Bluegrass band performs at Paradise Center

It was hats off to the latest musical group at the Paradise Center, but it was hats on for the intermission entertainment.

The center's featured event was Saint of Soldiers, a bluegrass group out of Missoula that spent two hours entertaining just over 50 people Friday afternoon. "This is a homegrown band from the St. Ignatius area," said Dave Proctor, a volunteer at the Paradise Center who introduced the group. Though the band has five members, two could not make it. That didn't stop them from getting a constant applause after each number.

The 25-year-old Caity North was the lead singer and guitarist, her husband, Cody North, 30, played the banjo, and Spencer Sucha, 31, played bass.

"I thought the music was fabulous," said Karen Thorson, a center board member and one of the event coordinators. Proctor came up with the idea of having the Saint of Soldiers perform at the center after seeing them at the VFW in Plains last year. He said they sang story telling folk music and are a modern version of bluegrass.

Caity North said that the band was named in honor of St. Ignatius, who is the patron saint of soldiers. Cody North and Spencer Sucha grew up in St. Ignatius. The group played more than a dozen songs, including some that they wrote, kicking off the performance with Dolly Parton's "Jolene."

"The members of this group are not only talented, they are kind, empathetic, and generous," said Thorson. The trio did outreach sessions with the students of Trout Creek and Dixon schools the previous day at no charge to the Paradise Center. Thorson said several performers have done outreach sessions to schools over the years, but they usually charge a few hundred dollars more for each session.

"In addition to their generosity, they designed the outreach session specifically to appeal and be educational to youth. We are delighted to make their acquaintance and will promote them in any way we can," she added.

The event also included for the first time at the center a cowboy hat contest. Fourteen people signed up for the contest - Kelly and Cindy Moore, her parents, Norm and Nancy Lazer, Lyla Sears, Jen Ryan, Jim Arestad, Brad Stacey, Kathleen Hubka, Lin Hunt, Frank and Janet Sucha, Dave Colyer and Dave Proctor.

Wally Brown, Ellen Childress and Doug Reynolds served as judges. Each contestant got up on stage and told a short story about their cowboy hat. A few had hats that belonged to their fathers. Several were old. Gary Sanks, the center's director and emcee for the contest, told the audience he didn't wear cowboy hats, but because the other board members insisted, he purchased a ball cap that read "cowboy hat."

When the judges tallied their votes, Cindy Moore of Plains was the winner. Two of the three judges selected her and her cowboy hat story as the best one. Moore said that her mother bought her the hat at a mule auction about 10 years ago in Texas. The hat had a band made from a Texas copperhead snake, which had been tanned by her husband. Her father's hat was also mule related with a mule face on the front and a mule butt on the back.

Moore donated her $50 cash prize back to the Paradise Center. "They do so much for the community and I'm sure they could use it," said Moore, who enjoyed the concert. She and Kelly discovered that their son, Adam, had wrestled Cody North during high school in the early 2000s.

"The Cowboy Hat contest was successful on many levels. Aside from a winner, those who entered shared with all of us some personal stories and experiences that we otherwise would not know," said Thorson, who donned a bright purple cowboy hat and a curly purple wig for the event, though she didn't enter the competition. "It was heart-warming to hear their stories and gratifying to learn more about people we know and learn about people we did not know," she said.

Thorson said the cowboy hat idea came from photographs of the band, Pollo Loco, which wears large cowboy hats. Pollo Loco was initially scheduled to perform, but had to cancel due to a medical matter with one of their members, but Thorson said they plan to book them at the center at another time.