Dynamic Quist duo back on stage with busy performance lineup

When acclaimed Montana musician Rob Quist underwent heart surgery, the experience impacted his life, but also deeply affected his daughter and fellow musician, Halladay providing a new perspective on performing with her father.  

Halladay said it changed her heart, which changed how she sings. 

“Your tongue is actually connected to a long muscle that goes down and wraps around your heart. So, it is very personal,” she said. “I think that's why sometimes you can actually reach someone's heart by singing because it's just a very personal vibration. With dad's surgery, it was a wake-up call as far as like, how precious life is, and how we only get so many moments to really show who we are and share our talents on stage and spend time with the people we love.”

In a moment of levity during recovery earlier this year, Rob said there was a point where he was having an adverse reaction to an opioid and kept asking Halladay to come in with her guitar to play a specific note he needed to hear.

“I was stuck in this loop where I’d call her and say ‘Hal, you got to come in, you have to bring your guitar, and you have to have an F minor chord, because, you know, it has to resolve and that's the only way that I can kind of get out of this,’” Rob said with a laugh.

They never found the right chord, but Rob appreciated Halladay and her husband walking him through it. 

Now when the two get on stage together, they savor every moment.

“That's what musicians live for, is that moment when everything comes together, and the audience is into it,” Rob said. “You get that energy where it's a give-and-take with the audience. And all of a sudden, everybody just leaves the earth, it’s what I live for.”

The father-daughter duo performs May 3 for the Daily Inter Lake’s Press Play lunchtime concert series. 

A singer-songwriter Rob founded the Mountain Mission Wood Band and has had his songs sung by Michael Martin Murphy and Loretta Lynn. He has appeared with musical acts Heart, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jimmy Buffett and Dolly Parton, among others.

When Halladay — a music talent in her own right — and Rob aren’t crooning a country melody with trio partner Clara Weick, they’re acting in movies, playing shows and creating a plan to bring more music to Montana children.

HALLADAY OPENED the door to her new studio space, complete with a small stage, professional lighting and a bright neon sign that says “Starlight.” It’s the name of her new online music academy she is starting up with the help of other local musicians and the establishment of a new nonprofit called the Quist Foundation. 

She said the goal is to enhance music education in the state, looking to make lessons and instruments more accessible for students. Starlight Academy will have instructors who are licensed music teachers and professional touring musicians recording lessons on Halladay’s stage.

“We've just been seeing a lot of arts and music funding getting cut in Montana. And it is troubling, you know, I think that music education affects all of us in such a beautiful way … it really is an important part of a well-rounded education,” Halladay said. 

The goal is to teach instrument basics, stage presence and performing, music theory and even some lessons in the music business, as well as, songwriting workshops, among other ideas. She’s excited to have instructors who have found music to be a successful venture, passing that enthusiasm on to the students. 

Another one of her upcoming projects is Montana’s Got Talent, a showcase of talent throughout the Treasure State. In 2020, Halladay decided to teach elementary school at Deer Park School while the world — and the ability to perform — paused during the pandemic. She heard from many parents at the time that there needed to be a showcase of the incredible talent coming up in Montana. The event will also act as a fundraiser for Starlight Academy, going toward the mission to create educational and professional opportunities for artists.  

The event will be at the Wachholz College Center on Oct. 26. All ages and all talents are encouraged to apply at www.montanasgottalent.com/. The winner will receive a chance to open for a national touring act at the Abayance Bay in Rexford, a new demo recorded at Beargrass Studio, two tickets to Under the Big Sky music festival and $2,500 cash. 

They are looking to hold two or three annual events to help fundraise for their music education programs. She said there are many schools in Montana that do not have music teachers and that they were inspired to fill this gap in whatever ways they could. 

HAVING BEEN born in the middle of one of her father’s tours, Halladay knows about a first-rate music education. 

“I always felt at home on a bus, there's just something about being on the road that I just have always loved. So, I started playing music when I was pretty little, me and dad started singing together from when I was able to and he had me on stage when I was about three years old,” Halladay said. 

“She was a road baby,” Rob laughed. 

The veteran performer was recently inducted into the Montana Musicians Hall of Fame and was also honored at the Governor’s Arts Awards in 2022.  Rob is known as a musical and cultural ambassador for the state of Montana, which he calls “his muse.” After a successful career with his band, he realized there was no better place to be than home. 

“I decided that I was gonna go back to Montana to write about the history of this country, the wide open spaces and just the awesome scenery that we have here. And the people that live here, too. So, that's been my journey since then — we got back here in 1990 and it's been such a great reward for me,” Rob said.

He’s worked with Blackfeet singer-songwriter Jack Gladstone on several projects in the past, and still performs songs from their Lewis and Clark themed show called “Odyssey West” during the Native America Speaks program that runs every summer in Glacier National Park. 

But when he’s not thinking about new ways to sing about the beauty of his home state, Rob has been trying his hand at acting. People can catch him playing the Lincoln County Sheriff in a comedy called “Out to Pasture” directed by Kier Atherton, who reached out to Rob about the part while he was running for the U.S. House of Representatives. 

“It was such a great experience and I didn't realize how addicting it could be. The saddest moment for me was when my last scene wrapped and there were no more scenes to shoot,” Rob said. 

It’s set to premiere in Paris, France on May 17, but he will opt to attend the Montana premiere, which is planned for sometime in June. 

Rob is still recovering from the quadruple bypass heart surgery, a scare that brought their busy lives to a halt. 

“We're gonna start our full touring schedule in the first part of June and so I'm anxious to get back on stage and get on the horse again,” Rob said. 

In addition to their upcoming summer shows in the area as a duo and the Halladay Quist Trio, Rob is doing a residency with the Road Scholar program for members coming to see Glacier National Park, performing at the Lake McDonald Lodge Auditorium. Halladay sings with the Second Story Band at 101 Central in Whitefish every Wednesday and Thursday. A full list of her upcoming performances can be found at www.halladayquist.com/events/. 

The Quists perform on May 3 at noon for the Daily Inter Lake’s Press Play series. Subscribers can join for a unique music listening experience at the Daily Inter Lake office by donating to the Newspapers in Education initiative. Concertgoers can bring lunch or purchase one of three options from The House of S&M.

Tickets and lunch are available at flatheadtickets.com or by calling 406-758-4436.

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.