30 Jan Dancing the Night Away

It’s a cold, rainy off-season night in Jackson, Wyoming. There aren’t many tourists around town, and a lot of businesses are closed for a few-week break, but when I walk into the Silver Dollar Bar & Grill at The Wort Hotel, I’m enveloped by warmth and community. People are enjoying drinks and sharing meals, and the band is setting up on stage. For 19 years, One Ton Pig has graced Bluegrass Tuesdays at the Silver Dollar Bar, and tonight is no different.

George Ryan and Casey Singer dance to the music of One Ton Pig during Bluegrass Tuesday at the Wort Hotel’s Silver Dollar Bar in Jackson, Wyoming.

Right at 7:30 p.m., the six-piece band starts playing the distinctive progressive bluegrass that the members describe as a mix of folk, country, Americana, blues, bluegrass, and rock and roll. Audience members flood the dance floor, twirling and spinning with a few dips here and there. Ball caps and beanies outnumber cowboy hats; sneakers two-step alongside cowboy boots. Patrons dance in Western-style shirts, tank tops, and jeans, while others are clad in camo and workday clothes.

A dedicated crew of dancers comes out every Bluegrass Tuesday night, including Casey Singer, who has attended the shows for 19 years. “I try to go every Tuesday, but life happens sometimes,” Singer says. “If I miss like three weeks, I’m jonesing: I need to come back.”

By day, Singer works at an accounting firm, and she enjoys the creativity music and dancing bring to her evenings. “I’m definitely more of a left-brained person, and so it’s where I get the creative outlet that I really need when I’m sitting in front of spreadsheets every day,” Singer says.

On the November night I visit, regulars fill the dance floor, but during Jackson’s busy tourist seasons, it’s also packed with seasonal workers and visitors. Singer says she’s encountered tourists who made a point of returning to Jackson because they loved Tuesday nights at the Silver Dollar Bar so much. “They remembered the dancers and the music and everything, and that’s what brought them back to Jackson, which was cool,” she says. “I mean, [it wasn’t] the only thing, but it was a big part of it. I hear people say all the time that it was the highlight of their trip.”

Over the years, the dancing scene has grown, necessitating a renovation that expanded the dance floor. In recent years, Bluegrass Tuesday has also grown in popularity with a more youthful crowd. Each night, there are two music sets, with the later one being especially popular with younger dancers. “There’s actually been a huge influx,” Singer says. “Dancing has become more popular in the last five years or so with younger people.” Singer says many of these dancers will watch online dance videos to learn moves and share their research with people on the floor.

Joel Varner twirls his partner, Chloe Zumbrun. Varner embraced the Bluegrass Tuesday music scene after moving to Jackson from West Virginia three years ago.

Joel Varner is 24 years old and a regular at the Tuesday-night scene. He moved to Jackson from West Virginia three years ago and spends his days working on a ranch as a mechanic and groundskeeper. His evenings are often reserved for dancing, and in addition to Bluegrass Tuesdays, he makes the local music and dance circuit, including regular stops at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson. His grandmother was a classical ballroom dancer, and he did some classical dancing when he was younger — along with the line dancing that’s popular back in West Virginia — but he particularly enjoys the style of music and dancing he finds on Bluegrass Tuesdays.

One of One Ton Pig’s founding members, Justin Smith is a co-songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the band.

“It’s all Western swing, but [there are] two different styles between the older crowd and the younger crowd,” Varner says. “The younger crowd does a lot more of the fancy-looking tricks … and then the older crowd is a lot more rhythmic, like two-step, basic swing, stuff like that.”

Michael Batdorf co-founded One Ton Pig 19 years ago, and today he is a songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the band.

Varner says he switches between the styles, but when he first started going on Tuesday nights, he didn’t know all the moves. He was embraced by a community of dancers eager to share their knowledge and help him learn. “I just kept going so consistently, and everyone is always very helpful. Even from the start, before they even knew my name, everyone was very helpful about teaching me.”

Singer says there are plenty of generous dancers who are happy to share their knowledge and show people a few moves. “It’s fun to see the progression of those people that do really want to learn,” Singer says.

The camaraderie, music, and dancing make the evenings a mainstay on Varner’s calendar. “The only time I miss a Tuesday is if I’m out of town or sick,” he says.

Dancers engage in different styles of Western swing, with younger dancers frequently integrating tricks and fancy moves.

In December 2025, One Ton Pig celebrated 19 years as the Silver Dollar Bar’s house band, a journey that all began in the woods at Targhee Bluegrass Festival nearly two decades ago.

“There’s a great tradition in folk music at these bluegrass festivals where, if you’re a guitarist or a fiddle player, a bass player or on mandolin, you just roam around the camp and find pickers and circle up and play songs in common,” says Justin Smith, one of One Ton Pig’s founding members and co-songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the band.

“I heard some nice guitar playing in the forest, and followed my ears and went over, and here’s this guy playing sort of bluesy folk music, and it was Michael [Batdorf],” Smith says. He pulled out his guitar and they started playing together. “We had a real easy chemistry and had a great time jamming in the forest.”

When an opportunity to play on Bluegrass Tuesdays at the Silver Dollar Bar came up, Smith, who is now entertainment manager for the Silver Dollar and Cowboy bars, thought of the strummer he met in the forest and gave Batdorf a call. Today, Batdorf is the band’s main songwriter, playing guitar and handling vocals in addition to his solo work and other collaborations.

As the band came together, they knew they needed a memorable name. They contemplated ideas like Silver Dollar Band in homage to being the bar’s house band, but when they heard about a massive prize-winning pig in upstate New York that became a roadside attraction, they knew which direction they wanted to go, and One Ton Pig was born.

Over the years, the band has produced six original albums, was named Jackson’s Best Band numerous times, and was even covered in The New York Times.

One Ton Pig currently has six members: Smith and Batdorf (both on guitar and vocals), Tim Farris (mandolin and vocals), Matt Herron (fiddle and vocals), Marty Camino (bass and vocals), and Jason Baggett (on drums). They play their original music, along with popular covers. “Each musician brings something totally different to the band,” Smith says. “The six of us are from different places in the country, and then we come to Jackson and we’re like a little melting pot.”

Their music styles meld to give One Ton Pig its own one-of-a-kind sound. “We’re just all over the map, stylistically speaking, and somehow we’ve won this cohesion that is the sound of the Pig, but it’s pretty uniquely our own,” Batdorf says.

One Ton Pig includes Michael Batdorf, Justin Smith, Tim Farris, Matt Herron, Marty Camino, and Jason Baggett (pictured from left).

While they have spent some time touring, and they still have a few far-flung gigs, the band members’ growing families and work responsibilities largely keep One Ton Pig focused on local and regional gigs these days.

Casey Singer and Ralph Boyack enjoy a dance. Singer has attended Bluegrass Tuesdays for the past 19 years.

Their most recent album, Times Will Bring Us Back, was released in 2023 and features an artful depiction by local artist Kelly Halpin of a dance floor packed with swirling dancers. The band dedicated the album to the dancers, who were especially dear to them after COVID put a pause on the live music. “The dancing kind of went away for a while [during COVID],” Batdorf says. “It’s not that you take it for granted. It’s just you really miss it when it’s gone. And so, as we started to rebuild that community, we realized just how precious that was.”

Flyers advertise the long list of upcoming events at the popular Jackson venue.

This interconnection between live music and dancing creates the type of energy that pulses through the Silver Dollar Bar on Bluegrass Tuesdays. “There’s almost a mystical, magical connection between music and dance, especially when it’s live music,” Smith says. “There’s an interplay, there’s something that feeds off one another and creates a super vibrant scene.”

Smith (pictured) first met Batdorf at Targhee Bluegrass Festival 19 years ago; they founded One Ton Pig together soon thereafter.

The fact that so many dancers come week after week, year after year, is a testament to what the musicians and dancers have created together. “We are so blessed [to be] doing this for 19 years. To still have a full dance floor, and people just dancing the night away, is really, really something,” Smith says. Likewise, the dancers appreciate the band’s role in bringing everyone together for camaraderie, dancing, and connection, even on an off-season evening when town is quiet. “It’s a real family that they’ve created there,” Singer says.

Kristen Pope is a freelance writer and editor who covers stories about mountain living, science, conservation, travel, and the outdoors for a number of outlets; kepope.com.

Amber Baesler is an editorial, commercial, and documentary photographer that calls the Tetons home. Her work is inspired by the American West and life in the mountains.