Fans Make This Montana Artist’s Dream Gig Possible

For one Montana musician, tonight's show by a legendary "Red Dirt" act turned into a dream gig, and proof that fans matter.

Tanner Laws got excited when he saw the Turnpike Troubadours were coming back to Missoula for the first time in about a decade, not imagining he could share the Kettlehouse Amphitheater stage.

"I was super excited, wanting to get a ticket, and then my guitar player was like, hey, man, I don't know if you saw, but there's no opener listed," Laws told me when he stopped by "Daybreak with Dennis" on KYSS FM earlier this month. "And I was like, oh, that's true, but like long shot, probably never going to happen. They're my favorite band of all time. And I was just like, you know what? Why not? Worth that can happen is nothing."

"And so I just started posting a video of me playing one of their songs like once a day and having fans like tag them in the comments and then people started texting me and telling me that they were reaching out on their own because they knew someone who knew someone in the band."

     🎵 But all those contacts got the band's attention, with them offering to add him as an opening act, proving to him that fans are key to your success.

"It does big time. I was so grateful for how people showed up and really supported us. I mean, it was it was huge."

It surprised me and it really gave me kind of a lift up in the moment too."- Singer/songwriter Tanner Laws

Tanner, who calls Missoula home but grew up in Sanders County, is one of the hardest-working musicians in the state right now, traveling all over the region and sharing his Montana-brand of country.

He has a very big schedule through the rest of the year, including a free show at the Old Saloon in Emigrant next month. Check his website and catch a show!

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