So I have a really exciting weekend coming up and I am pathetically distracted by the anticipation of it all.

My meetings turn into day dreams, my rhubarb jelly is still just rhubarb, and my writing projects have all turned into lists of what we need to bring with us on our camping trip to the middle of a pasture in the middle of summer in the middle of beautiful Montana in the middle of a kick ass music festival where the boys and me have been granted an opportunity to play music among some of the greats.

I’m talking great, like Merle Haggard great. Like Corb Lund great. Like Robert Earl Keen, The Waylin’ Jennys, Todd Snider and many more talents set to pick and sing and tap their toes under that big Montana sunset.

I’m peeing my pants here in anticipation for Friday when I load up my music and my hat and hit the road for the Red Ants Pants Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs, Montana.

I’ll tell you why this is so cool for me on so many levels.

A weekend full of high caliber music, banjos and mandolins and harmonicas and guitars and songs about horses and love under a big blue sky with a cold brew in my hand is like on the top of my list titled “What heaven better be like.”

And if that’s not enough really, I get to bring my guitars, my boys, the lovely lonesome sound of the harmonica, my words and my music and we get to be a part of it all.

That kicks ass.

But what I’m most excited about really is what this festival is all about, because that’s the really cool part.

The Red Ants Pants Festival was created by a woman who grew up on a farm in Montana who was sitting at a coffee shop one day wondering why there weren’t any practically designed work pants on the market for women. I mean, tight, low waisted,  bedazzled butted jeans aren’t the most comfortable when a woman’s out chopping wood or pouring cement or pushing cows through the chute.

So she invented some. They’re called Red Ants Pants and you can buy them (and hats and t-shirts, aprons and belts and other fun stuff)  at www.redantspants.com 

And if you’re in White Sulphur Spring, Montana you can swing in her shop and buy some there.

I admire a woman who finds a solution to a problem (especially when it comes to minimizing butt crack and wedgies).

And I respect a woman who gives back to her community. And that’s what Sarah Calhoun is doing with this Red Ants Pants mission. She’s not only helping women get work done and look good doing it, she’s also established a foundation, The Red Ants Pants Foundation, with a mission to “support women’s leadership, working family farms and ranches, and rural communities; the three things most important to Calhoun, the company, and the Red Ants Pants Community.”

A portion of the festival ticket sales will go back to the foundation to help these causes. So while we’re singing and tapping our toes to the music, while we’re drinking beer and watching the sun go down on Montana, we will be supporting rural communities and the woman and families who work there. And that’s a really great thing.

Plus, they are hosting the Montana Beard and Mustache Competition State Finals, and really, that will be worth the trip right there.

I’m excited to be a part of it all…not the mustache competition necessarily, but the music part.

So we load up our guitars and our lawn chairs, hot dogs and picnic baskets, sleeping bags and lanterns and hit the highway pointing west on Friday.

And Saturday at 8:30 MT we’ll be singing under the Montana sky.

If you’re around, maybe I’ll see you there under your cowboy hat or big Montana beard.

If not, I hope you are making plans to spend this weekend in the middle of the best part of summer in the middle of a little piece of your own heaven.

And if you step outside and close your eyes and listen really close, maybe you’ll hear the music floating up to you from the edge of the mountains.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some lists to make.

Peace, Love and Harmonicas,

Jessie
jessieveedermusic.com
facebook.com/jessieveedermusic

Learn more about Red Ants Pants

Festival Information: redantspantsmusicfestival.com
Foundation Information: redantspantsfoundation.com
Product Information: redantspants.com