There are plenty of piano players. There are not many jobs where the stage sits besides a tank full of mermaids.
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Five years after winning a nationwide talent search to replace the legendary Piano Pat, Joel Corda has become the soundtrack to one of Montana's most recognizable attractions, the Sip 'N Dip Lounge in Great Falls.
"I don't think there's a better job in town," Corda said. "It's nationally known. It's internationally known. You know, it's been in magazines, it's been on TV."
For more than 50 years, Piano Pat entertained visitors beneath the Sip 'N Dip's famous mermaid tank and helped transform the lounge into an attraction known far beyond Montana. When she stepped away, ownership launched a nationwide search to find her successor.
Corda still remembers the pressure.
"They started a nationwide search, and it came down to voting. You had to do an audition tape. Then they had a night where Aaron Tippin and other celebrity judges were here. It was pretty nerve-racking," he said. "But that was 520 gigs ago, so here I am."
Five years later, he's still there every weekend, playing requests for locals, tourists and anyone else who wanders through the doors looking for a uniquely Great Falls experience.
For Corda, the job has always been about more than music.
Every night is different. Some visitors are celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. Others are reconnecting with old friends. Some are simply passing through Montana and happen to stumble into a piano bar with mermaids swimming behind it.
"You have to keep your expectations open," Corda said. "Your intention has to be pure. I'm here to make people's nights better. I'm here to change them somehow if I can."
He says that's what keeps him coming back.
Unlike many performances, no two nights at the Sip are ever the same.
On one night, a visitor might hand him a friendship bracelet. On another, former classmates might reunite after decades apart. Some guests stop in because they've heard about the bar's reputation. Others discover it by accident.
Whatever brings them through the door, Corda says the goal is always the same.
"We are designing an experience," he said. "We put people in place for a really magical experience, and it tends to happen a lot of nights here."
According to owner Sandra Thares, that's one reason Corda has become such an important part of the lounge's identity.
"It's a pleasure having him," Thares said. "He is a very great musician. He knows the crowd. He knows people. And he's really starting to build a following."
The Sip 'N Dip itself has always been built around relationships.
Thares says many employees have spent decades working together, creating a culture that feels more like a family than a workplace.
"We are really a big family," Thares said. "There are so many of us that have been together for 20, 30 years. And Joel's part of that family."
For Corda, that sense of history comes with responsibility.
He understands what Piano Pat meant to the community and doesn't view himself as replacing her legacy.
Instead, he prefers a different analogy.
"We call it the house that Pat built," Corda said. "And I'm just hoping to build a library on the side."
Outside the Sip 'N Dip, Corda teaches drama and music at North Middle School, where he is in his 22nd year as an educator. But every weekend, he returns to the piano bench beneath the mermaids.
Five years and 520 performances later, he's still making music, still creating memories and still welcoming visitors who come to Great Falls looking for something they can't find anywhere else.
