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Grammy Award-winning English R&B singer Ella Mai will perform at The Shell on Wednesday. (Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)\nElla Mai, with Ama and Girlfriend<\/p>\n
The Stray Cats<\/p>\n
There should be a pronounced air of celebration when The Stray Cats perform Sunday at The Sound, the same Del Mar venue where the veteran rockabilly trio was scheduled to perform last November.<\/p>\n
That concert was canceled at the last minute \u2014 along with the 47-year-old band\u2019s entire 2025 tour \u2014 eight months after guitarist and lead singer Brian Setzer was diagnosed with a career-halting autoimmune condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cTowards the end of the last Stray Cats tour, I noticed that my hands were cramping up. I\u2019ve since discovered that I have an autoimmune disease. I cannot play guitar. There is no pain, but it feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play,\u201d the Minnesota-based Setzer wrote in a February 2025 social media post.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen some progress in that I can hold a pen and tie my shoes. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I was at a point where I couldn\u2019t even do that. Luckily, I have the best hospital in the world down the block from me. It\u2019s called the Mayo Clinic. I know I will beat this, it will just take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a subsequent post in late March last year, Setzer wrote that he was making \u201cexcellent\u201d progress.\u00a0Alas, last October \u2014 on the eve of the band\u2019s 20-city national concert trek \u2014 his condition had regressed to the point that all dates on the tour were scratched.<\/p>\n
Setzer, 67, has not disclosed what his specific condition is, although he described it last year as a \u201cserious illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given his exacting musical standards, one wouldn\u2019t expect Setzer to return to the road until he is fully ready to rock this town \u2014 and all of the others on his band\u2019s rescheduled tour \u2014 with his customary verve.<\/p>\n
Setzer is a longtime solo recording artist for Surfdog, the Encinitas-based label that in 2019 released The Stray Cats\u2019 40th anniversary album, \u201c40.\u201d Late last year, The Stray Cats released their first new song in six years, the snappy, Setzer-penned \u201cStampede,\u201d and a cover version of Eddie Cochran\u2019s 1959 chestnut, \u201cTeenage Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two months ago, Surfdog put out \u201cRumble In Brixton,\u201d a live album that the band recorded in England in 2004. And just last week, The Stray Cats announced that its 2026 summer tour, which opens tonight in Las Vegas, will be followed by a 19-city fall tour that runs Nov. 9 through Dec. 6. Welcome, guys. It\u2019s nice to have you back.<\/p>\n
8 p.m. Sunday, July 26. The Sound, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar. $151.45. ticketmaster.com<\/p>\n
Grammy Award-winning English R&B singer Ella Mai will perform at The Shell on Wednesday. (Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)
\nElla Mai, with Ama and Girlfriend<\/p>\n
Named after jazz vocal icon Ella Fitzgerald, London-born singer Ella Mai specializes in a silky, often-understated brand of 1990s-tinged R&B that is vulnerable but still packs an emotional punch.<\/p>\n
Her intoxicating 2018 love song, \u201cBoo\u2019d Up,\u201d made her the first artist from the UK to top the American R&B charts since Lisa Stansfield\u2019s \u201cAll Woman\u201d in 1992. \u201cBoo\u2019d Up\u201d was matched by the lovestruck slow jam \u201cTrip,\u201d an equally inviting song from Mai\u2019s self-titled debut album.<\/p>\n
The Grammy-winner is now on tour to promote her third album, the 14-song \u201cDo You Still Love Me?\u201d Rather than engage in shallow vocal acrobatics and glitzy stage shows, Mai, 31, digs into the emotional essence of her lyrics. It\u2019s a wise choice.<\/p>\n