:The Laurel Outlook:News

Tickets are now on sale for the Rob Quist and Jack Gladstone Odyssey West Show that is expected to fill Riverside Park on Aug. 9 as part of the Laurel Centennial Celebration.

“We first saw Rob and Jack perform the Odyssey West Show at a League of Cities and Towns meeting in Kalispell,” Ward 2 Alderman Mark Mace said. “Mayor Olson and I were impressed with their multi-media show commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition through Montana and thought it would be great to bring it here to Laurel sometime.”

That “sometime” is now. Tickets are available at the Laurel Chamber of Commerce Log Cabin in Firemen's Park.

Admission to the outdoors concert will be $7.50 for adults and $3 for children.

Mace said the Park will have parking for 500-600 vehicles. Camping in the park will not be allowed the night of the concert. Additional parking will be available in the Laurel High School parking lot and bus shuttle service to the concert site will be provided by New Life Foursquare Church.

The Billings Big Sky Choir will perform on the stage at Riverside Park from 4:30 pm. to 6:30 pm.

Laurel's actual centennial date is Aug. 8, 2008. The city was officially formed by action of the Yellowstone County Commissioners on Aug. 8, 1908. Centennial celebration activities started with the annual Fourth of July celebration and wrap up with the Quist/Gladstone concert.

Quist and Gladstone are recognized as two of the state's most notable musicians and they bring the West to life with the rich historical content of their original songs and narratives presented with dramatic live footage as well as haunting photographic and artistic images of the Old and New West.

They were selected to perform Odyssey West at numerous Bi-centennial National Signature

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Events including Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia, as well as the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

The stories and legends of the American West are woven from the fabric of many people's dreams. Odyssey West tells the stories of the first white Americans to document the West as well as the Native Americans who lived in the vast untamed land that became America. Special tribute is paid to Sacagawea, and to York, the black man who accompanied the Corps of Discovery.

Rob Quist is a rancher's son and native Montanan living in Kalispell with his wife, Bonnie, and their son and daughter. He is also a well-known songwriter, composer, and main stage performer. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. He has released eight CDs.

Quist was an original band member (lead singer) for the Mission Mountain Woodband. He has written, produced, sung, recorded and/or starred in numerous videos, films, and soundtracks.

His original music has been charted on Billboard's Top 100, and has even been arranged and scored for full symphony performances. His music has also been recorded by Michael Martin Murphy and Loretta Lynn.

Jack Gladstone, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, attended the University of Washington on a football scholarship, earned both a degree in Speech Communications and a Rose Bowl ring with the 1978 championship Huskies.

Since 1988, Gladstone has released nine independently produced CDs. His release, Buffalo Republic, was honored with an entry-level nomination for the 2001 Grammy Awards and was nominated for Folk Recording and Historical Album of the Year by the Native American Music Awards.

He grew up immersed in the rich oral tradition of the West, listening to his Blackfeet Indian grandmother tell the story of creation and the other myths that formed their cultural framework.

His great-great-grandfather Red Crow, was the chief of the Blood tribe from 1870-1900 and led his people from their glory days of the buffalo into reservation life. As a Native American, he has experienced the European impact upon our continent's cultural journey from another perspective. He tells the story of U. S. westward expansion with keen insight and sensitivity.

The Centennial Store located inside Jan's IGA will be open Saturdays July 26 and Aug. 2, from 9 am. to 4 pm. It will remain open all week long, Aug. 4 -9, 9 am. to 4 pm. Commemorative items containing the Centennial logo are available there. Centennial-labeled bottled water and Laurel Lager beer are available there also. Copies of Gay Easton's Laurel Centennial book will also be available for sale.