Summer Sounds The Gorge, Playfair, Sandpoint, Silver Mountain — Exciting Line-Ups To Keep Your Toes Tapping This Summer

This summer, the hills will come alive with the sound of music.

And so will the lake, the river and the pony track.

Find a spot big enough to hold a crowd these days and someone will throw a concert. Outdoor shows are the rage, and the Inland Northwest gets its share.

Closest to home for Spokane residents is Playfair, the paramutuel track whose infield has become a hot concert venue in the past of couple seasons. This year, its four-show summer season spotlights country and oldies acts, but concert organizer Hugh Mellon said that’s just the way the schedule worked out this year.

“We want to establish a summer concert series in Spokane for Spokane people,” Mellon said. “We try and book acts that will reach across the board, entertainmentwise.”

The track’s infield can be configured to handle crowds ranging from 2,000 to 25,000 people, he said. Twelve thousand fans turned out to hear Merle Haggard two years ago.

North Idaho has two outdoor venues: the Festival at Sandpoint and Silver Mountain, high above the town of Kellogg, which has developed a specialty in oldies shows and quality country acts.

Under the leadership of artistic director Gunther Schuller, the nonprofit Sandpoint series offers the region’s most diverse schedule, with classical, jazz and pop components.

The format “follows Gunther Schuller’s philosophy that there is no one best kind of music,” said the festival’s executive director, Connie Bergan. “There are a myriad of different musics in the world… . We’re always trying to get the best example of each kind.”

She said the Cajun-flavored Queen Ida and her Bon Temps Zydeco Band is a good example: “Queen Ida has won three Grammys and we haven’t done zydeco before.”

Out in the middle of Washington state, on bluffs overlooking the Columbia River, The Gorge Amphitheater will present its most aggressive concert schedule ever. Grant County commissioners have lifted the sanctions that limited the venue to 20 shows last year, opening the door to an expanded schedule.

Because of its vast seating capacity and central location (it’s at the exact center of the state), The Gorge will attract the season’s biggest names. Three of its major dates - Tom Petty, R.E.M. and Plant/Page - are already history, but on tap are New Age balladeer Yanni (June 4), sax giant Kenny G (June 23) and blues/ popster Bonnie Raitt (July 8).

Lollapalooza, the traveling alternative rock fest, will kick off its ‘95 tour at The Gorge on July 4, and The Gorge’s season will conclude tour at The Gorge on July 4, and The Gorge’s season will conclude Labor Day weekend with a Steve Miller Band/Doobie Brothers show.

The weekend of Aug. 5-6, The Gorge will throw a two-day “George Washington Festival of Music.”

The first show is “Blues Saturday” and features B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan, Etta James, Elvin Bishop, J. Geils and Magic Dick. The next day, “Smooth Jazz Sunday” brings together David Sanborn, Lee Ritenour, and Larry Carlton and a 33-piece orchestra.

In Spokane, Playfair’s season opens with a benefit for Junior Olympics on June 24. The show headlines a group called the Classic Rock All Stars, made up of leaders or founding members of Rare Earth, Sugarloaf, the Spencer Davis Group, Iron Butterfly and Blues Image. Curtis Salgado is also on that bill.

“The man in black,” Johnny Cash, does Playfair July 29; America and Little River Band play Aug. 5; and Willie Nelson appears with Asleep at the Wheel Aug. 30.

Silver Mountain’s mostly country season begins July 21 with a Kathy Mattea show and wraps up Aug. 30 with a repeat performance by Collin Raye, who knocked ‘em dead up there last year and who, in turn, was said to be knocked out by the beautiful mountain venue.

The odd show out at Silver Mountain is an Iron Butterfly (“InA-Gadda-Da-Vidda”) concert July 29 that is not part of the regular series. Jimi Hendrix impersonator Randy Hansen opens.

As it did last year when it booked Robert Cray, the Festival at Sandpoint will share an act with The Gorge. The Beach Boys play Sandpoint July 27 and The Gorge July 29.

The balance of the Sandpoint fest is remarkably varied: Bluegrass sensation Alison Kraus and her band, Union Station, play July 29, and The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra comes to swing Aug. 12. Reggae artist Lucky Dube (Aug. 11), Loretta Lynn (Aug. 10) and pop diva Natalie Cole (Aug. 18) also make the trek to the lake this summer.

But from a purely musical point of view, the most exciting event of the Sandpoint series is an Aug. 4 collaboration between Schuller, the Spokane Symphony and jazz great Joe Lovano.

Last year, Schuller wrote the string arrangements and some original material for a brilliant new Lovano CD, “Rush Hour.” At Sandpoint, he’ll conduct the symphony and Lovano in a program of music from that record, and he and the symphony will perform a handful of standards from the jazz repertoire.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: 1995 SUMMER CONCERT CALENDAR Key: G=Gorge, S=Sandpoint, P=Playfair SM=Silver Mountain.

June 3: Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Mavericks, G June 4: Yanni, G June 24: Classic Rock All-Stars, Curtis Salgado & the Stilettos, Survivor, P June 24: Kenny G, G July 4: Lollapalooza, G July 8: Bonnie Raitt, G July 21: Kathy Mattea, SM July 22: Everly Brothers, SM July 27: Beach Boys, S July 29: Johnny Cash, P July 29: Alison Krauss & Union Station, S July 29: Iron Butterfly, Randy Hansen, SM July 29: Beach Boys, G Aug. 3: Riders in the Sky, S Aug. 4: Gunther Schuller’s Journey Into Jazz, S Aug. 5: Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band, S Aug. 5: Little River Band, America, P Aug. 5: Gorge Blues Festival (B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan, Etta James, Elvin Bishop, J. Geils, Magic Dick), G Aug. 6: Bellamy Brothers, S Aug. 6: Smooth Jazz Festival (David Sanborn, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton), G Aug. 10: Loretta Lynn, S Aug. 11: Lucky Dube, S Aug. 11: Diamond Rio, SM Aug. 12: Jim Miller & the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, S Aug. 12: Lyle Lovett, G Aug. 13: Gunther Schuller and Spokane Symphony (all Russian program), S Aug. 13: Michelle Wright, SM Aug. 13: Boys II Men, TLC, Montel Jordan, G Aug. 16: Bill Wellington’s Children’s Concert, S Aug. 17: Gunther Schuller and Spokane Symphony (Schuller’s favorites), S Aug. 18: Natalie Cole, S Aug. 19: Gunther Schuller and Schweitzer Institute of Music students, with Spokane Symphony, S Aug. 20: Peter, Paul & Mary, G Aug. 26: Tracy Lawrence, SM Aug. 30: Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, P Aug. 30: Collin Raye, SM Sept. 1: Steve Miller Band, Doobie Brothers, G

Ticket info: Gorge tickets only available at Ticketmaster outlets, or by calling (206) 628-0888 or (509) 735-0500 (credit cards only). All other tickets available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, or by calling 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT (credit cards).