New on sales from Ticketmaster:

Carnival Cabaret
Friday, October 24, 2008 to Sunday, January 4, 2009
Horizon Casino Resort
Stateline , NV

Kip Attaway
Friday, December 26, 2008 to Sunday, December 28, 2008
Catch A Rising Star at Silver Legacy Casino
Reno , NV

John Hiatt & The Ageless Beauties with Ben Taylor
Friday, November 14, 2008
Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
Reno , NV

Build Your Own Gingerbread House
Saturday, December 6, 2008 to Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wente Vineyards
Livermore , CA

Arenacross
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Reno Livestock Events Center
Reno , NV
Read the rest of this entry »

Who are these guys?

By Jim Harrington

During Foreigner’s concert on Wednesday night (Sept. 17) at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, I kept thinking that to myself that I was watching the greatest Foreigner cover band in the world.

Of course, I don’t know if that’s true - my experience with Foreigner cover bands is limited to, well, one. This one.

Mick Jones, the sole remaining member from the band’s hit-making days, might take issue with me calling Foreigner a Foreigner cover band. But what else can I call it? Keith Richards performing with five guys off the street could not rightfully be dubbed the Rolling Stones, could it?
Read the rest of this entry »

Willie Nelson has two of the year’s best records - the solo effort “Moment of Forever” and the collaboration with Wynton Marsalis, “Two Men with the Blues” - yet they haven’t made much of an impact on his live show.

I’m not complaining. The 75-year-old Texan has long been one of the most consistently dependable performers in the live game and he really doesn’t need to change anything to show his fans a good time. He just needs to grab his old beat-up guitar, open up his trusty song book and do what he’s done literally thousands and thousands of times before.

That’s pretty much what happened when Nelson took the stage on Wednesday (Sept. 3) at Wente Vineyards in Livermore. There wasn’t much to distinguish this show from the dozens of others the country singer has performed in the Bay Area over the past several years. The crowd was a little more mellow, the security guards perhaps a bit more strick (let the ladies dance!), but everything else followed course.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008
Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA

Whiskey River
Still is Still Moving to Me
Whiskey for My Men/Beer for My Horses
Funny How Time Slips Away
Crazy
Night Life
Me and Paul
If You Got the Money, I Got the Time
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys
Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
Read the rest of this entry »

Aug. 4, 2008, Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA

1. Dawn
2. Workin’ My Way Back to You
3. Opus 17
4. Save it For Me
5. Tell It to the Rain
6. Beggin’
7. Under My Skin
8. My Eyes Adored You (Note: I forgot what a great song that is)
9. Swearin’ to God
10. Call Me
11. Let It Be Me
12. Spanish Harlem
13. My Girl/Groovin
14. Stay
15. Rag Doll
16. Who Loves You
17. December ‘63
18. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
19. Sherry/Walk Like a Man/Big Girls Don’t Cry/Bye Bye Baby
Read the rest of this entry »

This fall, Boz Scaggs will release his first new studio album in five years. The set, “Speak Low,” is the Bay Area vocalist’s second consecutive collection of standards and jazz favorites.

His prior outing, 2003’s “But Beautiful,” was a critical and commercial triumph that drew rapturous response from music scribes and managed to top the Billboard jazz charts.

While this jazz swing has represented a new chapter in the recording career of this great singer, best known for such pop hits as “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle,” it really hasn’t impacted his concerts. On Wednesday night (July 30) at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, it was the same ol’ Boz, performing basically the same ol’ set of hits that he’s been cranking out for decades.
Read the rest of this entry »

July 30, 2008
Wente Vineyards in Livermore, CA

“Lowdown”
“Jojo”
“Slow Dancer”
“Desire”
“Hercules”
“Sick and Tired”
“Miss Sun”
“Street Life” (Sung by Monet)
“Harbor Lights”
“Georgia”
“Lido Shuffle”
Encore:
“Look What You’ve Done to Me”
“Runnin’ Blues”

What’s the safest live music bet in the R&B/soul game?

The answer is elemental: Earth, Wind & Fire.

Since forming in Chicago at the tailend of the ‘60s, EWF has consistently been one of the top acts in the concert industry. The principals _ vocalist-percussionist Philip Bailey, bassist Verdine White and percussionist Ralph Johnson _ are now all in their 50s, but they still deliver in a fashion that easily tops what most young R&B acts can muster up.

Having wowed fans last July at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, EWF returned to the East Bay and gave local fans another joyous ride on Tuesday night (June 24) at Wente Vineyards in Livermore.
Read the rest of this entry »

June 24, 2008
Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA

Set list:
“Boogie Wonderland”
“Sing a Song”
“Shining Star”
“Sun Goddess”
“Serpentine Fire”
“Kalimba Story”
“Evil”
“Brazilian Rhyme”
“I’ll Write a Song for You”
“After the Love Has Gone”
“Reasons”
“In the Stone”
“Got to Get You Into My Life”
Read the rest of this entry »

The 2008 Wente Vineyards concert series, celebrating the Livermore winery’s 125th anniversary, opened on a high note Thursday night (June 9) with a sold-out show by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Crosby, Stills and Nash.

It was a warm night, both in terms of the shorts-friendly weather and the tunes being played onstage. The three vocalists-guitarists, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, took their spots under the bright lights around 8:30 p.m. and began playing songs that, for the most part, felt as familiar as old friends.

Although best known for its work in the ‘60s and ‘70s, CSN’s first stop of the night was in the ‘80s as it opened with a pretty version of “Wasted on the Way” (from 1982’s “Daylight”). That number _ the trio’s last major single, though the same album’s “Southern Cross” has since become the better-known track _ served as a wonderful forum for CSN’s legendary vocal harmonies.
Read the rest of this entry »