RED ANTS PANTS FESTIVAL

The bands for the annual Red Ants Pants Festival in White Sulphur Springs have now been listed. Among those announced, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ryan Bingham, Lee Ann Womack, Grammy winner Keb' Mo', Turnpike Troubadours, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis will hit the stage July 23rd through the 26th. It is really great that the ladies who make and market Red Ants Pants have established this music venue. The central area of Montana has been a void for music festivals in general. Red Ants Pants helps fill this gap.
While they advertise the event as including bluegrass, country, and folk I continue to have reservations over the term "bluegrass."  They have plenty of good country and folk music, and Keb' Mo' is a great blues performer, but the only bluegrass they offer appears to be the  Missoula favorites Lil Smokies and the Dirt Band. And I have never been much of a Dirt Band fan, especially after John McGuin left. To my ear there has to be strong hints of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in the music of any group or event claiming to be bluegrass. That being said the 2015 Red Ants Pants Festival should still be a huge success and a real crowd pleaser to all who attend this summer.  There aren't many other old bluegrass purist curmudgeons like myself around Montana anyway.