Benefit concert moved to Optimist Park

After being largely gone from the Idaho music scene for 25 years, the Americana bluegrass and country rock band Tarwater, from Mountain Home, will return to the stage next week for a benefit concert.

The Tarwater reunion event will run from 6-10 p.m. July 18 as part of this year's Concert in the Park series, hosted by the Mountain Home Arts Council and the city parks and recreation department.

However, although the concert was originally scheduled in Carl Miller Park, the city's parks and recreation department had previously booked the park for a wedding at nearly the same time. As a result of the discovery of the doublebooking, the Tarwater concert will now be held at Optimist Park.

Wherever it's held, it's good news for Tarwater fans.

"The band is getting together... to do something great for their hometown of Mountain Home," said arts council executive director Sally Cruser.

In addition to Tarwater, next week's benefit will also feature Pinto Bennett and the Famous Motel Cowboys, Claudia Williams and Montana Rose as well as Kip Attaway.

Admission is free and open to the general public. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department as a way of saying "thanks" for all their efforts to save the communities of Pine, Featherville and Mountain Home following last year's fire season, Cruser said.

Best known for playing a full range of what the band called "hard country music," this group of "self-proclaimed hooligans" formed in Mountain Home in 1974. They were especially known for headlining annual Woodstock-style concerts in places like Featherville and Idaho City, notably the third annual Tarwater festival at the Klam Ranch near Idaho City in 1976.

They toured the western United States, playing more 300 clubs per year. The original five members included Teddy Ray Jones, David Lyle Evans, Fred "Pinto" Bennett, Dennis "Ollie" Ashley, Larry Baun and Jake Hoffman. All but Hoffman were residents of Mountain Home.

The original band members recorded a studio album in 1975 entitled "Tarnation."

Personnel changes resulted in the addition of J. Robert Houghtaling on lead guitar after Ashley's departure. In 1977, Jake Hoffman left the band to follow a career in computer technology with Mickey Wells replacing him as the group's pedal steel guitarist.

Other members came and went, and the band eventually dissolved in the mid-1980s. In 1987, Pinto Bennett and the Famous Motel Cowboys recorded a studio album in 1987, which included original Tarwater members Teddy Ray Jones and Jake Hoffman.

Members of Tarwater came together in Nashville over the years to record two more studio albums -- "Tarwater: Hard Country Music" in 2006 and "Tarwater: From The Heart" a year later.

The group's fan base and concert experience has been compared to that of the Grateful Dead, and their periodic reunion concerts continue to attract fans, old and new, according to those who know the band the best.

Years ago, every mountain state had one country band that represented and somehow became emblematic of their home ground, said Rob Quist from Montana's Mission Mountain Wood Band. In Idaho, that band was Tarwater.

"These boys were serious pickers," Quist said. "When we first began to share the stage with them, we were blown away with their friendliness, irresistible energy, musical prowess and Idaho cowboy sensibilities."

Though time has passed, recognizing the important contributions of Tarwater and the other mountain state bands began to surface throughout the west, he added.

"They represent a strong musical connection for many of us to some of the greatest moments in our colorful history," Quist said.

One of the reasons Tarwater had such a strong following back in the mid-70s was due, in part, to their unpredictable music sets, the group said. Even concert goers who heard them several times before still didn't know what to expect.

"That was largely due to the fact that every time Tarwater stepped onto a stage, they usually didn't know what to expect, either," the band noted.

If somebody requested a tune Tarwater had never played before, they would normally give it a try -- as long as one of the members knew the words and it was a song they liked, that is.

Be warned: They didn't play anything they didn't enjoy. Overplayed and well-worn classics like "Proud Mary" were out of the question, the group said.

From their perspective, Tarwater was dedicated to playing hard-hitting county music.

"Tarwater's music is whatever you want to make it," they said. "But one thing is for sure -- it comes directly to you, straight from the heart, just like it did all those years ago," the band said.

Attaway released his first album in 1980. Two of the songs made it into the top 100 on the country charts. In 1986, his band took first place in the Marlboro National Talent Search. Since then, he's has released 12 more albums in addition to touring the country and venues around the world.

Raised in the West, Williams grew up listening and learning from the hard core troubadours before she recorded her first album. Now living in Montana, she's recorded six albums with her band, Montana Rose.

The Summer Concert Series will continue July 26 as Blaze and Kelly takes the stage in Carl Miller Park. The concert lineup concludes Aug. 2 as Thomas Hutchings & Anomaly return to Mountain Home.

This family event is made possible by local sponsors, including B&C Welding, Alan and Vickie Bermensolo, Mayor Tom Rist and Shirley Rist, Best Western Foothill Inn, Johnson Brothers Hospitality LLC, KMHI 1240AM, Patrick C. Cruser from Edward Jones, STF Lawn Care, Mountain Home News, Wakefield Music Store & Mountain Home Music School, Western Elmore County Recreation District, Wheeler's Wieners and Winger's Roadhouse Grill.

More information on the concert series is available on the arts council's website at www.mharts.org or on its Facebook page.