Local singer Cooper releasing country CD
Tucson country singer-songwriter Drew Cooper will perform a CD release party at the Rialto Theatre Friday night.
Cooper has been performing solo in Tucson for the past several years. Last spring, he landed a main stage slot at Country Thunder in Florence. He also is a regular at bars around town including Cowpony and The Maverick, and makes regular trips to Phoenix for shows at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill.
Cooper’s album, “Hangovers and Heartaches,” borrows from his Red Dirt Texas influences including Pat Green on the soulful ballad “Beat Up Broke Down,” with some passing nods to Toby Keith and Brad Paisley on the album’s wink-wink closer “Easy Girls.”
Safford Americana/country band The Cole Trains and Tucson country singer Alec Petford open the show. There also will be a “special guest.”
Friday’s all-ages show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $10 at the door, 318 E. Congress St., or online at ticketfly.com
Like free? Like local? Head over to Congress
Club Congress is introducing us to some more young Tucson bands, and they are so convinced we’ll like Dirt Friends and Sur Block that they’re letting us in for free.
Sur Block and Dirt Friends open for Tucson jazz pop ensemble Steff & The Articles (lead singer/pianist Steff Koeppen, Tom Beech on drums, Chris Pierce on bass and Alexandra Tuggle on violin) beginning at 8 p.m. Friday at Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Details: hotelcongress.com
Veteran Mexican singer heading to Desert Diamond
Pedro Fernandez was barely a boy when word got out about how he could interpret a ranchero or mariachi song.
And over a career that started when he was a so-called child prodigy to two decades and manhood later, Fernandez is known now more for his ballads.
He swings into Desert Diamond Casino, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road, at 8 p.m. Saturday for a show that leans more heavily on Mexican pop music. Tickets are $35 to $85 at startickets.com
Nashville Tribute Band brings Mormon concert to Fox
Nashville über producer and songwriter Jason Deere will bring his Nashville Tribute Band to Fox Tucson Theatre Thursday for a 7 p.m. show.
The band will perform songs from Deere’s albums “Joseph: A Nashville Tribute To The Prophet,” “Trek: A Nashville Tribute To The Pioneers” and “THE WORK: A Nashville Tribute To The Missionaries,” all centered on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deere and his tribute band partner Dan Truman, pianist for the country pop band Diamond Rio, started the band in 2004.
The Nashville Tribute Band has performed more than 750 shows throughout the world including concerts at Salt Lake City, Utah’s storied Tabernacle on Temple Square.
Deere has written songs for Little Big Town, LeAnn Rimes, Jessica Simpson, Jim Brickman, SHeDAISY, Be Be Winans, Natalie Grant, Point of Grace, Wanessa Camargo, Leonardo, Luiza Possi, The Wreckers, James Wesley, Chad Brock and Due West.
Tickets for Thursday’s concert are $12 through foxtucsontheatre.ticketforce.com or at the theater, 17 W. Congress St.
Vince Gill bringing country roots to AVA
Rock and rap have seeped into the soul of today’s country music, but you won’t hear a rhyme or a scorching meandering electric guitar rant when Vince Gill takes the stage.
Gill is country, 100 percent, and it goes beyond his Oklahoma roots to the soul of his sound: steel guitar and fiddles whine in every other Vince Gill song, and when they are absent they are replaced with stripped-down acoustic guitar.
You’ll never hear him singing about smoking a little smoke, but he’s been known to throw down a drinking song or two. And on his most recent album, “Bakersfield,” last year’s tribute to the California country style and sound made popular by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, he makes an even more convincing argument that country music needs a reminder of its roots. The album includes Owens’ “Nobody’s Fool But Yours” and “He Don’t Deserve You Anymore”; and Haggard’s “Branded Man” and “The Bottle Let Me Down” — songs he will surely perform at the AVA at Casino del Sol at 8 p.m. Thursday.
The show will include his hits — “One More Last Chance,” “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” “Pretty Little Adriana,” “Turn Me Loose,” “Cinderella” — but it also will dig deep into “Bakersfield,” which he recorded with his longtime steel guitar player Paul Franklin. Franklin is in the band, which at recent concerts has also included Gill’s oldest daughter Jenny singing backup.
Tickets are $25 at tickets.solcasinos.com or at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road.
At 28, this magic show one for history books
Tucson’s “Stars of Magic” is nowhere near closing in on the Guinness Book of World Records for longest-running magic show. That honor goes to Le Grand David in Massachusetts — 2,000 performances since Feb. 20, 1977.
But at 28 years and counting, “Stars of Magic” is one of the longest running shows of its kind in the Southwest.
The Tucson Society of American Magicians John E. Alexander Assembly #136 will host its 28th magical extravaganza on Sunday.
There will only be one show and it will pack a wallop. The magicians are not just local celebrities—they have carved out magic careers in prestigious venues around the country including Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle and on cruise lines and in resorts and theaters in Vegas, California and elsewhere.
This year’s show introduces us to the next generation of Tucson magic-makers: Jasmine Shryock, daughter of veteran Tucson magicians John Shryock and Mari Lynn. We’ve seen young Jasmine on stage before — she’s been assisting mom and dad since she was 2 — but this is the first time we get to see her in control of the magic.
Other young magicians on the lineup include Gabe Lim, Jayson Schultz, Nicholas O’Niell and Roxy Sellers, joining more veteran magicians Michael & Billie DeSchalit, George Franzen, Norm Marini, Mike Bekedam, John Redmon, George McSly and Nate Anderson.
The magic will range from sleight of hand to close-up, some it fall-out-of-your-seat funny, some of it downright funky, and all of it guaranteed to be family friendly.
Sunday’s show starts at 7 p.m. at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., downtown. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for kids 12 and younger at starsofmagicshow.com
