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Musician's Spotlight - Big Richard

Big Richard
Natalie Jo Gray
/
Courtesy
Big Richard

The episode plays in two parts. Part two will begin automatically after part one ends.

What began as an all-female festival collaboration quickly morphed into a serious passion project driven by sisterhood, harmony and humor — along with the shared desire to rage fiddle tunes and smash the patriarchy.

Big Richard is a neo-acoustic super group composed of four well-established Colorado musicians: Bonnie Sims, Joy Adams, Emma Rose and Eve Panning.

The group sat down with host John Floridis in early October, 2022 in the basement of the house concert venue Longstaff House in Missoula just prior to their concert there.

The group talks about the formation of the band, how they split the songwriting and lead singing of the songs and some of their struggle to be recognized as musicians in the male dominated world of bluegrass and string music.

In addition Joy Adams shares her journey of scaling Colorado's "Fourteeners" with her cello, playing Bach along the way as she skis down the mountain. Bonnie Sims relates the unusual story of her number one hit "I See Red", an alt rock anthem for the film "365 Days."

John Floridis, the host and producer of Musician's Spotlight, has been with Montana Public Radio since 1997. He has interviewed over 200 musicians during that time. He is also an independent recording and performing artist in his own right and a former registered music therapist.
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