Missoula native and country music great Shane Clouse will be the headliner when “Montana Matters” presents Songs of Montana: Concert and Jam Session Friday, September 18 at 7pm at the Wilma Theater in Missoula. The concert is a benefit and public debut for the Montana Matters campaign, a collaboration for conservation between the International Wildlife Film Festival and Media Center (IWFF/MC) and the Montana Wildlife Federation (MWF). The Montana Matters campaign aims to preserve Montana’s rich and storied past, its vibrant history as the embodiment of the Wild West, while at the same time ensuring the state’s abundant wildlife and magnificent forests, fields, lakes and streams are preserved for generations to come. Additional information about Montana Matters can be found at www.montanamatters.com. Clouse, an ardent outdoorsman, was born and raised in Missoula and lives in Lolo with his wife, Kelly. A member of the Montana Wildlife Federation and a supporter of the Wildlife Film Festival, Clouse needed little convincing to lend his well-known voice, literally, to the campaign. “I was born and raised in Montana with a strong background in agriculture,” says Clouse. “For that reason I have a perpetual love for growing things and maintaining the pristine beauty that Montana provides us all.” The youngest of eight children, Clouse started singing on the hearth of his family’s farm house and won his first singing contest at the age of five. Since then his talents have taken him to stages across Montana, throughout the U.S., and around the world. Clouse and his band Stomping Ground were named Montana’s “Best Country Act” in 2005. His latest solo CD, “Good Thing Going On,” will be released this Fall and he recently released “Songs of Montana,” a compilation of songs donated by Montana artists to benefit the Montana Matters campaign.