Shakira sold out Valley Children's Stadium. And we somehow thought she wouldn't?

Plus, New Old Man sees a darkness and a Joe Vann(uchhi) in store.

Going into Shakira’s tour stop in Fresno on Thursday there was a question as to whether the Colombian pop singer could sell enough tickets to fill a stadium. Some wondered whether people even knew the concert was happening at all.

Which is actually kind of wild.

Shakira is a global pop icon; has been for decades. Like, from the start of Latin music being talked about as marketable commodity. She performed at the Super Bowl and had a rather public divorce from footballer Gerard Pique, which I mention only to show the level of her fame.

Even before announcing the addition of a Fresno date, her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour had been selling out across the county. Shakira was just behind Coldplay at the top of Billboard magazine’s midyear boxscore report, with 1 million tickets sold at places like Allegiant Stadium and Oracle Park.

Would anyone have questioned whether a Coldplay concert could sell out in Fresno? That’s a serious question.

Anyway, Shakira was coming to Fresno State’s football stadium, which, in itself was a whole thing because in forty-years the stadium had never hosted live music for some reason (the neighbors). Tickets weren’t cheap, but they weren’t exorbitantly priced either (as these things go) and two days out there were a lot of seats available.

And then, there weren’t.

It’s not clear whether that was owed to the drop in ticket prices and Fresno State getting aggressive in its marketing (giving concert tickets as a bonus to sell season football, for example) or if it was just Fresnans being Fresnans as a notoriously walk-up crowd. But by the time fans started lining up outside the venue, the concert had officially “sold out” at somewhere around 28,000 people. Official numbers haven’t been released that I’ve seen.

Yes, the start time got pushed and there were reports that the venue had trouble getting people in the gates, but the vibe inside was what you’d expect from tens of thousands of people getting together to sing and dance and see a spectacle (and it was a spectacle).

To quote my review, which you can read over at The Fresno Bee: “Shakira had one job in the final performance on the North American leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour Thursday night. Live up to the hype.”

Which, she did. Though, it’s oddly telling that the question even needed be asked.

New music: “I See a Darkness” (a Bonnie Prince Billy cover) by New Old Man

After Victim of Propaganda and the first three Handsome Family albums, Johnny Cash’s early run on American Records is likely the biggest influence on my musical output as New Old Man.

A friend reminded me of this upon the release of my cover of Bonnie Prince Billy’s “I See a Darkness,” on Friday.

Cash was my introduction to the song and to Will Oldham, who I later discovered wrote and released “I See A Darkness,” as his debut as Bonnie Prince Billy in … 1999.

Oldham would later re-imagine the song into an almost upbeat shuffle.

It’s that version that ultimately became the inspiration and baseline for my take on the tune, which was recorded over the course of a couple of sessions with Matt Orme at his downtown studio/art space. Orme did the sound engineering and mixing and plays drums and slide guitar.

There are any number of covers of the song out at this point and I would have likely come to it on my own, I suppose, but Cash gave me it (and a slew of other songs including “Lucky Ole’ Sun”) at an impressionable time. Obviously.

Announced: Joe Vann, Aug. 22 at Tower District Records

Tower District Records has announced its next in-store performance for later this month.

Joe Vann, aka Joey Vannucchi, is stopping in Friday, Aug. 22.

Vann(uchhi) is the songwriter/musician behind the indie-rock band From Indian Lakes and is a native to this part of California. The band will be in town in November playing a rare hometown show (one of just three in California. The others are in Sacramento and Costa Mesa).

The Tower District Records show feels like something special. That is kind of the shop’s go-to move with their in-store shows.

It’s Vannuchi’s only solo performance this year and he is “going to play lots of songs,” per Instagram.

This is a free show. Starts at 7 p.m.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can also hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. Tonight, I’m in studio with a playlist of Fresno/greater Central San Joaquin Valley music. You’ll love it. Follow my other writing at The Fresno Bee. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com