McLaren, who is also painter, has been getting into the monthly nights out by hosting sidewalk chalk drawing contests outside her eclectic storefront. The take-home prize is $100.

During First Fridays participating businesses and galleries stay open later into the evening. In addition the artisans market, typically held Saturdays, will open Friday night at Driggs City Center in an across-the-town collaboration with Foxtrot Fine Arts, Downtown Driggs Association, The Velvet Moose, Teton Arts Gallery, Tribe Artist Collective (in Tetonia), the Local Galleria, Fireweed Shop and Studios, Mountain Home Treasures and Artisans at the Driggs Plaza.

Adding even more energy, Downtown Sounds’ musical lineup is sure to make for a good ol’ evening according to the event’s music promoter Joy Hart.

“Stomp cloggin’, two-steppin’, swing dancin’,” Hart said. “Pert Near Sandstone is a high-energy roots music bluegrass band from Minneapolis who will become new favorites of Teton Valley.”

Part old-timey, part indie-Midwestern-grassy-rock, the group will open Downtown Sounds at 6:30 p.m. at the band shell.

The band established itself as standard bearers for the versatility and vitality of the Midwestern roots music scene, performing onstage with the likes of Steve Martin and the Flaming Lips, and earning dates along the way with everyone from Trampled By Turtles and Del McCoury to Yonder Mountain String Band and Sam Bush. The band played at the Big Sky Big Grass Festival in 2015.

NPR’s “Mountain Stage” hailed the Minneapolis five-piece for putting a “Midwestern stamp on Appalachian [sounds].”

And yes, Pert Near Sandstone actually clogs.

The band is made up of Nate Sipe on mandolin, fiddle and vocals; Kevin Kniebel on banjo and vocals; J Lenz on guitar and vocals; Justin Bruhn on bass and vocals; and Matt Cartier on clogs.

Also on stage Friday, Boise-based Tylor and The Trainrobbers have been garnering a solid fan base in the Teton region for the last few years, Hart said, and always wins new fans with its Americana country vibe. The family affair is made up of Tylor Ketchum, his brothers Jason and Tommy Bushman, and his father-in-law Johnny “Shoes” Pisano, playing a lyric-driven blend of roots country and modern Americana that has been compared to Townes Van Zandt.

“Two incredibly talented bands in one night — be ready to cut the grass, folks!” Hart said.

To top it all off, work from last month’s Driggs Plein Air Festival will still be up in the City Center gallery.

Go to DowntownDriggs.org for other details or to see what else the association has in store for the rest of the summer. 

“The presence of art has grown. The response has been great.” — Teri McLaren owner of local galleria in Driggs