Whitefish Review releases music issue with live performances

Whitefish Review launches “The Music Issue” with live music by Rob Quist, Dave Griffith and the magic Black Ram guitar Sept. 13 at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake in the Tent Pavilion.  

“The Music issue is a concert created by our team inside our journal pages,” said Brian Schott, founding editor of Whitefish Review. “It sings both of the celebration of life even during the hardest of times, as well as the protection of our ancient forests that can hold carbon in defense of a warming planet.” 

The issue features 33 writers and artists, including The Montana Prize for Fiction winner, Jeff Guay. The cover image is a custom screen print by Mike Tallman, a graphic artist and printmaker known for creating famous rock and roll posters for iconic bands like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and The Allman Brothers Band. 

The Black Ram guitar embodies the message of The Music Issue and was crafted from a 315-year-old spruce destroyed by a logging road built to the edge of a giant clearcut in Montana’s Yaak Valley. It was commissioned by actor Jeff Bridges as part of his and their “All in This Together” sustainability campaign with Breedlove Guitars and created through The Montana Project.  

“This Black Ram guitar has spoken to me and told me her story, as well as the plight of the entirety of the Black Ram Forest,” Quist said. “In light of our discovery of how trees communicate and send nutrients via mycelium to keep neighboring trees from perishing, we must understand that they are sentient beings vital to the health and survival of all living inhabitants of our Mother Earth.”  

Black Ram is a remote forest in Yaak home to an endangered population of grizzly bears. It contains 600- to 800-year-old larch trees nestled alongside giant subalpine fir, spruce, red cedar, and western hemlock trees. A 95,000-acre logging project known as Black Ram was approved in 2022, which was set to destroy the old-growth forest, according to a press release. A federal judge subsequently halted the project, but the U.S. Forest Service has now appealed the decision.  

"I am deeply honored and committed to contributing to the preservation of the Black Ram forest, and I will use my voice to bring its attention to my audiences whenever and wherever I perform,” Quist said. 

The live music starts during cocktail hour at 6:30 p.m., with readings and discussion starting at 8 p.m.  

Whitefish High School student Bjorn Bungener will read from an essay about the physics of music, and Glenn Schiffman will read from his essay about Janis Joplin and his time on the road as a rock and roll sound equipment truck driver. Guay will read from his prize-winning story, and Natalie Storey will read fiction about dreams of a rock and roll star. Editors will talk with Toby Scott about his life as a sound engineer for Bruce Springsteen for more than 35 years and a gift he gave him. After the speakers, Quist will perform a new song he wrote in honor of the Black Ram. A live stream will also be available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@WhitefishReview. 

A $20 entry donation is suggested to support the nonprofit journal.  

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS inside the literary journal’s latest issue are interviews with Raven Chacon, the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music, singer and songwriter Jerry Joseph, who has over 30 studio records, and Mark A. Rodriguez, who has created sculptures from a collection of more than 27,000 Grateful Dead live tapes. 

The issue also features art by Pearl Jam bass guitarist Jeff Ament and Italian artist Mario Loprete, short interviews with musician Huey Lewis and climate scholar Bill McKibben and poetry by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón.  

Photography features include fan photography by Nirvana photographer Charles Peterson, guitars made from salvaged wood by Dan Strack, a portrait project by Mike Hipple of famous ’80s musicians, music-related photos by Robert Millis from India, and anonymous found music and snapshot photography by Mark Sullo. 

Essays by Chrysti Smith and Ellen Sollinger Walker, excerpts from Diane K. Boyd’s new book, “A Woman Among Wolves,” and poetry by Rebecca A. Durham, Mary Beth Hines, Rebecca Ramsden, Shyla Ann Shehan and John Miltimore Wolff are also featured. Also included is songwriting by Deidre Corson, David Noftsinger and Quist. 

On Sept. 28, the Whitefish Review joins The Montana Project for Climate Aid at the Wilma in Missoula to celebrate the Black Ram Guitar Festival. Visit www.blackramguitarfest.org for tickets. 

For more information about the Whitefish Review, visit www.whitefishreview.org.