Free Schwab shows begin with Lawrence

Les Schwab Amphitheater’s free Summer Sunday concerts are one of the coolest perks of living in Bend.

Think about it: Free music. Outdoors. Bring your own food and drinks and kids and dogs (but keep ’em on a leash! The dogs, not the kids). What’s not to like?

The 2009 Summer Sunday shows spring to life this weekend with fast-rising Bendite Reed Thomas Lawrence, who plays the perfect style of pop-rock for lounging on the grass with loved ones.

Plus, he’s only two weeks away from playing the gigantic Rothbury Festival in Michigan. There are going to be tens of thousands of people there, so you might want to catch him now in case he blows up big so you can say you knew him way back when. (You can read more about Lawrence and his spot on the Rothbury bill at the Frequency blog. Visit www.bendbulletin.com/frequency and search “Rothbury.”)

Here’s the rest of the Summer Sunday schedule so far. Gates open at 1 p.m., and the music starts at 2:30 p.m. The amphitheater is at 344 S.W. Shevlin Hixon Drive in Bend.

June 21 — Keegan Smith & The Fam (soul)

June 28 — Erin Cole-Baker (folk-pop)

July 5 — Culver City Dub Collective (reggae-rock)

July 12 — Head For The Hills (bluegrass)

July 19 — E.O.E. (global funk-hop)

July 26 — To be announced

Aug. 9 — Bob Manning & The Honky Tonk Road Show (country)

Aug. 16 — Kidstock — U.S. School of Rock Allstars (rock)

Aug. 23 — Matt Lewis Band (pop-rock)

For more information, hit up www.bendconcerts.com or call 541-322-9383.

Music in the Canyon kicks off in Redmond

Fans of free live music under the warm Central Oregon sky are in luck this year in Redmond.

Music on the Green — a series of free concerts in Sam Johnson Park — will return in 2009, and we’ll have the schedule in GO! Magazine next week. But new this year is Music in the Canyon, a series meant to complement Music on the Green.

From 5:30 to 8 p.m. every other Wednesday beginning next week, a band will set up at the Redmond Rotary Arts Pavilion (850 S.W. Rimrock Way) in the new American Legion Park to play the night away.

Next week’s featured band is the popular local country band Countryfied. Learn more about them and hear some tunes at www.myspace.com/countryfiedspace.

Here’s the rest of the Music in the Canyon lineup:

July 1 — Stunt Poets (music, poetry, stunts)

July 15 — Brent Alan and his Funky Friends (funky, rocking jams)

July 29 — Lisa and Her Kin (bluesy country-tonk)

Aug. 12 — Moon Mountain Ramblers (eclectic Americana)

Aug. 26 — Leif James and the Struggle (blues-rock)

Sept. 9 — Party of the Nines (a mix of local acts, culminating with a performance by Broken Top)

For more info about Music in the Canyon, call 541-504-6878 or visit www.musicinthecanyon.com.

Roses at Gunpoint plays Elk Lake Resort

If you want to combine your summer music intake with a gorgeous drive into the mountains, Elk Lake Resort has you covered.

The resort will be hosting live music every Saturday night (plus some Fridays) all summer, beginning Saturday with the Bend-based band Roses at Gunpoint.

The band closed Elk Lake’s 2008 music series, and they’ll bring their eclectic rock ’n’ roll back to kick off 2009. Roses at Gunpoint draws influence from, well, just about all the music of the past few decades, playing covers of The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and more, plus originals penned by guitarist Pat Mayer.

The music will get started around 5 p.m., with Sisters singer-songwriter Austin Erlandson opening. There is no cover. To get there, take Century Drive to Mount Bachelor, then drive about 11 more miles on Cascade Lakes Highway. Turn left just past the resort’s blue sign.

For the rest of the series, the music will run from 5 to 8 p.m. and the cover will range from $5 to $15. Organizers are still putting together the full lineup, but here’s what they’ve got so far:

June 19 — Keyboard and acoustic set outside, hip-hop dance inside.

July 4 — Jim Lee and Jo Boozer

July 18 — Detour: Jazz

July 25 — Slick Side Down

July 31 — Big Pine and The Pitchtones

Aug. 1 — Grateful Dead cover band

Aug. 7 — Breedlove Guitars/Carrera Porsche rally jamboree

Aug. 15 — The Sweet Harlots

Aug. 22 — Dr. Mike Ryan’s Texas Blues Roadshow

Aug. 29 — Blackstrap

Sept. 5 — Moon Mountain Ramblers

For more info, call 541-480-7378 or visit www.elklakeresort.net.

Jason Spooner starts Angeline’s series

Funk, folk, blues, jazz, soul, reggae, roots music.

Did we cover it all?

The Jason Spooner Trio does. Straight outta New England, Spooner and his band play the kind of music that goes down smooth. Spooner can deftly pick his guitar, and his voice and melodies are easy on the ears. His band sounds like it can churn out pleasant pop-rock with little effort. The result sounds a bit like Paul Simon playing John Mayer songs. So yeah … this band could break big.

Before that happens, you have a chance to catch the Jason Spooner Trio in the cozy confines of Angeline’s Bakery (121 W. Main St., Sisters). Spooner’s band will kick off the 2009 summer music series at Angeline’s, which also includes dates by acts such as Hillstomp, Elephant Revival, The JZ Band, Taarka, David Jacobs-Strain, Dennis McGregor and Tony Furtado.

Angeline’s will host concerts on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and the occasional Monday at 7 p.m. The cost on Fridays is $5, and on other days, it’ll range from $5 to $10. The Spooner show is $5.

The lineup is too long to list here, but you can see the whole thing over at www.angelinesbakery.com.

— Ben Salmon