Howdy, Beacon nation! Lauren Frick here, reporting again for Daily Roundup “clopener” duty (see clopener definition here), and I have to admit — I’m tired. Y’all weren’t kidding when you said Under the Big Sky weekend was…how do I put this elegantly…insane. I’ve never felt more a part of the local fabric of Whitefish than when I was muttering stressed exclamations under my breath while my usual five-minute Sunday drive to Safeway for some groceries took, well, a lot longer. 

Fortunately, I was tapped by the powers that be (my editors) to check out what all the commotion was about, meaning I got my first-ever Under the Big Sky experience. Despite getting back to my apartment at about 1 a.m. (hence the Monday morning exhaustion), the closing day of the festival was filled with a whole lot of boot scootin’, even more great music, and no shortage of smiles and good energy flowing through Big Mountain Ranch.

So for those of you who “got the hell out of Dodge” or just didn’t make it out to the festival this year, here’s a little look into what was happening east of Whitefish’s bustling downtown this weekend. 

As I descended from the shuttle bus late Sunday afternoon and my cowboy boots made first contact with Big Mountain Ranch, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the venue had already endured two jam-packed and heat-filled festival days marked by headliners Cody Jinks and Zach Top. Thousands of festivalgoers in good spirits milled around the grounds, taking refuge in the trees and splitting evenly between the two stages. 

My first stop of the day was to see Jamestown Revival at the festival’s main stage, aptly named the Great Northern. (Well, my first official stop was at the “watering hole” because, whew, it was hot.)

The Texas-bred and Los Angeles-based duo with a self-described “back-porch folk-rock” sound formed in 2011 around the talents of childhood friends Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance.

When researching the duo, I wasn’t surprised to learn Clay and Chance were childhood friends who had been on the music scene for 15 years. The two were completely in their comfort zone when the start of their set saw a string of technical difficulties, with Clay effortlessly strumming his guitar while chatting with the crowd as the kinks were ironed out. 

The delay didn’t last long as the duo dove into their set unfazed, reminding the eager onlookers, “we’re just here to have fun.” A sizable and loyal crowd emerged from the trees to gather at the barricade to hear newer tunes like 2022’s “Young Man” and classics like “Revival” from the duo’s debut 2014 album, Utah. 

After an hour of blending harmonies and prolonged jam sessions, I for one had been made a Jamestown Revival fan. California (Cast Iron Soul) — another song from their debut album that pays homage to their hometown of Magnolia, Texas — even found its way into my “liked” songs on Spotify this morning.

To catch a break from the sun (and to set down my heavy camera bag — I have no idea how our usual point-and-shooter Hunter D’Antuono carries that all the time), I headed over to the Big Mountain stage and found a nice patch of grass under a tree by the creek. Between kids splashing in the water and couples dancing in the field, the second stage took on a whole life of its own. 

No group captured the spirit of the Big Mountain stage quite like Hogslop String Band, a Nashville-based, fiddle-driven acoustic group known for blending traditional old-time Appalachian and bluegrass music with rock-and-roll. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this infectiously rowdy group, who had my favorite entertainer of the weekend with their bassist “Pickle,” I would definitely recommend it. 

I have a couple of anecdotes written down from this set — most stemming from the group’s 2019, “High Hopes,” a song whose thematic focus I’m sure you can guess — but this is a family-friendly newsletter, so I’ll just say there was a lot of clapping, jigging and good times had by all.

And last, but certainly not least, the festival concluded with the legend that is Chris Stapleton. I’ll go ahead and admit it, this was the only artist from the entire Under the Big Sky lineup that I had ever listened to beforehand. (Is now a bad time to reveal I’m not the biggest country music fan?)

As a massive crowd adoringly watched on, Stapleton entertained us with some of his biggest hits, from “Tennessee Whiskey” to “White Horse” to “You Should Probably Leave.” Opting to let the music do the talking, Stapleton’s electrifying vocals, mesmerizing instrumentation and calm but confident presence commanded the crowd of thousands over the course of his hour-and-a-half set. Truly sounding even better than his recorded songs, Stapleton was definitely worth the nearly two-hour journey to get the 4 miles back to my apartment. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for you today — time to boot, scoot and boogie to the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.