Montana
Yee-Haw Hee-Haw brings country music to Montana Avenue in Billings
The Magic City Blues Festival took up a venue on Montana Avenue for two decades.
On Friday and Saturday, it’s Yee-Haw Hee-Haw, Western Days 2024 on a smaller stage.
A music-loving sponsor, who wants to remain anonymous, bought enough tickets to make this a free event.
The Randall King Hard Livin’ Band bus and trailer were parked on Montana Avenue.
That’s close to where the Magic City Blues Festival entrance would have been.
The same promoters are putting on Yee-Haw Hee-Haw, but it’s a smaller venue North 25th Street between Montana Avenue and 1st Avenue North.
The idea is to bring back some live music as well as some traditional show business.
The sounds of country music will fill the Magic City air at the first ever Yee-Haw Hee-Haw Festival.
“This is like an outdoor nightclub,” said Tim Goodridge, the long-time promoter of the Magic City Blues Festival, which was held on Montana Avenue until just recently moving to MetraPark.
That event is on hiatus as he and his wife have decided to do a smaller show.
“We’re a family operation,” Goodridge said. “It’s me and Pam who are the engine behind it all. Two people and their family and friends. And once a year we come together and blow it out of the water.”
And this year, they’re going from blues and rock to country and comedy.
Three bands will perform on the main stage on North 25th Street on Friday and Saturday nights with three others rocking the stage inside Craft Local, along with a comedian.
“When you think back to the old days you have Don Rickles doing comedy and then out comes Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., which was more of an entertainment gig than just simply music or simply comedy,” Goodridge said.
The Goodridge family put on the Last Best Country Fest in 2015 and expects that music aficionados will enjoy country as much as the blues.
“Most people I don’t think are stuck in one or the other,” Goodridge said.
The crew is getting ready for the Randall King band, which is one of the groups getting set to perform and is first in line for sound checks.
“It’s more camaraderie, man,” said Red Weber, part of the Randall King crew. “We’re all on the same team. We’ve got to make it happen. The show must go on.”
The band has several shows in August, before heading out for a three-week European tour.
“My first gig and I got lucky to be able to travel the world,” said Gavin Alvarez, also part of the Randall King crew.
Goodridge has a passion for putting on these types of shows.
“I love music and I love people,” Goodridge said. “People get to come together and celebrate and that’s the fun thing, to try and do that because there’s an energy that comes from it that you don’t get anywhere else.”