In the early days of the internet, what music you discovered, in singer/songwriter Beth Bombara’s experience, was still largely based on geographic location.

“At the time I was growing up and starting to play music the internet was still pretty new, and like Napster was a thing, I think MySpace was early early days. And so I feel like geographic location actually had a lot to do with what kind of music you discovered. Who was coming to your town? If you didn’t live in a big city that might not be as accessible to be able to go see shows,” said Bombara.

She added that a lot of the Detroit music scene spilled over into Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she grew up.

“At the time I had started a band the White Stripes were getting really big so that sort of Detroit rock n’ roll like a lot of bands were coming out of that that were influencing and touring in Grand Rapids so I got to know some of these more underground punk bands and the White Stripes,” she explained.

Bombara’s latest album is named after the cabin nestled in the Rocky Mountains where she sought refuge after coming off a long tour. Originally, she was just planning to clear her head and decompress from the countless days spent on the road, not start writing her next album, but sometimes things don’t go according to plan.

“When I was in the cabin in the mountains, I was just starting to get the beginning, what I would call seeds, of song ideas and so generally speaking that’s all melody and music in my head. It’s more rare that lyrics will come at the beginning, sometimes they do but it’s more of a musical thing I’m hearing in my head,” said Bombara.

With nurturing from band members, those seeds took root and grew into the heartland rock-infused album “Evergreen.” The band even brought in a friend to play keys on the album. They only practiced once with him before going into the studio, so Bombara said half of the time he was winging it and it works.

“We just set up the whole band and tracked it live. So that’s, that’s one thing where, you know, you kinda got to have enough of it worked out so that you can go in to say ‘Hey, we’re going to play this song five times in a row, we’re recording it and then the best version to come out is the one we’re using,” explained Bombara.

Bombara said that tracking the instruments live gives the album a different feel. “Things happen that you didn’t mean to happen like mistakes and you’re like, ‘it’s fine’ or ‘it’s not how I intended but it’s cool.’ So that’s the way I enjoy recording the most,” she said.

Bombara added, “It feels the most organic to me and I’m not…there’s a fine line between making something good and it being too perfect. So recording live enables us to like not pick apart things too much so that you go over the line.”

Bombara also tries to have analog somewhere in the recording process although she admits it’s not always possible. “It just adds that extra layer of like vibe or grit or whatever you want to call it…warmth. I’ve done stuff before where I’ve recorded songs and then after they were digitally recorded they were dubbed on to a tape machine and then mastered off of that.”

The band’s performance at Big Turn closed out their current tour. After returning to St. Louis, Missouri, Bombara is anticipating what’s next.

“I’m looking forward to just kind of working on what’s next creatively, so some new songs, it’s been a while since I’ve finished a new song, I’ve got lots of ideas and I can endlessly come up with ideas and it’s hard for me to actually finish something, so I’m going to try to focus on that,” she said.

Laura Ellen Brandjord (LEB): What was the first instrument you learned to play?

Beth Bombara (BB): Actually it was piano. My grandma played piano. My mom was digging through old pictures a while ago and she pulled out this picture and I’m like probably seven or eight months old just sitting at my grandma’s piano.

So piano was the first instrument I learned, and then my mom had a guitar in the house and she kind of…she loosely played it. But then I kind of decided that was way more fun than piano.

It’s (guitar) easier to incorporate in a band, I think. So at that point I was sort of into this idea of making music with other people instead of it being a solitary thing. So I think that is one reason why I kind of gravitated towards the guitar.

And still, to this day, that’s one of the things that I really love about playing music. It’s not just the writing or sitting in my room writing the song, but it’s when the song is written, bringing it to the band and getting everyone’s input on it.

LEB: What did the typical day look like for you while staying in Evergreen in the Rockies?

BB: Yeah so wake up, make some coffee, there was a little coffee pot in the cabin, make some eggs, eat breakfast and then read a little bit. I had a book I was reading but at that time, too, I had started trying to, like, journal every morning, which is a practice that I find very helpful that I’m not great at doing all the time (laughs).

So I was just trying to like…meditate on stuff. So like writing, reading and then around 11 or so, like late morning, I would go on a hike and be gone for a couple of hours. I felt very small (laughs) in the expanse of everything.

It was pretty isolated but there’s like a group of these cabins and then there’s the people who run the space, so I did see a few people here and there. So that was also nice. Really it was a lot of being quiet and reading and writing and hiking.

LEB: If you could choose three (living or dead) headliners for a festival you’d like to attend, what would they be?

BB: I’m gonna say, Linda Ronstadt. We recently did a Linda Ronstadt tribute and so I was learning a lot more about her. I watched a lot of videos of her performing and it’s like… it would be cool to see her perform.

Let’s see…Tom Petty. I actually never got to see him perform. We got to play Milwaukee Summer Fest the year that he played and we pulled in and we heard him sound checking, but he was in the big headlining arena so we didn’t get access to that.

They were like ‘ Well you can buy tickets to go in there,’ and I was like ‘Oh, well we will see him another time.’

Oh yeah. There’s one more. I’m going to say the band Little Feat.

LEB: A song or an artist that you’re really into right now?

BB: Yeah, I’ve been listening a lot to His Golden Messenger. That’s been a go-to recently.

LEB: Anything else?

 BB: You know, I guess just kinda for the album. I guess it’s still kinda new even though we were getting ready to go into the studio about a year ago. Yeah, right after we were at Big Turn last year we went back and went into the studio and recorded it.

So I guess just the album and the music video we did for the album is kind of a fun thing people can check out.