A life remembered in song

As Hogan Gilbert gathered with his family to remember the life of his late grandfather Andrew Montour, he headed to the front porch.

Gilbert remembers years of sitting on his grandfather’s front porch, both of them with guitar in hand, playing every genre of music under the sun, strumming together into the night.

His grandfather, Andrew “Andy” Montour, passed away at the end of 2024, and as his family came together in his home to remember his life and legacy, Gilbert felt an instinct to go where he felt most at home: that front porch where he and Montour had wrapped themselves in songs for so many years.

“I just sat there, and it kind of hit me all at once,” he said. He picked up a guitar pick and started playing. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess I pick alone now.’”

That sentiment became a grounding lyric in Gilbert’s new song “Andy,” written in memory of his grandfather.

Though the song poured out of Gilbert soon after Montour’s passing, it’s taken him until now to be ready to release it.

“It sat there on the shelf for a year,” he said. “It took courage to share it, but I’m glad I did.”

“Andy” is a lyric-forward song, weaving together the bluegrass and country influences from Gilbert’s youth and adulthood, and painting a picture of the warm home of his grandparents.

“Pull up between those driveway pillars/You’d be sittin’ on the porch pickin’ away/Grandma would be cookin’ in the kitchen/You’d greet me with a smile on your face,” Gilbert sings.

With an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, Gilbert shares a vivid picture of the relationship he had with his grandfather.

“And you’d probably try to crack me a joke/Or offer to crack me a beer/We’d often try to strum something together/Same three chords we’d been playing for years.”

For Gilbert, memorializing Montour in song just makes sense. It was Montour who handed him his first guitar at age seven, and it was Montour who taught him the meaning of family.

“He was the reason we would sit and play together; he really was the glue of the family, he was what we revolved around,” he said.

He wanted to not only remember his grandfather’s life in the song, but also his legacy - he references that family that Montour built in his final verse, leaving a sense that the future of the family is safe with the next generations that Montour helped raise.

“There’s eight grandkids standing here tall/Remembering what you taught to us all/Just one foot in front of the other/You’d be there to catch us if we’d fall,” Gilbert sings. “Now it’s our time to carry your name/Knowing life just won’t be the same/We’ll go one foot in front of the other/Only the memory remains.”

Sharing the song has been special, Gilbert said. He had the opportunity to sing to his family, including his grandmother, at a show, but he’s also appreciated being able to share it with those who perhaps didn’t know his grandfather, or his relationship to him.

It’s allowed him to connect with people and has helped him feel that he’s keeping Montour’s legacy alive through music.

“When I first put it out, guys who don’t even know I play music and guys who I work with as an ironworker in New York messaged me just saying ‘Dude, I didn’t know you had it in you,’” he said. “One said his grandfather had just passed and it was healing to hear it. It was really cathartic to have everyone say those things.”

“Andy” is available to stream on major music streaming platforms under Gilbert’s stage name, Hogie Bearra.

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