John Ascuaga’s Nugget Announces 54th Annual Scholarship Recipients - 2009

Reno/Sparks, Nev. – For more than a half-century, John Ascuaga and the Nugget have distributed scholarships to college-bound seniors, making it one of the longest-running programs of its kind in the state. In all, nearly two dozen of the area’s best and brightest students were honored today with an awards ceremony and luncheon in the Poolside Terrace at John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Mr. Ascuaga, along with members of his executive staff including daughter and CEO, Michonne, and son/COO, Stephen, were on hand to greet winners and their families.
This year’s recipients are as follows: Joshua Barbie, Carson High School; Ariel Endacott, Churchill Co. High School; Lauren Matthews, Damonte Ranch High School; Cody Kiser, Dayton High School; Edna Meza, Douglas High School; Michelle Rebaleati, Eureka Co. High School; Andi Bolstad, Fernley High School; Ashley Stein, Galena High School; Angelica Gurrola, Hug High School; Zachary Pruett, Lowry High School; Hui Min Cao, McQueen High School; Kayla Herrera, Bishop Manogue High School; Mercy Gbnejo, North Valleys High School; Craig Nelson, Pershing Co. High School; Kylie Sertic, Reed High School; Alexander Wilson, Reno High School; Charmayne Pommerening, Smith Valley High School; Mayra Ramirez, Sparks High School; Jessica Koptke, Sparks High School; Sophie Glogovac, Virginia City High School; Madison Baker, Wooster High School; Andre Pham, Wooster High School; William Smith, Yerington High School; and Laurel Cooney, Spanish Springs High School.
All winners each will receive a total of $1,000, based on continued enrollment and maintaining a minimum grade-point standard. Applications were reviewed by the Nugget Scholarship Committee and evaluated on scholastic achievement, financial need, community involvement and extra-curricular activities. Since 1956, the Nugget’s scholarship program has awarded more than $400,000 dollars in educational monies to nearly 600 area students. Past winners can be seen in an interactive kiosk located in the Nugget’s hotel lobby.
John Ascuaga’s Nugget is a premier hotel casino owned and operated by the Ascuaga family in Sparks, Nevada. For more information, call 800-648-1177 or visit janugget.com.

Main Stage Entertainment Lineup Set for 2009 Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off

Reno/Sparks, Nev. – A huge part of the annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off is the nightly free main-stage entertainment. And this year is no different. Rib lovers are sure to enjoy even more of their favorite tunes with their favorite BBQ this coming September 2-7, 2009.
Bands start at 7 p.m.; 3 p.m. on Monday. There is no admission charge.

Wednesday, September 2
Saddle Tramps – Local boys gone Rockabilly-comedy, the Saddle Tramps are a unique fixture on the local and American music scene. Self-described as “corn-fed rock and roll from Sparks (Nev.),” the Saddle Tramps have played Hollywood to Denis Hof parties, and everywhere in between. Shows are an atypical mixture of knee-slappin’ humor and toe-tappin’ country-rock originals and cover tunes, all of which are entirely improvised based on the crowd and the band.

Thursday, September 3
Hot Club of Cowtown – Hot Club of Cowtown has grown to be one of the most globe-trotting, hard-swinging Western Swing trio on the planet. From early days busking for tips in San Diego's Balboa Park, the band has grown and developed into a formidable international sensation. The Hot Club's ever-growing presence on the international festival scene has grown with its relentless touring over the years alongside the release of five critically acclaimed CDs on American Roots label HighTone Records. In August 2008 the Hot Club's sixth CD, "The Best of the Hot Club of Cowtown," a hand-picked, band-picked, twenty-song retrospective, was released by Shout!Factory. After a two-year hiatus during 2005-2007 the band went its separate ways, reuniting in 2008 with a packed tour schedule and a new studio CD of original material slated for release in early 2009.

Friday, September 4
Restless Heart – With the release of their first album in 1985, the vocal style of country music group Restless Heart became instantly identifiable – an intertwining five part harmony. They brought a new, contemporary sound to Nashville, a sound with a touch of pop – the sound which so strongly influences the popular country acts of today like Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Little Big Town. Gold became the standard for the group with the release of that self-titled album. Three more gold albums followed between 1986 and 1991. With an additional six albums released through the years, Restless Heart put 26 hits on the country charts with six #1 hits and nine others in the Top Ten. Cross-over success was also theirs, with six songs making the adult contemporary charts, including taking the #1, #2 and #3 spots.

Saturday, September 5
The Fixx – A London-based new wave group that managed to sustain a successful career in America for several years in the mid-'80s, the Fixx always flirted with the mainstream with their catchy, keyboard-driven pop. Reach the Beach, released in 1983, established them as a hit-making force in the U.S. The terse, pulsating "One Thing Leads to Another" became a number four hit, sending the album into the Top Ten. Reach the Beach would go platinum by the end of the year, launching two more Top 40 singles — "Saved by Zero" and "Sign of Fire."

Sunday, September 6
Thin Lizzy – One of the defining rock groups of the 20th Century, Thin Lizzy began life in Dublin, Ireland in 1969. The byproduct of a working class mindset melded with the blues-seeped soul of rock and roll, Thin Lizzy epitomize the guitar-driven sound that earmarked the 1970s. Hits "Jailbreak" and "The Boys Are Back In Town," proved critical cogs that make the classic hard-rock wheel roll, while the band's tandem guitar attack provided a model that would be emulated by bands the world over.

Monday, September 7
The Iguanas - Hailing from New Orleans, where Latin and Caribbean music have a long and glorious history of interaction with R&B, blues and jazz, The Iguanas was formed in 1989 by guitarist/ accordionist Rod Hodges and Joe Cabral, who alternates between saxophone and a traditional Mexico stringed instrument known as the bajo sexto. The two also share lead vocal duties. The current lineup features bassist Rene Coman and drummer Doug Garrison, and the band has emerged as one of the most popular bands in one of the world’s most musical cities.

The 21st annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off, the country’s largest outdoor barbeque, is scheduled for Wednesday, September 2 through Monday, September 7, 2009. For reservations, event history and information call (800) 648-1177 or (775) 356-3300, or visit www.nuggetribcookoff.com. Do the Nugget Tonight!
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Acoustic Hot Tuna, Loudon Wainwright III, Play One Night at John Ascuaga’s Nugget

Acoustic Hot Tuna, Loudon Wainwright III, Play One Night at John Ascuaga’s Nugget

Sparks/Reno, Nev. – American blues and roots music with a flashback twist – Hot Tuna is still going strong some 40 years into their kaleidoscopic career. See them play the Celebrity Showroom, along with folk singer and songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, May 16, at John Ascuaga’s Nugget.
The name Hot Tuna invokes as many different moods and reactions as there are Hot Tuna fans. To some, Hot Tuna is a reminder of some wild and happy times. To others, that name will forever be linked to their own discovery of the power and depth of American blues and roots music. To newer fans, Hot Tuna is a tight, masterful group that is on the cutting edge of great music. All of those things are correct, and more. For almost four decades, Hot Tuna has played, toured, and recorded some of the best and most memorable acoustic and electric music ever. And Hot Tuna is still going strong.
The two kids from 1950’s Washington D.C. knew that they wanted to make music. Jorma Kaukonen, son of a State Department official, and Jack Casady, whose father was a dentist, discovered guitar when they were teenagers. They played, and they took in the vast panorama of music available in the nation’s capital, but found a special love of the blues, country, and jazz played in small clubs. Kaukonen went off to college, while Casady sat in with professional bands and combos before he was even old enough to drive, first playing lead guitar, then electric bass. In the mid-1960s Kaukonen was invited to play in a rock band that was forming in San Francisco; he knew just the guy to play bass and summoned his old friend. The striking and signature guitar and bass riffs in the now-legendary songs by the Jefferson Airplane were the result. The half-decade foray into rock music was for Casady and Kaukonen a detour, not a destination. They continued to play their acoustic blues on the side, often performing a mini-concert amid a Jefferson Airplane performance, sometimes finding a gig afterwards in some local club.
The duo did not go unnoticed. Soon there was a record contract and, not long afterwards, a tour. Thus began a career that would result in more than two-dozen albums, thousands of concerts around the world, and continued popularity. Hot Tuna has gone through changes, certainly. A variety of other instruments, from harmonica to fiddle to keyboards, have been part of the band over the years. The constant, the very definition of Hot Tuna, has always been Kaukonen and Casady. The two are not joined at the hip, though; through the years both Kaukonen and Casady have undertaken projects with other musicians and solo projects of their own. But Hot Tuna has never broken up, never ceased to exist, nor have the two boyhood pals ever wavered in one of the most enduring friendships in music. Almost from the beginning of the new millennium, Hot Tuna’s acoustic and electric concerts have featured the brilliant mandolin virtuoso Barry Mitterhoff. In the last few years, the band has included sharp young percussionist Erik Diaz in its electric sets. What has not changed is Hot Tuna’s commitment to the music and to increasing proficiency.
Hot Tuna, doing an acoustic show, and Loudon Wainwright III, plays one night, Saturday, May 16, in the Celebrity Showroom at 8 p.m. Tickets are just $35 and are available by calling (800) 648-1177 or (775) 356-3300 or by visiting janugget.com. Dinner and show packages are available. “Do the Nugget Tonight!”

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Pop/Alt-Rockers 10,000 Maniacs Plays One Night at John Ascuaga’s Nugget

Pop/Alt-Rockers 10,000 Maniacs Plays One Night at John Ascuaga’s Nugget

Sparks/Reno, Nev. – With a cadre of hits and activity spanning three decades, 10,000 Maniacs draws from a wealth of experience and talent. See them play the Celebrity Showroom, May 9, at John Ascuaga’s Nugget.
10,000 Maniacs originally drew its name in 1981 from the low-budget horror film, “Two Thousand Maniacs.” And while their history of revolving band members may play like a scary movie, their body of work is undeniably blissful. More than one dozen albums have delivered such songs as, “These are Days,” “What’s the Matter Here,” “Trouble Me,” “Eat for Two,” “Because the Night,” and “Candy Everybody Wants.” Even though original vocalist Natalie Merchant is more than a decade-and-a-half removed to a solo career, current members continue to persevere and deliver the stable of familiar tunes and new material to legions of loyal fans.
10,000 Maniacs plays one night, Saturday, May 9, in the Celebrity Showroom at 8 p.m. Tickets are just $32 and are available by calling (800) 648-1177 or (775) 356-3300 or by visiting janugget.com. Dinner and show packages are available. “Do the Nugget Tonight!”