One Ton Pig
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Chicken-Fried-Prison-Music

 

Chicken-Fried-Prison-Music.  That's what One Ton Pig is famous for: Down-and-dirty outlaw country, bluegrass, and Americana.  If you're into Willie, Del, or Johnny Cash, you're into the Pig!


One Ton Pig is appropriately based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, also home to rugged mountains, rugged people, brutal weather, stunning women, and the some of the most eccentric musicians in the world.  Enter the realm of One Ton Pig!

 

The band formed in 2006, and is best-known for packing the Silver Dollar Bar every Tuesday night.  The scene has become a “must-do” event for locals and tourists alike, and it’s not unusual to see 24-year old ski bums cutting the rug with local cowboy-politicians!

2012 brought new heights to the band: high-profile festivals (Targhee Fest, JH Mountain Fest, Oyster Ridge Fest, etc.), a new studio album featuring Ross Martin and Grammy nominee Matt Flinner, legendary jams with luminaries like Ronnie McCoury, and LOTS of gigs!  2013 promises even more!

 

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Batdorf is the lifeblood of One Ton Pig. His songs deal with love, loss, mountains, and whiskey, and they come straight from the heart. Batdorf's abilities as One Ton Pig's frontman speak for themselves. His connection with his audience is unparalleled. 



Justin Smith is also a songwriting force in One Ton Pig, and his vocals and guitar make the band what it is today. Smith is perhaps best-known for his work with Mandatory Air, which is one of the most popular groups in the Northern Rockies. 

Tim Farris covers mandolin and vocals, as well as some seriously funky songwriting. His background includes being the frontman for Jet Black Ninja Funkgrass Unit, a crazy original trio that sounds kinda like Primus!



Matt Herron joined the band on fiddle in 2012.  Herron’s vast experience include performances throughout the west at festivals like Rockygrass, Northwest String Summit
, and Wintergrass.  He also did an extensive European tour in 2012 with bluegrass heavyweights Random Canyon Growlers.

 

Bassist Andy Calder looooves to hold down the country grooves, but he can do so much more.  His other projects include experimental-funk outfit DJ Logic Band and art-metal group Banyan, fronted by Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins. Calder endorses Schroeder bass cabinets.



Drummer Jason Baggett is a disciplined, formally educated jazz musician. He's the glue that holds it all together, yet his vast experience allows him to push the band well beyond the normal limits of outlaw country. Listen carefully and you'll hear subtle Latin grooves, melodic drum fills, and beats that relentlessly compel butts to shake! 


One Ton Pig has released three critically-acclaimed and commercially successful CDs of original music (High On the Hog, 2008, Big Norm, 2010, and One Ton Pig, 2012). They also pull out cover tunes from their repertoire of over 100, bringing smiles to the faces of bar patrons, festival attendees, prison inmates, cowboys, sailors, and the like.
 

If you're hungry for chicken-fried-prison-music, order yourself some OneTon Pig!


For bookings or other contact info, use the "Bookings" page on this site, or contact World Famous Productions.
 

Here's what the critics are saying about One Ton Pig:

Big Norm is fourteen songs of country jamboree jubilations and gyrations, and should not be missed. Fans of good ‘ole honky tonk country and blue grass will thoroughly enjoy this album. 
          -Michael Morgan,
Indiesouprunner.com

Big Norm is the sort of album you throw in your CD player or call up on your playlist and leave it there for days at a time.  From an instrumental standpoint it would be difficult to find a finer working group today.

          -Wildy Haskell, New York-based music critic

The band sounds well rehearsed, and the result is cohesion.
          -Aaron Davis, Jackson Hole Weekly

Very good old fashioned country music. This music you can play in every country bar and in a old country barn on a Saturday evening.
          -
Rudy Minnaert, The Free Country Eagle

A knee slapping, hippie-honky-grassing hell of a good time. If this CD doesn't make your soul shine, listen to it again. 
          -Jason Specht

One Ton Pig are excellent musicians and are a very cohesive live unit, as their not-a-care-in-the-world sound on "High On The Hog" clearly proves.
           -Justin Kreitzer, Indie Rock Review

If One Ton Pig comes into town they should not be missed. Their live jams are high-octane and high-emotion that will convert country bluegrass music fans the old-fashioned way: one barroom show at a time. 
               -Michael Morgan, Indiesouprunner.com