The Big Memories and Biggest Takeaways from Under The Big Sky 2026

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What might compel someone to trek all the way to the very Northwest portions of wild Montana, darn near to the Canadian border, just to hang out sweating in the high altitude sun all day, maybe get rained on for a spell, and have to navigate a massive hill back and forth at least a few times during the ordeal? It’s the magic, the moments, the views, the experiences, and the unparalleled lineup of the Under The Big Sky Festival that puts it at the very apex of live music events in independent country, and makes any and all rigors getting and staying there entirely worth it.

Where else can you go and see modern Outlaw legend Cody Jinks, surging neotraditionalist star Zach Top, one of the greatest musical entertainers of our era, Chris Stapleton, all on successive days, with the beautiful Whitefish Mountains as the backdrop? That doesn’t even begin to mention Charles Wesley Godwin, Marcus King Band, Ryan Bingham and the Texas Gentleman, Kaitlin Butts, and a host of super cool up and coming acts like Rattlesnake Milk and Mountain Grass Unit. And it’s all done outside of the purview of the Live Nation monopoly, and major corporate branding.

Zach Top’s Saturday night headliner set was arguably crown jewel of the weekend (read full review), but Cody Jinks also did well with a rain shortened set, and Chris Stapleton always delivers, and with a surprise appearance in his backing band by Grammy-winning producer extraordinaire Dave Cobb.

Yet the greatness of any festival is often defined by the strength (or lack thereof) of its undercard, and the discovery opportunities it contains. Alabama-based bluegrass band Mountain Grass Unit got double the opportunities to be discovered when Waylon Wyatt missed the fest due to being in the hospital with sepsis, and the Alabama boys got the chance to fill in for him on the main stage, along with their scheduled performance on the second stage. Filling out their sets with some very delicious covers, Mountain Grass Unit was one of the big stories of UTBS 2026.

Another big discovery for those who were in attendance for his set was the excellent up and coming songwriter Fabrizio. With a voice like Colter Wall and songs like Blaze Foley, this young man is originally from Peru and moved to the United States when he was 15. His songs about finding sobriety are super moving, while he also peppered his set with songs from Townes Van Zandt and Jason Isbell. His EP titled Recovery coming out on July 24th is something that should be on your radar.

Other landmark sets included Kaitlin Butts, Charles Wesley Godwin, Benjamin Tod, and Marcus King who brought out Duane Betts as a guest guitarist. Betts also appeared with Jamestown Revival for a spell, making him sort of the unanticipated special guest of the festival. Montana native Tanner Laws also made a big impression as the very first performer of the weekend.

Though UTBS primarily caters to independent country, you had a few up and coming mainstream names hit the stage in Lauren Watkins, Madeline Hawthorne, and Max McNown. Though Lauren and Max had clearly been drilled in the “point and smile” stage presence school on Music Row, they got a positive reception from the audience. The reception was much more mixed for Goldie Boutilier, who claims to be inspired by ‘50/‘60s “country” in sort of a country noir approach that incorporates glam rock.

Maybe there’s a version of Goldie that’s more country, but her performance came across as pure pop and out-of-place, complete with backing tracks, and the gesticulations/gyrations of a pop star. On a more positive note, Gabriella Rose, who’d played the massive Two Step Inn Fest in Texas earlier this year to backing tracks actually showed up with a full band. She’s originally from nearby Washington State.

Under The Big Sky also usually brings some country-adjacent indie rock performers to the fest, and this year was no different. Iceland’s Of Monsters and Men and Ocie Elliot helped fulfill that portion of the menu. There was also a significant bluegrass/jamgrass component to this year’s fest with not just Mountain Grass Unit, but Greensky Bluegrass and Leftover Salmon on the lineup, and playing the headlining sets on the second stage Saturday and Sunday nights.

One somewhat strange element to the festival this year was the discrepancy in the size of audiences for certain sets. The audience for the main stage was always massive for the main support acts and headliners, but tended to show up late to primarily take in the big names only. And except for the set from Chance Peña, there really wasn’t any set on the second stage that featured the kinds of massive crowds seen there in previous years for artists like Jamey Johnson, and an up-and-coming Lainey Wilson.

And then of course there’s the rodeo that happens between the second stage sets all weekend, and the petting zoo for the kids, and the horseback rides, and the umpteen things to do in and around beautiful Whitefish, Montana, including being right on the doorstep of Glacier National Park. About the only gripes were the traffic snafu on Friday night with the rainy weather (it took the saving country music mobile command unit 1 hour, 45 minutes to exit the premises), and on Saturday night it was the shuttle buses that were snake bit.

But all the best experiences are the ones that are earned, that you seek out and revel in the adventure. Whatever one must endure to get to Under The Big Sky, it’s all worth it for the memories and experiences.

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For video and more photos from Under The Big Sky Fest 2026, follow Saving Country Music on Instagram. Apologies to any artists not pictured or mentioned.

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Ryan Bingham

There’s just something about seeing an artist who just released a hot record, especially after an extended period away. That’s what Ryan and The Texas Gentlemen have done with They Call Us The Lucky Ones, and it’s put a renewed vigor behind his music, including his live show. Bingham is BACK, and blew the doors off of Under The Big Sky Fest in Montana.

Ol’ Montana showed up for ol’ Walker too. The crowd had been slightly thinner earlier in the day until Bingham took the stage. Then it was packed. Great stuff from the Texas legend.

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Marcus King

Like he walked out of a portal from 1974, smelling like Pall Mall cigarettes, drug store cologne, and the heirloom stuff from your grandpa in that chest in the attic, Marcus King is the last true connection to the guitar Gods that once walked this earth who could unlock the most sacred regions of the listener’s brain with their soaring, blazing, earthquake-laying solos.

He’s got more guts than a slaughterhouse, more soul than that chicken shack down on MLK Blvd, and mutton chops so coiffed and fluffy they could pad a baby’s fall from four stories up during a structure fire. More musical beast than man, you can go ahead and crown Marcus as a Guitar God of our era, and one for all time.

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Kaitlin Butts

Kaitlin Butts comes out on stage like a Derringer being produced from inside a vest pocket after an altercation breaks out over who was cheating at a game of five card stud. It’s serious business.

Then after a loud noise, and the smell of smoke is left drifting in the tense air, a man lays dead on the floor, and the men with silver stars on their chest arrive.

But when they ask who she was and where she went, nobody says a word. Because from the streets of Tulsa, to the wild shores of the Flathead River in Montana, everyone knows you don’t fuck with Kaitlin Butts.

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Tanner Laws

Those who know their stuff in country music and had a good excuse to play hookey from work showed up early to watch hometown boy Tanner Laws open the 2026 Under The Big Sky Festival in Montana. It might have been a hay field instead of a honky tonk, but the two steppers were out in full force.

Tanner Laws has sensible, but meaningful country songs, and is fit to ride the neotraditional wave to national prominence. He first showed up to Under The Big Sky three years ago as a fan, swearing he’d be on the stage someday. Now he has, and might be back to play in the evening in the coming years. He’s already been featured in SCM’s Top 25 Playlist too. A bright future in country music.

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Rattlesnake Milk

After the great final war commences, and the machines rise up to subjugate all human life, those carbon-based life forms huddled in the final pockets of resistance will talk of this band, originally from the barren plains of West Texas, but rising through the Austin scene that sounded like no band ever before, and every band that has ever existed. They’ll talk about how their music evoked the very pinnacle of immersive magic of the musical art, and curiously encompassed every original influence of American music.

Almost like a drug, people will use the music of this band that’s almost more like myth than reality to remember the times when life was full of emotion and experience, before the machines came.

There will be other music salvaged from before the mechanical apocalypse, but none of it will be held in as high regard, simply because few if anyone can do what they do. The curious name of that band will be Rattlesnake Milk.

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Cody Jinks

Cody Jinks ain’t letting a little loud thunder and heavy rain keep him from throwing down in Montana. His set at Under The Big Sky Fest was bisected and truncated by a rain delay. But Cody and the Tonedeaf Hippies squeezed a full show’s worth of energy into the time they got. Those who hung around to the bitter end got absolutely soaked, but wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.

There’s a whole lot of names making a lot of racket in independent country these days. But Cody Jinks is the guy that opened the door for many of them, and still sits atop the heap as a perennial headliner.

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Benjamin Tod

Benjamin Tod had been through Whitefish, Montana a time or two during his previous life as a train hopper and busker. This time he showed up in town as one of independent country’s premier songwriters and performers to play the biggest and best independent country festival in the world: Under The Big Sky.

To sing it with authenticity and authority, you first have to live it. That’s the truth that comes through Benjamin Tod’s music. Though some may bellyache for the days when he played with the Lost Dog Street Band or solo, his country band The Inline Six is absolutely hot shit. Sun blazing straight in his face, Benjamin Tod put on a hell of a show.

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Caitlyn Smith

Excellent curation by the Under The Big Sky Festival booking the great Caitlyn Smith for their 2026 lineup. Those that know her, they know she is one of the premier songwriters in country music, and has had songs cut by the likes of Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks.

She told the story from the stage of discovering that she could be “just” a songwriter. But there’s no such thing as “just” a songwriter, and frankly, she’s a better singer and performer than 90% of what country music has to offer. She proved that at Under The Big Sky. She’s just been pigeon holed as a songwriter in a business where sometimes talent is more a burden than an asset.

The sound of Caitlyn Smith has always been a bit more pop than what Saving Country Music would conventionally tout. But the songs are stellar, and so is the voice. Caitlyn Smith is one of the good ones.

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Charles Wesley Godwin

Is there a subgenre of country music yet called “Inspirational Country”? And if there isn’t, can we make one and put Charles Wesley Godwin at the top of it? Watching him perform live, you feel so inspired, you think you could run through a wall, or at least run a marathon. He inspires you to want to start being a better person, a better member of your family, to put “Another Leaf” on the tree (we all know what that means). 😀

Killer set at Under The Big Sky Fest, and massive opportunity for Godwin performing right before headliner Chris Stapleton. Charles and his backing band The Allegheny High made the most of it.

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Dave Cobb

When the story is told how country music was saved in the modern era, this guy will play an outsized role. From producing albums for Jamey Johnson and Shooter Jennings early on, to working with Sturgill Simpson on High Top Mountain and Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. He also produced Jason Isbell’s Southeastern, and all those spectacular records afterwards. Then it was off to the races, and you can’t even begin to list off all the landmark albums Dave Conn has been a part of, including the new Red Clay Strays album Grateful.

Most importantly though, inspired by Sturgill’s Metamodern Sounds, Dave Cobb went into the studio with Chris Stapleton, inspired to cut a live-feeling record with a road band just like Sturgill, and Traveller was born.

There might not be any Saving Country Music, massive country fests that cater to non-radio country like Under The Big Sky, and Stapleton might not be the superstar he is if it wasn’t for Dave Cobb behind the mixing board. And don’t let anyone tell you any different, because we’ve been sitting here chronicling the whole thing along the way.

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Mountain Grass Unit

Folks in Montana and those who trekked here to Under The Big Sky Fest are discovering their next favorite band in Mountain Grass Unit. They’re also discovering their new favorite guitar player Luke Black, new favorite mando player Drury Anderson, new favorite fiddler Josiah Nelson, and favorite bass player Sam Wilson.

Waylon Wyatt had to cancel his set due to being in the hospital with sepsis, so Mountain Grass Unit didn’t just play their scheduled set, but filled in for Waylon on the main stage too. This means they left a large impression Saturday in Montana.

Mountain Grass Unit very much feels like the future of bluegrass. Bluegrass is in good hands and the kids are alright. Their debut album “Appalachian Smoke” is out August 28th.

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