At first glance, the 1953 Walt Disney animated movie “Peter Pan” and the 1984 cult classic “Repo Man” don’t appear to have much in common. One is a fantasy about an ageless imp flying through the night skies in turn-of-the-last-century London with three young friends in tow, chased by a pira…
There are many talented male singers around Bakersfield but few opportunities for them join a male choir.
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.
The ubiquity of tribute bands isn’t anything new and this weekend provides us with ample evidence that they’re not going away anytime soon. We have four different tribute events (!!) from a variety of different genres happening around town.
Garth Brooks will play at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace on the second stop of his upcoming Dive Bar Tour, the country singer announced Monday night on a streamed video on his Facebook page.
Country music icon Garth Brooks proposed marriage to longtime girlfriend and music star Trisha Yearwood on stage Wednesday night.
When guitarists/singers Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald started Slightly Stoopid in 1994, they were out front of a second generation of bands that wanted to build on the reggae-rock sound that was starting to take hold thanks to the success of groups like Sublime, 311 and to a lesser extent,…
Congratulations are once again in order for Bakersfield actress, dancer, and rapper, Prymrr LoBasso, for winning big at the Young Artists Academy Awards ceremony on July 14 at the Avalon in Hollywood.
Bakersfield will once again be an interstate hub for all manner of original music, ranging from punk-tinged indie rock to conceptual electronic music.
This summer, Lyle Lovett is once again doing an extensive tour of the United States. This means he gets to experience one of his favorite aspects of being a musician on a nightly basis.
Honolulu native Jake Shimabukuro has had a ukulele in his hands since he was 4 years old and capable of pressing all four strings down on his own. At the age of 30, his extraordinary instrumental performance of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” took the YouTube world by storm.
Seasoned studio engineer Dave Fore has heard his share of hits and misses.
It might be too late to catch a Pink Floyd show, but luckily there's still a chance to see Brit Floyd.
Honolulu native Jake Shimabukuro has had a ukulele in his hands since he was 4 years old and capable of pressing all four strings down on his own. At the age of 30, his extraordinary instrumental performance of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” took the YouTube world by storm.
Like something straight out of the 1986 movie “Crossroads,” but with much less demonic Steve Vai — well, possibly — Temblor Brewing Company will be hosting the Kern County 6 String Showcase this Sunday. A statewide blues guitar competition now in its second year being held in Kern County for…
Godsmack fans, get ready to rock. The band is coming to Bakersfield this fall.
Remember the joy of bringing home your first compact discs?
Open mics serve a dual function. Their primary goal is to provide a forum for artists - beginner and otherwise - to test their wares and boundaries in a controlled environment to a mostly game audience.
People undergo life-changing transformations all of the time, both for good and for ill. Few of those changes are documented for posterity in all of their agonizing, exhilarating glory.
Turn on Top 40 radio or MTV in the late ‘80s and the odds were about 100 percent, you’d hear songs and see videos from New Kids on the Block, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Naughty By Nature and Salt-N-Pepa.
The Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra has brought on Holly Arnold as its new executive director.
At just 26 years old, Molly Tuttle has already made history. An acclaimed bluegrass performer and teacher, renowned for her clawhammer banjo and cross-picking guitar work, Tuttle was not only the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year awa…
Country superstar Carrie Underwood is bringing her Cry Pretty 360 Tour to Rabobank Arena on Saturday but she's not coming alone. Along with opening acts Maddie & Tae and Runaway June, Underwood will have a local woman on the stage. Like she has at previous tour stops, she will have a loc…
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Some 20,000 people got together last Thursday for a "transformational" festival known as Lightning in a Bottle. Monday morning — four days later — they rolled out of their sleeping bags, rolled up their tents and rolled on down the road.
Where there's Smokin', there will be fire as the Smokin' Armadillos reunite for a show at the Fox Theater on Oct. 4.
Hot on the heels of a well-regarded debut at Coachella, Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin announced his new Arcoiris Tour, which will include an Oct. 20 stop at Rabobank Arena.
More than 40 years after he joined Albert Collins’ band as a drummer, Coco Montoya says he’s got two good reasons for continually going out on tour.
The Merle Haggard legend comes with its own iconography. The maple-topped Fender Telecaster. The chocolate brown Fedora. The gnarled, patchy beard. And the most readily identifiable symbol of them all, at least to locals: the boxcar.
Over the years, huge numbers of fans have seen Monty Byrom and Big House perform live at venues from Bakersfield to Baton Rouge, Nashville to New York.
You might be tempted to ask, “Who isn’t performing in this weekend’s Bakersfield Symphony concert?” as the orchestra’s season finale is truly a community-wide event.
Drummer Chris Borbon has been performing for Bakersfield audiences for years. Lately, it’s been with his groups Vanity Ave, the Rhythm Ambassadors and the impossibly accurate traditional ska band Capsouls. The latter two fronted by his wife, singer Yadira Guerrero-Borbón.
The list of world-class artists at this year’s Lightning in a Bottle is an exciting and exhaustive mix of household beat makers, up-and-coming newbies and virtual unknowns.
Southern California’s She Wants Revenge is like a super-powered mix of your favorite gloomy British bands from the 1980s and 1990s modernized but with their essence intact. The band will play the 1933 Event Center on May 14.
If you're up for a bit of a road trip this Saturday, consider driving out to Ridgecrest for the gala Fiesta Del Cinco De Mayo.
It's earth, wind and fire on Friday at Bakersfield College but it's not funk music on stage. The college's spring choral concert will present the efforts of hard-working students with the theme of Elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
As they gear up for graduation, music students at Cal State Bakersfield are ready for the next big step. Six musicians will make their conducting debuts at the Symphonic Band Concert on Monday.
He’s got the accent and cool look, but a few seconds into conversation also reveal singer-songwriter Luke Ryan Barnes has the musical personality of a courtly troubadour.
Spanish guitarist Diego Garcia, aka El Twanguero, is definitely in touch with his roots.
In between all of the Easter, Earth Day and 420 celebrations, there are a variety of shows that are all vying for some spring break attention. Most can be found in The Californian, on Facebook or at kernevents.com. Our busy winter is over everywhere but HBO. The touring season has begun.
Shawn James feels it’s his duty to leave everything he has on the stage when he performs. A few years ago at a festival in Germany in front of 3,000 people, James outdid himself in the leaving category.
This year’s Record Store Day in Bakersfield is looking to be one of the best yet with both Going Underground Records and World Records hosting a full day of festivities.
"Sing something."
Bakersfield’s altruistic side mightily emerges this weekend. It starts Thursday at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame where the American Cancer Society kicks off its inaugural Valley of Hope benefit event. It’s a bookend for the Valley of Hope Gala that the ACS holds in October and a lively …
A universal love of music and service to others is at the heart of the West Coast Mennonite Men’s Chorus, the 150-plus group of singers and instrumentalists who return to Bakersfield this Sunday to do good, and to make good — music, that is.
How do you follow up a chart-topping, critically acclaimed, synth-infused album?
In what may be the only current merging of pop rock and death metal, Ghost has made quite a name for itself since forming in 2006. On Friday the 13th, the Swedish band will kick off a six-week North American tour at Rabobank Arena.
Bakersfield will get a taste of Hollywood on Saturday for the red carpet world premiere of “Oildale” at the Fox Theater.
T.J. Osborne was in his Nashville home when he called to talk about the tour that he and his brother John were about to begin, which includes a stop April 2 at the Fox Theater. He’d only recently learned that the Brothers Osborne had been nominated for two Grammys (best country album and bes…
Now in her mid-20s, Hulda Quebe is the youngest of the three Quebe sisters, and by her own estimation, the quirkiest. While other second-graders were off doing whatever it is that second-graders do, Hulda was holed up in her outdoor playhouse, teaching herself how to play Texas fiddle music.
Temblor Brewing Co. is going all out with its upcoming Festival El Cerrito II on March 30. Transforming into a temporary 18-and-over cantina for a day, the local brewery will serve up street tacos and $4 pints of the festival’s namesake, the Mexican-style lager El Cerrito, and feature live m…
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