Jonathan Kingham rocks Memorial Center

What do huckleberry milkshakes, Venture Inn cookies and the 53-year marriage of Larry and Mary Hebenstreit have in common?

Libby concert-goers learned the answer to that question on Tuesday night, when singer-songwriter Jonathan Kingham played the Libby Memorial Events Center. Blending folk, jazz and rhythm and blues with a healthy dose of improvisation, Kingham rocked the concert hall on his final stop in Libby.

The Kootenai Heritage Council brought Kingham to Libby as part of the artist in residence program sponsored by the Montana Arts Council. Under the program, artists spend a week in the communities to which they travel. For this event, however, the council partnered with their Eureka counterpart, the Sunburst Foundation, so Kingham arrived in Libby on Sunday and left on Wednesday to spend the remainder of the week in Eureka.

During his days in Libby Kingham, with his musical sidekick Ryan Shea Smith, worked with students from Libby and Troy high schools to compose an original song. Galen Graziano, Kristel Donahue-Montoya, Anita Jones, Karol Burke, Sarah Osborn, Raiven Mathiason and Bella Aguirre took to the stage and performed the song with Kingham.

In his interview with The Western News earlier in the day Kingham mentioned that there would be a lot of improvisation in the show, and he didn’t disappoint. The performance was full of energy and fun, as he told stories about his time in Libby between songs. He interrupted two of his songs mid-stream and improvised lyrics about Larry and Mary, huckleberry milkshakes and the fresh cookies at the Venture Inn, leaving the audience laughing, applauding and wanting more.

During the intermission and after the show Kingham mingled with the crowd and signed autographs. Kootenai Heritage Council president Gary Huntsberger characterized the event as a success. “It was neat having him here, it was a lot of fun and we’re hoping to be able to do it again.”

Representatives of the council travel to Great Falls each year for a convention of similar councils and artists. It is at this convention, put together by the Montana Arts Council, that they set the calendar and acts for the coming season.