LUKES BAR IN MISSOULA MONTANA

I lived in Missoula Montana for about two years back in the late 70's and while I was there I played music at this bar almost every Wednesday night. It was named Lukes after Hank Williams alter ego, (Luke The Drifter.) The bar was a wild mix of bikers, cowboys, lumberjacks, native americans and transients with a few students from the university thrown in for good measure and for the most part everyone got along. I've really never experienced anything like it anywhere else. On any given night you could hear anything from Pink Floyd to George Jones and everything in between. It was a time in my life when I was young and adventurous and it was a great place for me to unleash my original songs as well as my favorite covers and establish some kind of stage presence. For better or worse I became a fixture there and mostly drank for free. Which was very important because I was also mostly broke *LOL* It was a time of my life I will never forget. And by the way, the bikes you see outside the bar in this pic were always there. Those guys rode year round and let me tell you it got cold up there. I've seen the thermometer hit 40 below! Those guys were bad-ass!! As I got to know them I learned that most of them were on the run from the law down South in California and liked Missoula because it was close enough to the Canadian border to allow them to scoot up there if they had to. You did not want to fuck with those guys and I'm glad I was on their good side. Sadly I hear the place is long gone and the whole area was yuppified years ago. I have a friend who still lives there and he says I wouldn't recognize the place. But ahhhhh the memories I have........