The Highwomen perform at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on Sept. 3, 2021. Adam Pardee/STAFF. NAPA — After country star Chris Stapleton, himself a replacement to Stevie Nicks, suddenly became ill the day before BottleRock Napa Valley was to start, the festival’s producers acted quickly. They realized…

Attendees at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on May 26, 2019. Shawn Robbins/STAFF. You there! What have you been up to the last year and a half? Have you kept your mind fresh and your body trained? I ask because BottleRock Napa Valley is coming up…

Jon Batiste, courtesy. We’ve all been out of practice with navigating a massive music festival. Though you may have been lucky enough to enjoy live music at various points through the last tumultuous 18 months, a three-day festival in wine country is new again to all of us. To…

Gracie Abrams, courtesy Lauren Leekley. If the idea of pouring out your feelings about a past relationship to your current boyfriend feels it would be awkward, that’s not the half of it for Los Angeles singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams. Gracie Abrams at BottleRock Napa Valley 3 p.m., Friday, Sept. 3 Napa…

Nick Urata of DeVotchKa performs at SXSW in Austin, Tex. in 2011. Jane Hu/STAFF. Denver quartet DeVotchKa may not have released an album in three years, but its members have stayed busy, even during the pandemic. Violinist Tom Hagerman dove into the Suzuki method, teaching the instrument to children,…

Future Islands, courtesy Devin Yalkin. Future Islands frontman Samuel Herring was in a Stockholm cab one morning earlier this summer, being driven to the airport. He had been visiting his partner, Julia Ragnarsson, after spending most of the pandemic apart due to travel restrictions, but the country’s visa regulations…

Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads (second from left) and Adrian Belew (second from right) perform with Turkuaz. Courtesy Michael Weintrob. Guitarist Jerry Harrison has wanted to play Talking Heads songs again for a very long time. He didn’t want them to break up in 1991. After the band…

In The Valley Below, courtesy Jaimie Skriba. The road back to “normal” isn’t without speed bumps. As music fans eagerly, but cautiously return to concerts, some of that same internal dialogue is happening for performers. For Angela Gail Mattson of In The Valley Below it manifests as anxious energy. In…

Jimmy Eat World performs at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Aug. 16, 2017. Alessio Neri/STAFF. The producers of BottleRock Napa Valley revealed a lineup of night shows around the Bay Area that run that will be held over the course of the festival in September. Several of…

Guns N’ Roses perform at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on Nov. 21, 2017. Courtesy. Producers of BottleRock Napa Valley Monday morning dropped arguably the biggest lineup in the event’s history, and one of the best Bay Area festival lineups in recent memory, headlined by a trio of Rock and…