Warming Up
Rub your hands together and gather round ye olde Bret Harte Opera Hall, for there’s a fledgling musical festival that is ready to bake your heart, tickle your ears and move your toes. Nascent promoter...
View ArticleLiberation Music
Julia Keefe is a Native American jazz singer, actor, activist and educator who grew up on the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) Indian Reservation in Kamiah, Idaho. The 35-year-old musician is now based in New...
View ArticleSmall But Mighty
So many brilliant ensembles packed with elite musicians—Santa Cruz is a full house of musical riches. The seasons are often short and sweet, but the programming is always ferocious. Often...
View ArticleBack to Basics
Hard rock and heavy metal has gone through many phases. It has gone in and out of fashion, and endured the so-called “hair metal” era of the ’80s. But for true believers, the style has never lost its...
View ArticleKSQD Fundraiser Fuels Community Radio in Santa Cruz
There won’t be any plankton or tentacles but community radio station KSQD 90.7 is cooking up a colossal event for Squid Fest West: an all-day musical lineup with six bands, a music memorabilia...
View ArticleTaking a Bow
Rebecca Roudman is the lead cellist of the rock band Dirty Cello. You read that correctly. Roudman plays the cello with the dexterity of a shredding lead guitarist, among other equally impressive...
View ArticleReel It In
Wake the Dead is the planet’s only Celtic Grateful Dead jam band. Their music combines the legacy of hundreds of years of Irish reels with the new American traditional music of the Bay Area’s most...
View ArticleThe Music Never Stopped
Music fans have been listening to David Gans playing Grateful Dead music on the radio for decades and reading his books on the band. Now they have a chance to study the band’s 60-year career in a...
View ArticleCall of the Wild
Coming from the woods of South Carolina, Saxsquatch is returning to the local redwoods on his “Footprints Tour.” The 7-foot-tall multi-instrumentalist “squatch,” outfitted in bandana, mirrored shades...
View ArticleA Melancholy Heartbreaker
He spent decades backing Tom Petty, but on his current tour, which stops at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center April 4, Benmont Tench appears alone with a piano. He’s promoting his new album, The Melancholy...
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