As those of you who’ve been following us know, we love to find great local musicians wherever we go on our River Ramble adventure.  We’ve found some great music venues like Infinity Hall in Connecticut and enjoyed some great artists including Atlas Gray who we featured in our Connecticut Color video.  We met the duo Bird In Hand in Sylva, NC, at an evening gig at Elevation Wine Bar; they graciously allowed us to use “Ms. Carolina” for our tribute to NC.  We’ve had guides who were in bands and shared their music with us that we’ve featured on our site.   We even made a pilgrimage to the site of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival and stood on the hallowed ground of the stage where all those amazing musicians played.

With this in mind, it seemed fitting to share yet another great musician with you for the holidays.  We met Kostas Lazarides (professionally known as Kostas) one evening at The Mint in Belgrade, MT.  Our dear friends, Sue Doss and Dud Lutton, had invited us to join a group who was having dinner at The Mint and listening to Kostas.

Since that evening, we’ve heard Kostas perform numerous times at music venues in the Gallatin Valley and at Sue and Dud’s place in Bozeman.  He is a singer and songwriter who is renowned in the country music world for hits such as Timber, I’m Falling in Love and Blame It On Your Heart, which was the most performed single of 1994.  He’s written songs for a multitude of artists including:  Patty Loveless, Dwight Yoakum, Travis Tritt, Martina McBride, The Dixie Chicks and The Mavericks.

We really enjoy all of Kostas’ music, but one night, Barb and I heard Kostas sing two songs that struck a chord with us, relative to our “ramble”;  the song featured in this post and one other we’ll save as a surprise for next year.  For now, please enjoy this music video tribute to “Reflections Off the Water” by Kostas.