Friendship is goal of Montana prospectors
LIBBY, Mont. – Shovels in hand, covered in dust, they work in the sandy soil above Libby Creek in the Kootenai National Forest. Like so many before them, they search the hillside and creek for the flakes of fortune that have drawn people to the remote stream since the 1860s.
While finding gold is the ultimate goal of the Northwest Montana Gold Prospectors, the group says friendship is the most valuable fortune they find in the hills.
“Getting together out here once a month is a chance for people to get a little gold and be with other people who enjoy prospecting as well. It’s not as much about the gold as it is about getting together with folks and having a good time,” Sandy Randall, the group’s president, told the Daily Inter Lake. “We are not in it to make money. We are here to have fun and to get people involved, especially kids.”
Based in Columbia Falls, the nonprofit organization has been helping people get interested in prospecting since its founding in 1995 by Clarence and Jill Taber.
The group began leasing small claims adjacent to the Libby Creek Recreational Gold Panning Area in
together in one place, so I did a lot of recording remotely via Zoom and via studio technology. But I think the theme of the record is building bridges between separations. I didn’t begin that way – I was just writing songs – but at some point in the process I went, “Oh, that’s what this is about.”
Q: “The Bridge” handles some heavy topics. But the lead single, “If It’s Love,” out Sept. 1, is a sparkling pop song.
A: It’s the most whimsical song on the record, so I thought, “Why not?” Any song with whistling in it is a winner for me.
Q: Is it gratifying to realize you can still bust out such a catchy tune when you want to?
A: Yes. I’m often drawn to music that’s problematic or complex; I like puzzles, and I like solving puzzles. But occasionally, you have to put that aside and just do something that’s easy. A major chord followed by a rounded minor – it’s the oldest trick in the book.
Q: What did Sting the young English punk think of Las Vegas?
A: It would conjure up Frank Sinatra, Dino, the Rat Pack. Then Elvis, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck. All great artists, but they seemed to be trapped in this world. Vegas was an enclosed system, and it never really
appealed to me; the idea of a residency seemed like some kind of prison sentence. Now it’s not that way at all, because you play these pods – four shows for three weeks. That doesn’t seem like such an onerous job. Also, I haven’t been onstage for almost two years, so I’m raring to go. I want to do 20 rounds in Vegas.
Q: You’ll have your days free while you’re there. Are you a gambler?
A: No, and I’ve really no idea what the appeal is. I’ll sometimes play Texas hold ‘em with my wife, but she always wins, because she’s smarter than me.
Q: Are you optimistic about the return of live music? The delta variant has complicated things.
A: We’re in a wait-and-see mode. Everyone should feel safe – the audience, the artist, the people working the show. I’m hoping the vaccines will really start to kick in by the time our show starts. I’m very much in favor of vaccines.
Q: I assume you’re vaccinated.
A: I had no doubt about it. I’m old enough to remember polio – kids in my street who were crippled by a disease that was eradicated very quickly by vaccines. So I have no truck with people who doubt their effectiveness.
Q: Some of your peers in the music world have a different take, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison among them.
A: We’re all entitled to our opinions. But I think that’s a dangerous thing to be telling people: “Don’t trust the vaccines.” I mean, where does this come from? I’m not sure where the science is to support that.