Hell, yeah, Gretchen Wilson is coming to Indio on Saturday!
This country singer, who symbolizes redneck culture better than a Jeff Foxworthy joke, really was actually raised in trailer parks among corn fields and pig farms in Illinois. So, when she sings her anthem, “Redneck Woman,” there will be an stench, er, air of authenticity to it.
Fists were flying at Kid Rock’s last concert at Fantasy Springs, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a catfight when Wilson sings “Homewrecker.”
Gretchen Wilson, 8 p.m., Fantasy Springs Resort Casino Special Events Center, 84245 Indio Springs Road, Indio. 342-5000
Other hot entertainment picks this week
Thursday-Saturday
AFFORDABLE CLASS: @ Buddy Greco’s Dinner Club in Cathedral City has an elegant ambiance, great food, a swinging jazz trio led by the best singing arranger-pianist in jazz, Buddy Greco, and a solid singer in his wife, Lezlie Anders. And now the trio is even more of a family act with Buddy Greco Jr., on drums.
Greco Jr., 50, has been a professional rock musician in New York. His main influences are Ringo Starr and Buddy Rich — who gave him his first drum kit.
He does a mean Buddy Rich drum tribute and adds dramatic dynamics to the trio.
The other good news is the supper club has cut its dinner and admission price almost in half to $65 a person.
So you’re virtually getting world-class jazz for the price of a good meal.
Buddy Greco’s Dinner Club@, 68805 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City. Now open Thur.-Sat. nights with a two-hour musical show at 8 p.m. 883-5812
Thursday-Sunday
OK ‘OKLAHOMA!’:@ Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” is one of the great challenges in musical theater.
It requires strong dancers to do Agnes de Mille’s revolutionary choreography, a booming baritone to sing “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning” like Howard Keel, and a large triple-threat cast.
You don’t want to be just OK doing “Oklahoma!”
You want to prove, “Anything you can do, I can do better!”
Don Hillier and Palm Canyon Theatre patriarch William Layne direct this “Oklahoma!” with Nikki Hock as Laurey Williams, David Boyd as Curly McLain.
The Palm Canyon Theatre production of “Oklahoma!” @7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sundays at Palm Canyon Theatre, 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. $28 opening weekend, $32 subsequent shows. 323-5123
Saturday
KEEP ON CHOOGLIN’: @ Stu Cook likes to say Creedence Clearwater Revival’s success was all about “the groove.”
Of course, as the bass player for that ’60s swamp-rock band, he created the groove with drummer Doug Clifford.
Four decades later, he and Clifford have built a new fan base with their follow-up band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited. And they seem to be doing just fine without that lead singer and guitarist who wrote most of their songs.
Old John Fogerty, was it? Forgety? It was that guy who played the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in May.
At any rate, Creedence Clearwater Revisited still pulsates like the Creedence of old. Its lead singer and rhythm guitarist, John Tristao, conveys the original Creedence sound without overtly copying its Fogerty’s vocals — at least to the extent that the original singer’s busy lawyer could sue him for plagiarism.
If you want to hear classic songs like “Bad Moon Rising,” “Fortunate Son” and “Down on the Corner,” this CCR will convince you they’re a more-than-adequate travelin’ band.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited with opening act America@, 8 p.m. Saturday, Spotlight 29 Casino, 46-200 Harrison Road, Coachella. $55.(800) 585-3737 or 775-5566
CONCRETE ARTIST: @ Johnette Napolitano was one of the more underrated female vocalists of the 1980s as lead singer of Concrete Blonde. but musicians hold her in such high regard, she’s toured and recorded with Talking Heads.
She’ll show off her musical and fine art skills to a hometown crowd in Joshua Tree before taking both shows on the road to Los Angeles, Tucson and San Francisco.
She’ll perform with British UK guitarist Will Crewdson, who recently recorded a cover of Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning” with her, and drummer Gabriel Ramirez-Quezada, who co-wrote and produced her fine “Scarred” CD.
Napolitano also will explore little-known saints and the symbolism of the cross in a wood and tin art exhibition titled “Saints & Crosses.”
Johnette Napolitano in concert with a trio and opening act Ben Woods@, and in a gallery art show at 7 p.m. at the Art Queen, 61855 Highway 62 in Joshua Tree. Information: shari@sharielf.com
EVENING AT THE IPAC:@ The new resident Shakespeare company, A Fluid Movement, brings its first production to the Indio Performing Arts Center this weekend.
And on Saturday, it will compete with a cabaret show in another theater at the IPAC.
Broadway singer Mara Getz will perform that tribute to Harold Arlen, the songwriter of such standards as “Over the Rainbow” and “Stormy Weather” on Saturday only.
Fluid Movement artistic director Charlie Parker’s production of “Twelfth Night” is about twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck and wind up in a series of mistaken identities.
It is the play that generated the line, “If music be the food of love, then play on.”
A Fluid Movement production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” @7 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 12, Indio Performing Arts Center, 45-175 Fargo St., Indio. Tickets $20.
“A Tribute to Harold Arlen” by singer Mara Getz with Joel Baker at piano, “Twelfth Night,”@ 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $20. 775-5200
