Open House: Archives

We didn't really know what to expect. PBDH does the marketing for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley, Idaho. It is the largest free symphony in the US. Every year they put on a two week season with a free concert almost every evening... always different. It is now in a new $25 million dollar pavilion. And... every year they put on a fund raiser so they can afford to put on the concerts. Past guest artists have been Batina (the Olympic Horse), the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the cast of the new South Pacific from NYC.

But... this year they got the help from a local resident... Steve Wynn (you know, Las Vegas Steve Wynn)... to help find an act to perform with the symphony. He happened to be starting to work with a country artist coming out of retirement after 10 years. Anyway... that turned out to be Garth Brooks.

My first exposure to Garth was while riding in a car near Point Reyes, CA, with a local Lindal Cedar Homes rep going to a photo shoot. Must have been around 25 years ago. He said he wasn't much of a country music fan but that he just bought this tape and I really need to hear it. I thought it was very interesting as it was the first fusion I had heard of R&B, country, and pop. Didn't inspire me to go out and buy it, but interesting non the less.

So here we are 25 years later. He comes out on stage and starts telling stories of his family and his various musical inspirations. With each artist he mentions, he plays one of their tunes. The crowd is ROARING. Then, he mentions a friend he highly admires and he brings out Trisha Yearwood. They do a couple amazing duets. Still not a country western fan, but I gotta tell you they were incredible. After an hour of this the orchestra comes out and plays another 45 minutes with him.

Definitely a memorable evening. Also memorable by the different crowd that showed up. A lot of cowboy hats, pointy boots (not the Beatle variety), sleeveless shirts and tattoos. Not the typical well-heeled symphony crowd. They had 5,500 people in attendance. The pavilion seats were $500 a pop and the lawn (which had no view other than a giant video screen) was $25 and all were sold out.

Kudos to Jennifer Teisinger, the SVSS Executive Director, for a job very well done.