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Calendar
2009 Schedule
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Upcoming Events
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Off The Vine
Friday, May 21
Save The Date!
Take a global wine and food tour.
 Please click image to view video.
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Sugarland
With Luke Bryan and Danny Gokey
Sunday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush make up country duo Sugarland who’ve sold over 8 million records since exploding onto the music scene in ‘04 with Twice The Speed Of Life (“Baby Girl”/“Something More”). Enjoy the Ride (“Want To”/“Settlin’”/“Stay”) quickly followed in ’06 and their third studio album Love On The Inside (“It Happens”/“Love”/“All I Want To Do”/“Already Gone”) in July ’08, which skyrocketed them to superstardom, drawing fans from all genres and critics abroad. Sugarland is credited with co-writing all tracks from all three albums and co-producing the last two. As a thank you to their loyal fans, in Aug. ’09 the duo released Live On The Inside, a CD/DVD set of live tracks, covers and footage from their tour. They’ve performed in six European countries and headlined a U.S. tour throughout ’09. They’ve received trophies from the Grammys, American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music, CMT Music Awards and the Country Music Association. Nettles was recently chosen to perform for the Obama Presidential celebration, as well as the duo for Oprah. In August, ABC aired an hour-long network special featuring the duo in their most beloved setting...on stage. Their latest album Gold And Green, a 10-track holiday collection consisting of half standards and half originals, all of which Nettles and Bush co-wrote and co-produced was a Christmas sensation. Most recently, the duo received a nomination for “Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals” for #1 smash hit “It Happens” at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
Sugarland has debuted a new single ‘Wide Open’ for the Team USA Soundtrack.
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Jethro Tull
With Very Special Guest Procol Harum
June 17, 2010
On Sale Date: Feb 20th at noon
Early in 1968, a group of young British musicians, born from the ashes of various failed regional bands gathered together in hunger, destitution and modest optimism in Luton, North of London. With a common love of Blues and an appreciation, between them, of various other music forms, they started to win over a small but enthusiastic audience in the various pubs and clubs of Southern England. The breakthrough came when they were offered the Thursday night residency at London's famous Marquee Club in Wardour Street, Soho.
The early Jethro Tull released their first Blues-oriented album, This Was, in the latter part of 1968 before moving on to more home-grown and eclectic efforts in 1969 with Stand Up and a flutter of single releases, including Living In The Past, in the UK market.
Benefit, Aqualung, and Thick As A Brick followed and the band's success grew internationally. Various band members came and went, but the charismatic front man and composer, flautist and singer Ian Anderson continued, as he does to this day, to lead the group through its various musical incarnations.
Jethro Tull were, by the mid-seventies, one of the most successful live performing acts on the world stage, rivalling Zeppelin, Elton John and even the Rolling Stones. Surprising, really, for a group whose more sophisticated and evolved stylistic extravagance was far from the Pop and Rock norm of that era.
With now some 30-odd albums to their credit and sales totalling more than 50 million, the apparently uncommercial Tull have continued over the next three decades to travel near and far to fans across the world.
After forty years at the bottom, at the top and various points in between, Tull are still performing typically more than a hundred concerts each year. Ian Anderson and Martin Barre remain at the centre of a group of sometimes changing but highly capable – indeed excellent – musicians. Currently, Doane Perry, veteran Tull drummer of some 24 years experience, together with John O'Hara on piano and accordion, and David Goodier on bass guitar are to be found in the line-up, delighting audiences and continuing the legacy of Tull's music with its rich variety and depth of expression wherever fans, young and old, want to hear Rock, Folk, Jazz and Classical-inspired music for grown-ups.
Procol Harum
According to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "42 is the answer to the great question – The meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything". Maybe the late Douglas Adams, the writer of the Guide, who was a friend of Procol's "Commander" Gary Brooker, knew more than he was letting on.
2009, 42 years from the release of A Whiter Shade of Pale, saw their monumental first smash hit being awarded the accolade of the most-played single of the past seventy-five years.
Procol Harum, never resting on their laurels, also had four re-mastered CD albums and the acclaimed DVD "In Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra" already in the shops (in addition to the anthology Secrets of the Hive and the "Live at Union Chapel" DVD), with another three re-mastered albums and a special 4-disc DVD/CD box set – All this and More – released in 2009. In addition, the band went into the studio recording some new tracks. It could be termed a plethora of Procol.
Gary Brooker is most famous as the founding member of Procol Harum, along with Keith Reid; yet music fans have also appreciated his excellent work with such artists as George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman, Kate Bush, Wings, Mickey Jupp and even Lonnie Donegan.
Gary, "the Commander"' to one and all, still leads from behind the piano.
Below decks lies a purring engine of a rhythm section in the hands of bassist Matt Pegg (Blinder, Ian Anderson) & Drummer Geoff Dunn (Jimmy Page, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison). Josh Phillips (Pete Townsend) has been in full charge of the Hammond since 2004, and last but not least, 18-year veteran and guitarist Geoff Whitehorn has supplied guitar by appointment to Roger Chapman, Elkie Brooks, Paul Rodgers, Roger Daltrey and several more of the British rock aristocracy.
The best part of the current five-piece line-up has been together for over a decade, yet the recording of The Well's on Fire in 2002 was the first time they'd been in the studio together, and their empathy showed. Procol combined state-of-the-art digital production with the 'live' feel you'd expect from a band that recorded its landmark first album on four-track tape, the same manner as Sgt Pepper. Producer Rafe McKenna (UB40, Big Country, Ash) helped Procol add a contemporary edge to the time-honoured songwriting combination of Brooker, Reid and occasionally Fisher.
A new Procol Harum studio album is planned for release later this year, but watch out for the latest news, and digital downloads, at "What's New" at www.procolharum.com |
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Ringo Starr
Wednesday, July 21 at 8:00 p.m.
On Sale Date: To be announced Feb 8th
It's a new decade and a new band -- Ringo Starr has assembled his 11th line up including: Edgar Winter on sax and keyboards, Gary Wright on keyboards and Gregg Bissonette on drums; and All Starr newcomers are Rick Derringer on Guitar, Richard Page on Bass (Mr. Mister) and Wally Palmer on Guitar and Harmonica (Romantics).
Ultimately what's most impressive about Ringo Starr isn't what he's been, but rather who he is," wrote Rolling Stone rock critic David Wild. "The man's great heart and soul, his wit and wisdom." Ironically, the story of Ringo's evolution from former Beatle to successful solo artist is still best told from the beginning.
Ringo Starr's music, as a solo artist and as a Beatle, is permeated with his personality. His warmth and humor, and his exceptional musicianship have given us songs we all know and love, including "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Don't Pass Me By," "Octopus' Garden," "Photograph," "It Don't Come Easy," "Back Off Boogaloo," "You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful And You're mine)," "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go," "The No No Song," and "Never Without You."
Since beginning his career with The Beatles in the 1960s, Ringo Starr has been one of the world's brightest musical luminaries. He has enjoyed a successful and dynamic solo career as a singer, songwriter and drummer, an active musical collaborator, and as an actor. Drawing inspiration from classic blues, soul, country, honky-tonk and rock 'n' roll, Ringo continues to play an important role in modern music with his solo recording and touring. |
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REO Speedwagon
and Pat Benatar
Auguest 22, 2010
On Sale Date: March 12th at noon
Love on the Run Tour
Ticket Prices: $75.00, $55.00, $35.00 & $29.50
REO Speedwagon - Kevin Cronin (lead vocals, guitar), Bruce Hall (bass), Neal Doughty (keyboards), Dave Amato (lead guitar) and Bryan Hitt (drums) - are ready to roll into 2007 full throttle with their brand new album FIND YOUR OWN WAY HOME, their first studio collection of new material in more than a decade.
The roots of the new album go back to the spring of 2000, when the band joined forces with fellow Midwest rockers Styx for a national, sold-out, co-headlining tour. The tour proved to be such a commercial success that it was recorded live and released on both CD and DVD, jokingly entitled "Arch Allies". The bands appeared together on the Today show, VH1, and on numerous syndicated radio shows, including The Howard Stern Show.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, both bands worked together to organize a series of concerts that would benefit the New York Port Authority Police and the families of the officers who tragically lost their lives.
Over the following two years, REO Speedwagon toured non-stop. In addition to performing in all the expected concert markets, the band got back to its roots in small town America.
"These are the people who supported our music from the beginning. This is REO country", says Kevin Cronin, describing the fans who enthusiastically sing along every night to the songs he has written such as the number one hits, "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Keep On Loving You," as well as the classics "Roll With the Changes," "Keep Pushin'," "Time for Me to Fly," "Riding the Storm Out," and "Take It On the Run."
During this time, the band was honored with a Behind the Music special on VH1 and Kevin Cronin was a guest panelist on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, as well as coming in a close second place on Rock 'n Roll Jeopardy.
In 2003, REO joined fellow classic rockers Journey and Styx for the "Main Event Tour," a sold-out, critically-acclaimed arena tour of all the markets that they had been entertaining since the late '70s. Music critics noted that REO had "kept their standards extremely high," and were "thrilling their fans night after night with their incredible power, sheer energy, and songs that will live forever."
New songs have been the lifeblood of REO since its first album in 1971, so it was natural that inspiration would strike during the "Main Event Tour" and drive REO to start writing new songs in between concert performances. The band began introducing these new songs into their live shows and the fan reaction was positive. The new album was born.
While not on the road, the band has been in the studio for the past 2 years working on their first CD of new songs since 1996's Building the Bridge.
"It has been an intense few years, crazy years for me, but that's when I usually do my best writing," says Cronin. "All of us have been going through some big-time changes, and it shows in our performances on the new record."
The band has teamed up with producer, keyboard whiz and all-around musical genius Joe Vannelli (Gino's brother and musical partner).
"Joe has brought a musicality to the new songs, which is thrilling," says Cronin. "Dave is playing with such amazing versatility, using all his vast arsenal of guitars and amps. Bruce and Bryan, who have always been such a powerhouse rhythm section, have never played tighter or stronger together. And Joe's keyboard ideas are taking our music to places we’ve never been before, and will allow Neal to take those ideas to our live shows."
The buzz in the REO camp is unmistakable. It is a familiar feeling for this band, one they felt in 1978 during the sessions for their classic album You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish and again three years later when they released the 10-million-selling Hi Infidelity.
"We have been through it all and you just feel it when the pieces seem to be coming together," says Bruce Hall, "and I am feeling it big time on this album."
"With some records it feels like you are swimming upstream and others just have a flow," says Cronin. Find Your Own Way Home was conceived out of turmoil, but as these songs have evolved there is a momentum that is seemingly unstoppable. It is cool that it is all coming from this music. That's the way it's supposed to be."
REO Speedwagon is ready to hit the road, barnstorming radio stations in the spring; playing acoustic sets and delivering the first single, the emotionally-charged power ballad "I Needed to Fall."
As REO webmaster (and Paul's little sister) Ruth McCartney put it, "This record is both fresh and old-school.
"I guess unconsciously that is what we were going for," adds Cronin. "We do some of our best work when we are unconscious."
After the promotional tour, the band will head to Europe for a tour of theatres in the U.K. and then appearances at festivals in Sweden, Belgium and Germany. A nationwide co-headline tour with Boston is being planned as well.
2007 looks to be a major comeback year for a band that never really went away. While other bands went on hiatus when they hit rough times, REO has toured every year since its inception in 1971.
"We love to play live," says Hall, "it just keeps getting better."
With the release of Find Your Own Way Home, the band feels its energy rekindled and its purpose renewed. This is not an ending at all; rather a new beginning. Kevin, Dave, Bruce, Neal and Bryan have something to prove.
Look out America: the Speedwagon is rolling at full speed ahead in 2007.
Pat Benatar
More than three decades ago, Pat Benatar began breaking rules and blazed a new trial for female rock stars. Pat was bold, self-assured, and independent. She was alluring but not exploitive. She was vulnerable but not weak. She was strong-minded without being hardhearted.
Songs such as "Love Is a Battlefield," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "We Live For Love," and "Heartbreaker" became anthems for a new attitude. At the dawn of MTV, Benatar was the image of the female rocker for an entire generation of young woman, and the young men who loved them. That generation has grown up with her and others have walked down the path she helped pave.
Still going strong, Benatar has been married for 28 years to guitarist, songwriter producer, collaborator and soul mate Neil Giraldo . The parents of two daughters, Pat and Neil have been touring almost non-stop for over three decades.
Benatar is acknowledged as the leading female rock vocalist of the '80s. During this time she was nominated nine times for Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal Performance (female), winning an unprecedented four Grammy Awards in consecutive years from 1980 to 1983. Benatar has also won three American Music Awards. Of the sixteen original and compilation albums released during her 30+ year career, seven were certified platinum and three were certified gold. One of the most popular performers in rock, she is also one of the most recognized and admired female artists.
Born Patricia Andrzejewski in Brooklyn, New York she was raised in Lindenhurst, Long Island. She always wanted to be a singer and started singing in elementary school, performing in community projects and church choirs. She began studying privately in junior high and continued through high school. At 19, she married her high school sweetheart, (becoming Pat Benatar) and moved to Richmond, Virginia , where she worked as a bank clerk and moonlighted as a singer in lounges and local clubs.
In 1975, the couple moved back to New York , but they soon divorced. Determined to follow her dream, Benatar took to performing cabaret on Long Island before being cast in The Zinger, a short-lived off-Broadway sci-fi musical composed by Harry Chapin. She then hit the Manhattan cabaret circuit, incorporating more rock and pop into her repertoire of standards and Broadway show tunes. As with many young performers, she also showed up at open mike nights at Catch A Rising Star, a showcase club featuring singers and comedians. Her three a.m. rendition of Judy Garland’s "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" earned her a steady slot there.
Then, in 1977 came her turning point. For Halloween, she wore a streetwise vampire costume (black tights, short black top, black eyeliner) to a party at a Greenwich Village café. Instead of changing clothes for her gig that night at Catch A Rising Star, she went on stage in costume, performing her usual set. Only this time, instead of the usual response, the audience stood and cheered. Suddenly her powerful singing (later to reach a 41/2 octave range) was matched by an equally powerful image.
The following year, Benatar signed to Chrysalis Records. Multi-instrumentalist Neil Giraldo, a respected session player who had worked with several Midwest-based groups as well as being a member of Rick Derringer's band, was brought in as musician and arranger. The two sparked an immediate rapport on stage and off, put together a band, and relocated to Southern California.
Benatar debuted with the platinum album In The Heat Of The Night (1979) and both "Heartbreaker" and "We Live For Love" charted in the Top 40. Her next album, Crimes Of Passion (1980), rocketed to #2, reaching quadruple platinum, and including her first Top 10 hit, the gold-certified "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." The album also spawned the video for "You Better Run," the second ever to air on MTV, which debuted that year. In addition, Crimes Of Passion copped the first of her Grammy Awards.
That was just the beginning. Her next album, Precious Time (1981) went double platinum and outdid its predecessor by hitting #1. Fire And Ice brought Benatar her second Grammy. Other platinum albums followed. Get Nervous (1982) was Top Five and featured the Grammy winning "Shadows Of The Night," Live From Earth (1983) boasted the gold, Grammy winning, Top Five hit "Love Is A Battlefield" (and it’s classic video) Tropico (1984) shined its spotlight on the Top Five charting "We Belong," nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance (female).
Following the gold Seven The Hard Way (1984), who's Top 10 Grammy-nominated "Invincible" was the theme song for the film The Legend of Billie Jean, Benatar took time off to become a mother. She and Giraldo married in 1982, and in 1985, became the proud parents of a baby girl, Haley.
Between 1988 and 1989, Benatar released Wide Awake in Dreamland that spun off the Top 20 hit "All Fired Up." The song earned her another Grammy nomination along with another nomination for "Let's Stay Together." In August 2001, her greatest hits compilation Best Shots was certified platinum.
In 1991, Benatar fashioned ahead of its time the retro-swing effort, True Love (1991) backed by the roomful of Blues rhythm section. Pat successfully modernized her sound for the critically acclaimed Gravity's Rainbow (1993) while continuing to tour with Fleetwood Mac, the Steve Miller Band and others.
1997, Pat released Innamorata (CMC International), her first original album in four years. That same year, she was also invited to perform at Lilith Fair where so many female artists enjoyed the fruits of their success thanks in part to the seeds planted by the pioneering Benatar. In 1998, 8-18-80 (CMC), an album of live recording from her concert that long-ago night at the Old Waldorf in San Francisico, was released.
In 1999, Benatar and Giraldo opened their private vaults and compiled an extensive 3-CD collection Synchronistic Wanderings: Recorded Anthology 1979-1999 (Chrysalis/Capitol). This definitive collection spans her entire career and contains rare photos and previously unreleased material. Synchronistic Wanderings includes the album versions of all 19 of her Top 40 singles.
This great collected works also includes songs from soundtracks like Speed and other films, contributions to tribute/benefits projects, preciously unreleased live recordings and outtakes, B-Sides, and rarities never before available on CD. It even includes the demo version of "Love Is A Battlefield," perhaps Benatar’s signature song.
In the summer of 2002 Benatar released a live CD and DVD. The CD Summer Vacation Soundtrack Live and the DVD Summer Vacation Live, featured a 90-minute concert filmed at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim , California. In addition they debuted four new songs ("I Won't," "Girl," "Out Of The Ruins," and "Please Don't Leave Me") as well as previously unrecorded acoustic versions of "We Belong" and "Love Is A Battlefield." Summer Vacation Live DVD also included special features such as behind the scenes footage and exclusive interviews.
In August 2003 Benatar released her first album of new songs in 7 years titled GO, on Bel Chiasso Records, distributed through the Welk Music Group. Benatar says it's a "contemporary guitar-driven record." "I like it, it sounds like us, but in the natural progression of where we should be," she says.
Also in 2003 Benatar joined Martina McBride for an episode of CMT's Crossroads which quickly became one of the show's most popular episodes to date.
Then in October, 2008 Benatar was inducted into the Long Island Hall of Fame.
Over the years Benatar has been busy in front of the camera appearing in cameo roles in several hit TV shows including WB's Charmed, ABC's Dharma and Greg and on the Fox series That 80's Show. Her story has also been featured on shows like A&E Biography, Lifetime's Intimate Portrait and on VH-1's hit series Behind The Music.
Most recently, Benatar has been working on her long awaited autobiography "Between a Heart and a Rock Place" where she talks about her life, rock 'n' roll and how her generation changed music forever. Published by Harper Collins, it is due to be released on June 15, 2010.
Thirty years after starting her recording career, Pat has found that unique balance between family and career. Continuing to do what she loves, Pat Benatar is still rocking. |
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Previously this season at CMAC
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