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Concert Reports
Santana
07/23/2022, California Mid State Fair, Paso Robles
The California Mid-State Fair welcomed Santana in concert on Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 pm. The concert took place in the Chumash Grandstand Arena at the Paso Robles Event Center. Santana is one of the best-selling groups of all time with over 47 million certified albums sold in the US, and an estimated 100 million sold worldwide.This was Santana’s first appearance at the CA Mid-State Fair
All Photos: Ray Soto / Central Coast Rocks
With no opening act, Carlos Santana walked on the Chumash Grandstand Arena stage to thunderous applause from the standing room only crowd at The California Mid State Fair. Kicking his set off with his signature opener “Soul Sacrifice,” which was included as the final track on their 1969 debut album Santana. The band performed high energy, passion-filled songs from their fifty year career, including fan favorites from Woodstock to Supernatural and beyond, (“Evil Ways,” “Black Magic Woman,” & “Maria, Maria.”) The band (which also features Santana’s wife, Cindy Blackman Santana, on drums) also included incredible new songs such as “Move,” from their much-anticipated full-length album entitled Blessings and Miracles, released last year. Santana’s encore included “Put Your Lights On,” “Hang Em High,” and the show came to a close with a rousing rendition of “Smooth”
For more than five decades – from Santana’s earliest days as a groundbreaking Afro-Latin-blues-rock fusion outfit in San Francisco – Carlos Santana has been the visionary force behind artistry that transcends musical genres and generational, cultural, and geographical boundaries. To date, Santana has won ten Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammys, with a record-tying nine Grammys for a single project for 1999’s Supernatural (including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for “Smooth”). He has received the Billboard Century Award (1996), was ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1998), received the Billboard Latin Music Awards’ Lifetime Achievement honor (2009), and was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors Award (2013).
Among many other distinctions, Carlos Santana has been cited by Rolling Stone as #15 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time;” and has joined the Rolling Stones as one of only two bands to have an album reach the Top 10 in every decade since the 1960s.
In 2018, he released his first MasterClass, and recently celebrated three epic milestones - the 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking album Supernatural, the 50th anniversary of his legendary performance at Woodstock, and the 50th anniversary of his masterpiece Abraxas.
His most recent album, Blessings and Miracles, was released on Oct. 15, 2021. The LP features appearances by several guest musicians and collaborators, including Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Steve Winwood, Chris Stapleton, Rick Rubin and Corey Glover of Living Colour.
“I don’t choose people – it’s like I’m chosen,” Carlos Santana said in a press release announcing the album. “But, of course, I’m honored to work with such incredible artists. I'm a surfer riding those waves that become songs by different artists, creators and architects. I’m very fortunate that I have the opportunity to do that. It’s a gift I don’t take for granted.”
Blessings and Miracles also notably includes a reunion with Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas.The pair famously collaborated on the 1999 Grammy-winning hit song “Smooth” and join forces once again for a new single called “Move.”
Santana is also currently headlining a multi-year residency at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, with new dates beginning September 14, 2022
Santana’s Supernatural album is his most successful commercially. The 1999 release included the hit “Smooth” (with vocals by Rob Thomas), which spent 12 weeks on top of the U.S. pop singles chart. The follow-up, “Maria Maria,” also reached #1, the band’s only two chart-toppers of their lengthy career. Their success made Supernatural a runaway smash with worldwide sales of a reported 30 million copies, earning eight Grammy Awards in the process, including the prestigious Album of the Year.
The 2022 California Mid-State Fair runs July 20 through July 31 and this year’s theme is “Full Steam Ahead!”
