Ventura Music Scene
Toast the Train!
by Pam Baumgardner
VenturaRocks.com
Pam@VenturaRocks.com

We had a blast at the Second Sunday Supper at Plan B Wine Cellars feathering the amazing Jen Staves and the Bluzfish.  Plan B is also hosting the Afternoon Blues Series now through September with Blues lined up on the first Saturday of the month.  The next soiree will be on May 2nd with the Shari Puroto Band.  Bring your chair and toast the train!

You’ll find music both days downtown on Main Street the weekend of the 18th and 19th.   On Saturday, it’s Champagne on Main, the Spring Wine Walk and Street Fair with music from Zeal Levin, Road Brothers, Kalyde and Ross Harper, then on Sunday Paint Ventura with live music from Paulina Logan and The Star Bandits.  And then continuing with the outdoor theme, head down to the Promenade for EcoFest on Saturday, April 25, for live performances from Spencer the Gardener, Dan Grimm, Heather Locke, Trans Van Santos, Afishnsea The Moon, Soul Tree and more.

Surf Rodeo has been rolling out weekly announcements for their music line up (a shrewd maneuver I might add), so far to date they’ll have the Rainbow Girls, Bob Long III, The NaVaNaX, Brothers Fortune, the Iron Outlaws and Raging Arb and the Redheads (who didn’t see that one coming a mile away?).

Darkside of the Hand will be there the following night along with Dead of Night, Die Evil Die and Shady Ladies.

The Mighty Cash Cats will hold their CD release party on Sunday, April 26, at Amigos.  The CD will be available featuring a blend of Country, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Blues, along with the title cut, an original duet “The Ballad of Johnny and June.”

Shawn Jones will be joined by Stephen Inglis at Grapes and Hops on Saturday, April 18.  Confidence is high they’ll have copies of their new CD, Global Guitar Greats, “Common Ground,” available.

Be sure to put this one on your calendar, Ozomatli at Ventura College Athletic Field, Sunday, May 3.  You can get tickets for all Ventura Music Festival events at www.VenturaMusicFestival.org.  (Ill Repute cancelled gig at Garage).

And finally we’re sorry to report the passing of a friend to so many local musicians, Doug Sax.  Sax was a mastering engineer, direct-to-disc pioneer, co-founder of Sheffield Labs, founder of The Mastering Lab; he would have been 79 on April 26.

If you’re missing us on Facebook, we had to convert to a business page.  So if you want to see our listings, you should not only Like our page, but you’ll have to continue to Like posts, and write comments to have them show up on your news feed on a regular basis.  I know!  What a pain!! www.facebook.com/venturarockswebsite.

If you have any music related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing?  Send all information short or long to  Pam@VenturaRocks.com.