King Cardinal w/ The Dusty Pockets

An evening of fantastic music on the 'Main Street' of Harlowton, MT. Presenting the third round of the inaugural Summer Concert Series featuring: King Cardinal with The Dusty Pockets! 

"I moved to Denver on a whim," says King Cardinal founder Brennan Mackey. "I'd been living in Chicago, working a finance job that I didn't love, and I knew exactly what the rest of my life would look like if I stayed there. I decided I wanted to throw everything up in the air and see where it landed."

It makes sense, then, that the cover of King Cardinal's stellar debut album, 'Great Lakes,' depicts a man catapulting himself headlong into the unknown, trading safety and security for adventure and excitement as he leaps over a protective railing. If the record is any indication, Mackey's own bold leaps have paid off in spades. Pushing raw roots rock into lush, sonically daring territory with hints of cosmic country and delicate folk, 'Great Lakes' showcases the five-piece group's exceptional musicianship and the powerful emotional depth of the vocal interplay between Mackey and fellow singer Texanna Dennie.

In its earliest form, though, King Cardinal was a far lonelier enterprise. Ever a self-starter, Mackey adopted the King Cardinal moniker to record his self-titled first EP as a mostly-solo project, and after relocating to Denver, built up a fanbase using Reddit to crowdsource a network of house concerts. "I didn't know a lot of people at first and it was difficult trying to put together a band, so I decided I would just do it on my own," he explains. "Once I made that decision, everything started to click."

Those early songs were sparse, acoustic, and poetic, inspired by the likes of Steve Earle and Ryan Adams, and they earned Mackey an invitation to perform at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival alongside stars like Punch Brothers, Brett Dennen, Lake Street Dive, and more. Perhaps most importantly, though, the music attracted a crew of kindred musical souls who would go on to help Mackey flesh out King Cardinal's follow-up EP, 'Once A Giant,' into a full band affair. Marquee Magazine hailed that collection as "excellently crafted Americana," while Westword praised the band's "raw, gut-wrenching emotion," and Scene called the EP "elegant and blissful" while applauding Mackey's transformation "from solo singer-songwriter to confident and earnest frontman." Dates with Ben Sollee, Sam Outlaw, Darlingside, and more followed, as the band expanded its reach beyond Colorado for the first time with national touring.

"This was the first opportunity we had to sit with songs as a group before any recording happened," reflects Mackey, "so everybody in the band was able to imprint their own personality. The song 'Chicago,' for instance, got totally reimagined when our drummer, Scout Roush, put a new beat behind it, and 'Seventeen' morphed into this grooving, upbeat track when Andrew Porter came up with his bass line. It's nice to have other people that can guide your songs in directions you'd never imagined."

"When you're a kid, you have this freedom you don't even know you have," reflects Mackey. "Once you've grown up, you can look back and recognize it, but by that time, you're deep into the responsibilities of adulthood. Sometimes you just start longing for some chaos, for something wild to help you break free of your rut."
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Out of Bozeman, MT, The Dusty Pockets seek to tell meaningful stories, delivered with grit, wrapped in beautiful melodies and driven by powerful grooves. The live show is essential in gaining a true understanding of what they're all about.  

The Dusty Pockets are Dave Walther (guitar and vocals), Matt Rogers (guitar), Garret Rhinard (keys), John Alex Griffith (bass and vocals), and Joe Sheehan (drums and vocals).

Eric Funk, producer of the Emmy-award winning PBS show, 11th and Grant, describes Dave's "timeless voice" and The Dusty Pockets as: "old blues, rock-inspired, jazz-infused".