Two Fascinating Montana Connections to Memphis

I just returned from a visit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. It's an incredible facility, an emotional experience, and I look forward to sharing more with you about St. Jude and the children they help save in the next few months.

Still, the two places share a couple of unexpected stories involving country music and ice climbing. Two vastly different subjects connect the Birthplace of Rock and Roll and Big Sky Country.

Before Charley Pride became a country music legend, he played baseball for the Memphis Red Sox. In 1958, while he was back in Memphis after serving in the Army, he brought his guitar to Sun Studio and recorded a demo.

Pride moved to Montana in 1960 to play baseball. He ended up working at a smelter and playing for the East Helena Smelterites. He also started performing at clubs and other local venues around Helena, Anaconda, and Great Falls.

In 1962, country singers Red Sovine and Red Foley heard Pride sing in Helena and encouraged him to pursue music in Nashville. His journey from Memphis to Montana to Nashville became part of an extraordinary career.

Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

There’s another link between Memphis and Montana in the documentary Black Ice. It follows climbers from Memphis Rox, a climbing gym and community center in South Memphis, as they travel to Montana to learn ice climbing.

The group climbed near Bozeman with guidance from experienced climbers, including Conrad Anker, Manoah Ainuu, and Fred Campbell. For some of the climbers, the trip was their first time leaving Memphis. The film captures their experience with Montana’s winter landscape and a sport many had never tried before.

Montana and Memphis may be far apart, but Charley Pride’s early music journey and the Black Ice expedition bring the two places together in memorable ways.