Nickell’s Bag

Anybody who’s looked at Friday’s Entertainer knows that there’s a ton of interesting stuff happening as part of this year’s First Night Missoula festivities on Dec. 31. One performance that carries special significance is the appearance by the Frederico Brothers, at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts.

The local band – featuring Bruce Carlson on vocals and guitar, Phil Hamilton on harmonicas, Paul Kelley on vocals and bass, Roger Moquin on vocals and drums, and Peter Walther on vocals, electric guitar and mandolin – has its roots in a series of musical-chair events that sent various members back and forth between Missoula and Austin, Tex., starting some 30 years ago.

Hamilton explains: “Bruce and Phil left their home state of Montana and went to Austin, Texas, in 1974 — at the height of the country-rock scare of the 70’s.  Paul had migrated from Houston and was playing bass with Nanci Griffith at the Hole in the Wall in Austin.  Bruce got a solo gig there and was joined by Paul.  They played as a duo for a couple of years before Paul joined Phil in the (Montana-based) Lost Highway Band from 1976-1985.  Bruce stayed in Texas, where Nanci recorded his song, ‘Montana Backroads,’ on her first album. Paul played bass on that album. Paul and Phil eventually settled back in Missoula, where Bruce joined them in 1988.”

The story goes on from there, reeling along over the years like a lazy country waltz. The Frederico Brothers have never grabbed headline gigs, nor made newspaper headlines. What they’ve done is quietly established a reputation among in-the-know fans of country and blues music for their soaring vocal harmonies, right-as-rain picking, and sunny tunesmanship.

“(We) approach music for the creative joy of it,” said Hamilton in an email, “singing songs about trains, death, and love gone wrong.”

That approach is gloriously evident in songs like Walther’s “Back Door,” with its bouncing two-step beat and crooning back-porch harmonies; or covers like Bob Dylan’s “Masterpiece” or John Hiatt’s “Take It Down” – all of which you’ll find on “Fire Creek,” a new CD that the band will release at its First Night gig. For fans of blues-tinged, old-school country, this is a show not to miss.

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