Alan Lane and the 17 Mile Band
It can be hard to say exactly where our community ends. It certainly feels that it stretches south at least to Stryker and over to the West Kootenai. Recently it feels that it just might stretch as far as the Yaak.
The flurry of recent news from that very small town started last week. A very good musician from up that way is planning to perform at HA) Brewery and Jax Pizza on Grave Creek Road on July 1. Alan Lane and the 17 Mile Band are really something to come out for. Alan's life has been one that has had its ups and downs but when he sits down and starts playing guitar, you know you are in for a treat.
It just happens that a close neighbor of Alan's is Shamus Sedler. Shamus is another individual who has experienced more adventures than most of us. Now in his mid eighties, Shamus is seriously working on getting a lifetime of his poetry published. He started writing years ago while hanging with other poets in San Francisco. One of the Beats, he knew the likes of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and others who frequented City Lights in the North Beach neighborhood. Keep your eyes open for his book, which will come out this year.
About the Author: Rita Collins. I am a believer in the power of community and for now I call the Tobacco Valley home. I have lived in nine states and three counties and this community here amazes me - how people reach out to neighbors and even travelers. I've never lived in a place that demonstrates people caring for each other so well. And I've never lived in a place that has such a high percentage of talented musicians and artists. I work with the the Sunburst Community Service Foundation, a nonprofit that began in Eureka twenty years ago and now serves numerous communities in western Montana. And I just started a new business, St. Rita's Amazing Traveling Bookstore and Textual Apothecary. I never could have imagined life being this exciting in my sixth decade.
