Classical guitar group, Trio Camino, will play a G. Roger Bailey Scholarship benefit show at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15 at St. Benedict’s Church, 2220 Snowy Egret Ln., Los Osos. Cost is $20 and proceeds go to the Bailey scholarship fund for classical guitar students. The Trio Camino is Gregory Newton, David Grimes and Michael Anthony Nigro. Make reservations by calling 771-8138 or email to:
Unfinished Business Productions presents a Tribute To The Beatles Show at D’Anbino’s Tasting Room, 710 Pine St., Paso Robles, on Saturday, March 7. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available in advance at Boo Boo Records, Brown Paper Ticket, and at the door, unless/until sold out. This is the last in a series of special shows Unfinished Business is doing celebration and remembrance of the 51st anniversary of The Beatles’ first appearance in America on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Then on March 14 join the band for the “Experience Unfinished Business- a Rock and Roll Fantasy Adventure” and the “adventurers” who will be rehearsing for this show and then performing. Four local musicians will perform on stage before a live audience with Unfinished Business on at 7 p.m. at the Pismo Beach Veteran’s Building.
The San Luis Obispo County Jazz Federation presents its annual Young Jazz Artists Scholarship Concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 8 at the Steynberg Gallery, 1531 Monterey, St., in SLO. The free concert will showcase five of the best jazz performers from Cuesta and Cal Poly. Performing from Cuesta are Timothy Metcalfe (voice), Grace Hedrick (voice) and Harlan Guio (guitar). The Cal Poly performers are Brad Croes (sax) and Daniel Diaz (drums). Backing them up are Gary Drysdale (guitar), Brian Lanzone (bass) and Daryl Van Druff (drums). The concert is sponsored by the Matt Taylor Memorial Scholarship Trust. See: slojazz.org or call and 546-3766 for more information.
HAPA, Hawaii’s hottest group, according to Billboard Magazine, will play the Spanos Theater at Cal Poly at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 14. Student and adult tickets are $36 and $45 respectively and available at the PAC Box Office noon to 6 p.m. Mondays–Saturdays. Call 756-4849 or order online at: www.calpolyarts.org. Sponsored by Anne M. Brown and Family, Central Coast Printing, and the Santa Maria Sun. HAPA is Hawaiian guitarist, Barry Flanagan and lead singer, Kapono Nā‘ili‘ili. HAPA’s music is a mix of Polynesian rhythms and chants, ballads of Portuguese fisherman and Mexican cowboys, blended with melodies and harmonies of the traditional church choirs of the early Hawaiian missionaries. Add a dash of American acoustic folk/rock, and you have what the Maui Times called, “the most exciting and beautiful contemporary Hawaiian music the world knows.”
The Welcome Spring Music Festival will stage monthly house concerts in March, April and May. Tickets are $20 a person and readers can call Stanley Stern at 528-6557 or email to: for tickets and directions to the concerts. Shows are:
• Tuesday, March 10, 7-9 p.m. is the Ivory and Gold Show, with Jeff and Anne Barnhart playing jazz, the blues, ragtime and more on piano and flute.
• Sunday, April 12, 7-9 p.m. is pianist, Scott Kirby playing American musical legends Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington and more.
• Saturday, May 9, 3-5 p.m. is the “Queen of Ragtime,” pianist Mimi Blaise with her comedic, musical show reminiscent of the great Victor Borge.
Contemporary string band, Fiddlestix, will perform at the next Red Barn Community Concert Series, set for 6 p.m. Saturday, March 7 in Los Osos. Cost is $15 at the door. There’s a potluck starting at 5 p.m. with the Potluck Band. Bring a dish to share, place settings and BYOB. Fiddlestix is known for playing sparkling fiddle tunes and rowdy old time country classics, singing sweet harmonies and their own original songs. Out of the Gold Rush foothills of Tuolumne County, Fiddlestix was a popular fixture of the music scene in the 1980s, and is best known as the host band at the Strawberry Music Festival. Fiddlestix is Cactus Bob Cole, Dave Cavanagh, and Chris Stevenson and his son Michael Kennedy. Fiddlestix plays a lively mix of bluegrass banjo, double and triple fiddles, mandolin, banjo, bass and guitar. See: www.renwah.com for more on the band. The Red Barn is at 2180 Palisades Ave., Los Osos. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Canzona Women’s Ensemble presents its spring concert entitled “Canzona Takes Flight” on Sunday afternoon, March 15 at 3 p.m. at the Old Mission in San Luis Obispo. The 28-voice group is led by co-directors Cricket Handler and Jill Anderson and accompanied by pianist Janis Johnson and trumpeter, Jerry Boots (of the San Luis Obispo Symphony). The program offers a combination of repertoire that is new to Canzona as well as a number of “old favorites” that the group has performed in previous concerts. Highlighted is music that Canzona will take to the Tapestry International Women’s Choral Festival in Vancouver in May (hence the title for the concert!). Old favorites include “Maggie and Millie and Molly and Mae,” which Ms. Handler will conduct in Canada, and “Psalm 23” by Franz Schubert, which Dr. Anderson will conduct in Canada. Music that is new to the group includes “National Weather Forecast” by Henry Mollicone and “Two Songs” by Karl Kohn (both Mollicone and Kohn are contemporary California composers). Canzona will also reprise “To the God of Light and Shadow,” a commissioned piece by San Luis Obispo composer Meredith Brammeier, who will also conduct the piece in Canada. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and $10 for students. They can be ordered online through the website: www.canzonawomen.org, or through brownpapertickets.com. For information, call (805) 542-0506. The Mission is located on the corner of Chorro and Palm in downtown San Luis Obispo.
The Pewter Plough Playhouse Readers’ Theatre will present, “The Women,” Saturday-Sunday, March 14-15. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Tickets are $10 and available by calling 927-3877 or online at: . The Women is the classic 1936 satire based in New York on women’s manners and affairs written by Clare Boothe Luce. The all-woman cast includes Nicole Bailey, Barbara Beane, Carol Burkhart, Viv Goff, Jean Miller, Sharyn Young and Ali Burkhead. Directed by Janice Peters. Proceeds benefit the PPP’s scholarship program at Coast Union H.S. for students interested in the theater. The Pewter Plough Playhouse is at 824 Main St., in Cambria’s West Village. Readers’ Theatre presents shows that work best in a staged-reading format. If readers are interested in acting in, directing or suggesting a play, email Anita at: .
Cuesta College’s student vocal groups — Voce, Encore, and the Vocal Jazz Workshop soloists — will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8 at Cuesta’s Experimental Theater, at the Performing Arts Center on the Hwy 1 campus. Tickets are $7 a person for students, seniors and Jazz Federation members and $12 general admission. Buy tickets online at: www.cpactickets.cuesta.edu or call (805) 546-3198. This will be Voce’s send-off concert as they are about to embark on two high profile tours. In March they will be the headliner at both the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and the Point Loma Festival.
Cal Poly jazz bands’ “Just Jazz” concert is set for 8 p.m. Friday, March 13 in the Spanos Theatre on campus. Tickets are $12 general and $9 for students, senior citizens, and Jazz Federation members. Pricing includes all fees, and parking. Tickets are sold at the PAC Box Office between from noon 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Order by phone at 756-4849. The concert will feature the best student jazz musicians at Cal Poly in two big bands and two jazz combos. The big bands’ “wall of sound” comes from four trumpets, four trombones, five saxophones, a rhythm section and vocalist. Sponsored by Cal Poly Music Department, College of Liberal Arts, and Instructionally Related Activities Program.
Acclaimed Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter, Boz Skaggs, will play the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 19 and advanced tickets are on sale now at the PAC Box Office. Call (805) 756-4849 or order on line at: www.pacslo.org. Skaggs, who got his start with the Steve Miller Band, went solo in 1975 and struck platinum with his debut album, “Silk Degrees” that had hits with “Lowdown,” which won the Grammy for Best R&B Song, “Lido Shuffle,” “What Can I Say” and “We’re All Alone.” Skaggs is touring in support of a new album, “A Fool to Care,” slated to be released March 31. The show is a co-production of Otter Productions, Inc., and Cal Poly Arts.
New York-based Salome Chamber Orchestra returns to San Luis Obispo for a benefit concert at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at Temple Ner Shalom, 875 Laureate Ln., SLO. Tickets are $75 premium seating plus a pre-concert reception, $50 general seating and $35 students. Tickets available online at: salomereturns.eventbrite.com. Proceeds benefit JCC-Federation of San Luis Obispo. Salome brings a young, hip edge to chamber groups and consists of top-ranking graduates from The Curtis Institute of Music, The Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Princeton University, and Yale University. Seating is limited. See: salomechamber.org for more on the band.
People Helping People is holding its annual Scottish-Irish Night dinner-dance party at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12 at the South Bay Community Center, 2180 Palisades Ave., Los Osos. Tickets are $10 a person and must be bought in advance from the PHP Office inside the community center. Music will be by the Gillie Weesels and supper includes Scottish meat pies, mashed potatoes, peas, desert, coffee and punch. Call 528-2626 for information and tickets.
A tribute to Nat King Cole by two jazz music greats will take the stage at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19. Student and adult tickets range from $30.40 to $58 and available in advance at the PAC Box Office Mondays-Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. Call 756-4849 or order online at: www.calpolyarts.org. Jazz greats pianist Ramsey Lewis and guitar and vocalist John Pizzarelli will perform, “Straighten Up and Fly Right: A Tribute to Nat King Cole,” and featuring the late 1950’s crooner’s numerous hits — “Route 66,” “Paper Moon,” “Unforgettable,” and “Sunny Side of the Street,” to name a few. There’s a pre-show lecture led by Cal Poly music professor, Paul Rinzler, 6:30 p.m. in the PAC Pavilion. Sponsored by John & Marcia Lindvall, Frame Works
Great high-energy blues-rock group Bo and the Bluesdrivers , “SoCal’s Hardest-Working Blues Band,” will play two area shows. On Friday, March 6 the band will play a free show at Creative Juices in Guadalupe, 874 Guadalupe St. from 9 p.m. to 1a.m. On Saturday, March 6 they will rock Harry’s in Pismo Beach, 690 Cypress St. from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. with a $5 cover charge.
