Crystal Bowersox opens PCPA’s new season

Poway OnStage will launch its 2016-17 Professional Performance series with a concert by Crystal Bowersox at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road.

Opening the show will be San Diego favorites Eve Selis and Marc Twang.

“It’s pretty exciting to be opening the season,” Bowersox said. “But I treat every show as if it was the most important show I’ll ever do. I give every show 100 percent.”

Concert attendees can expect a show focused entirely on the music, Bowersox said. “There’s no laser shows, no dancers,” she said. “It’s all about the music for me.”

Following the concert, Bowersox said she will be in the lobby to meet with fans.

Bowersox is best known for being the runner-up contestant in season nine of American Idol in 2010. She has continued her musical career ever since, releasing two albums, several EPs and performing all over the country.

Her concert on Sept. 24 at the PCPA will feature her original music and will not be an American Idol revue show, she said. “I hope people like it,” said Bowersox.

She described her musical style as Americana, with a bluesy, soulful edge. “Music is so broad, people like what they like,” she said. “That’s all that matters.”

Her music draws influence from Melissa Etheridge, Janis Joplin and Sista Otis, among others.

Bowersox said she spends much of her time touring. “Touring is just my life,” she said. “But I try to balance touring and motherhood.”

The single mother of a 7-year-old son, Bowersox said she tries to keep her touring schedule to two weeks on, two weeks off. “I try to be a weekend warrior while he’s in school,” she said. During the summer, he sometimes tags along on tour with her, she said.

“The hardest part of doing what I love is being away from the one I love,” said Bowersox. “So it’s nice when I get to be with him.”

Bowersox released her last full-length album, “All That for This,” in 2013, but she said that she has been writing a lot and is hoping to record new music this winter.

Bowersox said she’s had a lot of personal growth in her life over the past year, which will influence her new music. “I write about my own experiences,” she said. “There’s no particular theme, just my own bleeding heart and being vulnerable.”

Selis and Twang, who will open the show for Bowersox, are well-known both in the San Diego music scene and on the PCPA’s stage. Selis and Twang are both San Diego Music Award winners and have performed both nationally and internationally, together as a collaboration and solo.

Tickets for the concert range from $35 to $45 and are available online at www.powayonstage.org, by calling the box office at 858-748-0505 or in person at the box office, which is open noon to 5 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.