2024 Musical Adventures on the Salmon River

Video from John Smith’s Aug 8-13, 2017 Middle Fork of the Salmon Music Adventure

In 2015 MFRE began offering professional musician trips to our offerings. The result has been amazing. The guests, musicians and MFRE guides all agree that these trips are the best, as there is a way music can connect the group to nature and the canyon itself, not to mention the “tribe” that is formed through music.

How do they work? – All musicians have their different style and personality, of course. Musicians play each evening around the campfire, but also at scenic grottos, waterfalls along the way, and even while soaking in a hot spring. It is up to the musician when and where they want to play but it is always coordinated with the MFRE Expedition Leader.

Many novice guest musicians ask whether they can play with the musicians as well and in many cases this is allowed and encouraged. If you want to bring an instrument please do and we will bring an extra dry bag for you. Just be sure it is in a hard case.

See our “Dates and Prices” section of the website for cost and availability.

Middle Fork River Expeditions Musical Adventures

David Huckfelt- Main Salmon June 19th- June 24th, 2024

David Huckfelt is a singer / lyricist / activist and founding frontman of Minneapolis indie-folk cult favorites The Pines. An Iowa native and former theology student, Huckfelt attended the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop before turning his attention to songwriting and performing. With musical roots in the same fertile Midwestern soil that produced legendary folk singers like John Prine and Greg Brown, Huckfelt has shared stages with artists from Prine, Mavis Staples, Greg Brown, Iris Dement & Emmylou Harris to Bon Iver, Calexico and Trampled By Turtles. His work with The Pines received record of the year accolades from Mojo & Q Magazine, and garnered praise from David Fricke (Rolling Stone) as one of the finest songwriters of his generation.

In 2018 Huckfelt received the prestigious Artist-In-Residence award at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior, where in sixteen days he wrote the fourteen songs that would become his breakout solo debut “Stranger Angels”. A fortuitous encounter with American Indian Movement leader & poet John Trudell on the Pine Ridge Reservation resulted in a collaboration with the great Indigenous activist, the song “Time Dreams”, hailed by Democracy Now! and the last recording Trudell ever made.

Since then, Huckfelt has partnered with an impressive array of Native American artists and activists including Keith Secola, Quiltman, Winona LaDuke and novelist Louise Erdrich in the fight for social justice and protection for Mother Earth. In thousands of shows across the United States, Canada & overseas, Huckfelt’s grassroots following has grown from small-town opera houses, Midwestern barn concerts, and progressive benefit events to national tours and festival stages like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Edmonton and Calgary Folk Fests, and the legendary First Avenue club in his beloved Minneapolis home.

He is currently working on two new solo records, due out in 2024.

Meditation, Movement and Chanting

Main Salmon July 5th-10th With Nina Wise

River Retreat: Meditation, Movement and Chanting

Join Nina Wise for a meditative adventure floating down the Salmon River.

Immersed in the beauty of the natural world, we will meditate, do movement games, and lift our voices in song and chanting, The symphony of river and wind, birdsong and rushing water, the ever-changing patterns of color and shape in the landscape, conspire to still our minds and and open our hearts to our true nature: peace and ease. As our minds still, the beauty of the landscape becomes more vivid and the wonder of this life on earth begins to work its healing power on our hearts.

You will have plenty of time to swim, star gaze, eat fine food, and delight in the company of fine folk.

Bio

Since earning her degree in Religious Studies and the Aesthetics of Movement, Nina Wise has devoted her career to developing theater and stories that address the relationship between body, intellect, and spirit. Her original works, performed in prestigious venues around the world have won awards for playwriting, innovative design, and new theater.

She is the founder of Motion Theater®, a unique form of embodied improvisation focusing on true stories from one’s own life. She has performed and taught Motion Theater far and wide to students who report life-changing results.

She is the author of A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life, Self-Expression and Spiritual Practice for Those Who Have Time for Neither, published by Broadway Books as well as numerous stories and articles that have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

As an artist and teacher who specializes in innovation, she has coached numerous individuals and teams in creativity, the cultivation of presence. Authorized to teach by Jack Kornfield, Wise teaches Buddhist practice at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and other spiritual centers worldwide.

“A workshop with Nina Wise changes your life in all the right ways – towards creativity, connection, and the wisdom of the universe.” Pam, web designer

John Smith- Middle Fork July 31- Aug 5, 2024

Johnsmith is one of those artists so often under-recognized – he possesses a genius that cannot be denied, ignored, or overlooked. For the past thirty-plus years, Johnsmith has been sharing his music all across America and abroad. He has become a favorite at festivals, clubs, and house concerts alike. In addition to being a Kerrville New Folk Winner, Johnsmith has released eight solo CDs to rave reviews, leads musical tours to Ireland, teaches songwriting, and has served as a staff songwriter in Nashville.

With his faded jeans, his twinkly blue eyes, and his infectious smile, John immediately connects with audiences. You get the sense of a man who loves his life, his family and friends, and who loves nothing more than sharing that love in song and stories all across this land.

Moors and McCumber Middle Fork Aug 8-13, 2024

James Moors and Kort McCumber grew up in different places and listening to different kinds of music – classical, rock, bluegrass, you name it. But when they met ten years ago they knew they’d found something golden. Since then, they’ve been cultivating their wide-ranging musical influences in songs that delve into love and life through haunting lyrics, soaring harmonies, and dazzling instrumental proficiency. As Grammy award-winning producer Lloyd Maines puts it, “These guys should be playing every major festival in the country. They bring it all to the stage and deliver it in a big way.”

Keith Greeninger Middle Fork Aug 24-29, 2024

“One of the finest writers on the scene today. His songs always find a way to touch, inspire, celebrate… and when necessary, enrage”

— Mike Meyer, KRVM Radio, Eugene OR

Joe Craven and Matt Hartle Main Salmon Aug 30-Sept 4 2024

“JAMMIN’ ON THE SALMON” – This trip invites you to bring an instrument – even if it’s just your voice – and jam music in the spirit of the Grateful Dead every evening with Joe Craven and Matt Hartle. We’ll have song books and any ability is welcome! Joe & Matt are on this trip to play music – for you and with you! Joining Joe & Matt is optional, of course. Instruments (in their hard cases) are placed in dry bags. Call the office for more info. Joe is a fiddler, mandolinist and percussionist. He played/recorded with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman & other artists for 40 years. Matt is a well known Dead oriented guitarist and band leader in the

San Francisco Bay Area. www.paintedmandolin.com

Darrell Scott Middle Fork Sept 10-15, 2024

Darrell and his wife Angela joined us in 2017 and 2019 to celebrate Darrell’s 60th Birthday. Darrell is an incredible musician and songwriter who also travels with the Zach Brown band. Please take a look at his site for more information and his Bio!

John Arthur martinez, Randy Brown, Geronimo Trevino III and Johnny Rodriguez, Johnny Bush, Jon Chandler, Bill Barwick and others.Mike spent many years touring with his dancehall band, but now plays more shows as a solo artist, or in a duo or trio configuration at listening rooms, house concerts, festivals, and private parties.

RainSong Guitars Sponsorship

Middle Fork River Expeditions have partnered with RainSong guitars and they allow our musicians to play in the wilderness and not worry about damaging their own super pricey guitars. Plus these guitars sound amazing! Most woods show increasing damping with frequency, making the highest notes sound muddy. Carbon fiber’s damping is almost constant across the acoustic spectrum resulting in a full range of sound — from a treble that rings with crystalline clarity to a bass that is warm without being muddy. And, because of Projection Tuned Layering’s uniform stiffness, the RainSong acoustic sound is impeccably balanced and very, VERY loud. Once you have heard the classic carbon sound you’ll recognize it anywhere, as distinctive as anything on earth.