During the ’90s, before I left Tampa for Ann Arbor, Berlin and Los Angeles (a long story), my favorite bay area band was Halcyon. Deb Hunseder and Steph Callahan’s harmonies, their original songs and great covers, quickly built a strong local following. It didn’t hurt that they also had big personalities that[…]

Gypsy Star, a colorful and seductive flamenco and gypsy ensemble, kicks off our August Side Door shows on Saturday night, Aug. 4. Great musicians, singers and even a dancer, are highlights of Gypsy Star’s unique show. After months of trying, I was able to book my favorite female duo, Halcyon,[…]

Lauren Mitchell played her first Side Door Blues show last week, bringing in a great band, her big voice and stage presence and a very tight pair of leopard skin slacks. What more could you ask for in a show? She and the band will be back soon. In case you[…]

Today’s Tampa Bay Times featured a great interview with Gwen Ifill, host of Washington Week on PBS. The show is being recorded at the Palladium on Aug. 24, in advance of the Republican Convention. The story says, in part: NewsHour co-anchor Gwen Ifill‘s mind is on Florida and St. Petersburg,[…]

Hedda Lettuce, the beloved “Queen of Green,” dropped in from New York on Wednesday night to share her now-infamous talkback presentation of “Mommie Dearest.” The show was a benefit for the Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the place was packed. “Mommie Dearest,” with Hedda’s quips and commentary,[…]

Did you make it for at least one of the shows on our Blues Blowout Weekend? I’m still recovering from three nights of fun. St. Pete Blues Allstars – sold out. Backtrack Blues Band CD release party – sold out. Chris Thomas King, impeccable bluesman and star of O Brother Where[…]

Our renovated Side Door Cabaret – the best music nightclub in the area – has had a case of the blues this summer. In case you haven’t caught it yet – this weekend is your chance to go deep down into the blues.  We’re featuring three nights of great music:[…]

St. Petersburg College’s Music Industry and Recording Arts Program is a big part of all our shows at the Palladium. We have student interns working with our tech crews, learning the business hands-on. For a great update on this program, check out this post: http://www.articulatesuncoast.com/bloggers/dr-david-manson/26-dr-david-manson/51-program-redefines-music-education

Our summer of great Side Door blues, jazz and eclectic music continues this weekend. We kick off on Friday with The Selwyn Birchwood Band. In just a few years, the band has made a significant impact on fans throughout their home state of Florida at clubs and festivals alike. Selwyn’s high-energy performances[…]

The three musicians at the heart of the band La Lucha all hail from different parts of the world – Colombia, Mexico & United States.  They met studying music at USF six years ago and launched a band that mixes originals, Latin rhythms and jazz interpretations of popular songs. Along[…]

Our friends at the Hotel Indigo, at 234 3rd Ave. N, in beautiful downtown St. Petersburg are again hosting a special art and music event with the Palladium. Start your weekend by at the Indigo this Friday, June 22 from 5 – 8 p.m. That’s  Happy Hour, for heaven’s sake. And it’s free. You can[…]

Our Side Door Summer got off to a rockin’ good start with sold-out shows featuring Coo Coo Ca Choo, the hands-down best ’60s rock band ever, and Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin, and his tight-tight band and a string of hits. Both shows had the crowd on the their feet[…]

  We’re closing out June with a Side Door show by the great new Latin jazz trio, La Lucha, which features some of our favorite local players. The gig in the Side Door is a CD release party for their brand new disc, which was funded by a micro-grant from[…]

The Palladium, built as a church in the 1920s,  was featured in a Tampa Bay Times story today on historic preservation. The Palladium received a landmark designation from the City of St. Petersburg earlier this month. To read the entire story click on this link: – http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/palladium-theater-is-designated-st-petersburg-historic-landmark/1234968

 Once upon a time in the very late 1960s, I sang with a sweet and earnest folk/rock group. We strummed guitars and harmonized in local coffee houses and school parties. We lit candles by the stage and hoped the dim lighting hid the pimples. Our big number was “Comin’ Back To[…]

Two big televised political events are coming to the Palladium this summer which will bring statewide and national exposure to the theater and St. Petersburg College. * Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9 and FPBS are partnering to produce a U.S. Senate Republican Debate for Florida voters on Thursday, July 26 –[…]

The audiences and the critics have spoken – they love the current St. Petersburg Opera produciton of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Your last chance to catch this hit show is Tuesday night at the Palladium. Showtime is 7:30. Here’s what Tampa Bay Times critic John Fleming said in his[…]

Your long, hot summer just got a little cooler. Down here at the Palladium we’ll be spending June, July and August – and a little bit of September – in the air-conditioned Side Door Cabaret for what we’re calling “Side Door Summer.” Friday nights we’re focused on the Blues – with great performers[…]

LOUISIANA MUSIC FACTORY – TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY: I spend much of Tuesday and Wednesday inside the Lousiana Music Factory catching the in-store shows. Each hour, another band crowds onto the small stage, the jazz festers line up in the record stores narrow aisles or stand back on the wooden stairway.[…]

JAZZ FEST, THURSDAY, May 3:  There was rain on Wednesday and the flat, black clouds have stuck around, but the are mostly just keeping the sun from doing its worst. Thursday is always the best day at the fest – small crowds, no lines, and today, no summer heat. Jazz[…]

WWOZ PIANO NIGHT AT HOUSE OF BLUES: This is an annual fundraiser for NOLA’s community radio station. It’s a celebration of New Orleans piano styles. Got here a little late because I’d been celebrating some New Orleans cooking styles, but I did catch Palladium favorite, Joe Krown, and visited with[…]

The week between the two jazz fest weekends is my favorite time in New Orleans. Great music in all the clubs and the in-store showcases at Louisiana Music Factory, across from the House of Blues on Decatur. This is an old-school, music-lovers shop that carries new and vintage New Orleans[…]

NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, APRIL 29: It’s a beautiful, sunny Sunday in New Orleans, with low humidity and enough sun-blocking clouds and breeze to make a day at the Jazz Fest tolerable and, often, pleasant. We arrive early to avoid the ticket lines, since The Boss is closing the show today and[…]

Jim Witter was barely into his teens when his brother offered him his extra ticket to see a piano player named Billy Joel. “I went and was completely in awe at what this man did. I remember the next day asking my Mom if she could show me a few[…]

This is a case of one-plus-one adding up to three. Broadway star Brian Lane Green, and Lee Lessack, a top cabaret artist, regularly used pianist John Boswell as their musical arranger and director. Brian suggested the three get together for a show. What came next was Three Men and A Baby…Grand.[…]

Palladium audiences know that we specialize in top tier artists – even if some of them aren’t household names. Michael Chapdelaine, who is playing the Side Door Cabaret on Thursday, April 19, fits that bill. He’s one of the best classical and fingerstyle guitarists in the world – and he[…]

We added some landscaping around our new piece of public art and I wanted to share a recent photo of the work with the landscaping. It looks even better. The sculpture is called “Soul Survivor” and it is a work by Louisiana artist Russell Whiting. the piece was installed in March. It[…]

Last Thursday, in the middle of the busiest week in Palladium history, we hosted a wonderful show with the Broadway star Susan Egan. She was a Tony nominee for her role as “Belle” in Beauty and the Beast, and Broadway’s  longest running “Sally Bowles” in the revival of Cabaret. She[…]

If you were part of the record-setting crowds attending shows at the Palladium last week, you might have seen our new outdoor sculpture. It’s located on our 3rd Street side and is very hard to miss. The sculpture is called “Soul Survivor” and it is a work by Louisiana artist Russell Whiting. It had[…]

I’m always promoting Palladium shows in this space, and we’ve had some great ones this year – including Monday’s sold-out Billy Joel event. But after hearing and seeing last night’s rehearsal for Cirque des Voix, I have to tell you – this is the most amazing show ever presented at[…]

Just in case you didn’t see the front page of the Tampa Bay Times today, here’s a link to Jay Cridlin’s coverage of our Billy Joel concert Monday night: http://www.tampabay.com/features/music/billy-joel-talks-about-life-music-sings-a-little-at-the-palladium-in-st/1220892

The Palladium’s Steinway Concert Grand has been visited by some of the world’s best pianists – jazzmen like Dick Hyman and Chick Corea; classical music’s Jeffrey Siegel; and New Orleans keyboard legend Dr. John. Since we’re an 850-seat theater, we never thought our piano would get a visit from the[…]

I chatted recently with Broadway, film and TV star Susan Egan about her upcoming show at the Palladium, her family life in Southern California and her big break in the business – landing the lead in Beauty and the Beast in 1993 soon after her arrival in New York. Egan[…]

Our Side Door Cabaret has turned again into a costume shop as St. Pete Opera returns for another weekend of grand opera the Palladium. This time the show is Saint-Saens Samson and Delilah. Fittingly, the place is crawling with tunics and Roman military vests – it looks like the costume shop of a swords-and-sandals biblical epic,[…]

Lot of performers who made their names and fame in the 1960s tour the country recycling the old hits. Noel Paul Stookey, one-third of the legendary folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, certainly has plenty of hits to recycle. But Stookey keeps writing great songs and pushing himself as a solo[…]

I’m going to be talking this week with Noel Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul and Mary. His solo show two years ago was a highpoint of my four plus years running this wondeful theater. I’ll be posting a new blog interview this week in advance of his show on Saturday, Feb. 18 at[…]

When I was hired to run the Palladium in the summer of 2007, I was lucky enough to “inherit” Jeffrey Siegel from my predecessor, Dar Webb. Jeffrey, the renowned concert pianist, had performed the previous March. The show had been a celebration of the hand-over of the Palladium to St.[…]

Normally, I’m writing about something related to the Palladium in this blog. But my buddy, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, sent me this remembrance of his friend – the famous boxing trainer Angelo Dundee. Angelo and Ferdie were in Muhammad Ali’s corner for all the famous fights. Angelo died last week in Clearwater.[…]

American Stage opened its riveting and musically-rich production of Seven Guitars on January 20, and the opening party featured seven of the bay area’s best guitarists. It was seven guitarists for Seven Guitars. To celebrate the run of the August Wilson play about a struggling bluesman, we’re featuring two of those guitarists this[…]

  Here’s a review and photos of this great show. Check it out! http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/blue-notes/31751-a-joyous-boogie-n-blues-piano-fest (And here’s my story written just before the 1-28-12 concert!) Hard to believe our annual Boogie Woogie piano show is now in its third year. Each year, the Boogie Woogie Blues Piano Stomp, gets bigger. Last year’s headliner,[…]

Michael Kaeshammer

We’ve got two shows coming up in the course of a few days that should be on your “must see” list. When we booked HAHN-BIN (he uses only capital letters) last summer as part of our Young Concert Artist Series, we thought he was a unique performer – a world-class violinist and[…]

 For Bill Burkette, lead singer of the The Vogues, his musical career, like his life, has been a series of reinventions. The Vogues started as high school kids doing R & B demos as the Val-Airs, with help from their high school principal in the Pittsburgh suburb called Turtle Creek.[…]

The Palladium’s intimate Side Door Cabaret is already a favorite of audiences and artists. Musicians say it’s the best place to play in Tampa Bay – a room with great acoustics where fans come to LISTEN to the music. Audiences always tell me how much they love hearing their favorite bands and singers in[…]

If it’s getting close to Christmas, Palladium audiences know that Nate Najar is coming to town with another great evening of holiday jazz. This year’s show is Friday, Dec. 9, at 8 p.m. The St. Pete jazz guitarist, who is building a big national reputation, has been doing holiday shows here[…]

Last summer we had Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones, along with New Jersey harmonica star Dennis Gruenling, in the Side Door Cabaret. The music was so much fun we decided to expand the show. Working with Tom Carter at the Suncoast Blues Society, and the blues guitarist and singer Steve Arvey, we[…]

St. Petersburg Times Fine Arts Writer John Fleming talked last week with Caroline Goulding, who is performing tonight at the Palladium.  The 19-year-old violinist is kicking off our Young Concert Artist Series. The show has generated a lot of excitement among classical music lovers and music students.  Caroline appeared Tuesday at[…]

Here’s the press release for the awards. Read down a graph or two for the Palladium’s nomination. Hopefully, I’ll see some of you at the awards gala tonight at The Coliseum in St. Pete. The press release follows: TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 25, 2011) – Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and[…]

St. Petersburg Times Fine Arts Writer John Fleming was knocked out by the  American Stage production of “August: Osage County” at the Palladium. This show runs only through Sunday, so if you love theater, you don’t want to miss this production. Here’s an excerpt from Fleming’s review: ST. PETERSBURG —[…]