Any of you folks who are concerned about the future of America, concerned about who is going to lead this country in the turbulent years ahead, would have been heartened to spend last weekend (July 29-31) in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, at the Red Ants Pants Music Festival. Readers of Zone 4 will know that Red Ants Pants are the so-called "Carhartts for women" made in the U.S. of A. by Sarah Calhoun, a beautiful young woman with more friends than a politician. 

Why White Sulphur Springs? Because she couldn't afford Bozeman.

Why women's workwear? Because women deserve the same as men.

Why a music festival to benefit her town, small-acreage farmers and ranchers, and women in small business? If you don't know the answer, you don't know Sarah.

Somehow she managed to lure to White Sulphur Springs—population 900 something—the likes of musicians Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Carrie Rodriguez, and a bunch of other talented bands, to play for what turned out to be an audience of around 5,000 adoring fans. Fans of these musicians, yes. But also fans of Sarah.

This was no rowdy bunch of methed out punks. But a crowd of all ages, appreciative of the music and the purpose. Following the headliner bands of Saturday and Saturday night, on Sunday morning Sarah took the mic and gave the security report: No fights. One DUI. One post-concert accident, from which the driver walked way unhurt, but the cow had to be shot.

With Lyle Lovett and Jerry Jeff Walker gone, attendance the second day wasn't quite what we saw the first day. Rodney Crowell came on at four, following the all-girl band from Austin called the Trishas, who he brought back for help on a few tunes, as well as old buddy Guy Clark. Things were getting loose, freestyle. At six the last band took the stage: Micky and the Motorcars. They got in two or three songs when the heavens opened, rain pelted the fleeing crowd, and the winds blew. Andra and me, in our Zone 4 tent, closed up shop and took shelter.

When the squall passed and the sun returned, as it does in Montana summertime evenings, Micky and his band returned to the stage, but the electricity was gone. The small crowd surrounding the stage exhorted him to play anyway. And he did. You had to be up close to hear him, but play he did. Sympathetic for him, Rodney Crowell and the Trishas came back to the stage to lend moral support if not some volume. 

So the festival ended on a very sisterly and brotherly gesture of giving to one another. And that's what Sarah wanted for her foundation all along. She's already announced dates for 2012, in late July again. Go to www.redantspantsmusicfestival.com for more information.