McDowell Mountain Festival kicks off Friday
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
Get Out

When longtime East Valley musician Walt Richardson was organizing and performing on his own Wintersun Music Festival, his longtime friends and fans John Largay and Ron Colone presented him with an idea.

“John came out to one of the events and he just said, ‘Man, we can make an event like this really huge,’” Richardson says of the origins of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, which kicks off at noon Friday. “He has huge sponsorship through his company. Ron handles getting all of the national acts together, and because of my experience with the Wintersun festival, I bring all of the locals acts together.” The two-day McDowell Mountain Music Festival will include performances by such notable artists as Dickey Betts, former singer and guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, and his group Great Southern, pop pianist extraordinaire Bruce Hornsby, who won a Grammy for best new artist in 1986, legendary Texas singer/songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker and soul man Solomon Burke.

Locals on the bill include Richardson and legendary blues musician Hans Olson, who has made his home in Arizona for more than 30 years.
Largay sees the festival as a way for his company to give back to the community, to benefit charity and create a friendly atmosphere for families.

“We're not doing it because we need the money, and that's the cool thing about it,” Largay says. “The two charities, Phoenix Day (Child & Family Learning Center) and Arizona Quest for Kids, are very family-oriented. We've got an arts and crafts tent, we've got a large play area, we've got about a 40- to 50-vendor artist village. There's 400 RV spots, and we've kept a third of the field vacant to create a campground with 200 camp spots available. “People can come early Friday and spend the entire weekend.”

McDowell Mountain Music Festival
Who: Dickey Betts and Great Southern, Jerry Jeff Walker, Susan Tedeschi and Jerry Riopelle, Joseph Langham, Sunday Afternoon (Friday); Solomon Burke, Bruce Hornsby, Walt Richardson's Friends and Warriors, Hans Olson, Tony Furtado Band, The Derek Trucks Band and Big Head Todd & The Monsters (Saturday)
Where: WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 N. Pima Road
When: 2 to 11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday How much: Adults $38-$43 per day, $75 weekend; youth and students $12-$20 Info: