On Friday, July 28, we had the opportunity to attend the Darby Logger Days event, which was scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The event celebrates the rich logging history of the Bitteroot Valley of Montana, and is also a fundraiser for several local non-profits. Music was scheduled both days, with country legends Sawyer Brown as the headliner on Friday night. Two indie bands opened up the show: Melissa Forrette of Missoula and Mabel’s Rage from Helena.
Forrette proved herself to be a humble and gracious performer from the very start. Her sound check was delayed almost 45 minutes, and then her start time of 6 p.m was further delayed another 30 minutes, more than likely due to the fact that Sawyer Brown’s tour bus broke down and they were more than three hours late to arrive.
Forrette played a mixture of originals and covers by such legends as Don Williams, Merle Haggard, George Jones, John Pardi and Emmylou Harris and newcomers like Ashley McBryde, and kept the audience engaged and entertained. While Forrette has learned to play a lot of covers for her usual honky tonking gigs, it is her original songs that strike the chord. She performed several of her best ones, including “Second Best Again,” “Bad Habits,” “Behind These Walls,” “I Don’t Want to be Found,” and the song that won her the award for Best Song at the American Country Star competition, “I Made Him Your Man.
Forrette was personable on stage with her witty banter, but it was her closing cover of Ashley McBryde’s “Girl Goin’ Nowhere” that really brought the house down. It was emotional and power-packed, and summed up the struggles of an indie artist trying to make it in today’s music industry.
After her performance, Forrette spent time talking to her friends and fans, signing autographs and just listening to them. This is one area where she truly shines, and watching her with her fans is a great joy.
Forrette will be performing at the Chicks and Chaps Rodeo workshop at the Western Montana Fair in Missoula on August 11 before heading up to Big Fork to perform at The Raven, Woods Bay on August 20.
