Big Sky Mudflaps turn 50

William Munoz

(Missoula Current) It is not easy for a band to last 10 years, let alone 50.

The Big Sky Mudflaps have been successful as a band but more as a band of friends who genuinely like and respect each other. This feeling gets transformed into their music, which penetrates the soul of the audience.

The effect was best described by New York music critic Ira Gitler, after hearing them play at a club in the city.

“It’s not only what they play but the way they play with an unpretentious joie de glee” that produces what Gitler called “a funky makes-you-want-to-get-up-and-dance beat… eclectic electricity.”

The band recently performed outside the Missoula Art Museum to celebrate the retirement of Laura Milli, the museum's long-time director.