Musical Miles Podcast
Sharing our love of live music, from dive bars, festivals to stadium events. One on one interviews with the artists, song writers and venues, one mile at a time!
Musical Miles Podcast
TOMARA Full Circle: "Tomara Conrad’s Return to What Matters"
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
“From Wyoming Bars to Montana Roots: The Tomara Conrad Story”We had the pleasure of sitting down with Montana singer-songwriter Tomara Conrad during the Whitefish Songwriter Festival at Slow Burn Records, where her authentic storytelling and raw, heartfelt delivery truly stood out. Tomara took us back to her early days growing up in Pinedale, cutting her teeth playing in local bars before stepping into the national spotlight on reality TV. After spending a decade in Los Angeles chasing the dream, she ultimately found her true sense of home and purpose back in Montana—working on her family’s fruit farm on the south end of Flathead Lake. That return to her roots has deeply influenced her music, grounding her sound in authenticity, hard work, and a deep connection to place. It was a genuine and memorable conversation that perfectly captured the spirit of the festival—intimate, real, and all about the power of a great song.
MORE ABOUT TOMARA:
YouTube: https://share.google/Qdj4oqYaeJiEQwAyv
Instagram: https://share.google/uR3Qsm4GEn96kZrXf
Threads: https://share.google/cWDT6MMly0xWSdSXJ
Spotify:https://share.google/gS2ViLD5tJUNr81VO
MORE ABOUT MUSICAL MILES PODCAST:
If you enjoy this podcast, consider donating at www.patreon.com/MusicalMilesPodcast
We travel coast to coast, chasing the heartbeat of live music - from dusty dive bars and historic honkytonks to major music festivals and intimate songwriter circles. Along the way we sit down with the artist, songwriters and storytellers who bring music to life, capturing their voices, journeys and behind-the-scenes truths in unscripted, real-deal conversations on the Musical Miles Podcast.
MORE ABOUT MUSICAL MILES PODCAST:
Website: https://share.google/njnmmglKCpu8nX7jn
Instagram: https://share.google/PvAJe1qGxIKhYSVZ7
Facebook: https://share.google/OcbFlCHb3fSntAVhX
TikTok: https://share.google/ikD2YSj8qEMv3ROY2
Spotify: https://share.google/ooaz1mIUqHoM9CW9z
YouTube: https://share.google/7xkaESL50rsQx93Qr
SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION:
Contact Byron Duffin
musicalmilespodcast@gmail.com
208-690-1426
SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS: Click the links for more info
Our Guitar Sponsor Klos Guitars ~ www.klosguitar.com
ROPER ~ Wear The West For Discounts on Boots, Shoes and Western Apparel ClICK THE LINK: https://eroper.com/?ref=BYRONDUFFIN
TIN HAUL ~ 30% DISCOUNTS For our Musical Miles Podcast followers Click the link to shop. https://tinhaul.com/?ref=BYRONDUFFIN
FOR PODCAST EPISODE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:
Contact Byron Duffin 208-690-1426
musicalmilespodcast@gmail.com
Musical Miles Podcast welcomes all interested in being a guest on our show. Artists, Songwriters, Festivals, Concerts, Venues, Fans - Contact us to request an interview to promote your Band, new single, album, song, historical or new venue or to share your story with us and our fans. We only conduct in person interviews, so check with us to see where we are headed to next.
TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST DONATE HERE: https://patreon.com/MusicalMilesPodcast
All right. Hey music lovers, welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin, and we are here at Slowburn Records in Whitefish, Montana, with Tamara. Welcome. Pull that microphone in a little bit closer. So we we got microphones for microphones in our microphones. So we we uh we've had some faux paws, so it's always nice to have backup. Make sure make sure because you're in the recording industry, you know if you you don't want to get all done and they go, we didn't have we have no vocals on that.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. That's happened a couple times.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So but uh so Tamara is originally from Wyoming.
SPEAKER_02Where Pine, Wyoming.
SPEAKER_00Oh, are you a Pine Dale girl?
SPEAKER_02Pine Dale girl.
SPEAKER_00You're kidding me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Bob's Western story. Is that Bob Bing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I know Bob. You know the Bings really well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know Bob.
SPEAKER_02Grew up with them.
SPEAKER_00So did you know his boy Jay?
SPEAKER_02I did know Jay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's a sad story, but it's but they've really turned things, made a positive spin out of that.
SPEAKER_02Jay was the first man who ever flipped me upside down on a dance floor.
SPEAKER_00No kidding.
SPEAKER_02At the cowboy bar.
SPEAKER_00At the cowboy bar in Pine Creek.
SPEAKER_02I've never been flipped upside down, and he did it.
SPEAKER_00Has it happened since?
SPEAKER_02It has happened since, but Jay was the first.
SPEAKER_00Jay was the first. Well, that's a cool story.
SPEAKER_02That is funny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Bob's I spent 13 years in the cowboy rope business. So they Bob was a customer of mine. So I used to deliver ropes because we live just South Idaho Falls.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So we we would go up there and uh and take ropes to see Bob and bits and spurs and stuff. So it's a small world. And then a very, very good friend of ours uh uh lives there, um uh Tibbets, Wade Tibbetts. I don't know if you know Wade. Uh he's from Blackfoot, Idaho, but but he runs a bunch of yearlings there and stuff on some. I think he leases some ranches there. But so how long you've been here?
SPEAKER_02So I grew up uh spending my winters in Wyoming and my summers up here. So Poulson, Montana.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02So uh I'm down on Southhead, the south end of Flathead.
SPEAKER_00Flathead, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um have this cherry farm that my great-grandpa started and now I run it.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So are you here full time now?
SPEAKER_02You don't go back to Pinedale much, or I was just in Pinedale uh last month visiting. Uh my sister, my nephews, and my niece are all down there. Um, so I go back to visit them, but I spend a lot of time here in the summer and then winter I get out of here and go to Nashville.
SPEAKER_00Cool, cool, cool. Well, let's talk about your music career because that's why we're here. We're here in Whitefish at the Songwriter Festival. We met here last year, yeah, but ran out of time and didn't get a chance to sit down then. Um and uh um we we uh we did get to we got to sit and listen to you play with Riley last year at the Great Northern. And and uh we actually did interview Riley and the audio was so bad I've never posted it. So I tried to do a redo with her and I never did hear back from her. So but anyway, we'll get we'll get together with Riley again. So but we because we've only we've we started this podcast a little over a year ago, and your number 188th interview in 14 months.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. So that's 188.
SPEAKER_00188. That's a pretty good number. So, well, let's talk about your musical bug. When did you get bit by the music bug?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, I I I think I was born with it.
SPEAKER_00Were you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I started playing uh in Pinedale at a local bar um when I was 12, but I'd always known I wanted to do music.
SPEAKER_00Wyoming and Montana are funny about letting 12-year-olds play in their bars.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they are. The the rules don't exist there.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm sure they don't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um it was every Tuesday night I started playing at The Rock Rabbit. Um, the owner, Dan Abernathy. Um he went on tour with The Grateful Dead and Wow. They all came through Pinedale and spent a lot of time riding there. And uh had a little ranch out in the Upper Green River Valley, and um yeah, it's kind of a very musical space that Dan created, and uh um I started doing an open mic there every Tuesday, and uh he ended up having me just play every Tuesday night after that, and it's kind of where it all started, like and then yeah, um then it all went on from there, the whole story. But the whole story, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I should so when did you did you start writing music right away when you were twelve or no, you know that wait a while.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was just trying to get into uh like I was playing a lot of covers from artists that influenced me when I first started playing. Um I didn't really know much about songwriting um until I was I I was a couple years in, I was fifteen, and um I got asked to go out to LA and do the show The Voice.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you did?
SPEAKER_02Yep. And I met this guy out there, um, Jeff Blue. He discovered a few rock bands. Um one of them being Lincoln Park. Wow. Um yeah, a singer by the name of Macy Gray. Um and yeah, I started working with Jeff and um he said, you know, I'd really love to write some songs with you. Let's let's get your own songs out in the world. And so he was the first person I wrote in uh.
SPEAKER_00So what year was that that you went on the voice?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, it was season three. So it's like way back in the day.
SPEAKER_00Uh 2000 Who won it that year, do you remember?
SPEAKER_02I think it was Cassid uh not it was a Cassidy Pope, is that right? I'm trying to I I couldn't tell you.
SPEAKER_00And and and uh how how did it how did it go for you?
SPEAKER_02Um it was an interesting experience. Um TV is interesting because it's a whole lot of other things outside of your actual talent in music.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Um I had went through several like audition rounds and I stayed out in LA for like three months um going through the different rounds before even being televised. And um yeah, I got to the the first televised round and I was all mic'd up backstage like this, getting ready to go out and sing. I think the song was uh it was Amy Winehouse Rehab, is what they had asked me to sing. And um I was ready to go and I heard the crowd cheering for the girl who had was right in front of me, and all the producers came back. They're like, We're gonna take a quick break. And they uh brought me back and they said, you know, all the teams are full. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00You're too bad.
SPEAKER_02And she had the girl, her name was Paulina, she had filled the last spot on all the teams, and so they're like, Well, you have a promised spot next season, like we'll get you back on. We're so sorry this happens, but it happened to myself and like 14 other people waiting to audition. Oh but yeah, I ended up not going back. I personally I didn't really enjoy the experience just because, like I said, it's I've heard this story twice today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Mayley told us the same story, right? Yeah, only that was hers was with uh American Idol.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Well, yeah, I'm sure it's there's a lot of similar things in it all.
SPEAKER_00And we've interviewed several artists that have that were on The Voice and and American Idol and um uh well well yeah uh Sundance Head, do you know Sundance? He won The Voice in 2016. But he said, after what you learned from American Idol. American Idol. He was on American Idol in 2006. What he needed to do and what they wanted out of him from American Idol.
SPEAKER_02It's so interesting. Like it's a whole different world behind the screen.
SPEAKER_00Well, and and a lot of it is it's all about television, right? And viewership, and and a lot of those, unless you have a really sad story, yeah, you're not gonna get very far. No, you know, they want to hear about grandma getting cancer and dying. You know, I mean it's sad, and those are true stories. I mean, that happened to those people, but but uh but the the the challenge with uh and this is what you know Sunnet shared with us was that uh with the voice, there's little to no support after the fact.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Um with the American Idol's a little different. There is some, you know, and they do and they do a tour, they do a top ten tour, I think, but and he got to tour with Blake Shelton, but there's no there's no big support.
SPEAKER_02I know. Yeah. So and you know, I really I'm so grateful for the experience and to be like 15, 16 years old doing it, it was really awesome for me to like get my feet wet early, and um I ended up staying in LA after that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you did?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and pursuing music for how long? I was there for 10 years. Really? Back and forth between there and Montana. So Wow. Yeah. Um it was a crazy experience. Uh I had to get out of there. I I mean I met a lot of wonderful people. They people like to talk bad about LA and whatnot, but I did meet some amazing humans. Um the city just wasn't for me.
SPEAKER_00So well, 10 years, you're pretty tough though. Spent 10 years there. It was you guys that uh ranchy background from Pinedale helped.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh yeah, it kept me right, yeah. It kept my head on straight. I'd come back every other month, visit my family, and like, you know, they would kind of see when I was getting a little too far out there and having too much fun or whatever. Right. They would reel me back in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's I'm really blessed. I have an amazing family who did that.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So so you talked about earlier that you know at 12 who really s gave you who really influenced you to talk about some of those artists that really had the impact on you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say like the first artist I started listening to, I was the only radio station in Pinedale was KPIN radio with Bob Rule. And um, he played all the oldies, so it was all like Johnny Cash, Mel Haggard, um, I mean Etta James, like Aretha. Um yeah, so a lot of soul and a lot of country, uh, a lot of blues. Um, but everything I grew up on was so much beyond my years. But I I really enjoyed that music. Um, and then my sister, she's uh she probably knows more about music than I do, honestly. But um unfortunately she doesn't really have a singing bone in her body, but uh she does love music, but she put me on to so many different artists too, and um Janice Joplin and Bobby Gentry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I I those are those are definitely old school. You I mean you weren't you weren't listening to a lot of modern stuff, right? So it was all old school stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and uh we didn't have my mom wasn't paying for serious XM or whatever for us to listen to. So we were listening to Bob Rule and that was it, and yeah.
SPEAKER_00What um uh oh gosh, I just lost my mind there for a second. Um well, so so is anyone else in the family musical? Is your mom musical?
SPEAKER_02She's not. Nobody in my family um is musical, which is kind of I wish they were, but um they've been very supportive of me pursuing everything. Um my grandma will actually beg to differ. She she says that I got all my singing skills from her.
SPEAKER_00From her. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_02And she'll still say that. Yeah, she's the queen of karaoke, so oh she is. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay. I can't imagine seeing any of my grandparents in a bar saying karaoke. My grandma's wild. Oh, well, there's now, now uh Miss Shannon talked me into singing karaoke one time in Key West, and it'll never happen.
SPEAKER_02Oh, come on. You know, karaoke's a big thing around here.
SPEAKER_00Really? Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, VFW Friday nights is the karaoke capital, huh? White.
SPEAKER_02We might have to drag you out.
SPEAKER_00Well, I live in Idaho, so you know, so we live ten miles south of Idaho Falls. Yeah. So um, yeah, there's a little karaoke goes on down there, but I know too many people, so I probably I did she did talk me in. No, I someone other some other guys talked me into singing karaoke in Salt Lake one night. We sing uh Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I like that.
SPEAKER_00That's a great song.
SPEAKER_01These two brothers came to this bar to sing. And they invited me.
SPEAKER_00And they talked me into singing with them. And we rocked the house. They did. They did the house. But but but Miss Shanda try had me sing uh um Tina Turner. We were we were in QS and she had me sing with her and thank god nobody knew me there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, no, sir.
SPEAKER_00And we did it. I think that's why I'm on America's Most Wanted now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I love little Tina.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, but uh well so but nobody was when did you learn to play the guitar? I mean, where did that come from?
SPEAKER_02Um honestly I I'm not gonna rave about my guitar skills because I've seen you play though.
SPEAKER_00I saw you play.
SPEAKER_02I play just enough to get by and to write, but um I've always I actually had a band. I uh I was I was just singing and I was writing and um but the musicians I had around me were so wonderful and even till this day I my the band that I play with like they rock. And so I let them shine where they need to shine.
SPEAKER_00And you know those six cowboy chords, right?
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, G D E A minus.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, my goal this winter is to kind of take it down a notch from the performances and fine-tune.
SPEAKER_00But you know, not everybody has to has to play the guitar. You know, Marla Cannon Goodman does not play the guitar. Yeah, she has somebody follow her around and play for her so she can sing.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like my style.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So, because you know, we normally have you play us a song and I can play you a song. Okay, well, you're gonna get to do that. Here at the end of this conversation, but uh no, we appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. What uh so um uh have you cut some full albums?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I have. Um I actually quit doing music for a good amount of time. I was kind of discouraged by the industry out in LA, and uh when I decided to leave LA, I also decided to re-pursue my music career, and I released um a five-song EP to kind of get myself back into um this world, and it was uh yeah, it was all me. Like just from my heart and like really the music industry and all that, what I'd experienced, and then I continued on. I released another album the following year. Um, and I'm currently working on my next one.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's um being recorded in Nashville at Saxman Studios and um yeah.
SPEAKER_00What's the schedule on that? What's how's it how's it coming and when will you start to release the music?
SPEAKER_02We just recorded our first three songs three months ago. Okay. Um around here. I was busy every night playing live this summer, so I took the time to do that. But I'll be back out um next month for another three songs. We're kind of taking it three at a time so I can be back and forth to the farm and whatnot. But um the goal is to have it ready to go by next spring. So yeah. Um it's really awesome to work with the people I have then.
SPEAKER_00So what genre would you is your is this is this a country, a country album or is it it's more of like blues soul rock.
SPEAKER_02Um obviously a little country because I've always been inspired by that, but um, I'd say it's a little more soulful and bluesy than my former country songs that I've written, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, here's a question for you that I've asked lots of people, but so if you could work with anyone in the music industry, dead or alive, hard to work with the dead ones, but uh um who who would you like to work with?
SPEAKER_02Just one person.
SPEAKER_00Well, I know you want to work with everybody, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Alright, well, I'll say I'll I'll pick a dead one, how I'll be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00Okay, no, then you'll pick a live one. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, oh man. I'm gonna say Aretha Franklin for um I just think that she's well they call her the Queen of Soul, and um I'm I could listen to her all day every day, and she was so talented. Um alive, I would have to say um I'm super into have you guys heard of Marcus King?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Yeah, Marcus King is the bomb.
SPEAKER_02I think he is uh one of the best musicians. His voice is like you just don't expect it out of this man, but I mean Yeah, not what you'd expect out of Marcus King.
SPEAKER_00You look at him, right?
SPEAKER_02You're like Yeah, oh man, he I think is one of the best of this time.
SPEAKER_00He's got a smoking hot wife, too. He sure does.
SPEAKER_02I'm like must be doing something right. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, he's a hell of a guitar player. Yeah, you know, that old that old story about you know when you're when they when you're young and they tell you, you know, girls like guys that can play guitars, that's living proof right there.
SPEAKER_02Ain't that the truth? Yeah, yeah. It's so funny how things come back around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02All the nerds in school gotta watch out for them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, so um, well, you're a busy girl, you're farming. You got so how many acres of cherries are you raising?
SPEAKER_0257. Well, not of just cherries. So I grow alfalfa um apples, uh, plums, pears.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a whole production, but I have about three acres worth of cherries. Um I'm coming back next summer. Yeah, you better. Well, listen to pick. We put you all to work. So as you can see. Well, I'm telling you, we don't we don't we make you work for your cherries.
SPEAKER_00We've made some we we have literally made trips up here just for the cherries.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm telling you, now you know how to come. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm I I want to actually uh next summer host uh every Sunday. It's called Pickin' and Pickin'.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I like it.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'll bring down a musician from locally or not locally. I have a lot of writer friends in Nashville. Um, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, you'll have to let us know when that happens. So we'll come pick some cherries and do a podcast episode from the farm.
SPEAKER_02Down in the orchard.
SPEAKER_00Oh, absolutely. Okay. I like it a lot. Yeah. That'd be so funny. Yeah, it'll be fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02That'd be awesome.
SPEAKER_00Well, tomorrow, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02Finally, I get to talk to you guys.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm not all that fun to talk to you, but uh um, yeah, thanks for sharing. What are you gonna plan? So you gotta plant something.
SPEAKER_02I will play you something. Um, I'm gonna play you a song that's gonna be on this next album.
SPEAKER_00Perfect.
SPEAKER_02Um, and since I'm telling you all about my farm, it's my grandma and grandpa story. Oh, cool. If you don't mind me sharing this, no, we would love to hear it.
SPEAKER_00You know what's so do you need a capo? There's a capo and there's a pick there.
SPEAKER_02Well, I could use a little pick.
SPEAKER_00There's a pick right there.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Oh, you guys are all set up and ready. Are we sure?
SPEAKER_00Uh you might check it. You're you're okay.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00I'm impressed. You've got nails and can play the guitar.
SPEAKER_02I told you, I'd rather have my nails than play a guitar.
SPEAKER_01Well, grandma is a legend in my hometown with no limit to the speed hit it heaven by cash over credit is how it get paid. Always talking out of a damn thing, the something, the song that can't be saved. Working for the man's time, how we roll is the seed or croppin', how we grow and turn upin' There to go. There's something that can't be so that's something that can't be so I got my F15, my green machine singin' and it's curious to Johnny Catch a time, giving a neighbor a hand. Grandpa pickin' them cherries and fifty five years and being married. Grandma holdin' her home calling crown Live the legends of my own town over at the karaoke bar, you know. Grandpa's riding that stick with his red bone hound. General Sherman with the windows down and not a penny Left on the ground. The deep work don't seem like a thing When you got your legs and them Wrangler jeans designer Don't mean a dying thing I got my F150, my great machine singing Linch skin with some Johnny Cash just tapping, giving a neighbor hand. But grandpa they're picking them cherries and fifty-five years of being married and grandma holdin' her home con the legends of my home town Little Legends of my own town. I never leave in my home town. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. That is awesome so much. Put your autograph on there for me. Pick a spot.
SPEAKER_02Wow, look at all of it.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Tamara.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this has been fun. And I will hold you to that. We're gonna come out. Yeah. And to pick and pick it and pickin'. Let's do it. And uh so that's gonna be best times in July. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02All set us up down at the orchard and uh we're on. Anyone else who wants to come?
SPEAKER_00Come on. Come on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we have apples on next week.
SPEAKER_00So oh wow.
SPEAKER_02Just saying.
SPEAKER_00Just saying.
SPEAKER_02I need all the help I can get.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you again.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Hey, I'm gonna hand that to you. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this has been fun. So, hey, for Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin. We will see you somewhere down the road. Adios for now.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00This episode of Musical Miles Podcast is sponsored by Stetson, a true symbol of Western heritage and American craftsmanship. For generations, Stetson has stood for quality, style, and authenticity. Stetson built for those who live the music and the lifestyle.