The Ringling 5: Music to Ranch By

Mission Valley Live offers two upcoming concerts: Ringling 5 and Jim & Sam

On Stage

The Ringling 5, a group of ranchers from the Shields River Valley in southwest Montana, deliver “music to ranch by” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17 at the Polson High School Auditorium.

The band’s seven members gleefully write and perform their own brand of music about life in the modern west.  The “Norwegian Studs of Rhythm” sing about the struggles of sorting cows with your wife, trading in your horse for a 4-wheeler and haying in uncooperative weather. They even ponder what might have happened if Jesus had been born in Norway.

Mission Valley Live also presents an off-series concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23 at the Ronan Performing Arts Center, in conjunction with the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest (FLIC), which opens Friday, Jan. 24, at the Showboat Cinema in Polson.

Songwriters and filmmakers Jim Hanft and Samantha Yonack perform Jan. 23 in Ronan.
Songwriters and filmmakers Jim Hanft and Samantha Yonack perform Jan. 23 in Ronan, and screen their film Jan. 24 in Polson as part of FLIC.

Jim Hanft and Samantha Yonack (Jim and Sam) are a Los Angeles-based husband/wife duo. Originally from Philadelphia and Dallas, they met at a mutual friend’s comedy show and began making music together a week later. In 2015 they self-released their debut EP, This is What’s Left; and in 2019 released their sophomore EP, Yeah Whatever Young Forever.

Jim and Sam crossed over into filmmaking during their Anywhere Everywhere Tour where they played one show every day for a year. Their documentary feature film, “After So Many Days” chronicles their 365-day tour and is currently screening at film festivals worldwide. It screens 6-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, at FLIC.

“You’ll want a front row seat to this intimate and endearing music documentary from singer-songwriter duo Jim and Sam…An enchanting love letter to music and marriage, and an exhilarating example of putting your heart on the line for the thing (and the one) you love,” writes a reviewer for Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival.

Tickets to either show are $15 at the door; call 406-887-2739.