Dogtown: One Band's Tie to Seeley Lake

SEELEY LAKE - Hours before his first performance at the Bob Marshall Music Festival, Matt Strachan was lounging at his cabin in Dogtown. Scattered around the back deck overlooking the Clearwater River sat members of his band, the Hoot Owls, along with his wife and friends, sipping on White Claws and huckleberry-colored mixed drinks.

The band members all showed signs of being in the sun-they'd spend part of the day out on the boat-which was a precursor to the hot, summer sets ahead.

"Do you want to hear it?" Strachan asked.

With little prompting, he picked up his guitar and launched into an acoustic version of his new song Dogtown.

"Dogtown... where the population's rising," he belted out.

The area to the south-east of Seeley Lake is affectionately nicknamed Dogtown. There's a sign on Riverview Drive the proudly proclaims the chorus of Strachan's song: "Dogtown, population increasing."

"Loosely it's me and my mom's relationship," he said. "And then, you know, through all these years there's this place we get to go and hang out and relax and just enjoy life together"

* * *

Strachan is a Montana native who currently calls the capital city home. He works as a network analyst for the Department of Health and Human Services-but he moonlights as a singer/songwriter.

His family has owned the cabin in Dogtown for four years, so Strachan is no stranger to the Seeley Lake area. He played at the Bob Marshall Music Festival last year and was stoked to be asked to return, this time with a set on the main stage.

"That was by far the best [venue to play]," said Strachan about last year's festival. "We're thrilled to be a part of that again."

Strachan has been a musician since he was in elementary school. He formed a duo-Calico Armor-with his childhood friend named Sean following the discovery of a Pearl Jam album on cassette tape. Strachan has a tribute tattoo to Pearl Jam on his stomach--- and for their first gig they played a Creed song at their eighth grade graduation.

Since then, Strachan has played as a solo artist and in various groups. He started out as "pretty country" but now says he's adopted a "red-dirt" sound-a country-rock style based out of Oklahoma and Texas.

His current group, the Hoot Owls, has existed for several years, with various members and under a different name (The Hard Arnold Palmers).

Last October, the record "Tickets" was picked up by the national publication Music Connection and Strachan was named the Unsigned Artist of the Week, which served as a solid boost for the group.

"Since then it's been uphill from there-in a good way," said Strachan. "We started getting a lot of calls from festivals and county fairs from all over Montana."

The Hoot Owls are working on a new album that might be released at next year's Bob Music festival.

"Everything on the new record I like more than the stuff on the old one," he said. "Getting to hear this new stuff and progression from where it was last year to where we are now makes them way more enjoyable.

* * *

Matt Strachan and the Hoot Owls have great chemistry together on stage. Each of their three performances over the weekend was emotion filled and energy packed.

Even during the band's last set down on the lawn of Lindey's, everyone was pouring their full force into every song. Fiddler Felicia Hellems grinned and laughed along with bass player Paul Brantley mid-song-and everyone (except for drummer Cody Davis for obvious reasons) danced and jammed on the stage.

Davis has been playing with Strachan the longest- seven years if you don't count a few years DJing together. Davis works as a choir teacher in Missoula when he's not with the band.

Brantley lives an even more vagabond existence than most traveling musicians. He works at a bar in Lakeside for a few months out of the year, then travels the world the rest of the time. Two winters ago it was South America. Last winter it was Southeast Asia.

Hellems is the most recent addition to the band. She joined just a few months ago and balances playing with the Hoot Owls with the other five groups she's part of. If that kind of schedule, along with teaching music lessons, sounds like it takes a lot of energy, Hellems fits the bill.

"I love the wind," she said as she shook her hair in the breeze that picked up after one set. "It has so much energy and I love energy!"

Strachan considers everyone in the band to be friends, even after being crowded together for weeks at a time-this summer they won't be home in Helena until August.

"We've never really traveled that much together..." he said with a laugh.

* * *

Strachan was noticeably more relaxed during his last few songs at Lindey's. For one, the band wasn't playing under a blazing sun.

"The last few days were pretty serious, and we had to do it," He said. "But today we get to relax-we're all wearing swimming trunks.

Strachan considers himself on the tipping point of making it as a musician. He's on the fence on whether to consider quitting his full time job.

"It's definitely hard doing the part time thing," he said. "After this, it's really hard to go sit at a desk."

With his wife and two kids, he admits it would be hard to be on the road all the time-right now the band only plays together during the summer.

When asked if he wants to sign with a label, he sidestepped the question, humbly admitting he doesn't think he's that good.

Instead, it would be a dream of his to just become a songwriter.

"I love that part of it a lot," Strachan said. But, "I don't know if I want to go that route. I'm not in the music business really-I play."

Strachan's talents as a songwriter can't be overstated. His muses whisper to him all the time-his kids, sentences from a book, signs on the side of the road.

"I have notebooks full at home, the voice recorder on my phone has probably 300 things on there I've never listened to," he said laughing. "But we'll get there someday."

While Strachan and the Hoot Owls are finishing up work on their new album, they will be spending the next few weeks finishing up their tour of Montana-Red Lodge, Big Sky, the Park County Fair, Central Montana Fair, Bucking Horse-it'll be a busy end to the summer.

Then it'll be back to the 'real world' for the band, until they reconvene next summer.

"It will be really fun for us," said Strachan. "We know where our talents are and definitely the festival thing is where we want to be."