Blake Shelton announces San Diego concert

Nov. 22, 2016 9:04 AM PT

Blake Shelton is hitting the road in 2017 for his Doing It To Country Songs winter tour.

The 13-city concert trek kicks off Feb. 16 in Bakersfield and concludes in March in Omaha.

It includes no fewer than six California dates, including a March 11 show at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center (the venue formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena), which last week celebrated its 50th anniversary.

All dates appear below for the tour, which also features singer RaeLynn, who befriended “The Voice” judge Shelton when she was a contestant during the popular TV series’ 2012 season.

The tour will promoted Shelton’s latest release, “If I’m Honest,” which is the top-selling country album of 2016 thus far. (It could get some last-minute competition from “Weight of These Wings,” the just-released new double-album by Shelton’s ex-wife, Miranda Lambert).

“Performing for an audience is what I love most - and if you’re coming to see me, you’re coming to hear country music, because that’s what I do,” Shelton said in a not especially insightful statement.

Tickets for Shelton’s Bakersfield, Portland, Sacramento, San Jose and Chicago show will go on sale beginning Dec. 2. Tickets for the other dates, including the March 11 San Diego concert, go on sale Dec.9.

A pre-sale for American Express card members begins Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. for the concerts in San Diego, Los Angeles, Spokane, Tacoma, Fresno, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Evansville.

A pre-sale for Shelton Fan Club members begins Nov. 29 at 10 a.m. for the concerts in Bakersfield, Portland, Sacramento, San Jose and Chicago. A fan club pre-sale for the remaining dates begins Dec. 6 at 10 a.m.

Tickets for the San Diego concert are priced at $39.50 to $79.50, plus service charges, and will be available, beginning Dec. 2, at the Valley View Casino Center boxx office, online at axs.com and by phone at (888) 929-7849.

Blake Shelton / RaeLynn Doing It To Country Songs 2017 tour dates

February 16 - Bakersfield, California @ Rabobank Arena

February 17 - Los Angeles, California @ Forum

February 23 - Portland, Oregon @ Moda Center

February 24 - Spokane, Washington @ Spokane Arena

February 25 - Tacoma, Washington @ Tacomadoma

March 3 - Fresno, California @ Savemart Center

March 4 - Las Vegas, Nevada @ TBA

March 9 - Sacramento, California @ Golden 1 Center

March 10 - San Jose, California @ SAP Center

March 11 - San Diego, California @ Valley View Casino Center

March 16 - Evansville, Indiana @ Ford Center

March 17 - Chicago, Illinois @ Allstate Arena

TBA - Omaha, Nebraska @ TBA

Music

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”