Nicasio
Luxury Liner
As Gram Parsons once inquired in song, “Do you know how it feels to be lonesome?” Well, one won’t find the answer on Friday, Jan. 3, at Rancho Nicasio when Bay Area musicians perform “Luxury Liner: The Gram Parsons/ Emmylou Harris Tribute Show.” The lineup for the evening includes Jill Rogers and Myles Boisen from Crying Time, Loralee Christensen and Paul Olguin of the Loralee Combo, Candy Girard, Kevin Russell, Sean Allen, Dave Zirbel, Tim Gahagan from The Familiar Strangers and Sonoma County’s own Doug Jayne. This is an annual celebration of the iconic country rock Parsons and Harris duo.
Dinner reservations are available from 6 to 8pm, with music starting at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 in advance at ranchonicasio.com. The venue is located at 1 Old Rancheria Rd., Nicasio.
Sonoma
Mic Man
“Garrison Keillor Tonight” is an evening of stand-up, storytelling, audience song, and poetry delivered live by the living broadcast legend himself. Keillor, known for the radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” has been busy in retirement, having written a memoir and a book of limericks, and is at work on a musical and a “Lake Wobegon” screenplay. Now, he’s on tour and coming to the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma with an act that includes sung sonnets, limericks and musical jokes, and a thread running through it on the beauty of growing old.
Doors open at 6:30pm, and the show starts at 7:30pm on Thursday, Jan. 16. Tickets are $60 in advance and $75 the day of the show. They are available at events.sebastianitheatre.com. The theater is located at 476 1st St. East, Sonoma.
Healdsburg
Doodle Dharma
One may ease into the New Year with a doodle and a deep breath. Artistic doodling—also known as “zen doodling”—is the soothing, meditative practice of creating abstract art with repetitive strokes. Think of it as stress relief disguised as scribbles, resulting in designs that are both stunning and strangely addictive to draw. Supplies are included, so all one needs to bring is their inner calm (or the promise to find it). The doodling magic begins at 4pm, Thursday, Jan. 16, at Quail & Condor, 149 Healdsburg Ave. in Healdsburg.
Tickets are $85, which covers a blank sketchbook, templates and the ticket to a more zen version of oneself. parkerhillprovisions.com/products/artistic-doodling.
Corte Madera
Romantasy Alert
As Publisher’s Weekly crows, “Romantasy readers won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough.” This is a stellar endorsement for Rachel Howzell Hall, a pioneer in the fantasy subgenre that combines romance and fantasy elements into a pithy portmanteau. The author brings her latest book, The Last One, to Corte Madera’s Book Passage next week. As the store promotes the work, “The world is dying around her. Enemies lurk in the shadows. And she can’t remember a thing about who she is…in New York Times bestselling author Rachel Howzell Hall’s gorgeous, otherworldly blend of fantasy and adventure.”
Howzell Hall will be joined in conversation by writer Samantha Downing at 6pm, Thursday, Jan. 9, at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. The event is free.
