Outdoor Sounds: David Raitt and the Baja Boogie Band blend styles during energetic show

On a recent Saturday in Coeur d’Alene, chilly weather and a bit of drizzle weren’t enough to dampen the spirit of David Raitt and the Baja Boogie Band.

“Welcome! You’re the only ones we invited today, and every one of you showed up,” bassist and singer Dave Hutcheson joked with the crowd of about 20 after the band finished its first song.

As the show, part of the Coeur d’Alene City Park Concert Series, went on, the audience grew to about 50, with many people wrapped in blankets and others optimistically wearing shorts and sandals.

Despite the small crowd, the band performed with as much energy as they would for a sold-out show.

The band – Hutcheson, Raitt (guitar, flute, vocals), Rick Steiner (keys), John Knapp (guitar), Michael Lenke (trumpet) and Al Kitchel (drums) – kicked off the show with a blues-rock tune before launching into the soulful “Rather Be Blind,” from the band’s debut full-length “Blues A Rockin’.”

A swing tune was up next – “Feel free to dance, whatever you need to do to stay warm,” Hutcheson said to the crowd – followed by a cover of Bill Withers’ “Use Me.”

Though the band bounced from one genre to the next, the show felt cohesive, not disjointed.

This diversity in sound comes from the varied backgrounds of each member.

“These guys had fishing lures on their cowboy hats and I show up in a fedora,” said Raitt (son of Broadway star John and brother of roots-rock singer-songwriter Bonnie) before the show. “I’m the blues guy and I brought in some swing and some funk and some R&B and, these guys are total country rockers right down the line. To take that and blend is what creates our sound.”

This original sound, and the original material on “Blues A Rockin’,” has made David Raitt and the Baja Boogie Band festival staples since forming in 2012.

“A lot of the festivals now are looking for bands playing original material, number one, because they don’t want bands that are going to repeat the same song and number two, they have to pay royalties to (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers),” Hutcheson said.

Festivals like the Big Sky Blues Festival in Noxon, Montana, the Wallace Blues Festival in Idaho and the Calgary International Blues Festival have welcomed the band to their stage, and Spokane is following suit for two shows.

The band will play the Hotel Red Lion Free Summer Concert Series on Friday and Pig Out in the Park on Sept. 2.

These shows are part of a Pacific Northwest tour the band has done every summer for the last several years.

Many members of the band are from the Northwest, and Raitt recently bought a home in Lynnwood, in the Seattle area, near where two of his sons live with their families.

But to learn about the beginning of David Raitt and the Baja Boogie Band, you have to travel to the Mexican peninsula of Baja California.

Raitt and Hutcheson moved to Baja California around the same time in 2002 and tossed around the idea of jamming together, but concrete plans were never made.

Raitt saw the Baja Boogie Band, who were in Baja California recording, at a Hotel California pool party and invited them and Hutcheson to play the Baja Reggae Festival with him.

After that show, Hutcheson (previously with the Salt Creek Band) invited the crew to play with him at the Big Sky Blues Festival.

Those festivals were in 2012, and the band has been performing ever since.

The band is currently working on its second album, which will be recorded at the Spokane Falls Community College recording studio and has a potential release date of spring 2018.

Back on stage in Coeur d’Alene, David Raitt and the Baja Boogie Band kept the fun going with songs like “Baja Boogie,” which was written by Shawn O’Neill about how it feels to arrive in Baja California, and the album’s bluesy title track.

By the end of the band’s first set, many in the audience were grooving as much as their blankets would allow, and a few brave souls (it was still pretty windy, after all) stood up to dance, which the band loves to see.

“I hear a lot of people that say, ‘You just bring a smile to my face,’ ” Hutcheson said before the show. “If we do that, then I guess we’ve done something correct.”