During this program, Stellarondo plays several songs from their first (self-titled) album and Rick Bass reads two stories while they play music scored especially for those stories. Bass also talks about what it's like to pair his writing with their "beautiful" music. And The Write Question producer Chérie Newman chats with the band's founder, Caroline Keys, about songwriting, including where she gets ideas for lyrics.

Stellarondo is Travis Yost, Caroline Keys, Gibson Hartwell, and Bethany Joyce.

Travis Yost is a musician who is not afraid to throw his hat into any musical ring.  His current projects include Tom Catmull and the Clerics, Stellarondo, American Falcon, and his own band, The New Hijackers.  His knowledge of performance and recording has led him, recently into spending time behind the mixing board recording Montana bands and singer-songwriters.  When asked about anything from recording, arranging, and recording, he would probably explain that "Simpler is usually better."

Caroline Keys grew up in the American South and has spent most of her adult life in the American West. Since she's lived in Montana she might have been your boat captain, could have played your wedding, taught you harmony singing, she may have rejected your submission to Tin House, produced an album of your middle schooler's rock songs, edited your newsletter, been your bus driver, reviewed your record in the Independent, seen your essay through to publication in Willow Springs, taught your kindergartner to square dance, or instigated the sunset fiddle jam you passed on your way down Waterworks Hill the night Mount Sentinel burned.

Gibson Hartwell plays pedal steel, electric guitar, kalimba, and various noise makers for Stellarondo. Gibson has played in the Northwest and Rocky Mountains for the past 20 years in rock, folk, jazz, country, and experimental music. Locally in western Montana, Gibson has been a member of prominent acts Tarkio (Kill Rock Stars label) and Bob Wire and the Fencemenders. He currently splits his stage time between playing with Stellarondo and Tom Catmull and the Clerics. Gibson has recorded for several musicians including: Amy Martin, Burke Jam (Churchmouse), Shane Clouse, Jessica Kilroy, David Boone, Bob Wire (post-Fencemender), Shodown, Oliver Night (Marseille, France), and The Oblio Joes.

Bethany Joyce featured in the Missoulian.

Rick Bass’ fiction has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters (in fiction, creative nonfiction, and journalism categories), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, nominations for Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, and a Pen/Nelson Algren Special Citation, which was judged by Robert Penn Warren, and a General Electric Younger Writer’s Award. He has had numerous stories anthologized in Best American Short Stories: The Year’s Best. The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons At Home in Montana (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt), a book about fathering daughters in the wilderness, has been excerpted in O, The Oprah Magazine. His nonfiction has been anthologized in Best American Spiritual Writing, Best Spiritual Writing, and Best American Travel Writing. Various of his books have been named New York Times as well as Los Angeles Times Notable Books of the Year, and a New York Times Best Book of the Year. A collection of short fiction, The Hermit’s Story, was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and another collection, The Lives of Rocks, was a finalist for the prestigious Story Prize, as well as a Best Book of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News. His most recent nonfiction book, Why I Came West, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of a 2011 Montana Arts Council Artist’s Innovation Award.

His stories, articles and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Narrative, Men’s Journal, Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Harper’s, New York Times Sunday Magazine, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Tin House, Zoetrope, Orion, and numerous other periodicals. He has served as a contributing editor to Audubon, OnEarth, Field & Stream, Big Sky Journal, and Sports Afield, and currently writes a regular column for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, as well as for an online hunting magazine, Contemporary Sportsman.

During this program, Stellarondo plays several songs from their first (self-titled) album and Rick Bass reads two stories while they play music scored especially for those stories. Bass also talks about what it's like to pair his writing with their "beautiful" music. And The Write Question producer Chérie Newman chats with the band's founder, Caroline Keys, about songwriting, including where she gets ideas for lyrics.

Stellarondo is Travis Yost, Caroline Keys, Gibson Hartwell, and Bethany Joyce.

Travis Yost is a musician who is not afraid to throw his hat into any musical ring.  His current projects include Tom Catmull and the Clerics, Stellarondo, American Falcon, and his own band, The New Hijackers.  His knowledge of performance and recording has led him, recently into spending time behind the mixing board recording Montana bands and singer-songwriters.  When asked about anything from recording, arranging, and recording, he would probably explain that "Simpler is usually better."

Caroline Keys grew up in the American South and has spent most of her adult life in the American West. Since she's lived in Montana she might have been your boat captain, could have played your wedding, taught you harmony singing, she may have rejected your submission to Tin House, produced an album of your middle schooler's rock songs, edited your newsletter, been your bus driver, reviewed your record in the Independent, seen your essay through to publication in Willow Springs, taught your kindergartner to square dance, or instigated the sunset fiddle jam you passed on your way down Waterworks Hill the night Mount Sentinel burned.

Gibson Hartwell plays pedal steel, electric guitar, kalimba, and various noise makers for Stellarondo. Gibson has played in the Northwest and Rocky Mountains for the past 20 years in rock, folk, jazz, country, and experimental music. Locally in western Montana, Gibson has been a member of prominent acts Tarkio (Kill Rock Stars label) and Bob Wire and the Fencemenders. He currently splits his stage time between playing with Stellarondo and Tom Catmull and the Clerics. Gibson has recorded for several musicians including: Amy Martin, Burke Jam (Churchmouse), Shane Clouse, Jessica Kilroy, David Boone, Bob Wire (post-Fencemender), Shodown, Oliver Night (Marseille, France), and The Oblio Joes.

Bethany Joyce featured in the Missoulian.

Rick Bass’ fiction has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters (in fiction, creative nonfiction, and journalism categories), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, nominations for Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, and a Pen/Nelson Algren Special Citation, which was judged by Robert Penn Warren, and a General Electric Younger Writer’s Award. He has had numerous stories anthologized in Best American Short Stories: The Year’s Best. The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons At Home in Montana (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt), a book about fathering daughters in the wilderness, has been excerpted in O, The Oprah Magazine. His nonfiction has been anthologized in Best American Spiritual Writing, Best Spiritual Writing, and Best American Travel Writing. Various of his books have been named New York Times as well as Los Angeles Times Notable Books of the Year, and a New York Times Best Book of the Year. A collection of short fiction, The Hermit’s Story, was named a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and another collection, The Lives of Rocks, was a finalist for the prestigious Story Prize, as well as a Best Book of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News. His most recent nonfiction book, Why I Came West, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of a 2011 Montana Arts Council Artist’s Innovation Award.

His stories, articles and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Narrative, Men’s Journal, Esquire, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, Harper’s, New York Times Sunday Magazine, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Tin House, Zoetrope, Orion, and numerous other periodicals. He has served as a contributing editor to Audubon, OnEarth, Field & Stream, Big Sky Journal, and Sports Afield, and currently writes a regular column for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, as well as for an online hunting magazine, Contemporary Sportsman.