FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Livermore Valley Arts
Contact: Ruth Egherman (925) 583-2306
Sound Off This Spring with a Wide Array of Concerts at The Bankhead
Livermore, CA – (March 22, 2024) – As the spring approaches the Tri-Valley, Livermore Valley Arts is excited to welcome the warmer and longer days with a season filled with exciting, heartwarming, and nostalgic music concerts, with a little something for all tastes and genres for Tri-Valley audiences. Starting with child of Country Music Royalty and a star in her own right Pam Tillis and her Acoustic Trio on Wednesday, April 10, to an autobiography come to life in concert form at Songs and Stories with Roger McGuinn, frontman and leader of The Byrds, on Friday, April 12, The Bankhead will be kicking off the month with some fantastic nostalgia. Followed up by a Best New Artist Grammy-Winner at An Evening with Paula Cole on Saturday, April 20, and Roy Rogers and The Delta Rhythm Kings, who sound “the way good bourbon tastes, smooth and with a kick” (Spin), on Friday, May 10, the good music and the good times continue into May. Closing out these sensational spring concerts will be a delightful Mother’s Day treat for all ages with Livermore’s own Jason Lyle Black: From Blockbusters to Broadway 100 Hits on Sunday, May 12, concluding a spring full of great music to thrill and delight Livermore patrons. These unforgettable performances will all be at the beautiful Bankhead Theater in Downtown Livermore.
As the child of Country music royalty, country music singer and songwriter Mel Tillis, Pam Tillis was determined from a young age to find her own way in music as a singer and songwriter. Pam Tillis fell in love with music at an early age. Band, chorus, talent shows, church, and the creative community of Nashville all helped to shape the young singer. Growing up, Pam was in a variety of bands, spanning from jazz and alternative country to top 40. She sang demos and lent her voice to many national jingles, including Coke, Country Time Lemonade, and a Coors Silver Bullet with country superstar Alan Jackson. At the same time, Tillis worked as a staff writer for Elektra Asylum Publishing and later took a job writing for Warner Brothers Publishing, which
resulted in her songs being recorded by some of the biggest names throughout all genres of music, including artists like Chaka Khan, Juice Newton, Dan Seals, Gloria Gaynor, Conway Twitty, and the top ten “Someone Else’s Trouble Now” for Highway 101. After many false starts with her own recording career, including a pop single on Elektra and 1984’s “Above And Beyond The Doll Of Cutey” for Warner Brothers, Tillis came to the attention of Tim Dubois, who headed up the Nashville office of Arista Records. After much soul searching, Tillis made the commitment to make an honest country record: the album “Put Yourself In My Place” yielded 2 number ones, 2 top five singles, and one top twenty hit, and in its first year, the album was certified gold. Tillis followed with 3 platinum albums on Arista: “Homeward Looking Angel” in 1992, “Sweethearts Dance” in 1994, and an Arista “Greatest Hits” in 1997. Tillis achieved 6 number 1 songs during this time, including “Shake the Sugar Tree,” “Mi Vida Loca,” “When You Walk In The Room,” “In Between Dances,” “Don’t Tell Me What To Do,” and “Maybe It Was Memphis,” while 14 of Pam’s other singles landed in the top ten and top twenty. Pam has performed on the stages of Broadway in New York, modeled on the pages of Glamour Magazine, and is a proud member of The Grand Ole Opry. Some of Pam’s most memorable award moments are being a 3-time CMA award winner, including the prestigious Female Vocalist Of The Year Award in 1994, and being nominated multiple times for Grammy’s Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1993 for “Maybe It Was Memphis,” in 1996 for “Mi Vida Loca,” and in 1998 for “All The Good Ones Are Gone.” Pam is also proud to be a 9-time Academy of Country Music Award nominee, a 2-time Grammy award winner, a 6-time Grammy nominee, and an American Music Award nominee. Pam has celebrated an IBMA award win in 2004 for Recorded Event Of The Year, “Livin’ Lovin’ Losin’,” and most recently, a 2012 IBMA Song Of The Year nomination for co-writing Dale Ann Bradley’s “Somewhere South Of Crazy.” Though Pam has rolled easily with the tides and has drawn something from every new twist the ever-changing country music world has shown her, Tillis has always insisted on writing and cutting songs that speak from the soul. The results have been records that emanate an almost painful beauty. With more than 30 singles charting on the US Billboard charts, 10 studio albums, including her favorite, the critically acclaimed 2002 “It’s All Relative” (a tribute to her father), and 3 other releases, “Rhinestoned,” “Recollection,” and “Just In Time For Christmas” off her own label, Stellar Cat Records. Whether it’s on the elaborate stages of the Grand Ole Opry or in the intimate setting of Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, you will experience that feeling of delight that
comes from Pam Tillis singing exactly what she is meant to sing at that moment. Pam Tillis’ star continues to shine brightly in the 4th decade of her career, and she is currently touring extensively on her own as well as with her “Grits And Glamour” tour partner, country star Lorrie Morgan. The Bankhead is elated to present such a talented artist onstage on April 10.
As the founder of The Byrds, Roger McGuinn is firmly established as an indisputable industry icon. In fact, “music would be a very different place if it hadn’t been for Roger McGuinn,” said Rolling Stone. From his signature 12-string Rickenbacker sound to his instantly recognizable vocals on hits like “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Eight Miles High,” and “Mr. Tambourine Man,” McGuinn didn’t just make music; he made history. With his fearless sense of experimentation as the leader of the influential 60s group The Byrds, he was on the leading edge, combining the rock beat of The Beatles with the folk sensibilities of Bob Dylan to create the genre known as “folk-rock.” His groundbreaking work on The Byrds’ “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo” album is widely credited with ushering in the genre of country rock. Roger’s solo career began in 1973 and has yielded 13 albums, a Grammy nomination, and extensive touring and performing for enthralled audiences ever since. That feeling of being a trailblazer continues today as Roger offers shows that are as mesmerizing and magical as ever. He delivers the gift of an evening with a master that is as intimate as it is spellbinding. He guides his audience along a journey of story and song, populated by the “old friends” they expect to hear, as well as some new acquaintances from the folk music that Roger so passionately embraces. Roger’s been busier than ever, spearheading his acclaimed Folk Den Project, touring with country superstar Marty Stuart and his band, appearing at The Corona Theatre to open The Montreal Folk Festival, playing at Stagecoach, and appearing as a Very Special Guest on selected dates of Peter Frampton’s Guitar Circus Tour. An evening like this is something audiences will cherish forever, and Livermore Valley Arts is honored to get to present an enduring music legend at Songs and Stories with Roger McGuinn on April 12.
Paula Cole is a Best New Artist Grammy-winner and was the first woman nominated in her own right for a Grammy for “Producer of the Year.” She has, in recent years, honored her love for jazz and folk standards and songs for social justice with her releases “Ballads,” “American Quilt,” and “Revolution,” for which NPR called her a “boundary-pushing feminist trailblazer,”
for having “long incorporated powerful social statements into her emotional hit songs.” Her beloved anthems “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “I Don’t Want to Wait” (of Dawson’s Creek fame) are still playlists and radio perennials. Cole’s new album “Lo,” just released this year, is her first collection of entirely original songs in nearly a decade. She is launching an extensive US tour which will kick off April 11 and feature many of the musicians who perform on “Lo” in her backing band; The Bankhead is thrilled to welcome this acclaimed artist during her tour. “Lo,” Cole’s eleventh studio album, is devastatingly personal and utterly gorgeous; Paula Cole has never been afraid of speaking complex truths. With a musical catalog defined by honest and deeply personal lyrics carried by her powerful, radiant voice, Cole has always had a gift for discerning the underlying humanity in stories from her own life as well as those around her. This breathtaking collection is a cavalcade of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and gospel – with Cole’s remarkable voice the roadmap to Americana, jazz, and standards. The first single from the album, “The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr.,” is a heartfelt tribute to her friend and artistic mentor, Mark Hutchins, who left us too soon, aged 51. The song pays homage to Hutchins’ musical influences, spanning from The Replacements and Dinosaur Jr. to The Beatles, XTC, Daniel Lanois, and A Tribe Called Quest. The song, like the album, beautifully blends vulnerability with joy, staying true to Paula’s signature authentic and soul-stirring style. Paula recalls, “Mark exploded my mind. I literally heard The Beatles first with Mark. Also, The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr., A Tribe Called Quest, The Pixies, and a lot of gorgeous early ’90s alternative music folks might not associate with me. We connected in our love for Peter Gabriel’s music. I was mourning, honoring, celebrating Mark when I wrote this. I wanted to acknowledge him and his lasting influence in my life. Mark should have had an enormous career. I’m so grateful. The song needed to be fun like he was.” Besides “The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr.,” Cole reflects on her childhood’s psychological influence in “Follow The Moon,” her primary relationship, in which she wrestles inner demons in “Green Eyes Crying,” lays down her “Invisible Armor” to find hope, rebirth, acceptance in “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” and physical intimacy in “take it take it take it.” Cole faces her identity in the spine-chilling, redemptive “Wildflower.” “Lo” is a window to Paula Cole’s psyche. Continuing her social-justice writing through music, Cole’s “Lo” reveals songs “Calling All Saviors” (a catchy pop gem) and “Letter From A Quarry Miner” (written from a North American quarryman to his European family during The Great Depression in 1932). Cole weaves in the words of W. B. Yeats
in “Golden Apples of the Sun” while honoring Ray Bradbury in “Fahrenheit 451.” The song is a poem touching on the concept of the Anthropocene and the frightening prospect of erasing history. Cole eloquently weaves the personal with the universal, the shy with the provocative. She concludes with the uplifting “Flying Home,” an homage to Max Erhmann’s “Desiderata.” The album features longtime Cole collaborator Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John) on drums, plus Ross Gallagher (Joe Henry, Marc Ribot) on upright bass, Chris Bruce (Meshell Ndegeocello, Bettye LaVette, Tom Waits) on guitar, and Rich Hinman (Maren Morris, Sara Bareilles) on pedal steel and guitar. The album was produced by Cole and recorded at The Village Recording Studio in Los Angeles by nine-time Grammy-winning engineer Mike Piersante. A truth-teller, provocateur, feminist, and brilliant autobiographical writer who has pushed for personal honesty and social change, Cole wrote all the songs on “Lo” as a way to navigate her opening to trust again after life’s indelible blows. Weaving the personal with the universal, she wrestles with questions of identity and intimacy, history, and our collective failure to learn from it, ultimately showing the album to be a window into her own psyche. From whispering poetry in a low alto range to opening her throat in a primal scream, Paula Cole’s voice is more commanding than ever, revealing battle scars, deep wisdom, the soulfulness of gospel, the urgency of rock, and the sensitivity of folk. She is a poet with a funky groove, and she will be in the Tri-Valley on April 20.
Roy Rogers, “one of the rare guitar heroes who values feeling over flash” (Rolling Stone), is considered one of the world’s preeminent master Delta slide guitarists. With over 20 recordings to his credit, Rogers has garnered 8 Grammy nominations for producing as a recording artist and songwriter. His collaborations have garnered major media accolades globally for producing critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated recordings for John Lee Hooker and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, as well as collaborations with Ray Manzarek (The Doors), Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Allan Toussaint & Sammy Hagar, among others. He is known worldwide for his searing performances that have been named festival favorites at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, Montreux in Switzerland, Pistoia in Italy, as well as many North American festivals in Canada and the United States, having performed worldwide for more than four decades. With his electrifying mastery of slide guitar coupled with his capacity for superior live performances, Rogers has garnered consistent critical acclaim for his
consummate studio work as well as his deft ability to bring the house down during live shows with his band, The Delta Rhythm Kings. “I’m the guy that always likes to push the envelope,” Rogers says at home in Northern California. “We have always covered a lot of ground with other artists that I have had synergy with our musical tastes, and my band has been with me for many years – we just sync so well. I’ve been very fortunate through the years to collaborate with many gifted artists that I admire and consider longtime friends.” Born in Redding in 1950 and named after Hollywood’s King of the Cowboys, Rogers grew up in the Bay Area and started playing guitar at the age of 12, becoming entranced by the recordings of the blues, especially Robert Johnson, at age 15. By age 13, he was playing in a local R&R band and quickly became a young blues fanatic hitting the San Francisco ‘60s club scene – even once taking his little brother to see Jimi Hendrix perform. When Hooker asked him to go on tour in 1982, it changed his life. Forty years later, he continues to be an inspired player, bringing audiences to their feet across the globe, and The Bankhead is extremely excited to present this virtuoso and his band on May 10. “Roy Rogers means the modern master in the art of slide guitar. His versatility with the technique is nothing short of astonishing” (All Music Guide). The Delta Rhythm Kings are:
Steve Ehrmann (Bass Guitar) was born and raised in Milwaukee, where he fell in love with Blues and Rhythm & Blues music and began playing electric bass. Since moving to Northern California in the 1970s, Steve has played in the bands of, among others, John Lee Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Roy Rogers, Elvin Bishop, Coco Montoya, Katy Webster, The Gospel Hummingbirds, Mighty Mike Schermer, Angela Strehli, and The Blues Broads. He has also had the privilege of backing up blues and R&B/Roots Music greats Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Walter Horton, Johnny Adams, Earl King, Luther Tucker, Tad Robinson, Sista Monica Parker, Terry Hanck, and many more. Since the mid-1970s, Steve has enjoyed an ongoing music association with Roy Rogers and for most of those years, as one of The Delta Rhythm Kings.
Kevin Hayes (Drums) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based drummer and songwriter, probably best known for his 20 years as the drummer for The Robert Cray Band. During his time with Cray from 1989 to 2008, he recorded nine studio albums, including the 1999 Grammy-winning “Take Your Shoes Off,” as well as a double live disc, “Live From Across The Pond,” recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall. During his time with Cray’s band, he also played on records by
John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, and Van Morrison, among many others. His live show credits include performances with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Allen Toussaint, Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings, Tracy Nelson, Jon Hendricks, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy
Vaughan, Lee Dorsey, Curtis Salgado, Bonnie Hayes, and many others. Since leaving Cray’s band, he has worked independently on a variety of musical projects, including playing and recording with virtuoso slide guitarist Roy Rogers and The Delta Rhythm Kings, recording and touring in the Manzarek‐Rogers Band with Roy Rogers and the late Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, as well as recording and touring with the sensational British blues guitarist and singer Matt Schofield.
Roadie Ralph Baglio has been with Roy Rogers since 1990. Born and raised in San Francisco, Ralph has been a guitarist playing with various local rock bands since the 1960s. He helped start the very first ‘Bananas At Large Music Store’ in San Francisco, now known only as Bananas, and saw just about every live show there was to see at The Fillmore, Winterland, and Avalon Ballroom during the 60’s and 70’s.
Livermore hometown hero Jason Lyle Black is an award-winning piano entertainer whose clever arrangements, fun stories, and onstage charm have won countless fans throughout the world, from performing arts centers to luxury cruise ships, corporate conventions, and live television appearances. In his live shows, Black takes audiences on a journey through numerous musical styles, from Broadway classics to iconic movies and classical masterpieces, all interwoven with Black’s comedic stories like “Songs Not to Play at People’s Weddings and Funerals.” Black is known for reaching over 30 million people worldwide through his music videos, as well as having performed on the Ellen DeGeneres show in Hollywood, where Ellen called him “Unbelievable!” Black also performed on Fuji Television in Tokyo, Japan, and has made many other appearances with TV and radio programs throughout the United States. Good Morning America, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Yahoo, TIME magazine, and many more have featured black’s viral Disney videos. Most recently, his covers of popular video game music have reached hundreds of thousands of new fans from Russia to the UK and Germany. When not entertaining audiences onstage, Black maintains a small, exclusive online studio of piano students, from teenagers who appreciate his creative, fun teaching style to seasoned adults (one
of whom hadn’t had a lesson in 50 years!). Black has also presented educational workshops to university students, middle schoolers, and piano teachers nationwide. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Black also works as an arranger and composer for the piano, having authored three bestselling piano books with the world’s largest music publisher, Hal Leonard. His most popular book, Disney Medleys for Piano Solo, is an Amazon bestseller with hundreds of five-star reviews from pianists and teachers alike. Black’s original music has also reached a wide audience, with his album of original classical music, “Piano Preludes,” reaching #2 on the Billboard music charts—right below Enya. Black’s other original albums include “Another Point of View” (2009), and “Remembrance” (2020), as well as a Christmas album (2011) and a Disney album (2018). In total, his music has over 3,000,000+ streams on Spotify (this is in addition to his video views!). Most of all, though, he enjoys using music as a tool to put a smile on people’s faces. On May 12, the charming and magnetic Jason Lyle Black will be presenting an amazing Mother’s Day matinee performance, which, as has been the case in many of his past venues, some patrons will surely claim as the ‘best performance ever!’ Audiences will not want to miss this musically powerful, special live show with their loved ones in Downtown Livermore.
Tickets for all shows in the 2023-2024 Bankhead Presents season are available online, by calling 925-373-6800, or at the box office windows. For a complete list of events, visit livermorearts.org.
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Livermore Valley Arts is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit offering wide-ranging programs that provide access to the arts for the Tri-Valley community and beyond. The Bankhead Theater and Bothwell Arts Center are home to nine resident performing arts companies and over 40 studio artists and cultural arts instructors. LivermoreArts.org
Show: Pam Tillis Acoustic Trio
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $25—$70 ($25 student/military personnel)
Show: Songs and Stories with Roger McGuinn
Date/Time: Friday, April 12, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Tickets: $25—$40 ($25 student/military personnel) Selling Fast! Almost Sold Out!
Show: An Evening with Paula Cole
Date/Time: Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Tickets: $25—$75 ($25 student/military personnel)
Show: Roy Rogers and The Delta Rhythm Kings
Date/Time: Friday, May 10, 2024 at 8:00 pm
Tickets: $25—$55 ($25 student/military personnel)
Show: Jason Lyle Black: From Blockbusters to Broadway 100 Hits Date/Time: Sunday, May 12, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Tickets: $25—$55 ($25 student/military personnel)
Dates, times, and ticket prices for other events available at www.LivermoreArts.org
