Stagecoach culture night at the Center / Bill Briggs Interview

(this piece was published by Planet JH Weekly)The Stagecoach Bar is a place of mountain folklore. It’s the last genuine, non-glorified, dive-y link to Jackson Hole’s watering hole history of cowboys, ski bums and disco dancers. Gather with your neighbors to experience “A Western Winter’s Eve,” featuring all things ‘Coach: the legendary Stagecoach Band will celebrate forty-five straight years by playing country-Western to a devoted following of two-steppers (6 to 7:30 p.m.), JenTen and the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum presents the ‘Coach film The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads (7:30 to 8:30 p.m.), and the evening will close with disco on the Center Theater stage with The Spartan of WYOBASS (8:30 to 10:30 p.m.). (BELOW: Check out the Q&A with Stagecoach Band co-founder Bill Briggs about the band’s 40th Anniversary). A Western Winter’s Eve with The Stagecoach Band, The ‘Coach Film: An American Crossroads, and Disco Night, 6 p.m. Friday at the Center for the Arts. $15. JHCenterForTheArts.org. From Planet JH Weekly Feb. 18, 2009: 40th Anniversary of Coach Band | Q&A with Bill BriggsIt was 1969—the year of Woodstock, the Rolling Stones’ fatal Altamont concert, Johnny Cash’s top ten hit “A Boy Named Sue,” and Led Zeppelin’s debut album. In the town of Jackson, professional touring bands like Sons of the Golden West, Rusty Draper, and Webb Pierce were delivering quality country-western music to the Greenback Room of the Wort Hotel and The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, among others.And at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, a four-decade tradition spawned that year that would become one of Jackson Hole’s favorite traditions—The Stagecoach Band. The original trio organically progressed and morphed over the years, with stories that could fill up the pages of this entire newspaper. This Sunday, the band will celebrate their 40th Anniversary show.Local guitarist Ron Scott had helped pay for some of his college education in Oklahoma by playing music on Sunday nights. It was his idea to start a regular evening at the Coach, and he asked ski mountaineering pioneer Bill Briggs (banjo/autoharp) and Garl Davison (washtub bass) to join him.Aaron Davis: Was the Stagecoach always supportive of you guys playing there?Bill Briggs: “Not really. It was a real cowboy bar back then. Almost every night there would be a fight. One of Ron’s objectives was to sooth with music…the antagonistic element. When the fight would start, we would keep playing—trying to break it up with music. We were just walking around with our instruments or sitting in the corner. With the gutbucket [washtub bass], walking around could get awkward.It was rare that you had anyone playing in town that was local, Ray Weeps was about the only band and I played a little with him a little. Every night of the week was taken except for Sunday at the Stagecoach. We were just amateurs, un-amplified.”AD: How did the Coach scene change over the years?Bill Briggs:  “Well it changed when John Sidle joined the band. Being an electrician, he wanted to amplify the whole thing, so he set us all up with microphones and plug-ins. We employed a regular bass player too. Jim Wilson was one of the early ones.”The atmosphere rapidly turned into a dancing scene, with the material being exclusively country-western and loyal dancers attending weekly. As the years passed, many musicians have joined Briggs onstage for residences in the band and the music has become a smattering of American styles—roots music. The unrehearsed band takes pride in the spontaneous nature, often trying new songs on the spot.Famous names have dropped by to jam at the Coach as well—folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, Tim O’Brien used to live in Wilson and got his start with the band, Jerry Jeff Walker happened by on the 1000th show, Chuck Pyle sat-in just weeks ago, and even Bob Dylan jammed with the band up north in Buffalo Valley during a private function.AD: Of the 40 years of playing at the Coach, anything you would do differently?BB:  “No, not really. There’s always been a claim that we need to get modernized to appeal to the younger crowd, and I’ve said no. Basically, I’ve just dragged my feet on that. We used to say, ‘If it isn’t old enough to vote, we don’t know it.’We aren’t contemporary music at all. All of the other bars are doing that. If someone wants old-time country music with a variety of anything else we’re doing, they can come to the Coach. It’s a dance scene. We’re playing dance music and the country-western dancers are out there. We have a loyal following and they know that they can count on continuity in the music. Time and again people will say ‘ya know, there’s another place like this in Texas…they’re awfully hard to find’…where you have this old feel to it, rather than modernized.”PJH: For people that haven’t seen the Stagecoach Band, how would you describe the atmosphere now?BB: “The feeling of the place...it defies description. It’s fun. Christine says, “If it wasn’t for Sunday nights, I think I’d leave town.’ This is the weakest paying gig for all of us, but is also the most fun. You’re meeting your friends once a week, the dancers and whatnot. People come back year after year, or say, “I was here twenty years ago and it’s just as good as it ever was.’ The sustainability of the whole thing, I really appreciate, and I think the others do to.”Along with Briggs, the current Stagecoach Band consists of Dave Young or Ed Domer on drums, Christine Langdon on bass, Derek Hufsmith and Phil Round on guitar.“They are wonderful musicians and singers,” Briggs said. “I don’t fit in [laughs]. They carry me along.”