BCAF is powered by mentorship. Inspired by Billy Conway’s artistic generosity, people have come together to create a network of support for new Indigenous artists in Montana, a place Billy loved to live. We have one Primary Mentor who will work with the artist throughout their six month term, and many Pop-Up Mentors ready to share their wide array of experiences.

We’ll be making weekly introductions so you can enjoy getting to know who is on the BCAF team- check back in regularly!

Joanne Gardner (Lowell) has spent the last 46 years making money in the music and film industry. Before that, for several years, she was learning and working for free on crews or singing with bands. She was the first woman director  to win a Best Female Video ACM award for her work over 30 years ago with Tanya Tucker and came out of retirement in 2023 to direct Tanya's latest video.

After owning a production company in Nashville with Rosanne Cash, she moved to California, then New York and back to California to direct and produce music videos, ending up as the Senior VP of Video Production at Sony Music. There she worked with Will Smith, Beyonce, Ricky Martin, the Fugees, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Marc Anthony and hundreds more during her ten year tenure.

She has retired to Montana, where she presents music events, and created the Livingston Hoot with her husband John Lowell. She managed Rodney Crowell, Ben Bullington, John Lowell and Laurie Sargent for a brief time, "Before Billy's illness changed all of our plans." 

Billy, Laurie, John and Joanne marched with pink hats in Bozeman in support of women's rights, made music and broke bread together. 

“Billy brought a kindness and light to everything he did, always punctuated with that wonderful twinkling eye and wry smile. I miss him.” -Joanne Gardner

Paul Durham is a singer, songwriter, producer, and artist coach. He has signed two major label record deals, sold 200,000 albums, scored top-10 radio singles and national tours with his band Black Lab, and has 70,000 monthly Spotify listeners. His songs have been featured in dozens of films, trailers, TV shows and commercials (Spider-Man, House MD, Pretty Little Liars, Honda, Coke, etc.) and received over thirty million streams.

As a writer and producer, he has collaborated with Mushroom of Massive Attack, Natalie Imbruglia, and Rachael Yamagata, among many others.

As an artist coach, he teaches songwriting, production techniques, organization skills, and the clarification of purpose. He specializes in helping young artists liberate their voice and maximize their impact, both artistically and commercially.

“I only got to spend a few evenings with Billy, laughing over dinner and trading songs afterwards. I only got to play with him a few times, him slipping in beside me with no rehearsal, just pure listening and that silken feel of his.

One thing I always noticed when we were hanging out with a group of musicians was the leadership he provided through his quiet presence. While the rest of us would tussle with stories and jokes, Billy was always the adult in the room, always kind, always compassionate, like a rock — but a soft, warm rock that loves you.

So I guess I’ve been torn between sadness over losing him and my gratitude for the time I got to spend with him. Most of that time was spent playing music because that’s just what he did. He was a beautiful man."

BCAF Primary Mentor 2024

David Huckfelt is a singer/ lyricist /activist from Minneapolis, with two solo records featuring collaborations with John Trudell, Quiltman, Keith Secola, and Greg Brown.

“In my entire life I've met maybe three-and-a-half people with enough sand and grace to lower the shoulders of any situation they waltz into.  Billy had that gravity in spades, and for younger artists that's like floating in outer space and suddenly someone shows up with a suit and a ship. 

My only regret in knowing him is that I didn't know him better, longer, deeper. I can't think of anything he'd rather do than support young Native artists from that gorgeous place he & Laurie called home. I remember the first time we had the honor of playing with him he asked, “What kind of song do you wanna do?" We said, "It's kind of a dark, minor blues thing..."  Said Billy, twinkle-smile flashing: "Yeah okay, I think I can do that…”

David was also a member of The Pines, whose recordings were in heavy rotation at Billy’s and Laurie’s Crazy View Farm in Montana - during the day while they harvested and packaged their amazing greens, during mealtimes and hangouts in a farmhouse filled with hard working people of all ages from all over the USA (and the world!), who grooved to their music.

For more on David, go here: https://www.davidhuckfelt.com

Michael Earl Craig is a journeyman farrier living in Livingston, Montana, who also happens to be the author of six books of poetry. He served as Poet Laureate of Montana from 2015 to 2017. The Poetry Foundation writes that "Craig's poems question the assumptions and habits of daily life, using humor and frequent glimpses of a torqued pastoral landscape,” which is pretty much how conversations went while he worked on the horses at Billy’s and Laurie’s Crazy View Farm.

“When I think of Billy the first thing that comes to mind is his presence—the energy that came off him, his sense of calm, his focus. Sitting at his kitchen table and talking about a book or a band or a film, or even the messiness of politics, I always came away feeling refreshed, as if a scale somewhere within me had just been gently recalibrated.

Billy was a centering force—he was quiet and thoughtful and had a way of bringing out the best in people. The Billy Conway Artist Fund aims to nurture emerging indigenous artists here in Montana and I can’t think of a better base energy than that of Billy Conway.” - Michael Earl Craig

Earl, as Billy and Laurie know him, wrote an essay recounting a horseback ride across the state of Montana, which you can read here: https://poetry.arizona.edu/blog/where-was-i-adventures-reading-michael-earl-craig

You can grab his latest book,“Iggy Horse” here: https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/iggy-horse

William has worked as an independent music producer, recording and mix engineer, recording studio owner, studio builder and manager and podcast host in Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City. From 2016 to 2024 he was the senior producer for Spotify Singles, producing and supervising the recording and mixing of over 900 released tracks, which have had over 8.7 billion streams to date.

He managed studio operations for Spotify Studios at NYC’s incomparable Power Station and Mateo, a studio he helped design in Los Angeles that won the 2023 NAMM TEC Award for Best Studio Design Project.

“Back in the 80's I had the honor of working with a band called Treat Her Right and Billy Conway was a member, keeping time on the unique cocktail drum kit. Becoming fast friends, he played on many sessions I produced and I was witness to the formation and growth of the band Morphine. His amazing drumming ran adjacent to his overall deep musicality, patient demeanor and his philosopher tone.  

The Billy Conway Artists Fund is the personification of his grateful, giving and musical spirit.” -William Garrett

Joe Navas is a Cape Cod-based photographer, living in Eastham. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, American Songwriter, Variety and other publications.He’s had the pleasure of working with Jeffrey Foucault, Kris Delmhorst, Mark Erelli, G. Love, Ani Difranco, Peter Mulvey, Carla Kihlstedt, Seth Glier and others. Joe has also taught at the The Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Museum School at the  Provincetown Art Association Museum.

In the early 90’s a friend of mine in Boston turned me on to a new band she described as having “that sound” she knew I’d really like. She was right and then some. Morphine was and still is the music that both inspires and informs me. At the heart of that was a man I’d come to know 20+ years later as the quiet, grounding center of any group of people fortunate enough to create with him.

I had the pleasure of spending a few days with Billy as he played on a Kris Delmhorst record I was photographing the making of. The value of his presence was only partly exemplified in the beats he put down. The dinners, the conversations, just the feel of the space, all of it already lovely, was just that much better because of his presence. For me personally, he didn’t have to make it a point of letting me know I was welcome there, but he did.

I couldn’t claim to know him anywhere near as well as many, but I feel forever fortunate that I even got to observe some of the friendships he was such a rich part of.

There’s something very special about a community that both understands and relishes the responsibility of making art that they mean. It makes for a legacy the importance of which cannot be overstated. -Joe Navas

to see Joe’s work: https://www.joenavasphoto.com

Dana Colley is a Boston based saxophonist living in Somerville, MA. He was the saxophonist in Morphine and now plays with Vapors Of Morphine.

With the bands Morphine, Orchestra Morphine, Treat Her Right, and Twinemen, Dana and Billy traveled the world together for over the course of twenty years, becoming true brothers through the highs and lows of their combined journey.

“I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time - Boston in the 80’s - where there was a burgeoning music scene busting at the seams. I got to hear Treat Her Right, a band that featured Mark Sandman, David Champagne, and Jimmy Fitting, with Billy Conway on the cocktail drum. These guys tore it up, but it was Billy who was driving the band. The way he stood over his cocktail drum, kicking it from below with a pedal designed to hit the bottom head while both hands worked the top of the drum created this incredible rhythm that really had to be heard - Billy all the while jumping and dancing with the biggest smile as the sweat streamed off of him like a garden sprinkler. You couldn’t take your eyes off his infectious energy. Billy lit up the room time and time again. We became friends, then bandmates, and I got to spend a great deal of time in his presence.

Never was there a kinder, more engaged present human being than Billy Conway. He was all about getting behind a good idea. He created community and valued the collective consciousness.

If Billy was involved in a project, wether it was mending a fence or recording a song, it was clear you were involved in something that mattered. If Billy was on the job you were in the right place at the right time.” -Dana Colley

Typical of the “don’t fence me in” attitude of a true westerner, Amber Jean’s creativity transcends boundaries and defies a singular classification. She seamlessly uses a wide spectrum of mediums to create 2D and 3D art in a luminous gesture of love toward nature and humankind.

Declared by WOOD magazine as one of “America’s Woodworking Greats,” Amber Jean became the first woman to carve in the country of Bhutan when the Prime Minister asked her to create an artwork in a retreat palace for their revered king. She created the life-size Bison Bench at the Bozeman Airport. She is a storyteller, writer and TEDx speaker whose reverence for Mother Nature and the interconnected spirit in all things infuses her life, her creativity and her heart.

“I share Billy’s deep love and passion for the boundless blessings Montana bestows such as grit and grace, solitude and community, beckoning peaks, soulful valleys and untamed wilderness beneath an endless mystical big sky.

“Those of us with decades of experience have helpful knowledge we are happy to share. Billy, with his gentle whisper of a sage, left a legacy of wisdom beyond knowledge - that of being present, authentic and in harmony with the rhythms of existence. Together we can continue to spark and inspire by sharing some gleaming nuggets…”- Amber Jean

Visit Amber’s website here: www.amberjean.com