Montana Dreams paints a picture of the beautiful Montana 'high line,' traveling on its way from west to east in nature's setting and is a serious work in eight movements in the classical style yet with influences of jazz and is a noble contribution to the 'American' heritage.

Montana Dreams movements:  1  |  2   |  3   |  4   |  5   |  6   |  7   |  8

1) Yaak River Sunrise is a story of fly fishing on the family homestead property, called 'The Buckhorn' in the Yaak valley of Northwestern Montana, where his great-grandfather Harry Hugh Higgins settled in the 1890s. Mr. Higgins learned the art of 'fly fishing' from his father - Charles Cleveland Higgins, who was taught by his father Harry C. Higgins, who learned on the Judith River in central Montana, from his father, Harry Hugh Higgins. Mr. Higgins speaks of returning to the 'Buckhorn' property every year and walking upstream, in the sunrise on its one mile frontage to the same spot for fifty years, and with great hesitation, stepping into the cold stream and mounting the slippery rocks, beginning his journey downstream past the cabin to the big hole. A sense of tranquility begins to overshadow him as he blends with the flow and his senses are full of the familiar surroundings. He plays on his grandfather's silver Conn cornet and Conn-Levy mouthpiece, purchased in 1917. His treatment of the cornet is an art form nestled within his beautiful orchestration.
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2) On The Kootenai describes a turbulent flow on a glacier fed river next to which the composer was raised as a young child. It bears the deep feelings of warning of the river's dangers felt by his mother, town's people and relatives who were respectful of its power and awed by its beauty. This movement takes you on a long journey down its path as it widens and slows and changes at every turn.
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3) Montana Dreams tells the story of removal and separation from routine activites to the enjoyment of calm and beauty under the open Montana sky with the deep searchings of the heart experienced by the composer during the many summers spent in the Montana outdoors.
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4) Welcome To The Buckhorn portrays a quiet life in the peaceful Yaak valley, where the 'Buckhorn' lodge was a resting place for travelers making their way up the Yaak towards the old mining town of Sylvanite. The trumpet sound captures a relaxing mood, and yet in it there is a sense of longing that represents the feelings of conscience that accompanied Harry Hugh Higgins when he settled the property in the mid 1890s, having disserted his wife and children in Great Falls to follow the gold rush to northwestern Montana - settling on what is now the 'Buckhorn' property. He labored in his mine in the heat of the day and gathered with visitors to enjoy the evenings with party and dance at the 'Buckhorn.' They were good times in the midst of his own inward conflict. Both Welcome To The Buckhorn and the following movement are considered to be the composer's 'cowboy' songs, because they represent the culture of his upbringing.
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5) Hometown Montana brings us back to his roots, where in his beloved hometown - Troy Montana, he grew up as a child with his horse 'Stardust' and singing 'Home on the Range' in 1st grade, while his teacher Miss Muscleman played guitar and a harmonica, held by a wire stand around her neck. It was in Troy in those years that he probably remembers his first impressions of the universe and of creation when he would sleep outside in the field next to his friend Brucey Schult's house and they gazed together at the giant Montana sky in awe at the myriads of stars and wondered in suspense - Who are we? What about God? It was as the psalmist said; "When I see Your heavens, the works of Your fingers, the moon and the stars ... What is mortal man, that You remember him? ... (Psalm 8:3-4).

A few years later, when he was in college, working for the Forest Service in Troy that at times he found himself in places where probably no one had walked before, and sitting on the side of a mountain overlooking the valley below, alone in silence, he would wonder about God and the creation. It was as a result of these sorts of experiences that he began to know the will of God through the creation and then on June 20th 1969 at the age of twenty-one, in Troy Montana "when it pleased God to reveal His Son in" him (Galatians 1:15-16) - it was then that he entered into a new life in Christ. Hometown Montana defines the composer's humble roots and fond memories of his origins and of family and friends in his Montana Dreams.
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6) The Glacier Park takes us from the roots and lowest spot (by the way, Troy is the lowest in elevation in Montana) to the heights - Glacier Park. The mood in this movement transcends from basic and elemental to transcendent and pure, and one of elation. The inspiration of the composer is loosed as he guides you on the road to the 'rising sun.' No words can adequately describe the magnificence that is in the eyes of the beholder.
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7) The Prairie takes you eastward to the open plains of Montana, and backwards to the composer's family history in central Montana where his grandfather Harry Cleveland Higgins, the first white child born in Great Falls and a coal miner, was an early Montana cornetist who was influenced by John Phillip Sousa and the Sousa band which toured Montana in 1892. There were other brass bands raised up, such as the Butte Mines Industrial Band - highly praised by Sousa himself, made up of European immigrants who took part in the industrialization of the West. The modern composer, Doug Higgins (b. 1948) also lived and taught public school on the eastern plains of Montana in the early 1990s in Saco Montana, which he considered to be the 'mosquito capital' of the world. The intrigue of the prairie, plus his gentle cornet style makes this movement a classic protrayal of the early music culture of rural Montana with its refinement brought in by European and East Coast migrations to the West, plus the composer's own intellectual touch.
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8) Sundown is the same as the first - Yaak River Sunrise. These are two ends of a complete work and when listening to all eight movements, there is a seamless poem. Sundown reflects upon the evening when the fly fisherman's rod rises and the line drifts again as he is drawn back to the river in the dimming valley, under the setting sun of the Montana sky.     - Janet Higgins
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Mr. Higgins likes to spend a part of each summer in Troy and on the Buckhorn. He is an avid fly fisherman and enjoys going to all of the familiar streams and rivers around Troy.

His favorite place to fish on the Yaak River is on the rock steps leading up to the falls.

Yaak River, Montana

One of the most beautiful places to fish is on Keeler Creek. Doug was there fishing in late June. The meadows were filled with flowers.

Keeler Creek, Montana