An evening with blues superstars Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang
Danny Zelisko Presents an evening with blues legend Buddy Guy and highly regarded tour mate Jonny Lang at 8 p.m. on Friday, August 17 at the historic Celebrity Theatre.
At age 81, Buddy Guy is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a major influence on rock titans like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, a pioneer of Chicago’s fabled West Side sound, and a living link to the city’s halcyon days of electric blues. Guy has received 7 Grammy Awards, a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, 37 Blues Music Awards (the most any artist has received), Billboard Magazine’s Century Award for distinguished artistic achievement, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential National Medal of Arts. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #23 in its “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” He was awarded the 2012 Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contribution to American culture; earlier in the year, at a performance at the White House, he even persuaded President Obama to join him on a chorus of “Sweet Home Chicago.” Also in 2012, he published his long-awaited memoir, When I Left Home.
It is hard to believe that at 37 years old Jonny Lang has already had a successful career for two decades. Easier to believe when you learn he released his first platinum record at 15 — an age when many young people are just beginning to play music. Lie to Me revealed a talent that transcended the crop of blues prodigies floating around in the late Nineties. No flashy re-hasher of classic blues licks, even at that early age Lang was a full-blown artist with a style of his own. Also, setting Lang apart from the wunderkind crowd was a 15-year-old voice that sounded like a weathered soul shouter. Actual life experience was yet to come, and has been subsequently chronicled in a series of five uniformly excellent recordings. “I got married, had kids, and that arc has been recorded on albums along the way,” says Lang. “There is a lot of personal history in there, and also some things that relate to world events.”
Doors open at 6 p.m. Reserved tickets ($40, $65, $95) are still available at Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., in Phoenix, or online at www.celebritytheatre.com. To charge by phone, call 602-267-1600 ext. 1. All tickets are subject to facility and ticketing surcharges. All ages welcome.
Graham Nash presents ‘Intimate Evening of Songs and Stories’
Danny Zelisko Presents legendary artist Graham Nash to Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, October 15th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the event start at $45 and are available at http://www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org/
Graham Nash is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – with Crosby, Stills, and Nash and with The Hollies. He was also inducted twice into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, as a solo artist and with CSN, and he is a GRAMMY Award winner.
Towering above virtually everything that Nash has accomplished in his long and multi-faceted career, stands the litany of songs that he has written and introduced to the soundtrack of the past half-century. His remarkable body of work, beginning with his contributions to the Hollies opus from 1964 to ’68, including “Stop Stop Stop,” “On A Carousel,” and “Carrie Anne,” continues all the way to This Path Tonight (2016), his most recent solo album. Fifteen of his most memorable songs are featured in the just released collection, Over The Years…., along with a second disc of primarily unreleased demos of some of the same songs and others.
The original classic union of Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) lasted but twenty months. Yet their songs are lightning rods embedded in our DNA, starting with Nash’s “Marrakesh Express,” “Pre-Road Downs” (written for then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell), and “Lady Of the Island,” from the first Crosby, Stills & Nash LP (1969). On CSNY’s Déjà Vu (1970), Nash’s “Teach Your Children” and “Our House” beseeched us to hold love tightly, to fend off the madness that was on its way.
Overlapping CSNY, Nash’s solo career debuted with Songs For Beginners (1971), whose “Chicago/We Can Change the World” and “Military Madness” were fueled by the Long Hot Summer, the trial of the Chicago Eight, and the ongoing Vietnam war. Songs from that LP stayed in Nash’s concert sets for years including “I Used To Be A King” and “Simple Man”. His next album, Wild Tales (1974), addressed (among other issues) unfair jail terms for minor drug offenses (“Prison Song”), unfair treatment of Vietnam vets (“Oh! Camil”), the unfairness of fame (“You’ll Never Be the Same”), and his muse, Joni (“Another Sleep Song”).
Ted Nugent’s ‘The Music Made Me Do It Tour’
Motor City Madman is back! Legendary rocker Ted Nugent brings his The Music Made Me Do It Tour to the intimate confines of Celebrity Theatre at 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 5th. Special guest Divided Minds open the show.
Ted Nugent has carved a permanent place in rock & roll history as the ultimate guitar-shredding showman, selling more than 40 million albums, performing over 6,500 high-octane live shows, and continuing to set attendance records at venues around the globe.
Nugent started “beating on my first guitar around the age of five.” Strongly influenced by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly, he knew he wanted to pursue that type of sound and attitude. Early bands, The Royal Highboys, and The Lourds, paved the way for the Amboy Dukes– and their psychedelic Journey to the Center of the Mind kicked young Ted’s career into hyper drive. The axe maniac soon broke out as a solo artist, signing with the legendary Epic Records, where the guitarist’s prodigious talent, ear-shattering volume and over-the-top stage antics quickly earned him the moniker of Motor City Madman. Cranking out hits like “Cat Scratch Fever,” “Just What the Doctor Ordered,” “Free for All” and the iconic “Stranglehold,” Nugent garnered international acclaim and truly hit his stride, becoming the #1 Grossing Tour Act in the world.
Nugent’s no-holds-barred career now spans six decades of multi-platinum hits. The ultimate Road Warrior, touring and recording continue at Ted’s breakneck pace. Nugent and his inimitable sound have been featured on VH1’s Behind the Music and A & E’s Biography. Nugent was named Detroit’s Greatest Guitar Player of All Time by readers of MLive.
Danny Gokey’s ‘The Hope Encounter Tour’ coming to Phoenix
World Vision presents GRAMMY® nominee, Dove Award winner, and Capitol recording artist Danny Gokey at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 13th at the historic Celebrity Theatre. The Christian singer is gearing up for his first-ever headline tour this fall called Hope Encounter. Also featuring GRAMMY® nominee Tauren Wells and breakout artist Riley Clemmons, the tour will hit 29 markets across the country, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Oklahoma City, and more. Tickets for the Valley’s show are on sale now at CelebrityTheatre.Com
“It’s been a dream of mine since American Idol to headline my own major tour,” says Gokey. “That platform opened my eyes to the power of mixing hope with entertainment. Hearing a message of hope at just the right time can truly make an impact in someone’s life.”
“The process of creating the tour has really been awesome,” says Gokey. “I can’t wait to hit the stage with Tauren and Riley – they are both crazy good and I love their fresh sound. We’ve also brought in uber-creative director Laurieann Gibson, who has worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to Katy Perry, to design the show and help me take it to another level.”
Gokey became a favorite of millions of fans as a Top 3 finalist on Season 8 of American Idol. His first album, My Best Days, debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Since then, the Wisconsin native has celebrated a series of #1 album debuts, including his first award-winning holiday album, Christmas Is Here, as well as singles including the recently Gold-certified “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again” and “Hope In Front of Me.”
His latest album, Rise, reached #1 on the Billboard Top Christian Album chart and garnered his first GRAMMY® nomination. Its title track, marked his third multi-week, multi-chart #1 single.
Brian Setzer Orchestra’s ‘Christmas Rocks! Tour’ is December 15th
Danny Zelisko Presents brings iconic guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and three-time Grammy-Award winner BRIAN SETZER and his 19-piece ORCHESTRA to Celebrity Theatre on Saturday, December 15th. Special guest Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones open the show at 8 p.m. The Brian Setzer Orchestra has announced the details for its 15th anniversary “Christmas Rocks! Tour,” presented for the fourth consecutive year by SiriusXM. Hitting 25 cities, the annual holiday extravaganza will launch November 16th at the State Theatre in SETZER’s adopted hometown of Minneapolis and wrap December 22nd in Los Angeles at the Microsoft Theater (full itinerary below). The public on sale date is Monday, July 23rd at 10 a.m. local time.
“People tell me all the time what joy I bring them over the holidays,” says SETZER. “I don’t take this for granted. People don’t say something like that unless they mean it. When we get a standing ovation at the end of the Christmas show, it means something just a little extra.” See full Q&A below.
The group’s set list will feature music off their latest Christmas album ROCKIN’ RUDOLPH (available now as a limited-edition box set, CD, vinyl or download), plus music off their three previous best-selling holiday albums and original material from BRIAN SETZER. SETZER’s trademark guitar work and vocal stylings will be matched with his 19-piece orchestra’s rockin’ big-band horn arrangements, making for a reliably unbeatable combination. View the Christmas sizzle reel here: https://youtu.be/6NXEa29BMqk
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Reserved tickets ($58 and $91) went on sale July 23rd at CelebrityTheatre.com and Celebrity Theatre’s box office, 440 N. 32nd St., in Phoenix. To order by phone, call 602.267.1600. All tickets are subject to facility and ticketing fees. All ages welcome.
