The Mid-Week Beat: Rockin’ in the New Year!

January 1, 2014
By Jimmy Berg

Happy 2014 everyone! I’m sure many of you are nursing some healthy hangovers today after last night’s festivities but the beat goes on. Why not start planning for your next night of musical festivities. Dick Clark may be gone but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a rockin’ new year.

2013 was a great year in music for Brown Paper Tickets. We ticketed a ton of shows featuring up-and-coming and well established artists, as well as a whole slew of great festivals, tours and house shows.

2014 is already looking like another banner year and today on the Mid-Week Beat, I thought I’d share some exciting shows that are happening in this first month of the new year. Doesn’t matter what kind of music you dig: folk, blues, metal, singer/songwriters, r&b, classic rock or ska; we got you covered.

Check these out, enjoy the tunes and then get back in bed. New Year’s day is all about recovery.

Saturday, January 4 I Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – San Francisco, California

One of the last direct links to the great folk traditions of this country, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is one of the legendary foundations of American folk music. In the tradition of roving troubadours Jack has carried the seeds and pollens of story and song for decades from one place to another, from one generation to the next.

In 1950, he met Woody Guthrie, moved in with the Guthrie family and traveled with Woody to California and Florida, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. Along the way he learned the blues first-hand from Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt, the Reverend Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Jesse Fuller and Champion Jack Dupree. So it’s fitting that in 2011, he received a Grammy Award in the Traditional Blues category for his album, A Stranger Here. He received the National Medal of Arts award and was honored with a special dinner at the White House.

Recently the award-winning film The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack introduced a new generation to his timeless music and yarns. SF Live Arts is honored to have this national treasure start their concert year.

Americana/country/rockabilly singer Vikki Lee opens the show.

Monday, January 6 I Keb’ Mo’ and Friends with Beth Nielsen Chapman, JT Hodges and Casey Wasner – Nashville, Tennessee

Keb’ Mo’ is a three-time American Grammy Award-winning blues musician. He is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Robbie Brooks Moore.

He has been described as “a living link to the seminal Delta blues that travelled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America.” His post-modern blues style is influenced by many eras and genres, including folk, rock, jazz and pop. The moniker “Keb Mo” was coined by his original drummer, Quentin Dennard, and picked up by his record label as a “street talk” abbreviation of his given name, Kevin Moore.

Join Kind of Blue Music for an intimate night of music in the round to benefit the Abrintra Montessori School, hosted by Montessori dad, Keb’ Mo’ himself.

Other artists will be: BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN, JT HODGES and CASEY WASNER.

Raffle will include a beautiful Bedell Acoustic Guitar signed by the artists.

Artist Ticket Picks: Americana Music, Children’s Films, Pancakes and more!

December 30, 2013
By Jimmy Berg

Welcome to this week’s Artist Ticket Picks! The Artist Ticket program gives our customers a way to donate to causes that we care about.

If you’re an event producer, you can allow your ticket buyers to purchase limited-edition tickets printed with original artwork in your event settings. The ticket buyer will pay a small, additional charge of $0.25 and receive a limited edition, collectible ticket imprinted with original artwork. The current charity of our choosing will receive 100% of the additional charge. Physical tickets must be enabled on the event.

If you’re a ticket buyer, you can check to see if the limited edition ticket is available to you at the beginning of the ticket checkout process or by visiting the Artist Ticket page. You receive a small piece of collectible art and support a valuable cause just by checking the box in the Artist Ticket widget when you’re purchasing your tickets!

See a full list of events carrying the tickets on the Artist Ticket page, as well as find out more about the beneficiary for the current run of Artist Tickets.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s Artist Ticket picks:

Friday, January 24 I CHATHAM COUNTY LINE and guests – Seattle, Washington

Chatham County Line is a four-man American roots band that emerged from the bluegrass scene in Raleigh, North Carolina at the turn of the millennium. In their matching suits and ties, gathered around a single microphone, they look like a traditional bluegrass band, but in the words of the Washington Post, “the minor chords, patient tempo, and bittersweet irony owe more to Neil Young than to Bill Monroe. This blend of bluegrass arrangements and folk-rock songwriting has led to five terrific, if under appreciated, studio albums from the North Carolina quartet since 2003.” Their newest album, Sight and Sound, is a live album that captures their rich blend of bluegrass, country, and folk.

The band features Dave Wilson on guitar and harmonica, John Teer on mandolin and fiddle, Chandler Holt on guitar and banjo, and Greg Readling on piano, pedal steel, and standup bass. All four sing, with Dave most often taking lead. Their vibrant harmonies, poignant arrangements, incisive lyrics, and catchy tunes deliver a contemporary take on timeless traditions.

The Mid-Week Beat: Modern Traditionalists

April 24, 2013
By Jimmy Berg

American music is something that has always managed to incorporate many, sometimes disparate, influences. A lot of this has to do with so many different cultures living and working together in the American “melting pot.”

Probably the quintessential American music, jazz, incorporated elements of European brass band music, African tribal music and southern blues. Bluegrass blended English reels with African-American blues phrasing. Rock and Roll blended country with rhythm and blues. Hip hop blended American funk with the Jamaican sound system’s thundering bass lines and dancehall toasting, eventually incorporating electronic music, rock, jazz and a myriad of other genres into the mix as well. Taking all of this into account, what we call “American” music is, in fact, a blend of influences from around the world, brought together on American soil and affected by the American experience.

Musicians are constantly looking to re-define what is thought of as “traditional” music and today I focus on three upcoming shows that feature artists that effectively blend traditional music with modern styles. Two are firmly rooted in American roots music while the third takes Eastern European music and mashes it up with experimental and global styles.
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Mid-Week Beat: Bluegrass Is Here to Stay!

March 20, 2013
By Jimmy Berg

This week on the Mid-Week Beat we focus on bluegrass and three great bluegrass events that are coming up over the next week in California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The title “bluegrass” was believed to be first applied to the folk music of the Appalachian region in the late 50s, supposedly derived from the name of the band The Bluegrass Boys, formed and led by the “father of bluegrass” Bill Monroe. The music is a mixture of the folk music of the Appalachian region, English and Scottish jigs and reels and the blues music played by the African-American musicians of the region. The introduction of blues was a key element in the development of the music, including the introduction of the iconic instrument most associated with bluegrass, the banjo.

The “golden age” of the genre was in the 1950s when Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Mac Wiseman and others ruled the charts. The music continued to evolve and change over subsequent decades with rock and jazz elements getting into the mix and electric instruments becoming more common. In recent years, thanks to the success of the 2000 Coen Brothers film “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” its Grammy-winning soundtrack and with more mainstream country artists like Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless releasing bluegrass albums, the music now reaches more listeners than ever before. As a result, bluegrass festivals are popping up all over the country and sub-genres like “nu-grass” and “jamgrass” are bringing the music to younger music enthusiasts raised on punk rock and jam bands. All proof that bluegrass is here to stay!

We have some great bluegrass events coming up featuring some of the hottest bands on the scene at the moment. Check these out:
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Music >

The Mid-Week Beat: Rockin’ in the New Year!

Artist Ticket Picks: Americana Music, Children’s Films, Pancakes and more!

The Mid-Week Beat: Modern Traditionalists

Mid-Week Beat: Bluegrass Is Here to Stay!

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