Montana 2007: The Year in Music
Written by Scott Prinzing for The Billings Outpost, Wednesday, 16 January 2008

For a state with fewer than a million residents, Montana manages to produce a lot of fine art. From painters, sculptors and photographers to actors, dancers and musicians, we have much to be proud of.

This article with help celebrate some of the many fine musicians in the state who have recorded their music on CD this in 2007. This has been a very fruitful year for Montana music. More than 70 CDs were released this year by Montana artists. Most of them were recorded in Montana, but only a few of them at Billings studios this year. A growing number of them were recorded at home.

As in past years, I am focusing on CDs that I have held in my hands and listened to. This year, I was also able to listen to many that I don’t possess by sampling them online at band websites, MySpace or CDBaby.com.

Many of these have had tracks played on my weekly radio show, “Montana Muse,” which regularly features Montana music.

Jessica Kilroy, “Big Dreams”

Another Montana singer/songwriter with big dreams, Jessica Kilroy’s second album draws from folk, bluegrass and gospel. Produced by Gil Stober at Bozeman’s Peak Recording and Ben Winship at the Hen House in Idaho, the fine production brings out the beauty in her voice as well as her songs – the spare instrumentation evokes the heights of her mountain climbing and the open spaces of her cycling. Expect a live CD sometime this spring.

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