Free music party kicks off Guitar Festival

A free music party will kick off the Crown Guitar Workshop and Festival on Saturday, Aug. 25, at two venues in Bigfork.

Featuring the talented lineup of guitar scholarship students and fellowship recipients, the music will cover a range of guitar genres, from songwriters to rockers, from emerging classical masters to jazz and blues.

The music starts at 3 p.m. and runs until 6 p.m. on the Tiki Bar deck at Marina Cay resort. It will feature such emerging artists as Jessica Lechner, a singer/songwriter from Billings, who was voted Best Female Vocalist in the 2016/17 Billings Magic City Music Awards. Also appearing will be the duo Raveis Kole of Bellingham, Washington, a couple who met at the Crown several years ago, married and now devote their life to music. Brooks Robinson, a returning fellowship recipient, will bring his first-class fingerstyle guitar playing and Missoula’s Valley Lopez will join with emerging artist Emmett Aschim, a Glacier High School sophomore. Also on the roster is Flathead Valley’s multi-instrumentalist Merle Robinson, indie folk singer Jamie Wyman, along with Chris Evans, Paul Lenihan and Grant Gibson.

The party moves to Bigfork’s Garden Bar at 8:30 p.m. and begins with scholarship winner and Flathead Valley guitar teacher Dee Fleming. She’ll be followed by a lineup of both scholarship students and Fellowship recipients including Andy Poxon, a cross-over blues and classical master, and Matt Campbell, a Chicago-based multi-genre guitarist. Flathead valley’s Port Nugent and Isaiah Seliskar will rip it up along with several other musicians.

Expect the talented Crown Guitar faculty artists, many of whom are professional musicians, to jump onstage and join in the music making.

This is the ninth year for the Crown Guitar Workshop and Festival, a five-concert music extravaganza at Flathead Lake Lodge from Aug. 28 to Sept 1. The concerts feature the master musicians who have come to teach for the weeklong workshop.