Back Alley Outfit artists' consortium announces that a live concert and art reception will be held in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk on June 5, 2009. The live performances feature the Montana debut of Ghost Town Sound, a musical amalgam of Western, Native American and Reggae Dub styles, as well as an appearance by poet Paul Zarzyski from 9-11 p.m. A free art reception will be held prior to the concert, which will feature new paintings by local artist Deeling Gregory from 6-9 p.m. Additional artwork by Steven D. Powell will also be on display.

Friday, June 5th, 2009 at Alley Galleria, 922 1st Alley North, Great Falls, Montana
Pre-Concert Art Reception from 6-9 p.m. (FREE!)
Ghost Town Sound concert & poet Paul Zarzyski from 9 - 11 p.m. ($5 admission fee)
Alley Galleria entrance is at #922, Suite 1, on 1st Alley North between 9th and 10th Streets, just north of Central Avenue in an Electric City former power house.

Ghost Town Sound bandleader Doug Wendt describes his lyrics as "often about this place, Ohtahkoo, its history, Montana, the modern west and all kinds of ghost towns." Poet Paul Zarzyski, who recently recorded with Wylie Gustafson & John Carter-Cash, will also have plenty of his "words growing wild" ready to open the show.

Public info phone number: Steve Powell at (406) 579-8075
email: ghosttownsound@gmail.com

Ghost Town Sound is a new, live performance creation comprised of an eclectic mix of Western, Native American and Reggae Dub Poetry. It made its debut last July 4th at the Tenth Annual World One Festival in the San Francisco bay area. GTS is fronted by Great Falls native Doug Wendt, who has been working in arts and music since producing radio shows on KUDI in GF in the 1960s. Doug received a Masters Degree in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973. One of his shorts was shown on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. He's worked on the Oscar nominated documentary MANDELA-Son Of Africa, Father Of A Nation and many other films.

Doug is most known internationally for his popular worldbeat dance parties which feature world music videos and custom edited images compiled by Doug projected onto large screens. DETAILS MAGAZINE hailed them as "Best Night Out In America". His video set-up at 1997's ARTI GRAS, a fund-raiser for Paris Gibson Square's Museum Of Art at the Civic Center helped make that event a success. He was Station Manager /Program Director at KGPR from 1998-2002. His latest radio production, NATIVE SON RISING with music by and for indigenous peoples, is broadcast every weekday morning in the bay area by WORLD ONE RADIO. KGPR also regularly broadcasts NATIVE SON RISING, now in its tenth year.

Paul Zarzyski , recipient of the 2005 Montana Governor's Arts Award for Literature, has been spurring the words wild across the open range of the page and calling it Poetry for over 35 years, a dozen or so during which he complemented the writing with bareback bronc riding on the rodeo circuit. He has been a featured performer at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the National Storytelling Festival, the National Folk Festival, and has recited at The Library of Congress, Festival Hall in London, as well as on Garrison Keillor's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. Since receiving an M.F.A. degree in creative writing from the University of Montana in 1976, Paul has authored 10 collections and has recorded 4 spoken-word CDs- WORDS GROWING WILD, THE GLORIOUS COMMOTION OF IT ALL, ROCK 'n' ROWEL, and COLLISIONS OF RECKLESS LOVE. His most recent publication, from OreanaBooks, titled WOLF TRACKS ON THE WELCOME MAT, received the 2004 Spur Award from The Western Writers of America.

Most recently, he co-wrote 7 of the 13 tracks, and performs a spoken-word 14th/hidden track (titled Bob Dylan Bronc Song), on singer-songwriter Wylie Gustafson's 2009 CD, HANG-n-RATTLE!, recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio and produced by John Carter-Cash. Born and raised in Hurley, Wisconsin, Paul has called Montana home since 1973.

Deeling Gregory, who was born in Hawaii, honed her artistic technique at both Stanford University and the San Francisco Art Institute, living for many years in the bay area before moving to Great Falls ten years ago. She has exhibited her work locally and in California, with many of her paintings in private collections all over the world. Gregory previously opened her studio for various First Friday Art Walks. This will be her first major gallery show in GF. Deeling will be featuring large paintings that were influenced by the West and Ghost Town Sound as well as recent works of scenes along the River's Edge Trail and the White Cliffs of the Missouri.

Steve Powell, a Great Falls native, has been making art all his life, having been seen on the silver screen, national television, coffee shop walls, and at Ghost Town Sound concerts where he sings, plays congas, and other instruments. Currently, he is a non-traditional student of art at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He was formerly with the 4West Art League and has participated in many Art Walks.

Local DJ and soundman Tim Green will engineer the mixing board.

"Thanks to the internet a stranger, Daniel Orlick, rode into my virtual town when he found my website two years ago. He told me he spent a couple days there looking around and listening before sending me an email telling me I was unknowingly part of this new musical movement in England he was involved with called Country Dub, or C-Dub for short. He sent me several instrumental dub tracks to put vocals over and within a week I was improving over them at the Gibson Park Bandshell summer DJ's of Relativity series. I spent that winter in Great Falls writing more material, preparing for our debut, which was booked for the following July 4th's World One Festival in Northern California. Steve Powell from GF accompanied me on that trip where we linked up with several top bay area musicians including Jimmy Foot from REGGAE JACKSON and THE RHYTH-O-MATICS (who also arranged tracks for the project), as well as Duane Van Dieman of Warner Brothers' recording artists THE TAZMANIAN DEVILS (now known as TAZ), and a five other great players.

GHOST TOWN SOUND is conceived as a group that performs live yet also includes a strong DJ/VJ and dance element with dubplate rhythms on turntables plus projected moving images for ambience and emphasis. The GF debut will concentrate on the live set slightly expanded from what I did at World One with about a dozen or so selections. Local legend Dan Lewis, formerly of COLD HARD CASH, plays drums, bass and keyboards. Steve Powell adds vocals, guitar, congas, juice harp, and many other unusual sounds. I do the vocals and play percussion, guitar and turntables. We're planning on having other top flight musicians as well. GHOST TOWN SOUND adds wide-eyed cowboy optimism to Indian spirituality and democratic traditions, grounding them with the heartbeat and social analysis of rastas. The lyrics are often about this place, Ohtahkoo, its history, Montana, the modern west and all kinds of ghost towns." -Doug Wendt