GG Amos Band to play Valhalla season finale

The GG Amos Band will bring its electrifying mix of blues, soul and funky jazz to Valhalla for an outdoor, nighttime concert Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The concert marks the finale of the 2005 Valhalla Arts & Music Festival season.

Tickets are $10 and reservations may be made by calling (530) 541-4975. Concert-goers are urged to bring warm clothes, a lawn chair and a blanket to the concert that will take place under the stars on the Valhalla lawn overlooking the shores of Lake Tahoe. There will be an area for dancing.

Known for "tearing up" roadhouses all over California, GG Amos is a powerful guitarist and singer whose influences range from the like of Louis Armstrong, Carlos Santana and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, to Kenny Burrell and Pat Metheny. Her soulful, high-energy performances and guitar playing has earned her a reputation as a rising star in the blues scene. Over the years Amos has performed with such legends as John Lee Hooker, Jimmy McCracklin, Guitar Shorty, Elvin Bishop and Koko Taylor.

"GG Amos is the real deal ... molten, stinging, fluid guitar tone, with an amazingly supple and powerful voice," said Blues Review magazine.

Guitar great John Lee Hooker said of Amos, "Girl, you can boogie." The Sacramento-based Amos has been described in concert as "sparse, yet tasty playing, and smooth-as-old-whiskey vocals," and her connection with the audience is electric. Comparisons to Bonnie Raitt or Joan Osbourne are somewhat inevitable, but Amos plays and sings with a style distinctly her own.

The Valhalla Arts & Music Festival, located three miles north of the "Y" on Highway 89, is a program of the Tahoe Tallac Association, operating under a permit from the USFSDA.