Steve Poltz

Steve Poltz’s second annual BaHOOTenzie! Song School and Folk Fest will be staged in conjunction with the Joshua Tree Music Festival on May 2-4 (Song School) and May 5-6 (Folk Fest). The songwriting sessions, open to all, are led by Poltz alongside fellow instructors Tim Bluhm, Amber Rubarth, and Maya de Vitry. Folk Fest performers include Keller Williams, Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Rainbow Girls, Tim Bluhm (The Mother Hips), Maya De Vitry, Amber Rubarth, and Lisa Sanders.

Allison Adams Tucker

Photograph by Michael Klayman

Multi-lingual vocalist Allison Adams Tucker is in the middle of her Retro Trilogy, a three-EP set of pop music covers done in jazzy arrangements, with each EP covering a different decade. The 1977 Retro Trilogy EP came with a music video covering Cat Stevens’ “The Wind,” shot on the Big Island of Hawaii. A second installment, 1988 Retro Trilogy, was recorded in New York City and featured songs by Tears For Fears, Prince, Gipsy Kings, Peter Gabriel, and more. Part three, 1999 Retro Trilogy, drops this week.

Laurie Beebe Lewis

Grand-Ritz Theater

The California Flower Power tour hits Escondido’s Grand-Ritz Theater on March 25, featuring Laurie Beebe Lewis, one of the latter-day singers for the Mamas & The Papas, backed by The Electric Underground. Lewis also sang with Howard Blank’s Outsiders, best known for the 1966 hit “Time Won’t Let Me” and presently signed to local Pacific Records. The Escondido event also features Mike Pinera of local act Iron Butterfly (as well as Blues Image), and former members of Cannibal & the Headhunters (“Land of 1000 Dances”).

Spice Pistols

The Spice Pistols feature five middle-aged men in dresses mashing the music and visuals of the Spice Girls and the Sex Pistols. They’re currently on tour with Metalachi, known for mashing Metallica and Mariachi music, including a July 1 date at Little Italy’s Music Box. The new Spice Pistols album cover was drawn by former San Diego cartoonist and Comic-Con co-founder Scott Shaw!

Jason Mraz

Two-time Grammy winner Jason Mraz has a new video for “I Feel Like Dancing,” taken from his eighth studio album, Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride, due June 23. Filmed in one long continuous take, the video includes a cameo appearance by fellow famous former neighbor Gregory Page and other familiar faces, including TikTok star Gianna Marie, LGBTG activist Josh Helfgott, and members of Raining Jane.