Bakersfield College's music program would like your holidays to be merry, bright and full of giving. Two seasonal fundraisers this month will help raise money for an upcoming tour and master class.

Local rock quartet Band of Family is eager to make your acquaintance at a stage near you.

The Tehachapi Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Dr. David Newby, will present its holiday concert on Friday.

It's always fun to talk music at World Records with out-of-towners. They generally have a very broad knowledge of recording artists, and are wanting to discover more.

There must be some truth to the adage “find something that works and stick with it.” In the case of "Christmas with The Cranktones," the annual benefit concert hosted by Guitar Masters, you can add “and kick it up a notch.” That’s just what is on tap for Thursday's show at Buck Owens’ Crysta…

BC jazz students will show the connection between jazz and the Civil Rights Movement in their final concert of the semester Monday evening.

For anyone who’s been around our local skating and music scene, Ben Smith’s face is a familiar one. I’ve personally known Ben for many years and had no idea the impact he’s had in the global skateboarding community at large. None.

Forget being holly and jolly and get ready to celebrate a Christmas that's "Merry-achi" on Wednesday.

Hey, Bakersfield, you can't fight this feeling anymore. REO Speedwagon is returning to town Feb. 12 with a show at the Fox Theater.

I can’t recall a Thanksgiving that wasn’t filled with some form of holiday chaos.

Regardless of whether you recognize or celebrate the holidays (or, originally, holy days) of the next few weeks, the holiday season is upon us. That means the movies, dedicated music channels, parades, decorations, commercials and what-have-you are out in full force for you to enjoy or avoid.

Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of the holiday season and on the precipice of the night before Thanksgiving. The evening where friends and family reunite and go on about the town, with a significant number of those revelers secure in the knowledge that most of them will be able to…

It’s concert time at Cal State Bakersfield, as the music department offers the first of two “mega weekends” of back-to-back concerts.

I just love the Bakersfield Winds. For 16 years, multiple generations of brass and woodwind players and percussionists have been rehearsing and performing not only for their own enjoyment, but to inspire others, or as the ensemble’s president, Scott Smith, explained it, “to be an inspiration…

Willie Nelson just made a "Rainbow Connection" with Kasey Musgraves at the CMA Awards but he'll connect again with Bakersfield when he returns for a stop Jan. 4 at Mechanics Bank (formerly Rabobank) Arena.

Rock ’n’ roll legends KISS are looking to the End of the Road but not before the band stops in Bakersfield. The glam rockers will play Mechanics Bank (formerly Rabobank) Arena on March 2.

Fans of big band jazz will enjoy Thursday's concert by the CSUB Jazz Collective, a 19-piece ensemble giving its first concert of the school year in the Dore Theatre.

This Saturday’s first annual Tejano and Tamale Festival at Stramler Park has all the makings of a tightly wrapped pre-holiday fiesta.

Longtime customer Heath came in recently to buy the new Tool CD. So funny to see him staring at the Ace Frehley concert poster with a mixed-up look on his face. Finally he pointed and said, "You know. I must have it wrong. I thought F-R-E-H-L-E-Y is how Ace Frehley of KISS spells his name. W…

Southern California-based singer-songwriter Chelsea Williams is one heck of a talent. With an impossibly clear voice and lovely, poignant songs, she’s the archetype of the gifted artist hovering on the fringes of greater attention, perennially expressing herself while the world makes up its mind.

Doyle Dykes is a monument to the country guitar and fingerpicking, in the lineage of his mentor Chet Atkins. Known as the "white wolf" in Nashville, he has played with everyone, and his virtuosity is matched only by his sense of well-articulated melody and unstoppable chord voicing. You coul…

Ever wondered what it would be like to be in a band with your daughter (assuming she wasn’t in the raging teenage stage)? With your mother (assuming she was not in the corrective interview stage)? Suzzy Roche and her daughter Lucy Wainwright Roche have done more than wonder, they’ve played t…

Singer-songwriter Andres Aparicio returns with another bag of tricks and treats for his new album, “Once Upon a Time in Bakersfield,” dropping on Halloween.

It’s always a good sign of a community’s cultural health when there are multiple events occurring on the same night. Friday is a good night for music lovers.

Jazz innovator Ralph Alessi and his quintet, This Against That, will join Bakersfield College jazz students Wednesday evening in the Indoor Theater.

Bakersfield College singers will add their voices to the college’s monthlong recognition of one of the towering figures of the 20th century.

I can still recall the first time I caught Los Angeles blues-rock country storytelling misfit Paul Chesne live at Fishlips in downtown some years back.

No artist can promise fans they will see a perfect show when he or she steps on stage.

The Count Basie Orchestra, the very same one that once counted such jazz luminaries as Lester Young, Billie Holiday, “Papa” Jo Jones, Sonny Payne, Thad Jones and the illustrious Count Basie himself in its collective, will perform at the Fox Theater this Saturday. 

Some music just stays in the background. And some music is destined to accompany you through life and help explain life itself.

Lzzy Hale was wondering if she had lost the magic. She was several months into songwriting for what eventually became the album “Vicious” by her band Halestorm and a moment of truth had arrived.

Several things impress about Scott B. Bomar's exhaustive history in word and song of Bakersfield's (mostly) post-war music legacy, but two stand out.

Bakersfield country musicians and fans have enjoyed some much needed attention since the release of Ken Burns’ "Country Music" documentary last month.

It might be impossible, but try with all your might to imagine being 8 years old, living in tiny Byrdstown, Tenn. You've been in love with bluegrass and playing the mandolin since you were a toddler. Your absolute idol in the whole wide world is Alison Krauss — the famous, fabulous, graceful…

Newsboys keyboardist/bassist Jeff Frankenstein knew there were pitfalls to the idea of the group reuniting with its original singer, Peter Furler when the idea surfaced in 2017.

The Dukes Memorial Concert Series begins its 14th season with a lot of new faces and broad range of musical styles.

This year marks the end of the road for Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and, oh what a road it’s been. Starting off as a band with a five-year plan (basically hoping to make it to five years), the group has lasted a quarter of a century.

If Simon & Garfunkel ever had a child, either collectively, individually or with other people, it would be The Milk Carton Kids, scheduled to play at the Crystal Palace on Oct. 3. Just as country is king in some quarters, then harmony, melody and lyrical excellence sits on the throne for…

Metalheads from Bakersfield and beyond did not hold back in showing their devotion to the ghastly gods of rock when Swedish horror metal act Ghost took the stage at Rabobank (now Mechanics Bank Arena, Theater and Convention Center) on Sept. 13.

In the 1970s, one artist who surely seemed to have his finger on the pulse of what type of songs would be hits at top 40 radio was Harry Wayne Casey.

All shows are at 8 p.m. at the Budweiser Pavilion stage.

Eddie Money wasn't a Bakersfield guy — not officially. He earned the honorary title, however. Just ask the waitresses at Zingo's.

Kansas is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their landmark 1977 album “Point of Know Return" by playing the album in its entirety. They'll be at the Fox Theater on Tuesday.

Bakersfield College alumnus Omar Murillo is “very excited” to perform at his old campus at next week’s Panorama Creative Music Summit, because he has a message to deliver.

Swedish horror metal act Ghost shows are a twisted medley of everything I love about a rock show experience.

One of the first entrants into the 2019-20 classical music scene comes from what is often referred to as the “King of the Instruments”: the pipe organ.

The late summer heat may be beating down on Bakersfield, but thankfully there’s just enough new local music to keep tempers cooled and feet moving.