Monday, January 30, 2012

RAP PHENOM Mac Miller brings independent rOOTS to chaifetz arena APRIL 11
tickets on-sale  at metrotix.com

(St. Louis – January 24, 2012) Twenty-year-old rap phenom Mac Miller comes to Chaifetz Arena at Saint Louis University with his Macadelic Tour on Wednesday, April 11 at 8 p.m.  The Cool Kids and The Come Up are also scheduled to perform.

All tickets are general admission at $31 and went on-sale on Friday, January 27 at 10 a.m. at MetroTix.com, charge by phone at             314-534-1111       and the Chaifetz Arena Box Office.

In November 2011, Malcolm “Mac Miller” McCormick released his debut album Blue Slide Park at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart becoming the first artist to independently release a debut album to the top of the chart since 1995. The Pittsburgh-native also broke on to the Billboard Top 100 singles chart when “Smile Back” peaked at No. 55. Last year, Miller supported fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa on the Campus Consciousness Tour.

Miller, who turned 20 years-old last week, uses a unique business model for building his fan base. Instead of using the powerhouse of a more traditional label, Miller signed to independent label Rostrum Records and uses social media to directly reach his core fans that range between middle school and college. The social media mogul has released a new song for every 100,000 Twitter followers, a number which now surpasses 1.67 million fans and has had more than 44 million views for his viral song “Donald Trump.”

These new media strategies that propelled Miller to the mainstream stage were recognized by Forbes Magazine, who not only included Miller as the feature for the Top 30 Under 30 in the music category with artists such as Adele and Lady Gaga, but who also wrote an article titled “Mac Miller: Indie Music Savior?” about his unusual, rapid rise to fame and how well he engages his young audience.

Also scheduled to perform are Chicago hip-hop duo The Cool Kids who have collaborated with the likes of Drake, Lil Wayne and Ludacris and released their debut studio album When Fish Ride Bicycles in 2011. This show also features fellow Pittsburgh rappers, The Come Up.

Kellie Pickler: Tough and True on “100 Proof”
By Bob Doerschuk

© 2012 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
“I was born in the wrong generation,” said Kellie Pickler, looking through the windows at Sony Music Nashville’s offices toward somewhere far south of town. “I wish I would have been in the generation before Twitter and cell phones, when there was that mysteriousness about being an artist. I wish I could have been a part of that generation where you’d go to the Ryman and sing and then walk out the back door and go honky-tonkin’. Well, we do that anyway, but because it’s on YouTube the next day, you can’t really completely cut loose.”
It’s not just the life that beckons toward Pickler. As she demonstrates on 100 Proof, her latest album on 19 Recordings Limited/BNA Records, it’s the music too. Maybe it’s the music most of all. In the opening seconds of the very first track, “Where’s Tammy Wynette” (written by Jimmy Ritchey, Don Poythress and Leslie Satcher), she kicks back and sings passionately, mashing anger and pain together in just a few notes: “I stay torn between killin’ him and lovin’ him. He stays torn between neon lights and home.” And just like that, we’re in a world lit by jukeboxes and perfumed by worn leather and spilled beer.
Where is Tammy Wynette? Maybe she lives somewhere in Pickler’s soul, nurtured by the young singer’s Southern roots and difficult early years. “Based on some of the things that I’ve recorded in the past, you wouldn’t know that the biggest reason why I fell in love with Country Music is because of Kitty Wells and Tammy Wynette and Loretta and Dolly,” she said. “I know that music has changed so much; the music today is so different than the music I listened to. And I guess everyone’s definition of Country Music is different. But I’m excited about the sound that we have.”
That sound is traditional, all the way down to mixing spoons into the rhythm track on the album’s first single, “Tough” (written by Leslie Satcher). For fans drawn by the infectious pop flavor of her Platinum single “Best Days of your Life” (Pickler and Taylor Swift) or the Gold-charting “Red High Heels” (Pickler, Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo and Karyn Rochelle) and “Small Town Girl” (Pickler, Lindsey and Mayo), the new direction is unmistakable.
“I really want people to take me seriously as an artist, which has been a little difficult coming off of ‘American Idol’ since there’s such a stereotype. I was 19 and green when I did that show and you only got to know about this much of me,” said Pickler, pinching thumb and finger together. “You don’t really get to pick what you do. I mean, why would I sing a Queen song? You don’t get to develop so much as an artist. You just become a star.”

Pickler’s finish among the final six of the show’s 2005 season lofted her into unfamiliar territory. Her ascension was so quick that she had to record the vocals of her debut album, Small Town Girl, while on the road, singing to backing tracks sent from Nashville. The results broadened her appeal, but the working method and several aspects of its sound left her feeling somewhat off balance.
“I can’t say I didn’t have fun with songs like ‘Red High Heels,’ and ‘I Wonder’ (Pickler, Lindsey, Mayo and Rochelle) is my life,” she added. “But I’ve done the ‘Best Days of Your Life’ kind of songs. To me, that’s not a Country production at all. Anything I sing kind of sounds Country just because of the way I talk. But for this record, I worked with a whole different group of people. I’ve been able to just go in the studio and play and have fun and figure out what cord plugs into what instrument and what this button does. I skipped all that developing because I just became ‘American Idol Kellie Pickler,’ so it’s been a slow and long process of trying to get to the point where I am now.”
Pickler is quick to credit co-producers Frank Liddell and Luke Wooten as indispensible in helping achieve her goals for 100 Proof. The fact that she had never worked with them previously encouraged her to break from her earlier routine and start fresh. Much of what drew her to Liddell was his productions for singers with high Country credibility, including Miranda Lambert and Liddell’s wife Lee Ann Womack. Once onboard, he persuaded her to bring Wooten in as well, partly because of his extensive hands-on engineering background.
“With Kellie, part of our goal was, ‘How do we start over? How can we do some work that she hasn’t done?’” Liddell explained. “I’d heard a handful of her singles before. A couple of them were actually brilliant. But she felt they were not her. At that point, you just want to get her in the right situation and the right room where she felt real comfortable. Then we went with our gut.”
They also encouraged Pickler to dig down and write some new material that expressed what she wanted to say. “You don’t think, ‘Somebody’s going to bring me 10 songs that sound like hits. I’ll show up at the studio and sing them.’ That’s karaoke. She wanted to become more invested in what she was singing, and that entailed sitting down and writing with some people. Kellie would say, ‘Well, I’m not much of a writer,’ and she might see it as a wasted day if she didn’t come out with a No. 1 hit. But I disagreed with her. She’s learning that she is a writer and she’s getting invested in a career in a way that other people had done from the beginning.”
Liddell stayed just as involved in the tracking as in the album’s early creative stages. “Frank pushed me, he pushed Kellie and the band,” said Wooten. “There are things on this record I would never have thought of doing. One of my favorite things was a track called ‘Arm Candy’ (Pickler and Natalie Hemby, available exclusively on iTunes). We were cutting the track. It was feeling good. And Frank runs into the tracking room in the middle of the take and yells, ‘Stop! Everyone out except for bass and drums!’ Everyone was kind of shocked. But then, as we were listening back, we heard this amazing beat and bass part being laid down, which totally changed the sentiment of the song in a way I don’t think any guy in the room would have come up with. The rest of the band didn’t even play on it; they actually ended up singing kind of a doo-wop background part, with upright bass, drums and some percussion. It wouldn't have happened if Frank hadn’t felt that we could get something better.”
“To be completely honest with you, I didn’t know the artist in me until I met Frank and Luke,” Pickler said. “They pointed out things in me I didn’t know I had. They saw it, but I didn’t.”
What they saw, and what 100 Proof uncovers, is the core of Kellie Pickler’s creative identity. The producers encouraged her self-discovery, whether by setting up and lighting candles around her as she recorded or bringing the musicians into a circle in the studio to track with her. “We cut in the old RCA Studio A, which is now Ben Folds’ studio,” Wooten said. “They don’t have isolation for each guy. Kellie was literally about 25 feet in front of the drums. I’d never cut that way, but once again that was something Frank wanted to try. It turned out for the best.”
“We were in a big circle in the big room,” Pickler remembered. “And before we started, I’d go, ‘All right, everyone, close your eyes. I want you to think about, if this was the last place you would ever be playing, what stage would it be on? Would you be at the Opry? Would you be at the Ryman? Would it be a bar in your hometown? Would it be the backyard at your grandma’s? Whatever it is, just close your eyes and let’s all go to that place and play.’”
Pickler’s eyes were closed as she spoke, perhaps herself going to wherever she was when they cut “Unlock That Honky Tonk” (Pickler and Satcher), declaiming over a stomping, banjo-studded beat, “Don’t tell me Country’s gone, ’cause I’m ’bout to tie some on.” She might have been revisiting “Stop Cheatin’ on Me” (Morgane Hayes, Liz Rose and Chris Stapleton), where her performance, especially in the artfully shaped two- and three-part harmonies, might have been laid down decades ago. One place she knows especially well comes to view in “The Letter (to Daddy)” (Pickler, Dean Dillon and Dale Dodson), a guitar-and-voice rumination on her father’s hard but successful rise from self-destruction to standing on his own, strong enough at last to give and accept love.
“I want to sell records,” she said, eyes now open, her voice self-assured. “But if I’m going to sell anything at this point, I don’t want them to be one-hit wonders, you know? Not just a fad for this generation because it’s hip and cool and right now. I want for somebody to sing one of my songs in the honky-tonks on Broadway in 50 years, like they do Loretta Lynn.
“We’re in a time today where you can’t afford to not be played on the radio,” she continued. “So most people go into the studio and the first thing is, ‘OK, how are we going to get this on the radio?’ Right there, you’re not making your record. You’re making somebody else’s record. That’s not why I’m here. I mean, ultimately I want to be on the radio, of course, but this record, these songs and the production come from a real place. And regardless if it sells a million copies or one copy, I’m happy with how this album turned out. Because my music is my life.”
On the Web: www.KelliePickler.com
 
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Kicks Up Its Heels 
at Peabody Opera House April 3 - 8
Tickets on sale.
 
“Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as...as a FIDDLER ON THE ROOF,” announces Tevye, a humble milkman from the Russian village of Anatevka. And so begins a tale of love and laughter, devotion and defiance...and changing traditions.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, the Tony Award® winning musical that has captured the hearts of people all over the world with its universal appeal, embarks on its North American Tour. In what is a huge theatrical feat, audiences will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Jerome Robbins’ original Broadway direction and choreography, starring veteran actor John Preece.
 
Tevye’s wrestling with the new customs of a younger generation is punctuated by an unforgettable score that weaves the haunting strains of “Sunrise, Sunset” and the rousing “If I Were A Rich Man” with the exuberant “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and triumphant “Tradition.” When his daughters choose suitors who defy his idea of a proper match, Tevye comes to realize, through a series of incidents that are at once comic and bittersweet, that his children will begin traditions of their own. At the story’s close, the villagers of Anatevka are forced to leave their homes and even the sturdy mores that have guided everyday life begin to crumble. Paradoxically, it is the enforced loss of the rigid traditions and home life that Tevye has tried so tenaciously to preserve that leads the family to reconcile and draw closer still.
A perennial hit since it first opened in 1964, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF has enjoyed critical acclaim for bringing to the stage a poignant story about the enduring bonds of the family. Now, the National Touring production of this timeless musical brings the wit and wisdom of Tevye and his family to audiences throughout North America.
Mr. Preece has performed in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF over 3,400 times, more than 1,700 of which were in the role of Tevye the milkman, this production marks Mr. Preece’s 10th national tour of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
 
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF will be at Peabody Opera House for 7 performances April 3 – 8. Tickets go on sale Friday, Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. and are available at the Ford Box Office at Scottrade Center, all Ticketmaster locations, by phone at             800-745-3000       and online at ticketmaster.com. Visit PeabodyOperaHouse.com for more details.
 
 
Fiddler on the Roof Performance Schedule
Tuesday, April 3 at 8 p.m.
Wednesday, April 4 at 8 p.m.
Thursday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Friday, April 6 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 7 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 8 at 2 p.m.
 

Trace Adkins' SONGS & STORIES TOUR Announced

INTIMATE PERFORMANCES PLANNED AT AMERICA'S MOST BEAUTIFUL THEATERS

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Trace Adkins announced the SONGS & STORIES TOUR, which will visit many of America's most beautiful theaters this Spring. These intimate evenings of powerful performances will incorporate stories, both humorous and meaningful, that pay homage to Adkins' working-man roots and rich musical heritage. Tickets for March dates go on sale to the public on Friday (1/27), more dates are expected to be added. A full list of dates and ticket info is below.
Inspiration for the SONGS & STORIES TOUR came as Trace released his 10th studio album, Proud To Be Here, last summer with a CMT Invitation Only special. The special featured new hits "Just Fishin'" and "Million Dollar View," a Q&A session and the most-loved songs from Adkins' twenty year career. The taping was so fun for Trace and his guests that he began laying plans for a tour.

"I've had many narrow escapes and blessings in my life. The right song at the right time has been my saving grace and that's something I have in common with the audience. Sharing meaningful songs, stories and some laughs 'around the campfire' is the Country music tradition and I'm looking forward to it."
Fans can share their own stories, questions and the songs that have inspired or shaped their lives on the Songs & Stories page at www.traceadkins.com.
From humble beginnings as a small-town Louisiana roughneck, to a Country super star with a twenty year career of hits, to his recent roles as outspoken author and actor, Adkins' life parallels the songs he sings. His albums showcase a range of earnest tributes and party anthems with humor and depth – the Songs & Stories Tour promises to offer the same. 
See the CMT performance that inspired the SONGS & STORIES TOUR:
http://www.cmt.com/videos/invitation-only-trace-adkins/1671287/full-episode.jhtml
TICKET ON-SALE DATES:
  • March dates: public on sale Friday, 1/27 (Fan club pre-sale begins Mon. 1/23.)
  • April & May dates: public on sale Friday, 2/3. (Fan club pre-sale begins Mon. 1/30).
SONGS & STORIES TOUR DATES (MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED):
March 8            
Des Moines IA         
Hoyt Sherman Place
March 9             
Kansas City MO     
The Midland by AMC
March 10           
Peoria IL                   
Civic Theater
March 15               
Milwaukee WI          
Riverside Theater
March 16           
Rochester MN           
Mayo Civic Theater
March 17                 
Grand Forks ND       
Chester Fritz Auditorium *Fan presale 1/30, public on-sale 2/3
March 22              
Birmingham AL         
Alabama Theatre
April 12                 
Ashland KY         
Paramount Arts Center
April 14                   
Toledo OH                
Stranahan Theater
April 18                  
Louisville KY         
The Palace Theater
April 19                    
Spartanburg SC      
Memorial Hall
April 20              
Charlotte NC            
Ovens Auditorium
April 25                 
Denver CO               
Paramount Theater *fan presale 1/23, public on-sale 1/27
April 27                
Salina KS               
Stiefel Theater
April 28                  
Tulsa OK               
Brady Theater
May 3                    
N. Charleston SC      
North Charleston Performing Arts Center
May 4                    
Savannah GA          
Mercer Theater *fan presale 1/30, public on-sale 2/10
May 10                 
Davenport IA           
Adler Theatre
May 11                  
South Bend IN        
Morris PAC *fan presale 1/30, public on-sale 2/4
May 12                   
Memphis TN           
Orpheum Theatre *fan presale 1/23, public on-sale 1/27
May 17                   
Atlanta GA             
Cobb Theater
About Trace Adkins:
Trace Adkins is one of Country music's most versatile and accomplished entertainers. His instantly recognizable baritone has earned 30 charted singles and 15 Top Ten hits gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums with total sales surpassing 10 million. He is the author of A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck. He was a finalist on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice, where he charmed millions while his recent role in The Lincoln Lawyer put him in the company of Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, John Leguizamo and William H. Macy in the box-office topping theatrical release.
A member of the Grand Ole Opry, Adkins was raised on Country and Gospel and is known as a traditionalist who speaks his mind and honors the past. The 6'6" star is a father of five daughters and a family man to the core. He is a former oil rigger who still works his farm himself. His "gruff" demeanor hides a self-deprecating, humble man with the coolness that comes from defeating death (more than once) and realizing everything else is small stuff. When a fire claimed his home in June 2011 in Tennessee, Trace first made sure his family was unharmed, then immediately redirected his fans' offers of support to the Red Cross.
Trace Adkins' tenth studio album, PROUD TO BE HERE, features the Top Ten hit, "Just Fishin'" and latest single, "Million Dollar View." The album was released on August 2, 2011 on Show Dog - Universal Music and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Country Album Chart.
SOURCE Sunshine Sachs
GARBAGE LAUNCH STUNVOLUME RECORD LABEL AND WILL SELF RELEASE THEIR NEW ALBUM IN THE UNITED STATES IN SPRING 2012

BAND WILL RELEASE ALBUM ACROSS THE GLOBE VIA LICENSING DEALS WITH COOPERATIVE MUSIC, LIBERATOR, SONY AND UNIVERSAL CANADA
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 23, 2012 - Garbage today announced the launch of their record label, STUNVOLUME.  The band will self-release its highly anticipated upcoming studio album later this spring.   STUNVOLUME will be distributed by Fontana in the United States.  Around the world, Garbage will release their album on STUNVOLUME via licensing deals with Cooperative Music in Asia, Europe and Latin America, Liberator Music/The Mushroom Group in Australia and New Zealand, Sony in Japan and Universal Canada in Canada.

The band has been in the studio putting the finishing touches on their fifth studio album and their first in seven years.  The new album is being recorded in a basement in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles, CA, the first to be recorded outside of Madison, WI.  The album is being produced by Garbage, engineered by Billy Bush, and mixed by Butch Vig and Billy Bush. 

After forming in Madison, WI, Garbage released their self-titled debut album in 1995 and rode a wave of visually arresting, female-fronted alternative rock bands.  The album spawned the hit singles "Stupid Girl" and "Only Happy When It Rains" and was certified double platinum in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  The band won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 1996 MTV Europe Music Awards, and was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy® Award.  Their second album, Version 2.0, was released in 1998 and topped the charts in the United Kingdom.  It was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Rock Album.  2001's Beautiful Garbage was named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 10 Albums Of The Year.  In 2005, Garbage released Bleed Like Me, earning the band it's highest chart position with a No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.  In 2007, the band released a retrospective collection called Absolute Garbage.  Garbage has sold over 12 million albums worldwide.  They have performed in over thirty-five countries and will tour extensively worldwide in support of this new release.

Garbage is Shirley Manson (vocals), Steve Marker (guitars, keyboards), Duke Erikson (guitars, keyboards) and Butch Vig (drums, loops).

 


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Monday, January 23, 2012

Just Announced Friday – St. Louis Gets Added to List of Tour Dates!
 
 
 
April 29
 
 
 
TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 AT 10AM!
 
TICKETS FOR VAN HALEN WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE BOX OFFICE, LIVENATION.COM,
TICKETMASTER AND CHARGE BY PHONE             1-800-745-3000      .
 
All dates, acts, and ticket prices are subject to change without notice.
Produced by Live Nation
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April 29
 
 
Tickets on Sale Friday, January 27 at 10am!
 
TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE SCOTTRADE CENTER BOX OFFICE, LIVENATION.COM,
TICKETMASTER AND CHARGE BY PHONE             1-800-745-3000      .
 
All dates, acts, and ticket prices are subject to change without notice.
Tickets may be subject to fees
Produced by Live Nation
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Saturday, January 21, 2012



JANUS
RETURNS WITH ‘NOX AERIS’ ALBUM, DUE OUT MARCH 27
ON REALID RECORDS/ILG;
 
TOUR WITH CHEVELLE AND MIDDLE CLASS RUT
STARTS FEBRUARY 24
 
 
 
January 19, 2012 -- JANUS—singer David Scotney, guitarist Mike Tyranski, bassist Alan Quitman and drummer Johnny Salazar—experienced great success with their 2009 debut album, RED RIGHT RETURN, but the band’s new album, NOX AERIS, reveals how far they’ve come.
 
That musical revelation is the self-produced NOX AERIS, which is due out March 27 on REALID Records (through Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group).  The first single, “Stains,” is already getting spins at WIIL (Chicago), KPNT (St. Louis), WBUZ (Nashville), WJJO (Madison), WWBN (Flint), KHTQ (Spokane), as well as SiriusXM’s “Octane” and “Hard Drive XL.”  Early feedback includes Zigz at WBUZ (Nashville), who says, "If ‘Stains’ is a taste of things to come... then 2012 is going to be a great year for Janus.  They’ve hit on a new level with ‘Stains’... this track is righteous." 
 
“Stains” explores what can happen when you don’t follow your heart, the marks left on your spirit when you become someone you’re not.  “It embodies what I was trying to say on the record,” says singer David Scotney, “it’s a dark point of view, but represents a cathartic process of self-healing.”
 
In 2012 touring news, the band’s first round of tour dates will be with Chevelle and Middle Class Rut starting February 24 in Grand Rapids, MI.  Additional dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
 
The record’s title, which is Latin for “night air,” comes from the 14th Century, a period where a third of the European population was killed off by the plague.  Then, people believed going outdoors at night would cause them to succumb to the Black Death.  While writing NOX AERIS, JANUS found this idea to be an apt metaphor for their own journey, preconceived notions of their own being flipped around as they became a bigger, more established band since the release of RED RIGHT RETURNNOX AERIS reveals who JANUS is and what they’ve gone through.
 
RED RIGHT RETURN came out in September 2009 on REALID Records and spawned the Top 10 Active Rock hit, "Eyesore."  They spent months on the road touring with Chevelle, Sick Puppies, Sevendust, Pop Evil, Halestorm, Five Finger Death Punch, and Alice In Chains.  JANUS also sold-out numerous headlining shows of their own, appeared on MTV’s “Headbangers Ball” and performed in the biggest rock festivals in the U.S., including Rock On The Range.  Absolutepunk.net raved about the album:  “There are a few bands, given the opportunity, could take the radio by storm.  JANUS is a perfect example of this type of band.  If they were given the chance, and played on some larger radio stations alongside all of our alternative ‘favorites’ (sound-alikes), they could earn themselves hordes of fans.”  While Away-team.com hailed in a 9 out of 10 album review:  “Brilliant on many levels and impeccably engineered and produced to perfection.”
 
Check out JANUS with Chevelle and Middle Class Rut at any of the following stops:
 
DATE               CITY                             VENUE
 
Fri 2/24             Grand Rapids, MI          Orbit Room
Sat 2/25            Fort Wayne, IN              Piere’s
Sun 2/26           Niagara Falls, NY          Rapids Theatre
Tue 2/28            Portland, ME                 State Theater
Wed 2/29          New York, NY               Irving Plaza
Fri 3/2               Providence, RI              Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
Sat 3/3              Atlantic City, NJ            House of Blues
Mon 3/5            Baltimore, MD               Rams Head Live
Tue 3/6             Norfolk, VA                   The Norva
Thu 3/8             Knoxville, TN                 Valarium
Fri 3/9               Nashville, TN                 Marathon Music
Sat 3/10            Indianapolis, IN            Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
Sun 3/11           Springfield, MO                         Gillioz Theatre
Tue 3/13            Wichita, KS                   Cotillion Ballroom
Wed 3/14          Omaha, NE                   Sokol Auditorium
Fri 3/16             Oklahoma City, OK        Diamond Ballroom
 
RED HOT
CHILI PEPPERS
 
Scottrade Center
                                                               
 
Friday, May 25
 
TICKETS ON SALE SATURDAY, JANUARY 28
AT 10 AM AT TICKETMASTER.COM;
AND ALL TICKETMASTER LOCATIONS.
Charge by phone at 800-745-3000.

Tony Bennett Celebrates 50th Anniversary of His Recording "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" on Monday, Jan 23

Song Garnered Bennett his First Grammy Award in 1962; 50 Years Later Bennett Still a Grammy Nominee

PBS' Great Performances To Premiere "Tony Bennett: Duets II" on January 27

"We aren't likely to see a recording career like this again." - The New York Times

NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Tony Bennett's signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," marks its 50th anniversary from its original recording date on January 23, 1962.  The song garnered Bennett his first Grammy Award for "Record of the Year," and as a Grammy nominee this year for DUETS II , Tony holds the longest span of Grammy nominations in the music industry.  Upon the release of "Tony Bennett: The Complete Collection," the most extensive collection of Tony's recordings to date, the New York Times commented, "We aren't likely to see a recording career like this again."  On January 27, PBS' Great Performances will premiere "Tony Bennett: Duets II," a stunning visual presentation of the full performances from Bennett's #1 CD, DUETS II , featuring Tony recording with Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Aretha Franklin, John Mayer, the late Amy Winehouse and a host of others.
In 1961, Ralph Sharon, Tony's pianist and musical director at the time, took the sheet music for "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," a song written by George Cory and Douglass Cross, with him as he prepared to go on the road with Bennett, knowing that the singer was making his first performance in San Francisco.  They rehearsed the song after a show at The Vapors Restaurant in Hot Springs, Arkansas (President Clinton would later confide to Tony that he was at his performance that evening, peeking through the club windows).  Satisfied that they had a song with a local theme to add to the San Francisco engagement, Tony performed the song live at the Venetian Room in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.  The song went over so well that at Bennett's next recording date in NY, he added the song to the track listing and Columbia Records made it the "B" side of a record that all concerned felt was destined to be a hit, a lovely song called "Once Upon A Time," from the Broadway show "All-American."   Recorded in NYC on January 23, 1962, Bennett recorded it in one take and the song was highlighted by a gorgeous orchestration by Marty Manning, who had worked on several Bennett hits.  As Tony recalls, "I was convinced that 'Once Upon A Time' was going to be a smash and a few weeks after it came out the Columbia rep called me and said, 'Turn the record over, San Francisco is really catching on.'"  From a grassroots hit, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" made Bennett an international star and began his long-standing love affair with the city by the bay.
The song, rarely covered by any other artist, has become an integral part of San Francisco's cultural landscape and is played after every Giants win in their stadium. Tony painted a heart for the city's "Hearts in San Francisco" project, which is on permanent display in Union Square.  This Valentine's Day, February 14, Bennett will return to San Francisco's Venetian Room to perform his signature song and his many hits for a benefit event in support of the University of California, San Francisco's Division of Cardiology.
SOURCE RPM/Columbia Records
Multi-platinum rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers have announced that a series of North American shows in April and May have been added to their upcoming I'm With You World Tour. Due to multiple foot injuries sustained by lead singer Anthony Kiedis, and subsequent surgery, the tour will now kick off on March 29th in St. Petersburg, FL, and crisscross the continent throughout 2012. Please see below for all upcoming confirmed dates. More will be announced in the coming weeks.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are touring in support of their current album I'm With You, which has received a Grammy nomination for "Rock Album of the Year." In addition, the band will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. 
 

NEWLY ANNOUNCED TOUR DATES:

04/27              Toronto, ON                          Air Canada Centre (on sale 1/27)
04/30              Ottawa, ON                           Scotiabank Place (on sale 1/27)
05/02              Montreal, QC                        Bell Centre (on sale 1/28)
05/04              Newark, NJ                            Prudential Center (on sale 1/28)
05/07              Boston, MA                           TD Garden (on sale 1/27)
05/10              Washington, DC                   Verizon Center (on sale 1/27)
05/11              Philadelphia, PA                   Wells Fargo Center (on sale 1/27)
05/25              St. Louis, MO                        Scottrade Center (on sale 1/28)
05/26              Grand Rapids, MI                 Van Andel Arena (on sale 1/27)
05/28              Chicago, IL                             Allstate Arena (on sale 1/28)
05/30              Pittsburgh, PA                      Consol Energy Center (on sale 1/27)
06/01              Detroit, MI                            Joe Louis Arena (on sale 1/27)
06/02              Cleveland, OH                      Quicken Loans Arena (on sale 1/27)
06/04              Columbus, OH                     Schottenstein Center (on sale 1/27)
06/06              Cincinnati, OH                      U.S. Bank Arena (on sale 1/27)
06/07              Louisville, KY                        KFC Yum Center (on sale 1/28)