The Sweetwater Music Hall, Mill Valley’s venerable live music institution and one of the most exciting live music venues in the Bay Area, has a special treat in store on April 16. The venue is hosting “Loretta Lives! A Tribute to the Music of Loretta Lynn,” performed and curated by Laura Benitez and the Heartache, a longtime Bay Area band that uses the three chord tools of country music to tell the simple, unvarnished truth about love, too much whiskey, and the call of the road. 

For the Sweetwater show, the band is joined by Stars of the Bay Area country music scene coming together to pay tribute to a country music legend, the Coal Miner’s Daughter herself, Loretta Lynn. This show will feature the Loretta hits you love, along with some deep album cuts, all backed up by Oakland’s own Crying Time. You’ll hear rare duets, collaborations and song interpretations by some of the Bay Area’s favorite country artists.

This show has played to enthusiastic crowds at the Freight & Salvage (Berkeley) and The Chapel (San Francisco). This is a one-time-only event at Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Hall.

The show will feature Jill Rogers and Crying Time, playing straight-up honky-tonk, 1970’s cross-over country, and elegiac originals; Essence, who has recently received national and international acclaim for her work with Bernie and the Believers through NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and BBC; Beckylin (Beckylin and her Druthers) is the Glittering Queen of the Honky Tonk scene; Margaret Belton is that rare artist who fuses her exceptional talent with a genuine warmth that makes audiences feel they’re part of the family. A true renaissance woman, she is a songstress, theater and film actor and a visual artist; as the First Lady of Queer Country, Cindy Emch (Secret Emchy Society) is known for her distinct voice and ability to blend Americana, California Country, Hillbilly, Goth, and Honky Tonk; Aireene Espiritu (Aireene Espiritu and the Itch) plays a mix of stompin’, swayin’ and timeless Americana reminiscent of front porch storytelling, of ghosts and the living, times of laughter and tears; Victoria George (Victoria George and the High Lonesome) comes from a family of artists, has a background in theater, and commands a stage with the zeal of an Allison Krauss or Bonnie Raitt; Lisa Marie Johnston is a singer/songwriter who blends country, Americana, and blues into a unique style she calls Stomp and Groove; Hank Maninger & Lynne Maes of Nashville Honeymoon share a love of country music that has led to a creative partnership onstage and off. Nashville Honeymoon plays original tunes built on country, rockabilly, and honkytonk traditions; and Maurice Tani (77 El Deora) is a veteran singer-songwriter and band leader of the Bay Area Alt-Country–Americana scene.

TIX $20. MORE INFO.

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