Saturday

Mike Bader Band

12:30 – 2 pm
www.Myspace.com/mikebaderbluesband

Mike Bader’s high-energy performances have earned him recognition as a “real deal blues player”. The band boasts a one-of-a-kind mix of R&B, funk, boogie, Latin and reggae that promises to get Root Festers up and dancing. And Bader is a veteran of the 2008 Roots Fest.

Bader has shared the stage with Taj Mahal, Carole King, Tommy Castro, James Harman, Curtis Salgado, Big Jack Johnson and many others. His debut album, Clearcut Case of the Blues, was listed among the Top U.S. Blues Releases of 2004 in the 11th annual International Real Blues Awards. Both Clearcut and its follow-up, Matches My Feelings, have received critical acclaim in publications across the U.S., Canada and Europe.

MilkDrive

2:30 – 4 pm
www.Myspace.com/milkdrive
www.milkdrive.goingplacesmusic.com

MilkDrive is an Austin-based alt-folk-progressive acoustic string band that got its start not far from Missoula in northern Idaho. Principal songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Noah Jeffries grew up playing bluegrass and gospel in his family's band and started songwriting at 14.

Jeffries moved to Austin and connected with Dennis Ludiker, a champion fiddler and mandolin player he’d met long ago in Weiser, Idaho at the National Old-time Fiddle Contest. Another contest veteran, Brian Beken, later joined the band and after the addition of bassist Matt Mefford, MilkDrive released its debut CD, MilkDrive Live, in June 2009.

The players of MilkDrive pride themselves on original tunes with musical soul and a mix of rhythms, tempos, improvisation and lightning-fast picking.

Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys

4:30 – 6 pm
www.amandashaw.com

New Orleans native Amanda Shaw has not yet celebrated her 20th birthday but her career has already ranged from childhood classical violin training to a gig as a soloist with the Baton Rouge Symphony – at the age of 8 – to a couple Disney movies. In her mid-teens, Shaw was even tapped for the title role in the hit series Hannah Montana before the lure of the Cajun fiddle proved stronger than the pull of Hollywood. 

Shaw counts Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Chrissie Hynde, and Bonnie Raitt as her primary influences, citing their strong vocals and powerful styles and the ways they enjoyed crossover success, gracefully integrating the sound of their roots with the tunes on the radio.

And Shaw embraces the pop sounds of the mainstream and the traditional sounds of Louisiana.
Her fourth and most recent CD, Good Southern Girl, features original tunes, covers of Jefferson Starship and Sam Cooke, and “Blues de la Frontier,” one of the first traditional Cajun tunes she ever learned.

In 2009, she was recognized as an Emerging Cultural Leader by the State of Louisiana. She takes her role as ambassador for her home state very seriously. “I bring New Orleans with me everywhere I go,” Shaw said.  “All that I want is to live every day to the fullest and share my love of the city with the rest of the world.”

Infamous Stringdusters

6:30 – 8 pm
www.thestringdusters.com

The Infamous Stringdusters released their debut album a short three years ago, but the musicians – Andy Hall on resonator guitar, Travis Book on bass, Chris Pandolfi on banjo, Jesse Cobb on mandolin, Jeremy Garrett on fiddle and Andy Falco on guitar – are hardly new to the scene.  All have enjoyed notable careers as backup and session players and collaborators with everyone from Earl Scruggs and Dolly Parton to Levon Helm, Bering Strait and Leftover Salmon.

The Stringdusters have toured extensively and garnered the praise of fans of traditional bluegrass and newgrass alike. The band has performed at some of the country's biggest acoustic music festivals (including Telluride Bluegrass, Merlefest, Grey Fox, and many more) as well as large concert halls, intimate clubs, and everything in between.

This summer, the Infamous Stringdusters – they had to add the “Infamous” upon learning another band had claimed “The Stringdusters” – are touring in support of Things That Fly, their third album that one reviewer tabbed as “2010’s bluegrass album to beat.”

Robert Earl Keen

8:30 – 10:30 pm
www.Robertearlkeen.com
www.myspace.com/robertearlkeen

“I would love to have been one of the great singers in the world -- like Vince Gill or someone like that -- even if it was just for one hour,” said Robert Earl Keen. “But I really feel like my gift is writing songs. That’s just there and it’s always been there. I don’t know why, but I always have stories -- they don’t all have to be true, just good.”

Keen began writing in elementary school and began putting words to music while in college. By the time he recorded his first full-length studio album in 1989, he had already established himself as one of the most engaging live performers on the roadhouse circuit, capable of coaxing a two-step out of the most reticent audience member and planting a tear in the beer of the toughest customer. That first record included The Road Goes on Forever, a combination love song/crime spree travelogue that’s one of Keen’s signature pieces. 

Keen’s latest record is The Rose Hotel, and it’s a collection Keen calls “100 percent free from artificial colors and flavors.”

“These songs are real,” Keen said.  “When people come to see us live, they’re seeing the people who created them play them, and that’s not all that common these days.”

Over the last year, Keen’s dates have ranged from an Elvis festival to Mountain Stage to appearing with the Dave Matthews Band.

Sunday

Broken Valley Road Show

11:15 am – 12:30 pm
www.brokenvalley.com

Since its beginnings in 2002, Broken Valley Road Show has used tight sibling harmonies, smoking instrumentals and more than a little gospel to win over audiences at clubs, theaters and festivals in the Rockies, the Pacific Northwest, the South and Canada. Audiences can expect a Broken Valley Road Show show to include instrumentals, seven-piece bluegrass tunes and four-part harmonies. Band members like to say the atmosphere will “inspire you to bring along your Bible, your whiskey, and your Grandma.” (A perfect way to kick off Sunday at Roots Fest.)

Like contemporary groups Open Road and The Wilders, BVRS strives to connect today’s occasionally complicated world with the relevance of yesterday’s music. BVRS is a veteran of the 2008 Roots Fest, and in 2007 the band represented the U.S. at the Nanning International Folk Song Arts Festival in China.

Tom Catmull & the Clerics

1 – 2:30 pm
www.Tomcatmull.com

It’s not easy to categorize Tom Catmull & the Clerics – is there a swing/pop/folk/roots/rockabilly/country bin at the record store? – but Missoula audiences have counted on a roots-driven, electrified sound, along with some upright bass, pedal steel, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and drums for years.

Frontman Catmull is joined by drummer Travis Yost, upright bassist John Sporman, and Gibson Hartwell on electric guitar and pedal steel. 

With last year’s release of Glamour Puss, this band furthered its reputation as a group capable of showcasing original music while still leaving people sweaty and exhausted at closing time. Tom and the Clerics have been voted "Best Local Musician" and "Best Local Band" (respectively) by the Missoula Independent’s Annual "Best Of" Readers Poll in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Sol Driven Train

3 – 4:30 pm
www.soldriventrain.com

Sol Driven Train is a band in motion, onstage and on the road. Over the past five years the quintet has averaged about 150 shows each year at bars, festivals, theaters and the occasional summer camp, from its base in Charleston, South Carolina to New Hampshire to Wisconsin and now, Big Sky Country.

Sol Driven Train bounces to the pulse of the music along with the crowd, trading lead singers and instruments. One reviewer noted the band “seamlessly mixes Allmanesque Southern rock, languid world-beat, swampy funk and downright catchy melodies as they swap lead singers and instruments. A punchy horn section adds an extra dimension of sweaty soul to the genre-blurring jam party.”

Sol Drive Train is Russell Clarke on sax and vocals; Ward Buckheister on trombone, guitar, and vocals; Joel Timmons on guitar and vocals; Rusty Cole on bass and Wes Powers on drums.

The Gourds

5 – 7 pm
www.thegourds.com

The Austin-based Gourds have never been much on sentiment. Since the band started defining Gourds Music – as it has come to be known – in 1997, they have chugged through America fueled by music and a near-pathological need for a good time.

Songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith have written some dense, reference-laden country songs of the last 10 years but have managed to provoke deep thought while largely avoiding the tear-in-my-beer ballads that made country music a commercial powerhouse over the last 50 years.

When Russell of these “cosmic country rockers” was asked to describe The Gourds’ sound he said, “A parliament of owls BBQing in a pawnshop. Strings ringing around the reeds and singing over the fat low grooves of tubes and skins. The Bipolar express.”

The band celebrated 15 years in the music business with the release of Haymaker in 2009 and are making their second River City Roots Festival appearance.