Jeff Bridges' Black Ram Guitar, Built From a 315-Year-Old Spruce, Is the Centerpiece of a Montana Benefit Festival
At Bozeman's Willson Auditorium on October 2, a rotating cast plays the Black Ram Guitar, built from a fallen Yaak Valley spruce, to support a proposed Climate Refuge.
Oct 2, 2026
Credit: The Montana Project (via source)
The Black Ram Guitar Festival takes place October 2 at Willson Auditorium in Bozeman, Montana, built around a single instrument: Jeff Bridges' Black Ram Guitar, hand-built from a fallen 315-year-old Engelmann spruce salvaged from the oldest forest in the Yaak Valley. The guitar will be played live all night by a rotating cast that includes Jack Barksdale, Pico Alt, Siri Sæteren and Rob Quist, with Ruth Moody as featured artist and Bill McKibben as emcee.
Presented by The Montana Project, the evening is a Climate Aid benefit for the Black Ram Climate Refuge, meant to help protect the old-growth forest at the center of the proposed Black Ram timber sale and to designate the Yaak Valley as the nation's first Climate Refuge. It follows the first Climate Aid concert in Portland, Maine and a sold-out Missoula debut, and adds author Rick Bass telling the story of the tree and the guitar, plus a video appearance by Yo-Yo Ma.
Credit: RA Beattie / Explore Big Sky (via source)
Why it matters
The event connects guitar building and material provenance directly to a live benefit, making the instrument itself the narrative focus.
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