Acclaimed music director provides the right beats to make event stand out
GOODING, Idaho – Jill Franzen Loden was just a teenager when she found her true passion, but she didn’t even know it yet.
“I’ve been doing this for 24 years,” said Loden, now in her 18th year as the sound director for the Gooding Pro Rodeo. “Back when (the late) Chad Nicholson was announcing for my folks, his wife would do the music. He called one day and said his wife wouldn’t be able to do it, and my mom said, ‘Jill can do it.’
“I filled in when he needed me, then Chad said, ‘Why don’t I hire you for the summer to help with music at these shows.’ That’s how I got my start.”
She did that for a few years while in high school, and it even served as a nice side gig while she was in college. Nicholson eventually opted out of doing sound altogether, and Loden picked up more work, even helping rodeos produced by her family’s stock-contracting firm, Powder River Rodeo.
“Chad could hook me up, and Mom said they could use me at some of their shows,” she said. “I had a handful of rodeos that were my first ones, and I had my own little sound system. As I grew, I graduated college and started full time with it. I was really fortunate. I had big-time names like Hadley Barrett, Lecile Harris, Charlie Throckmorton, Hal Burns, Bennie Beutler and Don Gill that all gave me a chance when I first started.
“It helped a lot.”
Barrett and Harris have passed on, but she still works regularly with the others mentioned, including Gill, the fair and rodeo manager in Gooding, who is already busy preparing for this year’s rodeo, set for Thursday, Aug. 15-Saturday, Aug. 17, with a special “Beauty and the Beast” performance set for Wednesday, Aug. 14. All performances take place at 8 p.m. at Andy James Arena.
“It’s not just my family but also my extended rodeo family that is the biggest part of my success,” Loden said. “The people I’ve gotten to meet and the connections I’ve made is a huge part of what’s made me successful.”
A lot of it, though, is the talent she possesses. No longer working with cassette tapes and CDs, she has a vast musical and sound library at her fingertips that are organized onto laptops. One click of a button allows Loden the opportunity to marry a sound or a song with what’s happening in the arena. It’s part gift and part understanding of rodeo production, a lifelong journey that comes with being part of the Franzen family.
“I have always loved music,” she said. “I played piano and saxophone when I was younger, so I have a knack for it naturally. It’s not that I come from a musical family, but since I was a kid, you could play two beats of a song, and I could tell you what that song was.
“I know the ins and outs of rodeo so well that when it came to putting music to rodeo, I wanted to have the timing. I know when I’ve got the right sound to go with something. I love messing with the crowd and getting the crowd involved. Listening to the announcer, I want to be the exclamation point at the end of his sentence.:
It’s almost a calling.
“This job found me; I didn’t find it,” Loden said,
She makes the most intense multitasker look like a slacker, because she’s prolific at it. She’s been named the PRCA Sound Director of the Year three times since the award was brought into existence seven years ago. What makes that title so special isn’t just the buckle that comes with it.
“That award means a lot because it comes from your peers and your colleagues who have aa chance to vote for whoever they want,” she said. “When they take the time to vote for you, it makes it feel like all the hard work and long drives and long days of setting up and tearing down are worth it. They’re appreciative of the hard work you’ve put in.
“It doesn’t justify why we do this, but at the end of the day, you feel like you’re doing it for a reason.”
Her work is definitely appreciated by the folks in Gooding.
“Jill’s the best at what she does, and we are very blessed to have had her for so long,” Gill said.
Take a situation last year, when a patron was handcuffed and escorted out of the stands by law-enforcement officers. Within moments, Loden played “In the Jailhouse Now.”
“She has amazing timing when it comes to what’s happening at our rodeo,” Gill said. “She’s on top of her game right when the occasion calls for it.”
Loden is tuned in to every aspect of the rodeo, from the first bucking horse to the clown’s performance to the crowd’s reaction to what Gooding Pro Rodeo announcer Steve Kenyon says to the thousands in attendance. Everything she does is to make the overall sound of the evening the perfect fit for what the fans are experiencing.
“Different music directors like to wear headsets or be set off away from the crowd a little bit,” Loden said. “I prefer to be part of the crowd and the interaction. When you’re out there and you’re hearing the live crowd and you can see the whole arena, you’re seeing what they’re seeing. That helps me be a better music director.”