

JG: Do you feel like people have good musical taste here in Bozeman?Are they willing to try new things?

TM: Absolutely. They don’t want the same old thing. We play in several places around Bozeman and are excited about the possibilities of more places opening up for live acoustic music. I think it’s a great thing for any city to be set up so that people can walk down Main Street and have several choices of music to check out. The diversity of different kind of acoustic music possibilities are amazing.

JG: John, have you seen the availability and diversity of live music change?

JL: Oh, yeah. The availability of live music absolutely. Used to be that Bozeman wasn’t on anyone’s map as far as music coming through here. There were so few people that lived here in 1980…there was some but not all that much. Bob Dylan wouldn’t have come through here then. James Taylor, Barenaked Ladies – none of those guys would’ve come through here -  but they do now.

JG: Now it’s a happening spot!

JL: It surely is.

JG: John, have you considered going by J-Lo, just to get that whole hip hop bluegrass thing going here?

JL: Yeah, I have considered it. I’m doing it, but it’s not working out. (laughter)

JG: Thank you both for doing this….

John Lowell will be playing at Norris on Dec. 18th. For other dates and info please go to www.johnlowell.com.

Tom Murphy will be playing at Norris on Dec. 23rd. For other dates and music/photos and info go to www.reverbnation.com/bozemanbluegrass.