Sean C. Morgan
If you can’t wait for the Oregon Jamboree at the end of July, you can now get a little pre-taste of the festival.
Kicking off a new Oregon Jamboree concert series on Thursday, the Jamboree and KRKT, 99.9 FM, sold out a mystery concert at $10 per ticket at the LaSells Stewart Center in Corvallis. Approximately 1,200 fans attended.
Buying tickets on spec, they got James Otto, a country musician from Ft. Lewis, Wash., as the surprise star.
His hits include “Just Got Started Lovin’ You,” which reached No. 1 in 2007. Last year, he hit twice on the country chart with “Groovy Little Summer Song” and “Soldiers and Jesus.”
“I’ve heard the name, and when he was playing his music I recognized his music,” said Cassie Richey, a Jamboree supervisor. She had no idea who the mystery artist would be.
“I think it was a cool idea. He was definitely entertaining. I would do it again.”
“I think it had people intrigued,” said her husband, Jared Richey. “They were curious.”
Jackson Michelson, winner of last year’s Colgate Country Music Showdown in Oregon, opened the concert.
On May 10, the Jamboree and KUPL will present the Oregon Jamboree Kickoff Show with Sarah Evans at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland.
Evans, an Oregon-based Jamboree veteran, had several No. 1 hits, including “No Place That Far” in 1998, “Born to Fly” in 2000 and “A Real Fine Place to Start” in 2005. Her last single, “A Little Bit Stronger,” reached No. 13 on the Billboard country music chart last year.
Opening for Evans will be Ty Stone and Stealing Angels.
“We wanted to make sure that we’re including more of the state,” said Oregon Jamboree Festival Director Erin Regrutto. “We want people to be able to enjoy the Jamboree all year long.”
The concert series is in line with a revamped marketing campaign aimed at keeping the Jamboree in fans’ minds 12 months of the year instead of just July or August.
The concert series encourages fans to remember the Jamboree, but it also helps reach new ones, she said. “It’s a great way to share a little piece of the Jamboree with people who’ve never come to the Jamboree.”
It’s something that Jamboree officials have been talking about for a while, Regrutto said, ever since having lunch with Scott Schuler and Angie Foster of KRKT.
“We were talking about what we could do to spread the message throughout the year,” Regrutto said. Foster mentioned a sticky note that Schuler had posted to his computer at home about doing a mystery concert. They tossed the idea around; and the more they talked about it, the cooler the idea sounded.
“I’m so glad we ran with the mystery concert,” she said. As people started getting into the mystery concert, they started talking about more shows.
KUPL had a show coming up, Regrutto said, and the Jamboree decided to get involved.
Next year, Jamboree officials would like to do more shows, expanding to Bend and Medford, which have strong Jamboree fan bases.
“The response was excellent,” Regrutto said. “He’s a great performer. He’s very talented. The two guys he had with him were talented.”
Regrutto expressed appreciation for KRKT and the Jamboree management team, staff and supervisors who pulled the show together.
She also thanked Otto and his crew, she said. “They did an awesome job. They were really easy to work with and put on an awesome show.”
The show included a benefit for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.