Near the front door of the Rockin B Ranch Cowboy Supper Show barn, which is located a fair piece east of Spokane and shoutin distance from where Interstate 90 crosses the Washington-Idaho border, theres a box that reads Caution: Baby Rattlers.


Its a joke. You know there arent any snakes in there. Still, you have to see for yourself.


You look. There are rattlers in the box all right, or more appropriately, rattles. Baby rattles.


We try to put a little bit of whimsy into everything we do here, says Scott Brownlee, who owns, operates, and performs at the 12-year-old Rockin B Ranch with his wife, Pamela.


Rockin B puts on a cowboy supper show, which includes a humorous cowboy shootout and a hangingcomplete with an exploding outhousea barbecue supper, and a western-music concert three nights a week during the summer. The Rockin Bs season runs from the beginning of June to the end of September, with the barn doors opening on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 5:30 p.m.


At the show, the audience doesnt meet Scott or Pamela, though. More likely, they encounter Dusty Bicuspid, the toothless, incompetent deputy in the cowboy shootout skit. Scott says the skit includes one-and-a-half good guys and one bad guy, with Dusty Bicuspid being the half good guy.


Im the dufus, Scott says.


Its his alter ego, Pamela says.


Pamela is better known as Miss Pammie, the main singer in the Riders of the Rockin B band, which is the main act at each supper show and mainly plays late 19th century western music. Scott changes out of his Dusty get-up to play bass and sing some in the band as well.


Other family members also get involved in the act. Pamelas brother, Tim Van Valin, works the barbecue pit every show night, then, after dinner, hops on stage to sing as part of the Riders of the Rockin B.


Pamela says Van Valin is the only one among them who actually has worked as a cowboy. Now, during the day, he puts his brand on legal work as an attorney for the city of Rathdrum.


The Brownlees daughter, 23-year-old Olivia, sings with the group sometimes, and their 20-year-old son, Penn, often works the grill with his uncle.


On a busy night, about 20 people work at the Rockin B.


The venue for each show is the Rockin B barn, at 3912 Spokane Bridge Road, just up the hill from the Brownlees home. The barn, which once had 12 stables down each of its sides and a riding arena in the middle, now holds a large stage located along one side, flanked by an old stagecoach to one side and a chuck wagon on the other. Bathrooms, a kitchen area, and storage run along the back wall. In the old arena, a wood floor has been laid in and furnished with large picnic tables that can seat a total of 299 people.


Saddles and tack hang from the barn walls and the barns beams, and autographed pictures of western actors and singersGene Autry and Richard Farnsworth, among themhang on a wall near the bathrooms.


Outside, the north side of the barn is painted with false storefronts, and a boardwalk runs the length of the building. On the east side is the set of the cowboy shootout, complete with buildings painted like an Old West town, an outhouse wired to meet an untimely demise in each show, and gallows.


Each evenings performance starts with the shootout skit, after which the spectators mosey inside to find their seats. Shortly thereafter, they line up to get their supper, and the staff dishes up a plate of grub for each person.


Its hearty fare, with beef roast, pork spareribs, or chicken, all marinated and cooked on an open pit, and hot dogs for kids. The slabs of meat are accompanied by pinto beans, cornbread, foil-wrapped potatoes, apple sauce, and iced sheet cake, as well as a red barbecue sauce suggested both for the meat and the beans. Lemonade and coffee are servedno alcoholic beverages are available, in an effort to preserve the family atmosphere, Pamela says.


After supper, the main music show starts.


Pamela says the show includes a lot of audience participation and is inspired largely by western music of the late 1800s, which emphasizes country life more so than personal woes. She says the band is different from most that people are accustomed to seeing nowadays. It doesnt have a drum and is heavy on string instruments. It predates what most people think of as country-and-western music and isnt dance music.


The exception to the show schedule occurs the third Tuesday of each month, when Rockin B Ranch hosts a jazz night, during which 1930s and 1940s jazz standards are played. Pamela says that while the typical show is good for a family night, the jazz acts are better suited for a date night.


We do it up pretty fancy for a barn, Scott says.


The Brownlees say Rockin B Ranch has been profitable the past couple of years, after being a big money pit for many years.


They are quick to admit that they are musicians first, barbecue cooks second, and businesspeople a distant third. They dont track annual revenues or annual attendance at their shows closely. They get more local traffic than tourist traffic, which is different from similar venues theyre aware of around the country that rely heavily on tourism.


Fifty percent of our business comes from Spokane, and 50 percent comes from Idaho, Pamela says. Scott quickly interjects, And another 50 percent comes from other places.


The Brownlees both grew up in small towns and had musical parents. Scott is a native of northeastern Colorado, and Pamela was raised in a rural part of Southern California.


Despite their rural beginnings, the couple met in Los Angeles while studying music. Scott studied to be a composer-arranger, and Pamela studied singing. After getting hitched, they lived in a rural area near Los Angeles and did work for the Walt Disney Co., mostly writing musical scores for cartoons.


Scott also taught classes at UCLA and continues to do so three days a week during the school year, flying back and forth between Spokane and the Los Angeles area. Recently, he began teaching at Loyola Marymount University, in the Los Angeles area, as well.


In the early 1990s, the couple decided to move to a more rural area to raise their children in an environment more like where they had grown up. Scott came to the Inland Northwest because some of Pamelas family already had moved here. He began looking for a place to rent.


The problem was that the Brownlees had two horses and needed a barn, but Scott couldnt find a place with a barn for rent. Finally, they decided to buy the house off of Spokane Bridge Road with the barn that now houses the Rockin B.


Sadly, between the time they bought the place and moved to Spokane, the two horses died unexpectedly. Then, they had the barn, but no horses.


When they moved here in 1992, a friend suggested that they hold a concert in the vacant barn. They threw a few church concerts and packed in a few hundred people for each. In 1994, they started Rockin B Ranch as their own venue for performing.


Each year, they add a new feature to the venuelast year, they built faux stone entries to the stage and added a Rube Goldberg-style pulley system to the sign above the ticket booth, so that when the sign is raised, two waterfalls on each side of the door begin to run.


Mostly importantly, though, the barn has given them a venue for their first passion: music.


This has afforded us a place to do music, Pamela says. Now, we dont have to do bars anymore.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.