At 11 a.m. Friday, Craig Winquist, Devon Sants and Johnny Hastings will start the Queen City Songwriters Invitational at Spearfish Creek Wine Bar. An hour later, the next group moves to False Bottom Bar. At 1 p.m., another three writers sit down at Spearfish Public House.

That rotation continues through 5 p.m., and then starts again Saturday.

The third annual Queen City Songwriters Invitational, running September 25 and 26 in downtown Spearfish, is built around a simple format: three writers, one hour and one room at a time. Every daytime round is free, and because none of them overlap, someone who wants to hear the entire schedule can follow it from venue to venue.

That part is intentional.

“Last year we spread across more rooms,” Queen City Songwriters co-founder Heath Johnson said. “This year the daytime rounds rotate one venue at a time across three downtown spots. You can follow the whole day without picking a room against another room in the same hour.”

The three participating venues are Spearfish Creek Wine Bar, False Bottom Bar and Spearfish Public House.

Johnson said the change is part of what QCSI has learned since launching the Invitational in 2024.

“Year one was big and a little scattered,” he said. “Now it’s tighter: curated rounds where people actually listen, a free Friday night where every invited writer gets the Matthews stage, and a headliner who fits that same listening-room idea.”

Friday: Six Rounds, Then Everybody Meets at The Matthews

Friday’s daytime schedule begins at 11 a.m. and runs through the 4 p.m. round.

Friday, September 25

• 11:00 AM — Spearfish Creek Wine Bar
  Craig Winquist • Devon Sants • Johnny Hastings
• 12:00 PM — False Bottom Bar
  Daron Lacina • Ian Gall • Lacy Hotchkiss
• 1:00 PM — Spearfish Public House
  Jackson Holte • Laura Mills • Quinlan Valdez
• 2:00 PM — Spearfish Creek Wine Bar
  Brad McKim • Cody Neeb • Wayne P. Baye
• 3:00 PM — False Bottom Bar
  Abbey Leach • Clint Hahn • Sarah Carper
• 4:00 PM — Spearfish Public House
  Chris Graves • Janice Gilbert • Lawren Erickson

At 7:30 p.m., the Invitational moves to The Matthews Opera House for the free Songwriters Showcase.

Instead of dividing the writers into small rounds, Friday night puts the invited roster together on the same stage.

“The rounds are intimate and scattered, and Friday night is the opposite on purpose,” Johnson said. “One room, every invited writer, playing with each other in a laid-back atmosphere.”

For Johnson, it also gives listeners another chance to hear someone they may have missed during the afternoon.

The Friday showcase is free, though advance RSVP is recommended.

What QCSI Looks for in a Songwriter

The Invitational is curated rather than competitive.

Johnson said original songs come first, but choosing the roster is also about how someone participates in a round with other writers.

“I’m looking for original songs with a real story in them, and for writers who will show up for each other in a round,” he said. “Skill matters, but so does whether they’ll make the room better for the other two people on the bill.”

That fits the broader problem Queen City Songwriters was created to address.

For Johnson, one of the biggest obstacles facing people who write original music in this region isn’t a shortage of musicians.

It’s a shortage of places designed for people to actually listen.

“Most of the time you’re background in a busy bar, three songs deep in a long night, with no context for the story behind the song,” he said. “Writers work alone a lot. What’s scarce isn’t talent. It’s places built to listen, and a community around the craft.”

Paying the participating artists was also a goal from the beginning. Johnson said community support has allowed QCSI to fully reach that goal this year, sooner than organizers expected.

“We thought it would take five years and we got there in three,” he said.

Saturday: Another Day of Rounds

Saturday reshuffles the writers into six new groups.

Saturday, September 26

• 11:00 AM — Spearfish Public House
  Clint Hahn • Daron Lacina • Wayne P. Baye
• 12:00 PM — False Bottom Bar
  Jackson Holte • Janice Gilbert • Johnny Hastings
• 1:00 PM — Spearfish Creek Wine Bar
  Chris Graves • Ian Gall • Quinlan Valdez
• 2:00 PM — Spearfish Public House
  Abbey Leach • Brad McKim • Devon Sants
• 3:00 PM — False Bottom Bar
  Cody Neeb • Craig Winquist • Laura Mills
• 4:00 PM — Spearfish Creek Wine Bar
  Lacy Hotchkiss • Lawren Erickson • Sarah Carper

Johnson had originally appeared in some early versions of the schedule but stepped out of performing this year.
Johnny Hastings is the confirmed replacement for the Friday 11 a.m. and Saturday noon rounds.

The Queen City Songwriters Invitational

See Full Schedule

Jeffrey Foucault Closes the Weekend

Saturday night shifts to a single featured performance at The Matthews with Jeffrey Foucault.

Foucault has spent more than two decades writing and recording folk and Americana music, and arrives in Spearfish in the middle of a current run through the region. His latest work includes the 2026 release The Universal Fire: Solo Acoustic Recordings, a stripped-down companion to his 2024 album The Universal Fire.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with doors opening at 7. Tickets are $25.

Know before you Go:

The daytime songwriter rounds on both Friday and Saturday are free, and because only one round happens at a time, you don’t have to pick between competing performances. The three daytime venues are all in downtown Spearfish, making it possible to follow the schedule from room to room.

Friday night’s Songwriters Showcase is free, with advance RSVP recommended.

Saturday night’s Jeffrey Foucault concert is ticketed at $25.

More information, Friday RSVPs and Saturday tickets are available through qcsongwriters.com.

Four Theaters Take GOAT Across the Northern Hills

On Thursday night, four community theater groups will bring four separate one-act plays to the Belle Fourche Rec Center Auditorium. On Friday, the same program moves to Lead. Saturday is Sturgis, followed by a Sunday afternoon performance in Spearfish.

The 5th Annual Getting Our Acts Together: A Night of Northern Hills One-Acts, commonly called GOAT, runs September 17–20 with productions from Belle Fourche Area Community Theater, Historic Homestake Opera House, Sturgis Community Theater and the Matthews Opera House. Each organization prepares its own one-act, and audiences at all four stops see the complete four-play program.

GOAT began in 2022 after an earlier plan for the collaboration was delayed during the COVID years. The first production included Belle Fourche Area Community Theater, the Matthews Opera House and Historic Homestake Opera House. Each theater prepared a one-act and hosted the complete program in its own community.

That first year included performances in Lead, Spearfish and Belle Fourche. BFACT’s contribution was Endings Are Hard, written by Derek Olson and Toi Lyn Flick. Belle Fourche Area Community Theater later reported selling 73 tickets for its local GOAT performance and described the collaboration as something it wanted to continue annually.

The event returned in 2023 with the same three communities. Sturgis Community Theater joined for the third annual production in 2024, expanding GOAT to four participating theater groups and four host communities. Historic Homestake Opera House records show the fourth annual event took place in 2025.

Four one-acts for 2026

This year’s program includes four different plays, each presented by one of the participating theater organizations.

• Belle Fourche Area Community Theater — Good Neighbors
  Thursday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. — Belle Fourche Rec Center Auditorium
• Historic Homestake Opera House — Sure Thing by David Ives
  Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. — Historic Homestake Opera House, Lead
• Sturgis Community Theater — Charlie to the Checkout Please by Robert Scott
  Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. — Sturgis Community Center Theater
• The Matthews Opera House — Ladies of the Mop by Harris Aurand
  Sunday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. — Matthews Opera House, Spearfish

Rather than combining actors into a single production, the GOAT format keeps the four one-acts separate. Each participating community prepares its own piece, then the complete program is performed at every stop. That gives each cast four performances on four Northern Hills stages over the course of the run.

Getting Our Acts Together

Multiple Times: Sep 17 to Sep 20

Thu 7:00 pm • Fri 7:00 pm • Sat 7:00 pm • Sun 2:00 pm

Multiple venues

The fifth annual Getting Our Acts Together brings four Northern Hills theatre companies together for one evening of one-act plays. The program…

Four days, four communities

Belle Fourche Area Community Theater — Good Neighbors
Thursday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. — Belle Fourche Rec Center Auditorium

Historic Homestake Opera House — Sure Thing by David Ives
Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. — Historic Homestake Opera House, Lead

Sturgis Community Theater — Charlie to the Checkout Please by Robert Scott
Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. — Sturgis Community Center Theater

The Matthews Opera House — Ladies of the Mop by Harris Aurand
Sunday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. — Matthews Opera House, Spearfish

Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students. Historic Homestake Opera House lists those prices for its September 18 performance, and participating organizations are handling admission for their respective stops.

Giant Pumpkins Take Over Downtown Rapid City

The Great Downtown Pumpkin Festival returns Saturday with giant pumpkins, flying pumpkins, vendors and plenty of fall weirdness.

By Saturday morning, some very large pumpkins will be making their way into downtown Rapid City. A few hours later, other pumpkins will be flying across Memorial Park.

The Great Downtown Pumpkin Festival returns Saturday, Sept. 19, spreading from Main Street Square down Sixth Street and into Memorial Park for six hours of giant pumpkins, food trucks, vendors and one of the stranger engineering competitions you will find at a fall festival.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free to attend, with some children’s activities available for an additional charge.

One of the first stops of the day is the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Main Street Square. This is considerably more serious than bringing the biggest pumpkin from the backyard.

Rapid City is an official Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weigh-off site, putting the competition on a circuit that includes giant-pumpkin growers from around the country and beyond. Last year’s Rapid City winner, grown by Kevin Marsh of Parker, South Dakota, weighed 1,688 pounds. Several other entries cleared the 1,000-pound mark.

The weighing begins when the festival opens at 10 a.m., with winners scheduled to be announced at noon.

A few blocks away, pumpkins will be subjected to a very different fate.

Pumpkin Chunkin’ returns to Memorial Park with trebuchets built by South Dakota Mines students sending pumpkins through the air. The student-built machines have become one of the festival’s signature attractions, combining a little engineering with the basic satisfaction of watching a pumpkin get launched across a park.

Three rounds are scheduled Saturday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Between the giant pumpkins and flying pumpkins, the festival stretches across much of downtown. More than 100 vendors are expected, along with local food trucks and a Kid Zone in Memorial Park. Touch-A-Truck will take over the City Hall parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., giving kids a chance to get close to some of the vehicles they usually only see driving past.

Pumpkin painting, jumping castles and the festival’s 4 Buck Chuck are also available. Individual activities have separate fees, or families can purchase a Kid Zone pass covering several of them.

Decorated pumpkins will also be on display at Main Street Square, with public voting open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Great Downtown Pumpkin Festival dates back to 2009, making it older than Main Street Square itself. Over the years, the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off and Pumpkin Chunkin’ have remained two of its signature attractions as the festival expanded farther through downtown and into Memorial Park.

If you’re trying to plan your Saturday around the big events, here’s the current schedule:

Saturday Schedule

10 a.m.
Festival opens, vendors begin, Kid Zone opens and Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off begins

10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Decorated pumpkin public voting at Main Street Square

10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Touch-A-Truck at the City Hall parking lot

10:15 a.m.
Drumline procession from Main Street Square to Memorial Park

11 a.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Round 1 at Memorial Park

Noon
Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off winners announced at Main Street Square

1 p.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Round 2 at Memorial Park

3 p.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Final Round at Memorial Park

4 p.m.
Festival ends

That leaves plenty of time to watch someone weigh a pumpkin larger than a motorcycle, walk a few blocks to see another pumpkin launched through the air, grab lunch from a food truck and wander through the vendors before the final Pumpkin Chunkin’ round.

Great Downtown Pumpkin Fest.

Sat, Sep 19 • 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

@ Downtown Rapid City in Rapid City

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Saturday Schedule

10 a.m.
Festival opens, vendors begin, Kid Zone opens and Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off begins

10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Decorated pumpkin public voting at Main Street Square

10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Touch-A-Truck at the City Hall parking lot

10:15 a.m.
Drumline procession from Main Street Square to Memorial Park

11 a.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Round 1 at Memorial Park

Noon
Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off winners announced at Main Street Square

1 p.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Round 2 at Memorial Park

3 p.m.
Pumpkin Chunkin’ — Final Round at Memorial Park

4 p.m.
Festival ends

Know Before You Go

When: Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Where: The festival stretches from Main Street Square to Memorial Park, with activities spread between Main Street, City Hall and the park. Expect to do some walking.

Admission: The festival itself is free. Some Kid Zone activities cost extra: jumping castles are $12, 4 Buck Chuck is $4 and pumpkin painting is $5. A $15 KidZone Pass includes all three.

Parking: The downtown parking ramp next to Main Street Square has more than 500 spaces. The first level and downtown street parking are metered on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Pets: Main Street Square asks visitors to leave pets at home. Service animals are welcome.

Best times to catch the big events: Pumpkin Chunkin’ happens at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off begins at 10 a.m., with winners announced at noon.

One thing to remember: The official schedule is subject to change.

BHCT Opens Discovery Series with Rhinoceros

The one-night reading brings Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist classic to Rapid City Saturday.

The Saturday night in Black Hills Community Theatre’s Studio Theater, a dozen local actors will take on a town where people are turning into rhinoceroses.

It sounds ridiculous. It is supposed to.

BHCT opens its 2026–27 Discovery Series on Sept. 12 with Rhinoceros, Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 play about Bérenger, a man who watches as his friends and neighbors transform one by one into rhinoceroses. As the town’s social order disappears beneath them, Bérenger is left trying to decide whether he can hold onto his own humanity.

The play is funny, strange and increasingly unsettling, which makes it a natural fit for the Discovery Series.

Along with five mainstage productions and its education programs, BHCT presents a series of one-night-only play readings each season. The series gives the theater room to work with pieces chosen for their history, relevance, connections to other fields or unusual approach to making theater.

That can mean foundational classics one month and newer or less conventional work another. Unlike a fully staged mainstage production, the focus here is on the play itself and the ideas inside it.

For director Merlyn Q. Sell, Rhinoceros brings plenty to work with.

“Eugene Ionesco was a pioneering playwright of The Theatre of the Absurd, a style that flourished after World War II and examined the often pointless and futile aspects of modern life,” Sell said.

Ionesco wrote Rhinoceros in 1959, drawing in part from his experiences growing up in Romania during the 1930s.

“Rhinoceros was heavily influenced by Ionesco’s youth in 1930s Romania where it seemed everyone was being drawn into the Nazi-affiliated Iron Guard,” Sell explained. “Ionesco used this experience of watching his own friends and mentors embrace this irrational and reactionary ideology as the basis of Rhinoceros, the story of a man who is by turns confused and horrified as those he loves and respects change into monsters.”

That history sits underneath a play that can still get a room laughing.

“On the surface the play is a delightfully ridiculous comedy, but it’s something else too,” Sell said. “It’s a timeless warning of how our very human desire to belong, to be a part of a community, can lead to inhumanity.”

For one night, BHCT will put that tension in the hands of a local cast featuring T.J. Wichmann, Dave DeChristopher, Sara Bowman, David Andrews, Ryan Puffer, Duane Neugebauer, Heidi Dehn, Connie Hubbard, Richard Wahlstrom, Lorie Chastain, Jonah Vasquez and Abby Simmons.

There are no rhinoceroses charging through a full mainstage set. This is a Discovery Series reading, built around actors, a script and an audience willing to follow a very strange town to its logical conclusion.

Rhinoceros

Sep 12 • 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Performing Arts Center of Rapid City – Studio Theater in Rapid City

BHCT presents a staged reading of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, translated by Derek Prouse, as part of its 2026-2027 Discovery Series. By turns…

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Know Before You Go

What: BHCT Discovery Series: Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, translated by Derek Prouse
When: Saturday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.
Where: Studio Theater, Performing Arts Center of Rapid City
Admission: Pay What You Want donation at the door

The Discovery Series is sponsored by Michael D. and Melissa Moore. Rhinoceros is additionally sponsored by Duane and Margie Neugebauer.

Three days of roasting chiles, live music and gathering in the gardens.

Come for the food and music. Stay for the smells.

At Jolly Lane’s Chile Pepper Festival, the smell of roasting green chiles fills the greenhouse and gardens. It’s my favorite smell in the world. One breath and I’m back in New Mexico when I was young.

Roasting chiles are part of how I remember that place, as familiar as the food itself. Getting to smell them here in the Black Hills is something I look forward to all year. I suspect other people with ties to the Southwest know exactly what I mean, though I’m fairly certain you don’t need a single New Mexico memory to appreciate what’s coming off those roasters.

This is my favorite event of the year, and the chiles get a substantial share of the credit, but Jolly Lane gives you plenty of reasons to settle in while another batch roasts. They clear out the back greenhouse, the one with the beautiful wooden bar, and open it to the gardens. Food trucks park outside, tables fill with people eating, musicians play inside, and children’s laughter carries over from the play area.

Jolly Lane Greenhouse hosts its 21st annual Chile Pepper Festival September 11–13 in Rapid Valley, with three days of pepper roasting, a produce market, food vendors and live music.

Jolly Lane is owned and operated by the Sime family, whose greenhouse business began with Dean and Norma Sime and grew to include their children. The festival began in 2006 after their son Tim developed an interest in chile roasting during a visit to Colorado. Connections with growers in New Mexico helped bring that experience to the Black Hills.

The musicians get a corner of the greenhouse, and anyone sitting out in the gardens gets to listen. It’s a good setup for catching someone you already love or hearing a local musician for the first time over a smothered burrito or green chili burger. Eight sets fill the weekend, with James Van Nuys, The Nervous Turtles, Chris Mangione’s Bottle of Blues Band and others giving us plenty of reasons to stick around for another song.

Live Music

Start times subject to change.

This year’s food roster includes The Green Chili Shack, Mai’s Thai Café, Fork Real Café, Wingnut BBQ and Yoyo Hibachi, among others. Chill Your Roll Ice Cream and Kona Ice are also on the list, and Jolly Lane is advertising chile beer at the Garden Bar.

My advice is to leave yourself enough time to take it all in. Listen to the music, wander the gardens, stop and admire the flowers. Find a seat with a plate of food and breathe in the smell of roasting green chiles. I know that’s what I am going to do, anyway.

21st Annual Chile Pepper Festival

Multiple Times: Sep 11 to Sep 13

Fri 8:00 am • Sat 8:00 am • Sun 11:00 am

Jolly Lane Greenhouse in Rapid City

Experience the taste of autumn at Jolly Lane Greenhouse's 21st Annual Chile Pepper Festival. Shop fresh produce and canned goods, watch chile…

Know Before You Go

Where: Jolly Lane Greenhouse, 2962 Jolly Lane, Rapid City.

When: Friday, September 11, 8 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday, September 12, 8 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday, September 13, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Official festival poster

Pepper preorders: Call 605-393-1700. Peppers are available by the pound or bushel.

Pets: Jolly Lane asks visitors to leave pets at home because of the festival crowds.

Updates: Check Jolly Lane’s festival page for current information.

The Grammy-nominated trio closes Deadwood’s inaugural Double Shot Concert Series with its biggest songs and a newly released album.

Deadwood’s first Double Shot Concert Series will take its second and final shot Saturday night when Midland steps onto the Sue Lundberg Memorial Stage at Outlaw Square.

The Grammy-nominated Texas trio performs September 5 as part of Labor Day weekend in Deadwood. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the concert begins at 7 p.m.

The new two-concert series opened in May with Mark Chesnutt, a singer closely associated with the traditional country revival of the 1990s. Midland brings that idea forward by a generation, building contemporary country music around three-part harmonies, steel guitar and the polished honky-tonk sound of the 1970s and ’80s.

Formed in Dripping Springs, Texas, Midland includes lead singer Mark Wystrach, guitarist Jess Carson and bassist Cameron Duddy. The band took its name from “Fair to Midland,” a song recorded by Dwight Yoakam, and developed its sound playing small Texas bars before breaking through nationally with “Drinkin’ Problem.”

That song became a No. 1 hit and has since been certified five-times platinum. Midland’s catalog also includes “Burn Out,” “Cheatin’ Songs,” “Make a Little” and “On the Rocks,” combining songs about drinking, dancing, love and loss with the look and sweep of an earlier country era.

Saturday’s concert also arrives less than three months after Midland released its newest album, Stages.

Released June 12 through Blue Highway Records, the ten-song record finds the trio returning to the neotraditional country instincts behind its earliest music. Its title refers both to the many stages the band has played during more than a decade together and to the changing stages of the musicians’ lives.

Produced by Trent Willmon, Stages includes “Marlboro Man,” a song that helped shape the album’s reflective direction, as well as “Up in Texas” with Clint Black and “I Wish You Would” with Mackenzie Carpenter. The record draws together Texas honky-tonk, vintage Nashville and Laurel Canyon country-rock without abandoning the thick harmonies and steel guitar that made Midland recognizable.

That combination makes the trio an apt choice for a Saturday night in downtown Deadwood. This is country music designed for barrooms and dance floors, but scaled for a large outdoor stage.

The Silverado Franklin Historic Hotel & Gaming Complex presents the concert, with support from Deadwood’s BID districts and Outlaw Square.

Listen before you go:

Midland: Deadwood Double Shot

Sat, Sep 5 • 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

@ Outlaw Square -Deadwood in Deadwood

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Know Before You Go

Midland: Deadwood Double Shot Concert Series
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Doors: 6 p.m.
Music: 7 p.m.
Location: Outlaw Square, 703 Main Street, Deadwood

General admission is open to all ages. Chairs will not be provided or allowed inside the general-admission concert area.

Two VIP options are listed at $199 before taxes and fees. The Silverado Outlaw Deck offers assigned seating, a full-service bar and a smoking-permitted area and is restricted to guests 21 and older. Franklin Veranda VIP tickets provide an elevated view from the historic Franklin Hotel across Main Street.

Abbey Leach & Eliza Blue take the stage at Transcendent Music Showcase

Thursday, September 3rd, Thursday’s free concert will include the first public performance of Leach’s program-supported single, “Smoking Gun.”

Leach will debut “Smoking Gun,” a standalone single created through the Transcendent Musicians program. The song is separate from the 11-song album she will begin releasing in October, with a different recording process and its own artwork.

The Transcendent Musicians Showcase runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3. The concert is presented in partnership with the Rapid City Arts Council and is free and open to the public.

From mentorship to a finished song

Transcendent Musicians is a statewide nonprofit created to increase opportunities and representation for women and trans musicians in South Dakota. Its professional development program offers participants a package that can include career mentorship, a professionally recorded single, photographs and logo design.

The program is designed to meet musicians at an early and often difficult point in their development: they have songs, but may not yet have the recordings, images, industry knowledge or professional connections needed to put those songs in front of an audience.

Leach entered the program with more experience than many of its intended participants. She was already performing regularly, working with a band and recording her own album. The resource she wanted most was access to other women who had already built careers in music.

“I think that I’m kind of an outlier in terms of their program,” Leach said. “I already had a band. I already had been doing some recording. It was really the mentorship that I was looking for.”

One of those mentors was Pierre singer-songwriter Katie Dwyer, who helped Leach work through digital release planning and the administrative side of putting music into the world. That guidance arrived as Leach prepared for her first substantial series of releases, a process she said has required far more behind-the-scenes work than listeners might realize.

The mentorship also pushed her to think more carefully about what she wants from a music career.

“There’s so many different ways to be successful,” Leach said. “You can tour, you can be like a local legend, you can mostly do stuff online. You can do all kinds of things.”

For Leach, that range of possibilities became more useful than a single model she was expected to follow. The question shifted from how a music career is supposed to look to what kind of career fits her music and her life.

Two South Dakota songwriters at the Dahl

Thursday’s showcase places Leach alongside Eliza Blue, a folk musician, writer and rancher from Perkins County. Blue’s work moves among music, essays, radio and television, much of it rooted in the people and landscape of the Northern Plains. She is also the host of the PBS series Wish You Were Here with Eliza Blue, which centers rural artists and culture.

The concert will feature full performances from both artists. “Smoking Gun” gives the evening its release occasion, but it will be heard as part of a larger night of original music rather than as a one-song presentation.

The single was written, sung and produced by Leach and recorded as an analog project. Its linocut artwork and recording approach distinguish it from the album she has been assembling separately with a larger group of Black Hills and Boise collaborators.

Transcendent Musicians Showcase

Sep 3 • 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City

The Transcendent Musicians Showcase features Abbey Leach and her band alongside Eliza Blue. Abbey will showcase her single "Smoking Gun," sponsored by…

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Know Before You Go

What: Transcendent Musicians Showcase featuring Abbey Leach and Eliza Blue
When: Thursday, Sept. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City
Admission: Free and open to the public
Donations: Welcome and benefit the Emerging Performing Artists Program
New release: Abbey Leach will debut “Smoking Gun,” a standalone single created through the Transcendent Musicians program.

Coming in October

“Smoking Gun” is separate from Leach’s forthcoming 11-song album. That project begins its release Oct. 3 with a CD release show at the Custer Beacon, where CDs and full digital downloads will be available. The songs will also be released to streaming platforms one at a time over the following year.

A Full Night of Black Hills Blues

Johnny Hastings & Stillhouse Down, the Brandon Sprague Blues Band and the Chris Mangione Trio bring three different routes into the blues to The Prairie Dog Taproom Friday.

Three guitar-led Black Hills acts will share the stage at The Prairie Dog Taproom on Friday, Aug. 28, bringing traditional blues, Americana, slide guitar, jazz and classical influences together for one evening in Hill City.

Johnny Hastings & Stillhouse Down and the Brandon Sprague Blues Band lead the bill, joined by special guests the Chris Mangione Trio. The Prairie Dog’s current event calendar lists the first performance beginning at 4 p.m. Tickets are $10.

For listeners who recognize one or two of those names but have not heard all three, Friday’s show offers a quick introduction to several corners of the Black Hills blues scene.

Johnny Hastings & Stillhouse Down

Johnny Hastings & Stillhouse Down came together in the Black Hills in 2023 after the musicians had gone nearly a decade without playing together. With Hastings on vocals and guitar, Caleb Buum on bass, Kaleb Britton on drums and Will Waller on keys and vocals, the band draws from traditional blues, Americana and the sound of western South Dakota. Their 2025 performance at Levitt at the Falls was later released as a live album, while Hastings has also released solo material and won the 2025 Wild West Songwriters Festival

Brandon Sprague Blues Band

Deadwood guitarist Brandon Sprague has spent more than two decades performing blues throughout the Black Hills and the surrounding region. Sprague plays lead and slide guitar and handles vocals, with a performance history that includes Sioux Falls JazzFest appearances in 2012, 2014 and 2017. His 2017 set was later featured on SDPB’s No Cover No Minimum, and his recorded work includes Edge of the World. Sprague and Hastings have also worked together before on a recording of “Better Believe It,” which features Hastings on guitar.

Chris Mangione Trio

Originally from upstate New York, Rapid City-area guitarist Chris Mangione works across blues, jazz and classical music and has spent years in music education. He performed at the 2025 Guitar Masters concert at the Dahl Arts Center, brought the Chris Mangione Blues Trio to Black Hills Vinyl during the 2026 Black Hills Jazz Fest and has also performed with the Black Hills All-Stars.

A Growing Hill City Stage

The Prairie Dog Taproom is ocated approximately 2.5 miles north of downtown Hill City, the property includes indoor performance space, a creekside yard and an outdoor stage.

The taproom has continued building its live music schedule since opening, hosting local and touring performers across blues, reggae, country, jazz, Americana and rock.

A Stage Full of Blues

Aug 28 • 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

The Prairie Dog Taproom in HIll City

Three Black Hills acts come together for a night of blues at The Prairie Dog Taproom. Johnny Hastings & Stillhouse Down headline,…

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Know Before You Go

A Stage Full of Blues
Friday, Aug. 28
Music begins at 4 p.m.
The Prairie Dog Taproom
23858 U.S. Highway 385, Hill City
Tickets: $10

The Fastest Woman on Earth Screens Free Friday in Lead

The Homestake Opera House will show The Fastest Woman on Earth, the seven-year documentary following the Black Hills native’s pursuit of the women’s land-speed record.

Motorcycle parking will be set aside directly in front of the Historic Homestake Opera House Friday night when the Jessi Combs Foundation brings The Fastest Woman on Earth to Lead for a free public screening.

The film begins at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. Admission is free and the organizers say all are welcome, but advance registration is required so the theater can plan for seating.

The screening brings Combs’ story back to the Black Hills almost exactly seven years after her final land-speed run. Combs died on Aug. 27, 2019, while attempting to break the women’s land-speed record in Oregon’s Alvord Desert. Guinness World Records later recognized her speed of 522.783 mph, breaking a record set by stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil in 1976.

A Black Hills racer, fabricator and television host

Combs was born in Rockerville, moved to Piedmont as a young child and graduated from Stevens High School in Rapid City in 1998.

She graduated from WyoTech in 2004 after studying collision and refinishing, street-rod fabrication, custom fabrication and high-performance powertrains. Her ability to build and work on vehicles led to a television career that included Overhaulin’, Xtreme 4×4, MythBusters and All Girls Garage.

Combs also raced in the Baja 1000, King of the Hammers and the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles. In 2017, she became the first woman selected as grand marshal of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Her pursuit of land-speed records began with the North American Eagle, a jet-powered vehicle built from a repurposed fighter jet. In 2013, Combs drove it to an official speed of 398 mph, earning recognition as the fastest woman on four wheels.

The larger goal was the women’s overall land-speed record.

Seven years inside the record attempt

Directed by Chris Otwell and Graham Suorsa, The Fastest Woman on Earth began filming in 2013. The filmmakers stayed with Combs and the North American Eagle team through years of testing, setbacks and attempts at the record.

The 104-minute documentary follows the technical demands of operating the jet-powered vehicle as well as the physical and personal costs of the pursuit. It continues through the 2019 attempt that claimed Combs’ life and ultimately secured the record she had been chasing.

The film was released on HBO Max in October 2022. Suorsa, who became embedded with the racing crew while making the film, is also a co-founder and board chairman of the Jessi Combs Foundation.

Continuing her work in the skilled trades

The Jessi Combs Foundation was founded in 2019 to support women pursuing careers in skilled trades. Its scholarship recipients have studied welding, diesel technology, automotive restoration, collision repair, motorcycle maintenance, aviation maintenance, construction and engineering.

The foundation currently reports that it has awarded more than $250,000 to more than 64 scholarship recipients over six years.

Jessi Combs bandanas will be available for purchase at Friday’s screening. Proceeds will go to the foundation and its work supporting women entering the trades.

The screening also coincides with Babes Ride Out x Deadwood, a women’s motorcycle gathering taking place Aug. 27 through 30 and based in Lead. Babes Ride Out participants can add free transportation to and from the Homestake Opera House. The movie screening remains open to the general public, whether attendees ride motorcycles or not.

The Historic Homestake Opera House is located at 313 W. Main St. in Lead. The film begins at 7 p.m., and free seats must be reserved in advance.

At 7 p.m. Friday, seven years of footage will fill the Homestake screen in the same Black Hills where Combs grew up.

The Fastest Woman on Earth: Jessi Combs

Aug 28 • 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Homestake Opera House in Lead

The Jessi Combs Foundation presents a free screening of The Fastest Woman on Earth, documenting Jessi Combs' seven-year pursuit of a land-speed…

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Know Before You Go

What: Free screening of The Fastest Woman on Earth
When: Friday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.
Where: Historic Homestake Opera House, 313 W. Main St., Lead
Admission: Free, but advance registration is required
Runtime: Approximately 104 minutes
Parking: Motorcycle parking will be available directly in front of the theater
Babes Ride Out: Participants can add free transportation to and from the theater
Fundraiser: Jessi Combs bandanas will be available, with proceeds supporting the Jessi Combs Foundation’s skilled-trades scholarships