From the ‘Bottom of the Barrell’ to Big Sky and beyond, Dammit Lauren is one of Southwest Montana’s favorite inside jokes

Seventy percent of the time, Dammit Lauren’s Lauren Jackson is a full-time musician in Southwest Montana. Armed with a bass guitar and a big instantly recognizable voice, Jackson has dedicated her life to music, which nowadays means 30% of the time she is supplementing her income working behind a bar. 

“Our goal is simply to create music that we love and think is great,” she explains. “We are realistic about being an independent band in Montana. We want to perform and have fun and share our music.” 

Dammit Lauren adopted their name as an inside joke and it stuck. Over their nine years together they’ve experienced a huge cross section of the Montana music scene including performances at the Under the Big Sky Festival and playing in support of national touring acts like the Jamestown Revival and the Kitchen Dwellers. In 2022 they released their first full length album and are following that up with a second offering due in Spring of 2026. 

“The band started when my country band, Bottom of the Barrel, and my friend Brian Stumpfs’ band, Gallatin Grass Project, broke up at a similar time,” Jackson remembers. “We decided to get together and see what would happen. We started trying to write some original music together and it really clicked. We have overlapping musical taste and we just went full steam. I believe that was about nine years ago.”

Stumpf works as a full-time musician. Drummer Casey Folley is the owner of Beehive Brewery in Big Sky and since Jackson moved from Big Sky to Ennis she has cut back on the number of nights that she travels to perform and is currently supplementing her income working a couple nights a week at the Gravel Bar in Ennis. 

By most accounts, the music scene in Montana is a pretty good place to be. A band like the Rocky Mountain Pearls, who deals almost exclusively in outlaw country covers, can command four figure payouts on a Summer evening and rarely want for work. Dammit Lauren takes a different approach, with a collection of well worn and well loved covers peppered with a growing collection of original tracks. 

“We often get a great response from our original music and it’s very rewarding when that happens,” said Jackson. “It takes a lot of skill and talent to perform other peoples’ music well but it’s a whole other experience to write and perform your own music. For me that is the most rewarding thing.”

The band's new album will feature a collection of songs that have welled up from a very personal place in the bands’ lives. 

“I think it’s the best songwriting we’ve done yet,” beams Jackson. “Without getting too personal I’ll just say that we drew a lot of inspiration from some personal hardships someone in the band was experiencing and channeled a lot of those emotions into the writing. I am most excited for people to hear it.”

Over time, the band has developed a fan base that has the relationship required to appreciate and experience those emotions along with them. They are regulars in Ennis, Big Sky and a collection of other venues during the Summer. Recently, things have gotten a little tougher when it comes to finding places to play. 

“While playing in Big Sky it seems the number of places to play was growing for many years,” she explained. “There have been some limiting factors this year as Big Sky Resort drastically cut their live music program and consolidation in general has changed the way that some venues book. The pay has generally gone up though.”

The changes in strategy made by the Big Sky Resort with regards to booking live music has had an impact on musicians like Jackson and Stumpf. 

“It’s very disappointing personally the direction the resort has taken,” Jackson laments. “Apres is such a fun part of ski culture and I have played there for over a decade. It was a large source of income for me for many years. Go to Jackson or Targhee and there’s apres music everyday. But things change and new people come along with different visions and there’s not much I feel I can do about it.”

Jackson says that the majority of the income they make as musicians comes from the payment they receive from the venues and is supplemented by the tips from the crowd at the gigs. 

“We are definitely working musicians,” she continues. “I’d say we average playing three nights a week, though in years past it has been even more.”

While the pay in places like Big Sky and Ennis has grown according to Jackson, part of being a seasoned musician is having the experience to know that not all venues are created equal. 

“Sometimes when trying to book gigs in Bozeman, I am surprised how little certain places offer,” she said. While it is tempting to look for the big dreams beyond Bozeman, Jackson and her band are committed to playing under the Big Sky for the foreseeable future. 

“We would love to be able to tour and perform for a broader audience but life as a working musician here is pretty great too,” she explained.  

You can listen to the first album and get to know the band at www.dammitlauren.com.