The feet of snow still on the ground make summer seem like a distant dream.
But the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce is already planning for the season. This week, it released its lineup for this year’s series of free outdoor concerts in Soldotna Creek Park, which start in June with Peninsula-based folk-rock band Blackwater Railroad Co.
“It’s a really neat honor that they would let us start the whole thing off,” said Blackwater Railroad singer and guitarist Tyson Davis.
This isn’t the group's first time playing Soldotna Creek Park, or the weekly Wednesday concert series, which is entering its fourth year with help from the national Levitt Foundation. The foundation awards Levitt AMP grants to more than 30 small communities across the country so they can put on free outdoor shows.
The grant was originally for three years. Last year, the Soldotna chamber won another three-year grant, for $90,000, to take the program through 2025. Soldotna pairs its concerts with a weekly Wednesday farmers market.
Davis said it’s fun playing outdoor shows like this one in Alaska.
“We feed a lot off energy,” he said. “So once we get a hold of a crowd of people that are picking up what we’re doing, then away we go, you know, feeding off each other.”
Blackwater Railroad Co. has roots in Seward. Davis said they came together a decade ago — when they were a group of twenty-somethings working odd jobs and looking to play music.
“We started as a community band, just started kind of playing for beer money,” he said. “And it started to grow, we started to get gigs around the peninsula.”
And he said they try to write songs that grab people’s attention.
“We wear our heart on our sleeve when it comes to expressing ourselves through our music, and expressing ourselves on stage,” he said. “So it’s a very heartfelt, a very passionate, emotional and fun experience.”
This year’s lineup is bookended by local acts — the last show of the season on Aug. 30 features Sue Biggs and Jack Will, and the Derek Poppin Band, all of Soldotna. Between June and August there’s a smattering of local and non-local bands, both, including Diggin’ Dirt, a California-based funk band.
You can find the full lineup here
