Nickell’s Bag

Leslie Van Stavern Millar is passionate about the things she loves. She’s a proud lifelong supporter of women’s issues and environmental causes. As a working artist, she gives what she can to support those causes.

But she’s also passionate about the plight of artists today. And after years of being asked to donate artwork to local auctions and fundraisers, she’s ready for some of those organizations she supports to think about the unintended impacts of their requests. [Read more →]

The holiday season isn’t yet upon us, but one of the biggest names in music announced a Christmas present for Missoula on Wednesday. Mannheim Steamroller, the best-selling holiday-music act in history, will appear at the University of Montana’s Adams Center on Thursday, Nov. 12. Proceeds from the concert will benefit UM’s Entertainment Management program. [Read more →]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a feature about Kerri Rosenstein’s current installation at the Missoula Art Museum. As that story noted, an integral part of that installation is the redistribution of the “rose stones” back into the environment.

Rosenstein has since set up a blog where she’s featuring missives and photos from people who have taken stones from the installation and put them back out into the world. You can check out the blog, here. It’s pretty cool.

Scottish pop phenom Paolo Nutini is coming to the Wilma on September 16th. I hadn’t heard of him either. But as I look around, apparently I’ve missed something; his 2006 album sold a million copies — no small feat in this day and age — and he’s all over the world singing his song ‘New Shoes’ in ads for Puma shoes. So somebody around here is probably gonna be excited about this news. Click through for the full press release… [Read more →]

Just got word that Bob Weir, best known as co-vocalist and rhythm guitarist with the Grateful Dead, is bringing his band Ratdog to Missoula on August 26. Tickets are on sale now. Click through for the full press release… [Read more →]

Most of us know Russ Nasset as the front-man for longtime Missoula musical stalwarts, the Revelators. Playing a mix of country, blues, and rockabilly, the band keeps dance floors bouncing wherever it goes.

But Nasset’s career didn’t begin in the world of dance halls and barrooms. Back in the day, he was a coffeehouse crooner playing old folk music. [Read more →]

No, you can’t copy my CDs.

There, I’ve said it. I’ve tried to avoid the issue, tried to change the subject. I’ve made up too many excuses. But at this point I’m tired of being asked.

I hate to be a curmudgeon, hate to be uncool. I understand you’re broke. (So am I.) I know that I’ll still have my CDs, just as good as they were before, after you copy them.

And I will be the first to admit that I’ve done my share of “borrowing” and “lending” over the years. I never got into the online music sharing thing, but that was mostly because I got plenty of music to love directly from my friends; and I gave back. Most of the new music I heard in the last years of the 90s and the early days of this new millennium came to me in the form of homemade CDs scrawled over with a Sharpie. And I gave back. Just before my grandmother died, I made her a 20-CD set of my favorite classical music.

But my thinking has changed over recent years. [Read more →]

The king of pop died today. No word on a cause, yet.

Steve Earle will return to Missoula on August 12, exactly a year and a month after his last appearance at the University Theatre. Click through for full details…. [Read more →]

In today’s Outdoors section I had a story I wrote from the perspective of a salmonfly. It was fun to pretend I wasn’t a newspaper reporter!