By Chip Chandler — Producer
Here's a quick take on your 10 best entertainment bets in the next 10 days.
1. Wild & Free on 83
This five-community festival in Canadian, Wheeler, Shamrock, Wellington and Childress will feature dozens of family-friendly pitstops all along the highway between Aug. 1 and 4. Other fests of note: the Hey Amarillo Beer Fest at 5 p.m. Aug. 3 at Starlight Ranch Event Center; and the 16th annual Don W. Houghton Polk Street Cruise at 6 p.m. Aug. 3 in downtown Amarillo.
2. Sounds of Summer
The outdoor concert series begins to wind down in the next 10 days. Amarillo Botanical Gardens' annual Music in the Gardens series will continue at 8 p.m. Aug. 1 with Amarillo folk-rock band The DustJackets and will close at 8 p.m. Aug. 8 with Tennessee Tuckness at the gardens, 1400 Streit Drive. The Starlight Theatre series will continue at 7 p.m. Aug. 6 with Amarillo acoustic trio Wind Die Down at Sam Houston Park, Line Avenue and Western Street. Center City of Amarillo's High Noon on the Square will close its 25th anniversary with Amarillo party band Insufficient Funds and fajitas from Joe Taco at noon Aug. 7 on the lawn of the Potter County Courthouse, 501 S. Fillmore St.
3. Amarillo Sod Poodles
The Soddies will face the Frisco Roughriders from Aug. 1 to 4 at Hodgetown, 715 S. Buchanan St. The Aug. 3 game is a Super Hero Night, featuring costumed characters on the concourse and fireworks following the game. Plus, Coffee Memorial Blood Center's 11th annual Boots vs. Badges charity softball game will take place at 6:05 p.m. Aug. 10, also at Hodgetown. Also for sports fans: the 83rd annual XIT Rodeo & Reunion from Aug. 1 to 3 in Dalhart, featuring a free watermelon feed on Aug. 1, free pork chops on Aug. 2 and the world's largest free barbecue on Aug. 3, plus concerts from Mike Chism & Hollow Point on Aug. 1, The Bellamy Brothers on Aug. 2 and Cooder Graw on Aug. 3.
4. First Friday Art Walk
Take one final walk through the galleries at 5 p.m. Aug. 2 at Arts in the Sunset, 3701 Plains Blvd. (Plans call for the majority of the old Sunset Mall to be demolished, but the walks could return in a new incarnation once construction is finished, officials said.) Art fans should also check out the First Thursday Art + Music, featuring art from Olivia Francis and tunes from Stewart Cowan and Ty Horn, at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave.
5. Aaron Watson
The Amarillo native will continue the celebration of his release of Red Bandana, the latest album in his 20-year career, with an 8 p.m. Aug. 2 show with Ned LeDoux and Ross Cooper at Starlight Ranch Event Center, 1415 Sunset Drive. Other live music offerings of note through Aug. 5: folk singer-songwriter Yvonne Perea at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1, Amarillo combo Polk Street Jazz at 9 p.m. Aug. 2, harpist Jenny Miller at 7 p.m. Aug. 3, Esquire Jazz at 9 p.m. Aug. 3 and Duo Kara at 9 p.m. Aug. 9 at Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St.; Voice contestant Jake Worthington at 10 p.m. Aug. 1, Texas country singer-songwriter John Baumann at 10 p.m. Aug. 2 and Texas country singer Bri Bagwell at 10 p.m. Aug. 3 at Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road; Amarillo singer-songwriter Stephanie Brackett at 7 p.m. Aug. 2 and Amarillo singer-songwriter Ray Wilson at 7 p.m. Aug. 3 at Bar Z Winery, 19290 Farm-to-Market Road 1541; underground hip-hop show The Rise of the Misfits at 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at T's Bar, 700 S.W. 10th Ave.; Amarillo surf-rock band The Mag 7 at 9 p.m. Aug. 2 at The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave.; Amarillo rock band Loaded Six at 10 p.m. Aug. 2 and rock band California Dolls at 10 p.m. Aug. 3 at Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave.; and Eagles tribute band FastLane at 8 p.m. Aug. 3 at Starlight Ranch Event Center. Plus, tune into our Facebook page, our homepage or Amarillo College's FM90 to enjoy the sold-out Yellow City Sounds Live concert featuring Western music icon Michael Martin Murphey at 7 p.m. Aug. 5.
6. Ama-Con
Friends of the Amarillo Public Library's eighth-annual pop-culture celebration will return Aug. 3 and 4 in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex, 401 S. Buchanan St. Other family-friendly events will include Discovery Center Wizarding School, with wand-making, wizarding classes and more from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at the center, 1200 Streit Drive; and Amarillo Museum of Art's Cut Up / Cut Out Family Day celebrating its newest exhibition, from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 3 at the museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St.
7. Country Music preview
Get an early look at Ken Burns' upcoming eight-part PBS documentary about the American art form with this 6 p.m. Aug. 6 screening at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, 2503 Fourth Ave. The museum also will display a pop-up collection of its country-related artifacts, including a fiddle and bow owned by Bob Wills.
8. The Kitchen
Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss star as '70s housewives who pick up where their Irish mobster husbands leave off when the men are carted off to prison in this drama opening Aug. 9 (previewing Aug. 8). Also opening that weekend: children's action film Dora and the Lost City of Gold; horror film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; and dog drama The Art of Racing in the Rain. Opening Aug. 2 (previewing Aug. 1): the high-speed Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Special engagements will include five colorized episodes of I Love Lucy on Aug. 6; a 10th anniversary screening of Doctor Who: The End of Time on Aug. 7; and the live Big, Loud & Live screening of the DCI World Championship preliminaries on Aug. 8. Plus, animated film Wonder Park will screen at 8:45 p.m. Aug. 9 at Thompson Park, 2401 Dumas Drive.
9. Janice's Friends
The late singer-actress Janice Perkins Easterday will be celebrated in this concert raising funds for Merely Players and scholarship funds for Amarillo College Theatre and Amarillo Little Theatre Academy. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9 and 10 in the AC Concert Hall Theatre on the Washington Street campus. Also on stage: Amarillo burlesque troupe Broken Belts Collective's Violet Crown Follies with The Jigglewatts at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at Off the Hook, 626 S. Polk St., Suite 200; Amarillo playwright Jason Driver's These Scenes, This Order at 6:30 p.m. Aug 2 and 3 in the AC Experimental Theatre; and a Yellow City Comedy showcase at 10 p.m. Aug. 2 at RR Bar, 701 S. Georgia St.
10. Clint Black
The '90s music favorite returns to Amarillo for a 7:30 p.m. Aug. 10 concert in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St. Other live music of note between Aug. 9 and 10: Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band Bad Moon Rising at 8 p.m. Aug. 9 at Starlight Ranch Event Center, 1415 Sunset Drive; Texas country singer Chris Colston at 10 p.m. Aug. 9 at Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road; Mary Lyn Halley and Dean Yates of Insufficient Funds at 7 p.m. Aug. 9 and Amarillo classic rock band Jackie Haney & Geezers Gone Wild at 7 p.m. Aug. 10 at Bar Z Winery, 19290 Farm-to-Market Road 1541; and Amarillo rock band Broken Echo at 10 p.m. Aug. 9 at Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave.
Chip Chandler is a producer for Panhandle PBS and a member of GALECA. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
