The Road Agents are a guitar/mandolin duo. They play Southwest Montana Acoustic Rock and Roll, which is less common a genre than you might expect. Justin is from Butte but he lives in Helena among the part-time politicians. His mandolin sounds more Keith Richards than Sam Bush. He growls into the microphone and wears sharp western shirts from Miller’s. Jeff is from Dillon, currently exiled to Bozeman. He hammers on a Bozeman-built Gibson J15, and sings stories set in Montana and the high deserts of the southwest. Together they’ve played a couple hundred gigs across Montana and Arizona, the California coast, and the panhandle of Idaho. The most recent eighty or so of these have been within the confines of the Treasure State, playing as the Road Agents.
When lucky, the Road Agents add talented Special Agents to the lineup – Karen Newlon on fiddle, Joe Corrado and Dirk Allen on electric guitar, John Dendy and Matt Wintersteen on Bass, and Jon Leavitt on harmonica. A full-on alt-country Road Agents Band is in development for later this fall.
The road has led the agents as far east as Molt, north to Swan Lake, west to Missoula, and south as far as the Beaverhead Brewery. They’ve played most of the breweries and hot springs in between, along with the occasional saloon and distillery. They occasionally appear on the big stage with larger acts like the Kitchen Dwellers, Too Slim & the Taildragger, and Los Marvelitos.
A Road Agent show is a tight display of rhythm, creative mandolin accents, and curious songwriting. Their first EP, Dreams of Stingrays, Roadrunners, and Hangovers, was released the summer of 2018. Its follow-up, Suspicious Lesions is in pre-production, to be released later this fall.
Latest News
Note that our performance at the Rathskeller on August 23 has been postponed due to electrical issues.
In two weeks we'll be part of the Labor Day Kickoff Concert at the Jaycee Park in Dillon. As 1/2 of the Road Agents is an overgrown Dillon kid, this is a big deal for us. We also built our band theme around Beaverhead County history, so the Vigilante Rodeo is our destiny. The festival starts at 6:00, and we're scheduled to go on at 8:00.
On September 8 we'll be part of the Montana Homegrown Radio Festival in Alder. It's somewhat secretive, but we'll release more info as we hear it.
We also just added our first appearance at the Filling Station, on September 28, with friends, Los Marvelitos. Our September 7 show at Smelter City Brewing has been downgraded to a Jeff solo appearance, as those same Marvelitos, with Justin on trumpet, will be playing the Meadowlark Festival in Helena.
On Tuesday the 27th we'll be working the Bogert Park Farmer's Market, located due to the wrath of God at Lindley Park, in Bozeman.
Check out the latest review of Dreams of Stingrays, Roadrunners, and Hangovers, over at the Lively Times, and the Montana Arts Council's Spring 2019 newsletter. You can also check out our audio interview with Dirk Alan at Montana Homegrown Radio and our print interview with Kirk Vincent at the Bozone.
We'll see you all on the road.
Dreams of Stingrays, Roadrunners, and Hangovers. A few dozen copies are still available wherever you get your Road Agents.
Shows
As you can see from this calendar, we mainly help people sell drinks.