Philip Aaberg

Pianist. Composer. Songwriter.

Helena, Montana

Five Things I’ve Learned about America

Every state has beautiful wild places.
Listen to each other; we have a lot in common.
Our food and the wine are much better than they used to be.
America is more racist than you might think.
Americans are pack animals. We're influenced by our leaders.

November 2, 2024

“My name is Philip Aaberg. I live in Montana. I’m a musician and a composer.“

Five Things I’ve Learned About America

Every state has beautiful wild places.

“My concern is that we keep these places wild and beautiful. Because the thing about mountains and rivers is they ain’t making them anymore.”
Listen to each other; we have a lot in common.

“Listening is probably the most important thing in the world. America, listen to each other. Talk to each other. We have a lot in common.”
Our food and the wine are much better than they used to be.

“There’s a farm-to-table movement everywhere, which I think is really important.”
America is more racist than you might think.

“I know that there are people taking away our histories of racism and slavery in the south. They’re taking away the history of the American Indian, the natives. They’re trying to take those out of the schools because honestly, I think they’re trying to divide us again.”
Americans are pack animals. We're influenced by our leaders.

“I really think that we want the same things, for the most part. We want to be happy. We don’t necessarily want a lot of stuff. We want people to be kind to us…. If you want that, you have to follow leaders who also want that.”

There’s more!

After sitting down to talk about the Five Things He’s Learned about America, Phil twirled around and did this!

How great is this!

Check out more of Phil at his website, sweetgrassmusic.com

Helena, Montana.

About Philip

Philip Aaberg, of Chester, Montana, is known worldwide for his compositions that evoke the spaciousness and beauty of the Western landscape. A Grammy and Emmy – nominated composer and pianist, Philip is recipient of both the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts and the Montana Governor’s Award for the Humanities. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Music (Montana State University), Rockefeller Foundation and NEA grants, 2011 MAC Artist’s Innovation Award, and was named a “Treasured Artist of Montana” in 2016 through the Secretary of State’s office. Philip has played in the bands of Elvin Bishop, Peter Gabriel, and many more rock, bluegrass, and blues groups, and is a multi-keyboardist of renown, having honed his craft on stage, in the recording studios of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and in the Paul Dresher Ensemble, one of the world’s premier new music groups.

He and his wife Patty live in Helena. His son Jake goes to Montana State University in Bozeman.