Jordan Eslinger “Slinger”
Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica
Born in 1987, Slinger grew up in a small coal mining community in west central North Dakota. He is a middle child whose always had a love for the outdoors with a major wanderlust. His interest in playing music began after high school when he attended a nearby community college where he took a beginner guitar course that helped unlock a sense for poetry, storytelling, and songwriting. Around this same time, he found a keen liking to the harmonica and accompanying other friends who also dabbled in music. 70’s folk music, bonfires, and weekend campouts kept both of these newly found passions alive. After completing his degree in process plant technology, he found little interest in pursuing the field and took odd jobs and traveled frequently. At every stop, turn and yield, it was apparent that music was the beacon that guided his vessel.
Slinger landed a weekly residency at the Tap-In Tavern on Tuesday nights in Bismarck, North Dakota. He started making home recordings and found inspiration for song telling everywhere around him. Working with Hush Puppy Studios, he released his solo album, “Softer Side of Slinger”. Circa 2016 Slinger stumbled upon a few younger hometown pickers and together they formed the Folk/Rock trio “Northern Light. One of the members being local young entertainer, Danny Savage. After two years they disbanded, and Slinger and Danny started MoonCats with Sky Froelich. The newly formed Folk trio would meet weekly sharing songs, stories and skills before their first performance in the Spring of 2018. Slinger is proud to be seven years strong with the band and is excited to be releasing Mooncat’s fourth album in 2025.
Slinger lives on a hobby farm with his lovely wife and merch mama, Dakota Eslinger, near Pick City, ND. They enjoy time with their animals, gardening and playing music together in their side project “Slinger and The Fox”. He substitute teaches K-12 in Mercer County and occasionally works at a local body shop. Slinger teaches guitar lessons and loves fishing as well as finding inspiration for song writing in nature and all around him.
Current Bands:
MoonCats
Slinger and the Fox
Past Bands:
Northern Light
Sky Froelich
Upright Bass, Guitar, Mandolin
Sky was born and raised in the Bismarck/Mandan area. He first fell in love with music at a young age and was exposed to a wide variety of different styles. Having been an avid music appreciator his whole life, he couldn’t wait to get involved with the school music programs. In sixth grade he started on the French Horn and later that year would also begin to take electric bass lessons. Sky took to the bass quickly and it remains to be his primary instrument to this day. Through junior high and high school Sky was involved with almost every musical opportunity the school had available including concert band, jazz band, concert choir, jazz choir, a steel drum ensemble, and a christian rock band. He later went to study music and theology at the University of Mary. Around the age of twenty he began to join bands and start his career as a performing musician. In the past ten years Sky has played in numerous bands, performed nearly a thousand shows, toured the greater western half of the country, and has been involved with well over a dozen different record releases. His primary band currently is a folk three piece called MoonCats. Today he has most experience with stringed and brass instruments but is also comfortable on percussion, piano, and some woodwind instruments.
Past Bands:
The Last Echo
Boreal Gardens
Dummy Gladhands
Breakup Haircuts
Brainmonster
Hek & Sky Band
Wildly Appropriate
The Shaky Calls
The Prairie Pothole Music Festival Family Band
Current Bands:
MoonCats
Helko Spillovey
The Prairie Wranglers
Danny Savage
Washboard, Banjolele, Guitar, Mandolin
Daniel Harildstad (A.K.A Danny Savage) grew up singing and skating in Beulah, North Dakota. In junior high, Danny was very involved in the school band and choir, in addition to forming his own bands, participating in church choir, jazz band, vocal jazz choir, and a band at church. He has had a YouTube channel since 2007, accumulating over 200K views with 600+ videos, and has released 8 self-produced solo studio albums and two live records since 2016. Danny enjoys learning new songs, instruments, people, and places; and he lives and breaths music on and off stage. You may recognize him from the Terry’s Health Products jingle and commercial, or his One Man Band that he performs as for his solo music. Danny is a one of a kind eclectic mix of a musician and person. His artistic influences come from a blend of pretty much everything he hears, and he has a colorful past not only musically, but with video, paint, puppets, and many other passions! Savage has been performing full time since 2020, in addition to teaching guitar and ukulele lessons from 2020-2022. His music has lead him to traveling the country and world to share its sound. Danny is currently working on a memoir, “The North Dakota Troubadour” that will share stories of each city in his home state he has performed in.
Danny’s Past Bands:
S.H.I.N.E.
NAMELESS
Thunderbird
10 Minutes Til Today
Bart Goop
Northern Light
The Gentle Souls
Cold Sweat Bands
The Prairie Pothole Music Festival Family Band
Current Bands:
MoonCats
The Prairie Wranglers
The Shaky Calls (on occasion)
Danny Savage One Man Band
Scott Balliet
Band Manager
scott.mooncats@gmail.com