Past concert director Joel Smith doesn’t expect anybody to stand up and say, “I used to play in the Ellensburg Rodeo Cowboy Band,” the 1930s and 40s group that started it off. But he and current Gold Buckle Club/Concert director Kerry Clift will break down then evolution of sound equipment, the history of the musical acts and the rest of it on March 23 at the downtown Rodeo Hall of Fame.

“We’re the evolution of sound at the rodeo, from going through these little home speakers where you couldn’t understand a word said to a guy named Gogi Grant, who introduced a whole different sound system and entirely different kind of music,” Smith said. “That’s when rock ‘n’ roll started coming into the rodeo arena.

“We’re going to get into the concert series. I remember being really nervous on how much money we were spending on acts, wondering if anybody would show up to help us break even.”

The musical lineup over the years has been iconic, with the likes of Johnny Cash and June Carter (1984), Lee Greenwood (’85), Tim McGraw (’95), Rodney Crowell (’90), Tanya Tucker (’87 and ’93), and Glen Campbell (’88) gracing the Ellensburg stage.

There was a 19-year hiatus from 1999 to 2017 where the board made a decision to discontinue music. But it revisited the concert series value and came back bigger and better with Ned LeDoux in 2017, then followed with Joe Diffie (2018), Russell Dickerson/Whey Jennings (2019) and Love and Theft (2021) to finish out the Rockin’ the Arena series format.

“We’ll talk a little bit about that distance between concerts,” Smith said. “I was in charge of the concerts and we came to the conclusion that it was getting pretty risky financially with $60,000-$70,000 budgets.

“We had Chris LeDoux with no opener and the Bellamy Brothers by themselves. We started going to one act instead of two. We started up again and Kerry’s going to talk about that. We’ll talk about the different kinds of contracts we’ve done over the years, then turn it over to the audience to share their experiences. Hopefully people will share about some of the shows they’ve seen.”

The Ellensburg Rodeo concert series Rockin’ the Arena brought in hundreds of concert-goers over the years. But last year the board of directors made another change, moving to a more intimate setting Behind the Chutes, and the evolution of Rockin’ the Chutes was launched in 2022 with Wyoming singer/songwriter Chancey Williams.

“Rockin’ the Arena was a logistical nightmare trying to set up, run sound check and get ready in a three-hour time frame,” Smith.

Clift agreed, “I’m excited for the change. It was getting very time-consuming to bring the stage into the arena,” he said. “I like the nostalgia of the arena, but the stress getting set up was a lot.

“I’m excited that people coming to the concert will have that intimate feeling with the artists and not a stadium feeling. People are going to be right there in front of the stage enjoying the music.”

The Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame lecture series will continue with a backstage pass to the music that has shaped one of the Top 10 rodeos in the country.