The Big Sky Pro Rodeo Roundup will be held on Wednesday, August 4th – Saturday, August 7th, 2021 in Great Falls during the Montana State Fair. The Montana ExpoPark has been home to the Montana State Fair since 1931.
If this years Montana State Fair is anything at all like our 4th of July downtown parade and fireworks show was, then it will most likely be packed. The Rona sort of shut everything down last year and I’m pretty sure that everyone from miles around will be pretty anxious to get to town and participate this year.
Reserved Seating: 21.00
General: 13.00
Children (3 – 12): 7.00
Tickets do not include admission into the MT State Fair.
The band was formed by Mike (MC) Taylor and Scott Hirsch in 2007. The band’s early recordings were released through Taylor’s own recording label, “Heaven & Earth Magic Recording Company.”
The band’s debut album, Country Hai East Cotton, was released in 2009 via Taylor’s label in a limited edition of 500. This was followed by their international debut album, Bad Debt, in 2010, released via Black Maps. The band’s third album, Poor Moon, was released in 2012 via North Carolina-based “Paradise of Bachelors”, and received positive reviews. The band’s fourth album, Haw, was released on April 2, 2013.
The band’s music contains elements from various musical genres, such as folk, country, dub, country soul, rhythm and blues, bluegrass, jazz, funk, swamp pop, gospel, blues, and rock. The band’s style was also described as “alternative country” and “country rock.” The band’s main influences include the Beatles, The Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. The band has been compared to Will Oldham and Bill Callahan.
Hiss Golden Messenger – Sanctuary Lyrics:
Feeling bad, feeling blue
Can’t get out of my own mind
I know how to sing about it
Ring of bone, a little lonely
I better hit the road, child
We can cry into the phone a while
Jubilee, find me
Steady with your hope now
That little light’s gotta last a while
Like an arrow to the marrow
I know it feels like hell now
Till we make it to the other side
Want good news, you want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you in one week
You wanna move, you want sanctuary
That’s all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone, to the bone
Get used to the bad news
It’s all part of the show, child
Handsome Johnny had to go, child
What did you feel, brother, bad dreams?
Well, there’s something you should know now
There’s little things that’ll cut you down
Ragged people, hard times
And the lightning strikes the poorhouse
Rich man cries like a crocodile
Salvation, despair
But the game that they taught me
Sometimes it feels like it just ain’t fair
You want good news, you want sanctuary
When you try to get real
Oh, they break you in one week
You wanna move, you want sanctuary
That’s all that I can offer to you
From the bottom to the bone, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone
Yeah, to the bone
Oh, to the bone
Feeling bad, feeling blue
Can’t get out of my own mind
I know how to sing about it
Brett Dennen grew up in Central Valley, California in a small farm town. As a child, Dennen was home schooled, where he was given creative freedom by his parents. His father was an avid pickler, which Dennen attributes to his own love for briney foods. He spent much of his time learning to play music. After becoming proficient in the guitar, he started to write his own songs.
Dennen learned to play guitar while attending Camp Jack Hazard, a residential summer camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. His camp counselors played the music of Neil Young, John Denver, and Joni Mitchell, the same music that his parents listened to. As an adolescent, he worked there as a counselor. He has continued to help the camp, performing at a fundraiser in February 2012 for the Jack and Buena Foundation, which now runs Camp Jack Hazard.
Where you goin’ my brown-eyed son?
You used to crawl but now you run
You started off on a road half-dark
And the river curled into a question mark
Will you sleep on diamond beaches, dear?
And drink from prism streams so clear?
You don’t have to be rich to get around
There are mansions growin’ out of the ground
Days go by
Get out and see the world
Days go by
Get out and see the world with your own eyes
Now, the journey took you far from home
And pushed you out of your comfort zone
There are kids out there with war paint on
And hearts break like crayons
Before you left, the world was small
Now, the hills are bleedin’ like waterfalls
There are a lot of bad things that are buried shallow
And cries for help with no echoes
Days go by
Get out and see the world
Days go by
Get out and see the world with your own eyes
It’s hard to see what your going through
Just knowing can beat up on you
You’ll spend some time in the waiting place
And the purest things may leave no trace
Go up the mountain top and shine
I’ll reflect it on my long decline
I’ve gathered sunsets in my prime
Now, I’m planting trees I’ll never climb
Days go by
Get out and see the world
Days go by
Get out and see the world with your own eyes
Your own eyes
Your own eyes
Your own eyes
Sleep restores us. And not getting enough of it can put us at greater risk of heart disease and cancer. Sleep even makes us smarter. Yet researchers are finding that more than 10 percent of the population is chronically sleep deprived.
If you’re having trouble slipping into — and remaining in — Dreamland, don’t dart straight to prescription sleep drugs, which can be habit-forming, harmful if you live with certain conditions, and even downright bizarre! (Some people develop sleep-eating and sleep-driving habits when using prescription sleeping pills.)
The good news is, science has found that many foods, drinks, herbs, and other natural sleep aids can help put you to sleep … naturally. In fact, just this summer, researchers made the connection between tart cherry juice and getting adequate shut-eye. Here are some natural food and drink-based sleep aids.
Cherries
In the small study, participants drank eight ounces of the tart cherry (also known as sour cherry) juice in the morning, and another eight ounces in the evening, for two weeks and reported better sleeping habits. Since all cherries are naturally high in melatonin, a compound that makes us sleepy, you can try eating a cup as a snack before it’s time for shut-eye if you’d rather not drink the juice.
Fish
Certain fish and sea creatures contain sleep-inducing tryptophan, including shrimp, cod, tuna, and halibut. But since not all seafood choices are healthy for us (some are high in contaminants) or for the planet (many are overfished, or methods for catching them kill other species), stick to catches like Pacific cod from Alaska or pole-caught Albacore tuna from the U.S. or British Columbia.
Carb/Protein Combo
If keeping track of the latest safe seafood guidelines is too complicated, you can get your tryptophan fix from other things. You’ve probably heard that warm milk can help you sleep, since milk contains tryptophan. But the key is to combine carbs with a protein containing tryptophan to help your body better utilize the sleep inducer. Try pairing a cup of whole grain cereal with organic milk before bedtime.
Lemon Balm
This lemon-scented member of the mint family has been a sleep-inducing superstar for ages. Other benefits include better digestion and decreased agitation. Try making lemon balm tea by steeping 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried herb in 1 cup of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. (If you take thyroid meds, talk to your doctor … drinking the tea could mean you’ll have to adjust your dosage.)
Other Herbs
If lemon balm’s not your thing, another herb, sage, also works as a natural sleep aid. Just steep 4 tablespoons in a cup of hot water, steep for four hours, strain, and reheat to drink. Chamomile tea and valerian teas, other sleep inducers, are also more widely available pre-bagged in natural food stores, if you don’t want to fuss with the aforementioned straining herbs.
These young people are reviving the dying farm culture — In the summer of 2015, photographer Eva Verbeeck and filmmaker Spencer MacDonald set out on a journey through the Pacific Northwest to document the lives of first-generation farmers who run small-scale organic farms.
With the average age of farmers in North America quickly approaching 60-years-old, Verbeeck and MacDonald sought to understand the impact that the aging population will have on our food system—through the eyes of the few young farmers taking up the work.
In the resulting short doc, Age of the Farmer, young people share why they are pursuing this lifestyle.
Data shows a growing interest among those under 35 in agriculture, with the USDA noting a rise in young farmers from 2007 to 2017, though they still make up just 9% of U.S. farmers.
Many are driven by a mix of passion for sustainable food systems, environmental concerns, and a desire to reconnect with land and community.
They’re leveraging tech—drones, precision agriculture, and e-commerce platforms to make small-scale farming viable, while others embrace regenerative practices to combat soil degradation and climate change.
The farm culture movement isn’t uniform. Some focus on profit, others on ideology, but it’s gaining traction. Programs like the National Young Farmers Coalition and 4-H are supporting this wave and are offering training and advocacy for the cause.
If this years Montana State Fair is anything at all like our 4th of July downtown parade and fireworks show was, then it will most likely be packed. The Rona sort of shut everything down last year and I’m pretty sure that everyone from miles around will be pretty anxious to get to town and participate this year.
