About the Missoula Coyote Choir!

The Missoula Coyote Choir is a group of 24 six- to twelve-year-olds who sing out their love of the natural world with the wild exuberance of a pack of coyote pups. Committed to musical excellence and environmental stewardship, the Coyotes perform regularly throughout Western Montana, inspiring two-leggeds of all ages to turn off the tv, get outside, and learn from the millions of creatures with whom we share this beautiful planet.

Songwriter Amy Martin founded the Missoula Coyote Choir in the summer of 2007, after being commissioned to write and produce an album for The Biomimicry Institute, a Missoula-based environmental non-profit organization. The resulting CD, Ask the Planet, was recorded in the spring of 2008, and features a phenomenal band, as well as nationally known vocalists Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn, Dar Williams, Laura Love, Brandi Carlile, Bill Harley, and others. At the heart of the record, however, are the voices of the Missoula Coyote Choir, passionately making an appeal for us to “Keep Our Cool” in the face of global warming, tapping into their inner revolutionaries on “The Great TV Rebellion,” and rocking out on funk and punk versions of “Get Outside.” Hopeful and challenging, silly and heart-opening, the album doesn’t pander or condescend – it respects kids as musicians, listeners and community leaders.

In the summer of 2008, The Missoula Coyote Choir was invited to open for Ani DiFranco at Missoula’s historic Wilma Theater; a few months later, they were featured at a statewide conference focusing on children and nature. They are currently in the process of determining their environmental service mission for the upcoming year, and preparing for their CD release concert, which will be held on New Year’s Eve. Ask the Planet will be available digitally and in traditional hard copy format in January 2009.