The Palouse Music Festival will take place 11a.m.-7p.m. Saturday at Hayton-Greene Park in Palouse, Washington. This event is sponsored by the Palouse Arts Council and Palouse Chamber of Commerce.
“The festival features local talent from the Palouse region,” Paul Smith, Palouse Arts Council talent acquisition chair. – JP
Smith said the Palouse Arts Council tries to bring in new artists from a variety of genres. This year, Jens Hegg will play folk and blues, Smith and Reilly will play Americana, The Chelseas will be playing acoustic folk music, Floating Crowbar will play traditional Irish music, The Range Benders will play Americana roots to rock and a great rock band, Tone Sober, will close out the event.
Smith said they try to involve local music students by giving them a chance to play during the longer breaks between performances, giving the student a chance to perform.
The Range Benders, one of the bands performing at the Palouse Music Festival first started as a duet of Kelly Riley, lead vocalist, rhythm guitar and songwriter and Pete Lupi, lead guitar player, Riley said. The Range Benders further expanded with Malinda Ritts as bass player and Janet Anders on flute by 2022.
“We play a very diverse selection of genres that includes Americana, folk, blues, rock and a few bluegrassy tunes,” Riley said.
Riley said a personal song written by herself, ‘Somewhere in the World’ is one of her favorites. The song starts slow and builds to a fast tempo with lots of dynamics and nuances.
She said they hope to give the audience an hour or two to escape into music, hear the words they can relate to or reflect upon, bring memories with cover tunes from their past and give them a sound that makes them tap their toes, dance and smile.
“Music should be food for the soul,” Riley said.
Heidi Kite, who owns the Open Eye Consignment Shop in Palouse, originally started this festival as ‘Palouse Bluegrass Festival’ in 2005, Palouse Arts Council secretary Dona Abderhalden said.
Kite charged $5 to attend the festival, had too many vendors and underpaid the musicians and by early 2012, she decided it was too much work to handle by herself, Abderhalden said.
“It was more of a craft fair and a pig roast with music,” Abderhalden said.
Pullman Chamber of Commerce executive director Marie Dymkoski, Smith and Abderhalden decided the event was worth saving, thus got the PAC involved, Abderhalden said.
Smith came up with the idea that it is a local music festival, thus, “Local is the new Awesome,” became a part of the branding, Abderhalden said. The event usually draws about 300 or more people which benefits the local economy.
Tickets for the event will be available at the event; $10 for adults, $5 for kids 6-16 years old and free for kids under 6 years.
