Adopted as an infant in New Zealand to a modest household, the young Kiri Te Kanawa enjoyed a slow, steady rise to opera prominence. First winning her country’s prestigious Mobil Song Quest at age 21, she studied in London and made her stage debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. She was a smash. She married. She toured. She grew experienced at accepting bouquets and depositing paychecks. In 1981, she sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and the next year, the soprano was named Dame Commander by Queen Elizabeth. However, just when it looked as if her fairy-tale story would carry her through life, her husband was found cheating and her financial manager discovered making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such betrayals have only strengthened her diva resolve in recital, if recent reviews are any indicator. See Kiri Te Kanawa, the legend, in person on Saturday, March 20, at the Marin Center. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 8pm. $25–$95. 415.499.6800.Gabe Meline
While it’s sadly not uncommon to see hip-hop artists onstage without a DJ, it’s downright maddening when they haven’t even bothered to record an instrumental track. Rapping over your own rapping? That’s lazy, unprofessional and cause for dismissal. Thankfully, there’s a knee-jerk in the other direction with live hip-hop bands flourishing, from the Roots in Philly to Heiruspecs in St. Paul to the Crown City Rockers in San Francisco. Quickly emerging as the North Bay’s most promising live hip-hop group, God’s Oddities boast a full band, on-point MCs influenced by the Rhymesayers oeuvre, and something all too rare in hip-hop: a girl. God’s Oddities songs can be introspective (“It’s Alright”), topical (“MySpace Girls”) or just plain party fodder (“RapSure”), but what they all have in common are loping beats and infectious hooks. Catch their style at the new club in town—which just last month announced it wouldn’t book hip-hop—on Friday, March 19, at Chrome Lotus. 501 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. 9:30pm. $1. www.chromelotussr.com.Gabe Meline
And so it began . . . A 30-year-old Hawaiian native with a ukulele filmed himself sitting on a rock playing a virtuosic, flashy version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” posted it on YouTube, and the world watched in awe. “I never knew a ukulele could sound like that,” remarked just about everybody, and a career was born. With pioneering technique and dazzling arrangement skills, Jake Shimabukuro is the Art Tatum of the uke, keeping listener’s ears shifting gears to wild cheers while his four-stringed peers languish in arrears. He is the No. 1 reason why ukulele sales have experienced a ridiculously steep rise since 2006—the year of his viral-video phenomenon—with companies in both Brooklyn and California alike reporting 70 and 80 percent sales increases annually. Hear his interpretations of “Thriller,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and, without a doubt, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” when Shimabukuro wows ’em on Friday, March 19, at the Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $30–$35. 707.226.7372.Gabe Meline 
Books on the political atmosphere are often smart, or at least smartly written. So when a weirdly penned but sensational “tell-all” comes down the publishing pipe and hits the bestseller list, it’s cause for amusement. In 200 years, no doubt, people will still be reading Dreams from My Father. Could we say the same for ‘Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime’? Basically a tabloid-like retelling of the 2008 election unworthy of the journalistic experience behind authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the book boasts such turns of phrase as Hilary Clinton corralling “plenty of surrogates ready to sink their canines into Obama’s keister,” she having “never exactly been a buoyant Hubert Humphrey on the stump. . . .” Huh? If you’re lost as to what a “semiotician’s fantasia” is and you want an explanation “vomited verbally” (actual phrase from the book!), be there when Heilemann and Halperin appear on Sunday, March 14, at Book Passage. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 2pm. 415.927.0960.Gabe Meline 
As long as there is politics, there will be plenty of material to mock for the NPR-listener-beloved singing satirists the Capitol Steps—and with 62 collective years of Senate and House experience in their ranks, the members certainly know of which they thumb-nose. Their latest collection Obama Mia! could serve, to historians years down the line, as a completely beguiling document of the 2008 election, told almost entirely in spoofs of popular song. “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” becomes “The Chap Who Threw His Two Shoes,” about Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s almost-perfect aim; “Little Drummer Boy” becomes “Little Plumber Boy,” about Joe the Plumber; and the innocuous FreeCreditReport.com jingle becomes “George W. Credit Report.com,” about the financial crisis. By the time the Steps go out on tour, they always have a slew of new jabs at the ridiculousness that is Washington, D.C.; see what’s up their snappy sleeves on Saturday, Mar. 13, at the Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. Shows at 5pm and 8pm. $40. 707.226.7372.Gabe Meline 
Oh jeez, Junior Reid. We’ve seen your name on festival lineups and knew you were cagey in interviews about your stance on fellow dancehall artists’ homophobia, but now this? Your song called “Funny Man,” with the chorus “In Sunday school they teach us ’bout Adam and Eve, they never teach us ’bout Adam and Steve”? Are you for real, Junior Reid? Because it’s dumb enough to be a homophobe, but it’s just downright embarrassing when you fall back on the lamest redneck cliché in the world. Incidentally, who cares about what’s taught in Sunday school out of a grossly mistranslated book anyway? Oh, wait, that’s right, you do, because Rastafarianism is Christianity with dreads. We got this guy here in America, Pat Robertson, I think you two’d get along. And don’t be surprised if you see people outside your show this weekend holding signs that say “Junior Reid Is No ‘Artist’—Recycles Tired Slogans to Make Not-Very-Interesting Points” when you play on Friday, March 12, at 19 Broadway Niteclub. 19 Broadway, Fairfax. 9pm. $25. 415.459.1091.Gabe Meline 
The endlessly entertaining Del McCoury Band is among the finest bluegrass ensembles working today. They’re also one of the most authentic. Gathered around just one microphone in the old-fashioned tradition of the Grand Ole Opry, the group’s members shuffle around in dance patterns that would make Arthur Murray’s head spin, jockeying for position according to bellowed backup vocal, fiddle solo or vivacious group strum. With sons Robbie and Ronnie as longtime members, and with a recent spiritual album, The Promised Land, the McCoury unit would seem bound to tradition—until you hear their versions of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Nashville Cats,” Frank Sinatra’s “Learnin’ the Blues” or their incomparable show-stopper, Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” After 50 years of performing, McCoury is a veteran at the top of his game. See him Friday, March 12, at the Mystic Theatre. 23 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 9pm. $25–$28. 707.765.2121.Gabe Meline 
By Morgan Carvajal
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