Sunblock & songs

The Triangle's large outdoor live-music venues may not make up a separate ecosystem, but they've always had enough of a pecking order to keep out of each other's way.

Raleigh's 20,000-capacity Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek remains the big dog, host to each year's largest tours. Cary's 7,000-capacity Booth Amphitheatre and the 2,700-capacity N.C. Museum of Art handle acts further down the ladder.

This year, however, three is becoming four - and competition is heating up. Opening this summer is a still-to-be-named 5,000-capacity amphitheater in downtown Raleigh where Live Nation, the concert behemoth that also operates Walnut Creek, will book 15 to 20 shows a year. That puts it in direct competition with Booth, which is booked by Nashville-based Outback Concerts.

So far, Booth is holding its own, with a 2010 lineup that includes My Morning Jacket, John Prine and Sheryl Crow. The Raleigh amphitheater has just a handful of shows confirmed so far, but lots more are in the works.

Raleigh's new facility has already wrought one change this year, involving Raleigh Downtown Live. That free-concert series is evolving from its former daylong-Saturday incarnation to midweek-evening shows with local and regional acts (because Live Nation would rather you buy tickets for Saturday shows at the new joint than go see something free at Moore Square). Specific details on that are still to come.

As for Walnut Creek, the schedule for the venue's 20th season has a familiar look. Widespread Panic will open things with two shows this weekend; there's a ton of country coming; John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Tom Petty are among the returning regulars; and Sarah McLachlan's revived Lilith Fair is back for the first time since the late '90s. If the Allman Brothers (the only act to play Walnut Creek every year since it opened) don't turn up at some point, it will probably upset the time-space continuum enough to trigger various end-times scenarios.

The N.C. Museum of Art has a solid schedule featuring folk legend Joan Baez, the Oscar-winning Swell Season and venue favorites Los Lobos, Tift Merritt and Dan Zanes. Duke Gardens has a terrific lineup of top-shelf local acts for its series.

The American Tobacco complex's WUNC-sponsored "Music on the Lawn" series plays up the Triangle's twangy side with Mike Cross, Chatham County Line and Thad Cockrell. And this weekend's Spring Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Chatham County has 50-plus acts from all over, including Bela Fleck, Donna the Buffalo and Abigail Washburn, plus local favorites Bowerbirds, Inflowential and The Beast.

Just don't forget the sunblock.