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Songs from the South: Montana's Singing Sons of Beaches
December 30, 2011
editor@montanaliving.com
An hour later the audience comes through the door complaining about the weather. They have arrived in the tropics where three guys in flowered Hawaiian shirts will transport them into an evening of music, laughter and hijinks. They forget about the Montana weather outside and they laugh and cheer until The Singing Sons of Beaches keep up the fun for another hour. And they never fail to invite them back.
Three men from Montana, Steve Riddle, Greg Devlin, and Nick Terhaar, have known each other since they met at the University of Montana, but they went their separate ways until they met up again about twelve years ago at big party campfires at Steve’s cabin on Flathead Lake. They started making music together and decided to go public. They wandered into Flathead Lake Lodge near Bigfork one day and started singing. A crowd gathered. Ten years later they still sing at the beach campfire at Flathead Lake Lodge on Monday nights in the summer.
Steve Riddle, a professional Radiation Oncology Therapist, grew up in Libby. He’s a member of the legendary Mission Mountain Wood Band. They still play twelve big gigs a year. Greg Devlin from Polson is a financial and investment broker. He is, among other musical venues, a member of The Singing Sergeants, (the official chorus of the U.S. Air Force), and the featured solo tenor with The Montana Symphony Chorale. Nick Terhaar, a trombone player and the oldest of ten kids in a musical Miles City family, got tired of the big city life in Seattle as a pharmaceutical salesman and came home to the Flathead Valley where he works as a private finishing contractor.
Somehow, in the midst of making a living, the SSOB’s manage to write all their own original material for a musical comedy show loaded with tongue-in-cheek political satire, Montana humor and beautiful harmonies. These guys can sing.
Although the Singing Sons of Beaches bill themselves as Montana natives with a western state of mind, they have appeared as a special guest on the nationally televised Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon in Los Angeles along with folks like Cher, Tony Bennett and Jerry Lewis himself. In 2009 they returned to Los Angeles to shoot an episode of “America’s Got Talent” on NBC television network. They have entertained Montana senators, congressmen, representatives, national and regional organizations, associations and societies. Ed McMahon heard them and put them on the radio. The Can of Soup carries a large trunk full of ladies' unmentionables thrown on stage by The Red Hat Ladies (and other ardent female fans) as a token of their appreciation.
Their schedule for the year looks something like this: Fall – they write their material based on someone’s killer ideas. The political humor can be very racy (depending on the audience), and the clever Montana humor covers just about every subject from reincarnation to cowboy humor. They write about Montana because they love this state.
Winter – they ski on Big Mountain and do their own booking from cell phones while they ride the lifts. No joke. They do it all themselves.
May to October is a crazy schedule of travel and performing. When they are not on the road you will find them every Sunday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 on the deck of the Sitting Duck Bar and Restaurant on Flathead Lake south of Bigfork. Fans arrive by boat, car, motorcycle and bicycle. Or catch them one night a week at Ricciardi’s Italian Seafood House out of Polson on Hiway 35 near Finley Point.
Their latest gig will surprise you. When you step into Glacier Park International Airport you will be met with a video and rollicking song instructing travelers to go through security in their stocking feet. They poke fun at all the rules set by the TSA. People listen . . . and they laugh . . . and they are ready for the security check. National media outlet MSNBC has picked up on the story, and they have featured the band on their Overhead Bin travel blog.
Their newest song hot off the press and yet to be heard in public goes to the tune of The Big Rock Candy Mountain and, you guessed it, it’s about all the hoopla on Big Mountain where some rabble rousers from back east want to remove the Jesus statue that honors World War Two veterans. One of the verses goes something like this, “On the Big Rock Whitefish Mountain,…He stands there fair and bright. A big statue near bushes,…And He’s been there day and night . . . Yes Jesus stands,…near federal lands, on mineral rights and an atheist fight,…On The Big Rock Whitefish Mountain.” If it’s in the headlines, it will be in their next show.
If you want to book a gig with The Singing Sons of Beaches for your convention or your town or your own private party, you’ll have to call them. They don’t have time to call you. You can find them on the web at www.singingsob.com.
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