“Artists in residence” and “Top Hat” are not two phrases one normally expects to hear in the same sentence. Though long a central hub in the Missoula music scene, the Front Street nightclub has typically centered its evening business plan around late-night shows by local rock, blues, and folk acts and a sprinkling of touring bands.
This month, that familiar cocktail comes with a twist, when local chamber-folk quintet Stellarondo sets up shop for a series of early-evening shows on Thursdays at the Top Hat. Billed as a residency, the series is, as much as anything, a polishing shop for the band, which will hit the road early next year in conjunction with the release of its first official album.
“So much of what this band has been about so far has been studio work,” explained founder Caroline Keys, a guitarist and singer familiar to local folk-music fans from her leading role in the acoustic group Broken Valley Road Show. “So we really needed a place to work out our ‘live thing’ before we go out on tour.”
More importantly, the residency represents an effort to build a new tradition in Missoula of family-friendly live music shows. Keys said she has long been frustrated by the late-night gig-times offered to her band, which more or less shut out young audiences and those whose work or sleep schedule preclude staying out on the town til the early morning hours.
Keys suspected she wasn’t alone in those frustrations; but it wasn’t until after a recent trip to Portland, where she found a healthy scene of early-evening shows, that she resolved to make something happen in her hometown.
“Out there, there are opportunities for parents and young kids to go out and hear music,” said Keys. “I just thought there’s surely a lot of people here in Missoula who would like that as well.”
Toward that end, few bands would likely fit the bill better than Stellarondo. Featuring members of Broken Valley Road Show, Tom Catmull & the Clerics, and Wartime Blues, the band plays out as an amalgamation of all: a bit of folk, a bit of alt-country, and an unusual instrumental lineup that includes everything from pedal steel guitar to timpani, trumpets to musical saws.
The band came together early this year, after Keys challenged herself to write and record an album of original material in just one month. By the end of that month, Keys realized a fertile seed had been planted, but was only beginning to grow.
“I got to the end and realized it was really just the beginning,” she said. “This was really weird and exploratory music for me – I only got out my Martin guitar for one song out of the ten I recorded – but I realized it was something I wanted to continue pursuing.”
Soon enough, Keys had assembled Stellarondo’s stellar lineup, which includes Gibson Hartwell on pedal steel, xylophone, electric guitar, and dobro; Angie Biehl on vibraphone, triangle, dumbek, shaker, and glockenspiel; Travis Yost on upright bass, electric bass, and keyboards; and Bethany Joyce on cello and saw.
The band’s sound is as wide-ranging as that list of instruments would infer. On the upcoming album’s opening track, “Icarus Stops for a Burrito,” swirling arpeggios on xylophone, thumb piano, and vibraphone frame Keys’ sweetly floating voice as she sings about metaphorical flight.
But the band isn’t only about lilting melodies, as evident on tunes like “Two Cowgirls on Redchurch,” a Tex-Mex march that, midway through, takes a detour into spooky harmonized alt-rock.
Throughout, Keys’ voice lays a sunny charm over it all. If her phrasing isn’t entirely free and natural, the simple naiveté of her expression wipes away any sense of pretense created by the elaborate orchestrations.
In September, the band traveled to Portland to record the album. Now comes the next challenge: putting it back together in a live format.
“I don’t think it would be completely possible to get all those sounds, because everybody did so many jobs in the studio; but we’re going to try,” said Keys. “It’s all kind of a big adventure at this point. I’m not sure we know what it’ll all be, but we’re excited to be able to have people along for the ride.”
Stellarondo will appear at the Top Hat the first three Thursdays of November, starting tonight, at 6 p.m. Admission is free, and children are welcome to attend.
