Montana Traditions Stage Performer | Bozeman, MT
Linda Svendsen has made a professional life out of adventure, horses and music. She is a founding director of Boojum Expeditions, a pioneer in international horse treks and uncommon travel. For 35 years, Linda organized and led remote horseback expeditions in Central Asia and South America.
Musically, Linda sings and plays guitar and standup bass. She has performed with various bands in Montana and Wyoming, singing bluegrass, old-timey, cowboy and gospel music. In 2011 she performed western and cowboy music with Gail Steiger in Afghanistan, sponsored by the US Embassy in Kabul. Linda was born and raised in Oregon and has made her home in Montana for the past 30 years. She spends as much time as possible horseback in the mountains near her home.
Mike Parsons first picked up the fiddle when he was nine, playing with his father and grandfather. His family joined the Idaho Old Time Fiddlers Organization and soon he was playing around the state with the Junior Jammers. The Parsons Family Band formed and ten-year old Mike, his mother, sisters and brothers played barn dances, gyms, and shows across Idaho. In 1973, Mike won the Junior Idaho State Fiddling Championship as well as the Golden Spike Fiddle Championship.
Mike continues to teach and play professionally with a variety of bands, and along the way added mandolin, guitar, banjo, bass, dobro, and steel guitar to the cache of instruments he plays. He currently lives in Bozeman and plays fiddle and mandolin as a twangster with country band www.twang.
Mike and Linda played together in the bluegrass band Hillbilly Chrome for eight years and also sang together in The Haywire Choir, a four-part acapella gospel group, for about five years. They have always enjoyed similar musical styles and have now morphed into a duo.