Los Osos dance band, Back Bay Betty, will debut some new original tunes in a show at the Shell Café in Pismo Beach. The show is set for 7-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. Shell Café, located at 1351 Price St., is quickly becoming a showcase for local live music and offers a great menu at reasonable prices. A short walk to the beach, too. See: www.backbaybetty.com or on Facebook for more on the band.
The San Luis Obispo County High School Jazz Ensemble, with the best high school jazz musicians in SLO County and Santa Maria, will perform its annual concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Cuesta College Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $7 for students, seniors, and SLO Jazz Fed members, and $12 general admission. Buy tickets online at: www.cpactickets.cuesta.edu. The Cuesta Jazz Ensemble will also perform. The high school ensemble is put together every year to give the kids advanced training and to perform this annual concert.
The 2nd Annual, 87th Oscar VIP Party Fundraiser is set for Oscars Night, Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Cayucos Vet’s Hall and will honor a legendary celebrity photographer to the stars.
Charles Poalillo, this year’s honoree, spent nine years as a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Daily News and the L.A. Times before starting a commercial photography studio in Hollywood.
Familiar with press agents who came to submit press releases, he hit the ground running, as he would be doing journalism photography, but for commercial clients, many of who were Fortune 500 companies.
Poalillo was hired by many of his clients to do photography at The Academy Awards and his first shoot was for a small Latin magazine, followed by various companies. What followed was a 5-year contract to do photography for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences at the Oscars. He photographed the Oscars for 24 years.
Poalillo, now a Paso Robles resident, will show slides of his Oscars work including public debuts of vintage celebrity photos that have never been shown before.
Profits from the Vet’s Hall show and party benefit the Cayucos Elementary Education Foundation. For more information and tickets call Moree Productions at (805) 900-5282.
Afro-Americana music fusion band, Mamajowali, will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20 at St. Benedict’s Church in Los Osos. Tickets are $20 a person and available online at brownpapertickets.com or at the door. Mamajowali is Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, and Walter Strauss playing a blend of instruments — kamale ngoni (the hunter’s harp) with six string guitar, percussion, fiddle, mandolin and voice — uncommon and familiar, traditional and innovative all at the same time. The show is co-sponsored by KCBX Public Radio and the Live Oak Music Festival. St. Benedict’s is at 2220 Snowy Egret Ln., Los Osos (across LOVR form the cemetery). Call (707) 678-1351 for more information.
The Cal Poly Ballroom Dance Club will host its eighth annual “Mustang Ball” Ballroom and Latin DanceSport Competition from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, in the university’s Chumash Auditorium. More than 150 dancers from across California, Arizona and Nevada have registered to compete at the event, one of the largest annual dance competitions in San Luis Obispo County. Amateur dancers of all levels and ages are invited to sign up and compete. Dancers will compete in six levels of competitions — from newcomer to the highest “open-level” events — in the international and American style ballroom dances. Events also include nightclub dances such as the salsa, hustle, Argentine tango, and lindy hop swing; a formation team competition; collegiate team match; and other special performances. A highlight of the event will be a showcase of five dances by competitors Iaroslav Bieliei and Olga Tsikalyuk, the current U.S. Professional Rising Star Ballroom Champions. Last year’s competition drew more than 500 spectators and a record 1,044 entries from Cal Poly and other universities competing in 106 different events. The event provides the public an opportunity to experience the ballroom dancing firsthand. Admission is $7 in advance and $10 at the door. There is no cost for Cal Poly students with a valid I.D. For more information and to buy a ticket, visit https://mustangball.com/ or call 805-242-3262. Donations to help support this nonprofit event are appreciated.
Award-winning songwriter Loren Radis will be featured during Songwriters at Play Shell Café on Feb. 26 running from 6:30-9:30 p.m. In 2009 his song ‘If You’ll Be Mine’ was one of the winners at the inaugural New Times Music Awards. He was a winner the next year with ‘Homesick,’ and the next, with ‘(May I) Walk You Home?’ This year his winning track, ‘Young Man’s Song,’ again made the finals. Loren is a Central Coast native who has loved writing and performing music since he first heard the Beatles at age 10. His blend of acoustic/rock music has been compared to artists like Simon & Garfunkel, Iron & Wine, and Damien Rice. Songwriters At Play is held Thursdays 6:30-9:30pm at the Shell Cafe, 1351 Price Street, Pismo Beach, (805) 773-8300. The showcase includes one featured act and others playing 4-song sets. No cover charge, but a tip bucket is passed during the featured artist’s set. Our Thursday showcase is a co-production with Madeline Royal of Love Live Music. For more information, visit www.songwritersatplay.com.
SLOFolks will bring traditional Irish music band, Goitse, for two shows at Coalesce Bookstore Chapel in Morro Bay and Castoro Cellars Winery in Templeton, set for Friday-Saturday Feb. 27-28. Tickets are $20 a person and available at the venues, 845 Main St., for Coalesce, call 772-2880 and 1315 N. Bethel Rd., Templeton, call 238-0725 to reserve tickets. Also available at Boo Boo Records, 978 Monterey St., SLO. Hailing from Limerick, Ireland, Goitse is fast becoming one of the most sought-after bands among connoisseurs of Irish Traditional music. Led by Aine McGeeney on vocals fiddle, and up-and-coming stars, Colm Phelan, Conal O’Kane, James Harvey, and Tadhg O’Meachair. See: www.slofolks.org for information on upcoming shows.
The Basin Street Regulars are hosting a Mardi Gras Party featuring the Mud Skippers Band, set for 3:15-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22 at the Pismo Beach Veteran’s Hall, 680 Bello St. Tickets are $5 for Basin Street members and $10 for non members at the door. Enjoy New Orleans jazz, Dixieland, big band swing, Cajun and more. As this is a Mardi Gras party, feel free to come in costume and wear your beads. Call 773-3750 for more information.
St. Louis rocker, Ben Martsolf, is teaming up with his friend, Joseph Bassa from Keflavik, Iceland, in a band called “Surtsey & Co” and embarking on a West Coast Tour following Hwy 1 and will be swinging through San Luis Obispo County at the end of February.
The duo will perform a free show at Last Stage West, located on 
Hwy 41 half way between Morro Bay and Atascadero. Martsolf said another good friend, film director Nigel Walsh, “will be creating a short documentary about life and culture of the touring musician in the United States, stringing together a run of shows ranging the entire California Coast in a span of two weeks,” Martsolf said.
A member of St. Louis rock band, Blackwater ‘64, Martsolf said they plan to play small concerts during the tour playing original music as an “Artist Collective Project,” ge said, “while we document the events, the people we meet, the trials and challenges of even a small trip, while taking in the lifestyle and wonders of the Coastal Northwest. The scenery couldn’t be any more inspirational.” See: facebook.com/surtseyco or surtsey.bandcamp.com to listen to their music.
Cal Poly alumna and acclaimed soprano, Kathleen Magee Querec, returns to her alma mater for the Cal Poly Choirs’ Winter Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 7 in the Performing Arts Center on campus. Tickets are $12 and $14 for the public and $9 and $12 for senior citizens and students. Cost includes all PAC fees and parking. Get tickets at the Cal Poly Box Office between noon and 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Order by phone at 756-4849. Titled “Romance and the Romantics,” the concert will feature works on the theme of love by composers from the Romantic period of the 19th Century and the modern era. Groups slated to perform are PolyPhonics with Brahms; the University Singers performing Schubert and the combined choirs will join Querec performing Mendelssohn and Mozart and close with Strauss. Music department staff members Susan Azaret Davies and Paul Woodring will accompany.
Cal Poly Arts will bring two Broadway musicals to town in March. The 1920s-era feel-good musical, “Nice Work if you can Get It,” will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11. Tickets run from $60-$90 and there is a free, pre-show lecture with Opera SLO’s Brian Asher Alhadeff in the PAC Pavilion at 6:30. See extravagant dance numbers, glittering costumes and an unlikely love story between a wealthy playboy and a rough and tumble lady bootlegger. The story is set to classic Gershwin hits like “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Fascinating Rhythm.”
Then at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 16, “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles,” takes the stage. Tickets run from $48-$80. The acclaimed Beatles homage is hailed as 
clear and above the biggest and best Beatles tribute touring today. Rain is a live, multi-media spectacular that takes you on a musical journey through the life and times of the world’s most celebrated band. See: www.raintribute.com for videos and more on the show. Tickets are available at the PAC Box Office from, noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Call 756-4849 or order online at: www.calpolyarts.org.
The Cal Poly Symphony’s Winter Concert is set for 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8 at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly. Tickets are $12 and $14 for the public and $9 and $12 for seniors and students. Includes all fees, and parking. Get tickets at the PAC Box Office from noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Order by phone at 756-4849. The Winter Concert will be a collaborative show celebrating the student soloists and members of the university’s Orchesis Dance Company. The Student Soloist Showcase will include performances by five instrumentalists and three vocalists who won the Music Department’s Solo Competition. Instrumentalists are Rose Doylemason, Leah Anderson, Daniel Diaz, Troy Hanson, and Wicky Woo. Vocalists are Leah Ginsky, Shaina Levin and Alexis Rubell. All students are music majors except Woo, who is an industrial engineering major. Music Prof. David Arrivée will conduct. Theatre and Dance Department faculty members Diana Stanton, Michelle Walter and Christy McNeil choreographed the dances.
Cal Poly’s Winter Band Concert featuring the 65-member Wind Ensemble and 70-piece Wind Orchestra is set for 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly. Tickets are $12 and $14 for the public and $9 and $12 for senior citizens and students. Pricing includes all fees, and parking. Tickets are sold at the PAC Box Office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. To order by phone, call 756-4849. The bands will present their biennial “pops concert,” featuring entertaining works from all areas of pop culture written and arranged for the modern concert band. The concert features guest artist and 2012 music alumnus, Jonathan Withem, who will perform a work by composer John Mackey titled, “Strange Humors” with the Wind Ensemble on the djembe, a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet hand drum originally from West Africa. Cal Poly director of bands Andrew McMahan and Christopher J. Woodruff, associate director of bands, will conduct the concert.
