Riders Round Up Good Time Concert Review Riders In The Sky Thursday, Aug. 3, At The Festival At Sandpoint

After learning that a mildly twisted trio of cowboys had arrived in town, people from Sandpoint and elsewhere came out to Memorial Field on Thursday to find out who these men were.

Turns out it was the mighty Riders in the Sky.

And they weren’t in town to stir up trouble. No, Ranger Doug, Too Slim and Woody Paul just wanted to show the Festival at Sandpoint a good time.

And that’s exactly what they did.

First and foremost, the Riders in the Sky play cowboy music and, with their amazing three-part harmonies, are excellent at it. In fact, they reinvent the old genre.

In the midst of it all, they whip up a whole bunch of knee-slapping, tummy-tickling, deadpan humor.

One moment, the Riders in the Sky had the audience shedding tears during a weepy love ballad sung in Spanish. The next, they incited people to fall out of their lawn chairs in laughter during Woody Paul’s ill-fated rope tricks.

They managed to do this all night.

In some cases, like during “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” they even silenced the crowd.

Onstage, the Riders in the Sky were clad in their uniform silly cowboy costumes. Stand-up bass player Too Slim “the man with the hairiest legs in North Idaho” donned a pair of fury chaps and a cactus tie, or as he called it, a “cact-tie.” Fiddler Woody Paul wore a pair of polyester cowboy pants that have always been out of style and a shirt whose seamstress got a little carried away with the tassels. Guitarist Ranger Doug dressed the most normal of the three.

Throughout their performance, the cowboys mixed old standards with their own soon-to-be standards.

With galloping tunes like “Rawhide,” the Riders led us on a cattle roundup. Then, we wandered the range during the dreamy “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky.” They gave us yodeling lessons on “How a Cowboy Yodels.” (Ranger Doug even did some speed-yodeling.) We gathered by the campfire on slower numbers like “Don’t Fence Me In” and “Idaho.”

Some of the funniest moments occurred when the group asked the audience for requests.

People shouted anything from “Red River Valley” to “Free Bird” to “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

And the Riders, being the crowd-pleasers they are, played a medley of all those songs.

So what’s so funny about that?

Each member sang a different song, and they all sang them at the same time. In a one-minute span, we must have heard about 18 songs. Talk about getting your money’s worth.

The Riders wrapped up the medley when Too Slim busted into “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” which roused much laughter. Too Slim even tailored the song’s lyrics to North Idaho: “All over Bonners Ferry/And down in Hayden Lake/ Tell the teacher we’re surfing/ Surfing Pend Oreille.”

After finishing the set with “Happy Trails,” the Riders re-saddled and returned to the stage for a couple of encores with concert openers Muzzie Braun and the Boys. Together, both groups sang “Take Me Back To Tulsa” and “Home On The Range.”

At the end of the show, Too Slim snuffed out the campfire. And the Riders in the Sky high-tailed out of town.

One other thing: You didn’t have to know who the Riders in the Sky were to enjoy the concert. You could have even hated cowboy music (because your dad never managed to sing it in key). But when you left on Thursday, you left a convert and with a smile on your face.