Whitefish Native Selected as Finalist in Nationwide Songwriter Festival Contest

As a Whitefish native and nearly lifelong musician and songwriter, Tim Torgerson hoped to one day take part in the Whitefish Songwriter Festival, but the opportunity had never seemed to open up, he said. 

Then Cari Klepper, the festival’s cofounder, walked through the doors of downtown Whitefish’s Slow Burn Records, where Torgerson works part-time. 

“Cari was bringing in a poster for the festival and she said hi and she left, then she came right back and she walked all the way back to the back of the store where I was, and she said, ‘Tim, do you know that we’re doing a songwriting contest?’”

Torgerson was aware of the contest, but thought the summer deadline had already passed. When Klepper informed him of a deadline extension, he quickly got to work filming his contest video. Racing against the deadline and the 100-entry cap, Torgerson slipped in his submission just before the contest’s close, he said.

“I thought once I sent it off, I’ll get in touch with Cari and see if she got it OK because I didn’t want to have it get lost,” Torgerson said. “She looked and she found it and she said, ‘And you’re number 99.’” 

“It was a close shave.”

After a few weeks and multiple rounds of judging — which included the third-party, discerning eyes of the contest’s partner, Nashville-based Quartz Hill Music Group — Torgerson was selected as a finalist from a crop of songwriters from across the country.

“That was a really nice surprise,” Torgerson said this week while sitting in the plush, red velvet seats of Whitefish’s O’Shaughnessy Center, where he will perform as part of the contest on Friday. 

Now in its sixth year, the Whitefish Songwriter Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating the art while expanding access to music education and creative opportunities in Whitefish and the Flathead Valley. The 2026 edition takes place Sept. 18-20 in multiple venues across downtown Whitefish, bringing accomplished hit songwriters, emerging artists and rising talent together for three days of original songs, stories and intimate performances throughout the community.

This year’s festival will mark the inaugural “It’s All About the Song” Songwriting Contest, a new initiative created by the nonprofit Whitefish Songwriter Festival to discover emerging talent and give aspiring songwriters meaningful exposure to working professionals in today’s music industry.

“I’ve always believed in the power of a song, as well as in both the joy and in the healing that music can bring,” said Benny Brown, Quartz Hill Music Group founder and president. “I’m excited to partner with the Whitefish Songwriter Festival because it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the talented songwriters who create those special moments with a new audience that truly values great music and how it all begins.”

Torgerson was one of five adult finalists, and the only one from the Flathead Valley. The under-18 category saw four of five finalists hailing from the valley — Kaelyn Marie Saenz, Annabelle Christine, and Kodi and Madison Holmes of Kalispell, and Liam Robert Gingras of Polson.

The 10 finalists will perform at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, at the O’Shaughnessy Center, and one Grand Prize Winner from each division will receive $1,000 and an invitation to perform at the 2027 Whitefish Songwriter Festival, along with additional opportunities.

Torgerson will officially debut his song, Gettin’ in Touch, at the finalist showcase — a piece of work he said he has been “hiding up [his] sleeve for a while.” Ahead of the performance, Torgerson decided to keep the song hidden just a bit longer, choosing not to reveal any of its lyrics or the meaning behind the composition.

“I think saving the surprise on this one is going to be kind of important,” Torgerson said with a faint laugh. “I’ve played it from time to time through the years. I had some friends kind of egging me on one time to play it because they knew about it, and I was like, nah. They twisted my arm, and so I was like, OK, fine. So I played it, and the whole place kind of shifted; it changed the atmosphere to a certain extent. It was kind of a good sign, you know. But the song has had very little exposure.”

Although the song has been largely under wraps, the tune did at one point find the ear of the “Zen Cowboy” himself, Chuck Pyle. An accomplished songwriter, Pyle’s songs have been recorded by John Denver, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Suzy Bogguss. 

“I opened for and ran sound for Chuck Pyle up on the Big Mountain,” Torgerson said. “He had a pretty good feel for the business, and he listened to it, and he said, ‘Tim, you got a hit.’ He said, ‘But every step is a miracle. Coming up with the concept is a miracle. Writing the song is a miracle. Getting it recorded is a miracle, and getting it down the right avenue to the right artist is a miracle.’ So it’s kind of the aligning of the planets, so to speak, in the music world.”

While the feedback was encouraging, Torgerson also recalled it being “a little bit daunting at the same time,” saying Whitefish’s distance from major music hubs like Los Angeles or Nashville seemed to be a roadblock. 

“I haven’t really known how to approach that, being from Whitefish, Montana, far away from all of the music hubs that usually engage in those kinds of situations,” Torgerson said. “So I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I had a variety of thoughts of how I might want to approach that, but I had family and a lot of other things going on too that made me kind of have it on the back burner.”

Enter the “It’s All About the Song” Songwriting Contest — the proverbial outstretched hand for songwriters in small towns across the country to get an introduction to the faraway music industry.

“When I was growing up playing a lot of music, I was always mystified by jazz,” Torgerson said. “When Crown of the Continent happened, I got to study in the jazz class, and so it kind of nourished me in a way that I was really hungry for, and I think the same thing is true with all of us that are songwriters. 

“There are opportunities for learning about it, but they’re kind of few and far between, and especially from people who have a really deep, mastered quality to it. So it’s a real gift to be able to be a part of something like this and to have the opportunity to grow and be stirred and encouraged.”

As Torgerson prepares for Friday’s performance, he said he’s “excited and scared at the same time,” noting a different set of nerves accompanies this special opportunity to potentially take his songwriting to another level. 

“I have so many people in this community and beyond this community that have been so encouraging to me, and I just love the fact that maybe there’s an opportunity for me to continue doing that in a way that might be on a little higher level because of this festival and some of the things that I might be able to glean from it,” Torgerson said.

“It’d be cool if it opened up the opportunity to have some relationships and some new friendships that might be a little bit of a guidepost,” he added. “But I think the surprise of what’s coming around the corner is probably better than trying to speculate what it might be.”

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