Don Redfield KMON Great Falls, MT

About The Artist Don Redfield was a native of Boston, Massachusetts. Don travelled a bit in his career, going from Massachusetts to Alaska at one time. He started it early on, too, learning to play the violin when he was just eight years old and taking classical violin lessons for four years. Later on, when the family moved to Montana, he traded two rabbits and six phonograph records for his first guitar and learned to play that, too. When he was in high school, seemingly in Montana, he organized a western band that he admitted wasn't too hot; this band was called the "Tune Timers". When he was in Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana he was part of a vocal trio that was known as the "Three Bears". The trio went over well and were in demand for personal appearances in the Billings area. They wrote that in the winter of 1952, he carried two half-hour broadcasts from the Amvets in Billings and had two fifteen-minute shows a week over radio station KOOK. He left that group when he joined radio station KMON as a staff announcer in Great Falls, Montana. It was then he became part of a band called the Sagedusters that played western music. He also kept busy teaching guitar. Later on, from 1953 until September 1954, he was at KIYI in Shelby, Montana. At that time he was inducted into the armed forces. But that didn't stop his career in music. He started up another Sagedusters band at Fort Greely, Alaska. And while he was at it, was doing five half-hour radio shows on AFRS. Even television got his time for he had several shows over KFAR out of Fairbanks, Alaska. While in the service, he put out his first record on the Sogi label, a tune called Montana Waltz that was backed with I Can't Go Back. He was due to get out of the service around 1956 and get back to touring and recording. Credits & Sources Cowboy Songs No.28; September 1953, American Folk Publications, Inc.; Derby, CT. Country & Western Jamboree Magazine; May 1956; Maher Publications, Inc.; 2001 Calumet, Chicago 16, Ill.

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