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Phil and Patty Aaberg mix music and business in Chester, Montana – Sweetgrass Music

"You know this music came up the river. It came hopping the Great Northern Empire Builder. It came on Red River carts and painted ponies. It came in the clouds, riding the wind, down into the badlands, up through the ground through the roots of the cottonwood trees back into the big sky. And it reached Jack in Edgar, Montana. Kelly in Malta, Montana. And me in Chester, Montana. It’s yours now."

-Phil Aaberg

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In the mid-1970s, Chester piano whiz Philip Aaberg was already a successful studio musician in California and was starting to tour as a keyboard player with big-name rockers, but he had the small-town sense to capture the credit for his compositions.

"I was playing with Elvin Bishop and started writing … I started having some pieces published so I needed a publishing company. I registered Sweetgrass Music https://www.sweetgrassmusic.com/ with, at that time, what was ASCAP," the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Since starting Sweetgrass in Oakland in 1974, music — and music technology — have changed, as has his lifestyle.

In 2002, Aaberg and his music company migrated back to Chester. His musical focus had transitioned to sonic illustrations of places and landscapes, and he and his wife, Patty, decided to raise their son, Jake, in a smaller town.

Marc Stergionis, [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/money/2014/08/01/aabergs-mix-music-business-chester/13489043/

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