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…
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…
A city historically known for its music and spicy food as it is for being the birthplace of the American Civil Rights Movement, Memphis delivers a dose of good ol’ Southern hospitality.
While the season of Lent is a time of fasting, it can also be a time of feasting.
The Black Market Trust is just one of those bands that hooks you. It’s a throwback to a bygone era, with modern tones and updated beats that transports you back in time. They are an American traditional pop/vocal jazz group from Los Angeles who combine the sounds of the legendary American cr…
Frankie Quiñones’ comedy show at the Fox Theater this Friday will be a bit different than recent ones.
It’s hard to believe that MTV had once claimed “Video Killed the Radio Star,” before reality TV came along to have their revenge on MTV with shows like “Jersey Shore,” “Teen Mom” and “Catfish.”
When internationally acclaimed organist James Welch performs in concert Friday, he hopes to convince you that organ music is not just for funerals or background music.
Jethro Tull might be better known for arguably making the flute a legitimate hard rock lead instrument and in stealing a Grammy win from Metallica. But when it comes down to it, the band has always been a bit belittled. They wore their eclectic, mysterious broadswords and minstrel image prou…
Calling all fans of rap music: Tech N9ne will perform at the Fox Theater in April, and tickets are on sale now.
After last bringing the funk to Bakersfield in 2013, Average White Band returns to Spectrum Amphitheatre for a show on April 18.
Toby Keith isn't shy about aligning himself with a certain sub-genre of country music. It's basically right there in the name of his tour.
Since leaving the cold climes of Alaska for the bluegrass hotbed of Washington, D.C., Frank Solivan has built a reputation as a monster mandolinist — and become a major festival attraction with his band, Dirty Kitchen. Their respect and deep understanding of the tradition collides, live on s…
It's a good month to be a bluegrass fan in Bakersfield. Thanks to Pat Evans at World Records, there are two shows on tap to get aficionados of American roots music out on the scene.
Eyehategod's fall from grace may have been all too predictable — frontman Mike IX Williams led a less-than-ideal life that included chronic drug abuse, incarceration and homelessness — but the band's resurrection was anything but.
Members of the Bakersfield Master Chorale are heading to Chicago to sing in the 12th annual Windy City Choral Festival. But before they go, they would love to perform their musical program for the folks here at home.
Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan” was a watershed moment in cinema. The intense opening sequence depicting American forces landing at Normandy Beach and the overwhelming strike that followed didn’t just raise the bar of combat realism in film, it vaporized it. The surround-s…
In an age where young artists are charmed by the allure of Insta fame and reality TV, Bakersfield singer Itze Garcia prefers a time-proven slow burn shot at the big time.
After bringing down the house at the Acoustic KRAB Christmas Show in December, Blue October has announced it will return for a show at the Fox Theater this summer.
With one festival off the table for 2019, another could be on the way in.
There’s going to be a whole lotta funny in Bakersfield during the next week, starting with comedian Nick Swardson at Temblor Brewing Co. Thursday and Friday evening.
Students from the Panama-Buena Vista School District will demonstrate their musical abilities in the district’s 35th annual Music Makers concert this Thursday evening to celebrate an activity that extends well beyond making beautiful music.
Catching up with bands like Hate Drugs, which is releasing its new album “Tsunami Soul I” on Friday, reminds me why I enjoy the anticipation of the new release date reminder on my calendar, a feeling all music freaks will understand. However, these days it takes a special band to have that e…
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