Locals jam with musical icons at the Crown

For one week each year, Bigfork enjoys a brief spotlight as the epicenter of the guitar world. The Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop and Festival, now in its eighth year, brings a host of talented instructors and up-and-coming musicians together for a week of collective learning, impromptu jam sessions and evening concerts.

The Crown, as its known colloquially, is held at Bigfork’s Flathead Lake Lodge — an exclusive waterfront dude ranch which can count Bing Crosby and former president George H.W. Bush among its previous guests. Participants convene in cabins scattered throughout the campus for classes ranging from jazz, to rock and singer/songwriter, followed by master classes in the afternoon led by the Crown’s eight artists in residence who also perform in evening concerts.

This year’s main stage lineup includes renowned musicians like rockabilly legend Albert Lee, and jazz and rock guitarist Mike Stern, who’s played for the likes of Miles Davis and Blood, Sweat & Tears. Friday’s show will feature an ensemble of rising stars and master mentors, while Saturday will showcase slide guitar, rock and world music to cap off the Crown’s week of music.

Among the workshop attendees were a number of local players, including Whitefish’s Port Nugent. At age 16, Nugent was among the workshop’s youngest attendees, yet already in his second year at the Crown. He received a scholarship from the Crown Guitar Foundation valued at $5,000 to attend the rock class at this year’s event. Nugent was one of 12 Northwest Montana guitarists to earn a full ride to the workshop.

“It’s really inspirational watching all the artists here,” Nugent said. “I’m inspired by all of my classmates just as much as the teachers because there’s things that I’ll see them do and go, OK that’s really cool, and try to pick some of that up.”

Nugent was introduced to guitar by an aunt’s boyfriend as an adolescent. Not long after, he picked up his first instrument, a $30 First Act acoustic, which he practiced religiously. Early on, he had an ear for fast, complicated runs in metal music. He’d listen to a song by Metallica or Ozzy Osbourne and spend hours upon hours picking away at the piece until he mastered it.

“On the weekends is when I really hammer it out and sometimes, as ridiculous as it sounds, I’ll play for like eight hours on and off,” he said.

At the Crown, Nugent said he’s been focusing on solos and improvisation in hopes of setting himself up for a career on the road.

“I want to play on stage for a lot of people,” Nugent said. “It’s not that it’s easy, but it’s a job that’s fun — you get to do what you love.”

ALREADY LIVING Nugget’s dream is Kalispell jazz guitarist and fellow Crown attendee, Jeremy Quick.

Quick, who grew up in a one-room log cabin 15 miles outside of Kalispell, said the Crown was a unique opportunity for musicians to, not just meet, but jam with their idols.

Case in point was last Sunday. Quick and his roommate were playing upstairs when one of his musical heroes happened to walk through the door.

“Mike Stern just walks in and was like, ‘I just heard you guys, I’ve been listening outside. I want to play, can I join you?’” Quick recalled. “And he played with us for like two hours until way late and gave us all sorts of super cool tips.”

It’s these types of intimate interactions that have guitarists like Quick flocking to the Crown year after year to both hone their skills and stock up on inspiration.

In his early playing days, Quick was inspired by his father whom, when moving the family to Montana from the East Coast, decided he’d rather strap his guitar to the underside of the family truck than leave the instrument behind. Miraculously, it survived the journey.

“He only knew a couple chords and he used to play ‘House of the Rising Sun,’” Quick said. “But then he decided that song was not really appropriate for us little kids, so he would sing ‘Amazing Grace,’ but to the tune of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ — and surprisingly, it fit.”

In his early teens, Quick found summer work at Loren’s Auto Repair as a “grease monkey” and eventually earned enough money to buy his first guitar a red, sunburst-style Alvarez.

It wasn’t until he heard Dexter Gordon’s jazz album “Go” that things clicked.

“If I was not working, I would practice most of the day — six to eight hours,” he said. “If I was working, I would come home and practice for four hours in the evening or sometimes before work. I was practicing a lot. I just all of a sudden wanted to absorb everything I could.”

Quick was accepted to Boston’s Berklee College of Music in the early 2000s and relocated, but chose against attending the college to avoid accruing mountains of student debt. Instead, he’d look up the course textbooks online, purchase them from the campus bookstore and work through the material on his own.

After four semesters of studying, Quick followed in his father’s footsteps and picked up a day job in construction, while playing gigs on the weekends. As the years went on, he was able to supplement his income by teaching music, and was eventually able to swap out his construction job with music education — a model he carried with him back to Kalispell.

The husband of 14 years and father to two plays mostly what he calls “pickup jazz gigs” — he’s not tied to a single band, but rather moves around the state partnering with different musicians on different occasions. In addition to jazz, Quick plays classical guitar and sings, and strums in the cover band Soul Simple which frequents the Flathead Valley area.

AT THE Crown, improvisation isn’t limited to jazz musicians — guitarists off all disciplines can be spotted throughout the Lodge jamming together. As Tuesday evening wore on, a trio of guitarists were busy filming themselves play on a stone bench by the water, while others found vacant spaces to practice in pairs, and still others hung back after classes to continue sessions of their own.

Quick was settled among a troupe of other artists, playing a bit of gypsy jazz on the back porch of the main lodge. The musicians would cue each other in with a simple look or nod of the head, encouraging one member to solo, while the rest stepped back into supporting roles.

They each had their own styles, their own areas of technical prowess, but when they played, they played as one.

For more information on the Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop and Festival, visit http://crownguitarfest.org.

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss can be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.