Something is playing in this county almost every week of the year.
Here it is on one page: shows with a date on them, the standing series that have been running for years, and the four weekends the whole county turns out for. Lineups move and the patios are seasonal, so call ahead and then go.
Confirmed with the venue or listed by the county’s vintners. Past dates drop off this page on their own.
SAT 317pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $15
Honky tonk and California country, on the one night a year everybody gets to be somebody else.
SUN 83pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $10
Bass, guitar, accordion and flute out of Bellingham. Loud and gloriously strange.
THU 126pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · free
Second Thursdays. Music, spoken word, comedy — finished or not.
FRI 137pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $22
Out of Taos, and named an emerging voice in Americana by both Rolling Stone and No Depression.
SAT 1411am–3pm
Amador Cellars, Plymouth
Twenty-two years of the Long family on Shenandoah Road, celebrated on the lawn.
WED 1811am–2pm
Rombauer Sierra Foothills, Plymouth
Paint an old stave, drink the Zinfandel, take both home.
FRI 2011am–4pm
Rombauer Sierra Foothills, Plymouth
The Friday lawn session, running right through the cool months.
SAT 217pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $25
A NorCal seven-piece with mandolin, trumpet and sax. They have played the Fillmore.
SAT 5 – SUN 6all weekend
The Steiner Road wineries, Plymouth
The whole road open at once, decorated, pouring, and the single easiest way to meet the valley in a day.
FRI 117pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $22
Two-time Grammy winner, eleven years with Old Crow Medicine Show.
SAT 127pm
Drytown Social Club, Drytown · $10
Classic country out of the East Bay — her voice and a guitar, which is all it needs.
No two keep the same calendar, and several come roaring back in spring when the patios dry out.
Wednesdays · all year
Drytown Social Club. The county’s players sitting in with each other, every single week.
Fridays
Steiner Road, Plymouth. Music and food trucks on the best-kept lawn in the valley.
Fridays · Backyard Nights
Shenandoah Road. A band and a pizza oven in the yard of the 1856 landmark. Hard to beat.
Fridays & Saturdays
Sutter Creek Main Street. A summer schedule that spills happily onto the sidewalk.
Saturdays · Folk on the Farm
Camino, El Dorado County. Forty minutes north and worth every one of them.
Weekends · all year
Plymouth and Sutter Creek Main Street. Two rooms, and music at one or the other most weekends.
Weekends
Ridge Road, Sutter Creek. Food trucks and music days with the whole valley laid out below.
Summer
Murphys, Calaveras County. The touring acts, announced months ahead, thousands deep.
Nine standing series, four festivals, and a county that plays all year. Start on a Wednesday.
Run by the Amador Vintners; dates go up a season ahead and the passes go fast.
March
Barrel tastings and cellar access at forty-odd wineries, with the hills at their greenest.
June
Amador’s case for the grape, made in public, with producers from well beyond the county. The one to plan around.
July
Plymouth. Not a wine event — go anyway. It explains more about this place than any tasting will.
October
First full weekend. Harvest, music at most of the wineries at once, and the valley at full volume.
This calendar is kept by hand because the county deserves one. Dated shows are confirmed with the room or listed by the vintners; the standing series are what these places have been doing for years, which is a good bet rather than a promise.
Call ahead, then go early and stay late.
Ask around.