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Ray Bonneville kicks of Valhalla festival June 25

Evangeline Elston
The Valhalla Art, Music and Theatre Festival opens June 25 with a performance by blues and roots musician Ray Bonneville.
Rodney Bursiel |

The Valhalla Art, Music and Theatre Festival opens on Wednesday, June 25, with an evening of original, award winning blues and American roots music featuring the legendary Ray Bonneville with very special guests Lance Canales and the Flood.

Valhalla is thrilled to open the festival season with a concert of this caliber. The spectacular Boathouse Theatre at Valhalla will be open and brimming with good folks and good music! The doors behind the stage will be open wide so that beautiful Lake Tahoe at sunset is the iconic backdrop for the show.

Ray Bonneville is an internationally touring, award-winning artist from Austin, Texas (though he was born in Canada). Ray’s music is soulful, foot-tapping blues/roots music featuring electric guitar, vocals, harmonica and foot percussion. Unlike many of his blues counterparts, Ray is a true poet. He focuses on the story in his song writing with a moody approach. His characters are complex and their settings sometimes ghostly. Bonneville’s finger picking style on his vintage Gibson Melody Maker is rhythmic, which when combined with foot percussion, horn-like harmonica and gritty, low down vocals creates his completely original, full band sound. As roots music magazine No Depression puts it, “Few can ride a groove like Ray Bonneville.”



Lance Canales and the Flood’s sound is honest a spare. Their songs seem to come from the earth, from the hard work of the migrant farm workers in California’s San Joaquin Valley, from Canales’s heritage. Canales combines a deep, raspy vocals with a hard-edged storytelling approach beneath a stripped down, foot-stomping, acoustic instrumentation. The band performed in February at International Folk Alliance Conference in Kansas City and music promoters from around the world were impressed. The band has recently garnered media attention for their rendition of Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee” (“Plane Wreck at Los Gatos”) and the work they have done to have a monument installed with the names of all the people lost in the crash for which the song was written.

Valhalla is very proud to offer entertainment with the depth and artistic integrity of Bonneville and Canales. Their originality and soulfulness is unsurpassed in music today and their showmanship is captivating. This concert is great double header to start of the season!



June 20th – 25th, Valhalla’s Artist in Residence program features award winning Tahoe artist Lainie Vreeland. Vreeland’s two-dimensional artistry explores textural techniques using layers of acrylic paint, a variety of papers, canvas and aluminum foil to achieve organic shapes found in nature. The public is welcome to visit the Viking Room at Valhalla 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through June 25th to view Lainie’s work.

On July 1, there will be an evening of jazz in the Boathouse featuring Tahoe locals the Alan Miller Trio, interpreting jazz standards with a few surprises thrown in. On July 5, the acclaimed country music revue James Garner’s Tribute to Johnny Cash is sure to entertain and on July 6, a free concert on Valhalla’s Grand Lawn with rock band the MT Wallets will be great for an early picnic for families before they hit the beach.

The Boathouse Theatre, Grand Hall and the Grand Lawn at Valhalla, are a truly unique setting for a concert or a play. The Valhalla Art, Music and Theatre Festival allows guests to soak in the beauty and heritage of Lake Tahoe while enjoying world class entertainment.

All of the volunteers and staff at Valhalla are excited to share their passion for arts and Tahoe’s heritage. Visit the Valhalla website for a full listing of events and to buy tickets at http://www.vahallatahoe.com, call the office at 530-541-4975, or stop by the office while out for a walk at the Tallac Historic Site. We look forward to seeing you this summer!

Evangeline Elston is director of Valhalla Art Music and Theatre Festival.


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