WHO: SARA WATKINS www.sarawatkins.com
Starlite Radio opens www.starliteradio.com 

WHAT: 38th Season Kick-Off Concert event presented by Charlotte’s Web for the Performing Arts

WHEN: 7:00 p.m. Friday October 9, 2009

WHERE: The Sullivan Center, (formerly N.A.T.), 118 N. Main St., Rockford, IL

WHY: You could say that Sara Watkins’ solo debut has been a lifetime in the making. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter and fiddle player spent nearly two decades—all of her teenage and young adult life—as one-third of Nickel Creek, the Grammy Award–winning acoustic trio that used contemporary bluegrass as a starting point for its no-genre-barred sound. Along the way, she’s hinted at her desire to do a project of her own and even organized some exploratory sessions in Los Angeles about six years ago. Now, with Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus, she is releasing her self-titled solo disc, recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville and produced by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. It features an impressively wide range of backing players and old friends, including itinerant alt-country duo Gillian Welch and Dave Rawling, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas; fellow travelers from the bluegrass world like Tim O’Brien, Chris Eldridge, Ronnie McCoury and Rayna Gellert; and her Nickel Creek band mates. Her tour of the next record takes her through Rockford for one show only: October 9, 2009. 

Opening the show is Rockford’s own: Starlite Radio. Often compared to Aimee Mann, Over The Rhine, and Norah Jones, Starlite Radio's first full-length album, 22Blackbirds, was released in May, 2008. Since then, the group has won the 2008 Composer of the Year award from the Rockford Area Music Industry for having penned the breathtaking, The Winter Moon Is Fading.  Come see this award winning band in action.

ATTENDEE INFO: $20 general; $30 reserved
Advance tickets available at the Rockford Area Arts Council, 713 E. State 815 963-6765; both of The Postal Shoppe locations, in the Edgebrook Center, 815 397-7301 and 2205 S. Perryville, 815 484-0940; The Kilt & Clover, 1414 N. Main, 815 962-5458; and JustGoods, 201 7th St, 815 965-8903. Credit cards accepted only at www.charlotteswebofrockford.org via PayPal, ($1/ticket service charge). Print your receipt and present it at the door; we'll have your tickets for you.
***RESERVED SEATS*** AVAILABLE ONLY AT J R KORTMAN'S CENTER FOR DESIGN, 107 N. Main, 815 968-0123; ONLINE and by MAIL. 
INFO: Call 815 964-2238 or visit www.charlotteswebconcerts.com