Free Concerts and Live Music All Summer Long Around Ventura County

We have before us another great summer of free (and almost free), live music throughout Ventura County and surrounding areas this summer. This preliminary list is GROWING! Rock, jazz, pops, R&B, reggae, Celtic, classical, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, Classic Rock, Latin, Tribute Bands, you name it!!!

This list of course is subject to change. Contact event organizers to confirm.

This 2013 list is VERY preliminary and we will be making updates as we get them! Start marking your calendars for a great summer of music!

Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village/Newbury Park

• May 27 to Sept 2: Free Concerts in the Park in Thousand Oaks
• May 31 to August 30: Free Summer Concert Series in Westlake Village (Fri/Sat nights)
• August: Sunday Afternoon Free Jazz at Gardens of the World Thousand Oaks
• Starting May 31: Free Saturday Night Live Music at The Promenade at Westlake
• June 19 to Aug 28: Free Summer Concert Series at Janss Marketplace (Wed nights)

Agoura/Oak Park/Calabasas/Woodland Hills

• Sundays, 6/16, 7/7, 7/21, 8/4 Summer Concerts at Chumash Park Agoura Hills
• Saturday, June 22: Music in the Park in Oak Park
• June 2 to August 25: Free Concerts on the Green, Sundays in Woodland Hills
• June 9 to Sept 15: Free Summer Sunday Concerts at Calabasas Lake

Moorpark/Simi Valley

• June 15, July 20, August 17: Saturday Music in the Park Series in Simi Valley

Camarillo/Oxnard/Ventura/Beyond

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Paul Simon Performs "The Sounds of Silence" at Ground Zero 9/11 Anniversary Ceremony

Paul Simon's touching rendition of "The Sounds of Silence" at the 2011 10th Anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at Ground Zero.

Birthday Wishes to Linda Ronstadt, Born 66 Years Ago on This Date

One of my very favorite female recording artists, Linda Ronstadt, turns 66 years old today, July 15, 2012. Ronstadt, a top-selling artist in the 1970s-1980s, released 27 studio albums, 63 singles and has won 11 Grammy awards among accomplishments. She popularized many songs originally written and sung by others through her vocal talent, range and interpretation.

Five of my Ronstadt favorites are embedded below. Happy birthday Linda!

Perhaps my all-time favorite Linda Ronstadt song, this performance of "Long, Long Time" in 1970 makes me sit and watch over and over in awe of her voice and interpretation.

"When Will I Be Loved," written by Phil Everly and a 1960 hit by The Everly Brothers. Sung by Ronstadt, it reached #2 on the U.S. charts in 1975.

Here's a funky version of her #1 hit "You're No Good" that was originally written and performed in the early 1960s.

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An Amazing Ukulele Performer and Beautiful Performance of a Great Song

Ukulele Master Jake Shimabukuro (shown here playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps") will be playing at The Canyon Club in Agoura tonight. Great opportunity to see Jake live and local!

Cows with an Interest in Jazz Enjoy Dixieland in the Farmland

The New Hot 5 is a Utah based New Orleans style jazz band that was recently playing at a festival in France, when it discovered a herd of cows that seemed to really be entertained by their music. It started with Steve Call on euphonium as you'll see in the video. The bells started ringing as they situated themselves for a dixieland concert. Soon the whole band joined in. The rest is history...3 1/2 million YouTube views to date and a CD called "Jazz for Cows." Equal parts good amusement and good music. Visit www.newhot5.com to learn more and buy a CD.

Love how you occasionally hear cowbells chiming in. Cows are intent listeners.

North Point Community Church iBand Plays Christmas Tunes on iPads and iPhones

Originally posted December 2010

Really fun video of the North Point Community Church iBand playing Christmas songs solely on iPads and iPhones. North Point is based in Georgia. Visit their online store at http://store.northpoint.org.

Library of Congress "National Jukebox" - Thousands of Free 100 Year Old Recordings

Launched in May 2011, the Library of Congress (LOC) "National Jukebox" is a website that provides free access to over 10,000 recordings from the 1900 to 1925 time frame. These initial recordings represent the entire collection of Victor Talking Machine Company 78rpm disc library from 1900 to 1925.

Sony Music, which currently owns this recording collection, teamed up with the LOC in allowing public access to these recordings accessible at www.loc.gov/jukebox. The LOC plans to add more recordings to this collection periodically and indicates that soon, collections from Columbia, Universal Music and Okey will be added.

The recordings are available for online streaming use only. They may not be downloaded for use on your MP3 players, etc.

This is an amazing collection. I have particular interest as I own an old Victrola and have appreciation for these old, pre-vinyl 78rpm discs. The collection includes popular music classical music, ethnic music, opera, ethnic characterizations, musical theater, humorous songs, ragtime/jazz, spoken word, religious, comedies, monologues, dialogues, and recitations, descriptive specialties, blues, ethnic spoken word, traditional/country, whistling, speeches, and...yodeling.

You can browse through these categories or search by name, artist, date and other attributes. Here are some examples.

I searched for "bunny" (hey it IS the Conejo e.g. Bunny Valley you know) and found this 99 year old recording "The funny bunny hug"

Acclaimed Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso is well c

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Boogie Woogie Featuring Child Prodigy, Sugar Chile Robinson

Until the other day, I had never heard of Sugar Chile Robinson (Frank Isaac Robinson). But an email has been making the rounds about Little Richard performing as a child in the first video below. However, that isn't Little Richard, it's Sugar Chile Robinson in the movie, No Leave, No Love, released in October 1946. He was about 7 years old at the time. The second clip is Sugar Chile with Count Basie. Talented and so fun to watch. This is classic stuff. Glad that "fake" email made the rounds! Watch them both, start to finish. You won't regret it.

Had to Share This Great TV Theme Show Medley

These two young guys** from Sweden do a heck of a job covering 22 U.S. TV show theme songs in less than 7 minutes.  Quite a talented duo.  Visit their website at www.freddegredde.com to see other videos and to donate if you like their work. Or visit their YouTube Channel.  **I've been told this is just one guy, not twins. Duh! In any case, this dude is talented!

Theme songs included along with their start times on the video:

0:01 Two and a Half Men
0:22 The Simpsons
0:36 O.C
1:00 Naruto
1:11 Family Guy

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"We Are The World 25 For Haiti" Video

Cute Video of Couple Married Over 62 Years Playing an Impromptu Recital in the Mayo Clinic Atrium

With over 5.5 million YouTube views, I must not be the only one to find this video of an older couple making an impromptu piano performance at the Mayo Clinic entertaining and endearing.  Fran and Marlow Cowan have been married over 62 years.

And here is a video of this wonderful couple describing their life philosophy as well as how they found out about the above video placed on YouTube.

Elvis Presley and Martina McBride "Team Up" to Sing "Blue Christmas"

Another neat music video, this one for the upcoming holiday. Martina McBride was about 42 years old when this digital duet was released in 2008. Elvis would would have been 73.

Teletubbies Dance Video: Walk it Out

I sat my 3 year old on the computer to check out some Spongebob videos when all of a sudden this loud hip-hop music comes outta nowhere.  I look down and see Teletubbies moving and grooving in front of him. We got a good laugh out of it. Then I notice the video has over 10 MILLION views!  Wow, is it the Teletubbies or the music!!??  Hmmm...

The Real Boogie Man Tommy Johnson Plays Some Red Hot Boogie Woogie!

Pritchard, Potts, Pavarotti and, uh, Bolton, Sing Nessun Dorma

From that overseas show "Britain's Got Talent" many of you may have seen hotel waiter Greg Pritchard's male soprano rendition of Nessun Dorma a few weeks back.  Interesting but if you ask me, downright painful to watch.  Nessun Dorma, from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, in English means "no one shall sleep."  I had a hard time doing so after seeing this.

So of course I couldn't stop there.  Paul Potts, my personal favorite Britain's Got Talent performer, belted out this version of the aria in his first audition in March 2007.

Potts was 36 when he performed for Britain's Got Talent. Let's take a look at the master Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma in 1980 at age 45 (he passed away in 2007 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer).

Last but not least, Michael Bolton does a respectable job with Nessun Dorma in this performance.  Not my favorite, but not bad!

Hmm, no matter what Bolton sings, all I hear is "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You."