The Wichita Falls Museum of Art has hosted Live at the Lake for 12 years, and this season will be one to beat. Eight bands will perform at the Midwestern State University, at The Ruby and Robert Priddy Pavilion located beside the museum on Eureka Drive.
“Cohn Drennan started it when he was the director of the museum. He had a group that had played music together since college. He wanted to do this because we had the lake, and it was something to do when it was dead,” said Mary Helen Maskill, Community Engagement Manager at the WFMA at MSU. “It just kind of morphed and then it was decided to build the pavilion, which was a no-brainer. We used to have to set up a tent and a stage. It was so labor intensive.”
The bands performing this season start with Cousin Fuzzy on April 25th. Slab Rat will be on May 9th, then Jay Hollis on May 23. In June, on the sixth, Walking Johnny will perform, and on June 20th the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra presents the Gimbles. July 18th Rock Paper Scissors will play. Catch Hellen Bach on September 5th. The season will close out with Deep In It on September 19th. All the bands play on Thursdays.
In the past, the concerts have been on the first and third Thursdays through the summer months, but Mary Helen changed it up this year. “The reason we are starting early and staying later in the year is because four of the dates will occur so that students at MSU in the Fall and Spring semesters can attend the event. I wanted to put half of them when the kids can come. They say, ‘Wow this is cool.’ Also, I took off the hot month. We don’t even have one in August,” she explained.
“Each band has their own crowd that comes to listen when they play. Couzin Fuzzy brings out the crowd that listened to them in high school. They have been around for decades. Slab Rat is a group of young musicians led by Ben Prader. Jay Hollis has been here since the beginning. All of his group are musicians from Dallas, but he is from Henrietta, so the Henrietta crowd comes out to hear him play. The Gimbles are a blue grass band and this is their first time here. Rock Paper Scissors are a Jazz Band, Helen Bach is a solid rock band, and Deep In It is a new rock band,” Mary Helen explained. “Mayfield Events does the sound for the bands.”
– Cindy Kahler Thomas
