Events for May 2026 › Blues

Billy Watson

May 12 @ 6:00 pm
Genre: Blues
$5 cover

Johnny “V” Vernazza

May 18 @ 6:00 pm
Genre: Blues
$5 cover

Johnny “V” Vernazza was born in San Francisco and raised in Daly City. As we all know, the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960’s was a hotbed of music. Clubs were everywhere and to go out and jam at four or five clubs a night was the norm, not to mention the Fillmore, Avalon Ballroom and concerts in Golden Gate Park.

Starting out playing guitar in 1963, Johnny Vernazza also played bass for a time with a rock band that worked the Fillmore and toured as the opening act for Quicksilver Messenger Service, War, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. About 1970, he joined the gospel band” Gideon and Power”, which toured the United States, and appeared on the Sonny & Cher Summer Show on NBC TV.

As the blues scene gathered national and international momentum, Johnny “V” was playing with blues greats such as Luther Tucker and Sunnyland Slim . Around that same time he was holding court with a blues band in San Francisco’s North Beach with former Elvin Bishop member Perry Welsh. Elvin would come in and jam towing along the likes of Paul Butterfield and other blues monsters . It wasn’t long after that Elvin asked Johnny to join the new band he was putting together , the rest is history . This association led to six albums, endless touring and the #3 song in the nation by 1974 “Fooled Around and Fell in Love”. That record turned Gold as well as a LP with “The Marshall Tucker Band” that featured Johnny and Elvin on slide guitar .

The Premiers

May 26 @ 6:00 pm
Genre: Blues
$5 cover

The Premiers are a San Diego Blues Band.
John Flynn and Mark Bukich are co-founders of the band with a common bond of playing real Chicago and West Coast Blues.