Greg Rahn Brings Side Hustle to Vallejo
Greg Rahn celebrates the release of Side Hustle with an all-star lineup at the Empress Theater in Vallejo on Friday, February 6th at 8:00 PM. The show features Frank Acosta (guitar), Darryl Anders (bass), Randy Hayes (drums), Chris Cain (blues guitar), Juan Escovedo (percussion), and Luke Kirley (tuba/trombone).
After years of reflection, revision, and renewed purpose, the Bay Area keyboardist brings his long-gestating album Side Hustle to the Empress Theatre, gathering a lifetime of sound into a single night.
See the full show details and ticket information at the end of this feature. Listen to the full conversation with Greg Rahn below.
For Greg Rahn, Side Hustle did not arrive as a burst of late-career urgency or a tidy comeback narrative. It arrived slowly, in pieces, over years—built, set aside, reconsidered, and finally completed, its clarity sharpened by time and loss. The album, released in January, gathers the many musical paths Rahn has traveled into a single statement. Blues, fusion, New Orleans piano, Cuban rhythms, and jazz are not stacked side by side but braided together by long familiarity.
The music’s extended gestation is central to its character. Rahn began tracking Side Hustle in 2017 and walked away a year later. The reason was not uncertainty about the material but proximity. “I got so close to them, hearing them over and over again, to the point where I started not liking ’em anymore,” he said. “I lost my perspective, and I thought I just had to put this aside… so I could come back to it with fresh ears.” That pause lasted longer than expected, in part because it led to another project entirely: Rent Party, his 2021 solo piano album rooted in New Orleans and Harlem traditions.
When Rahn returned to Side Hustle years later, the distance had done its work. The edits came quickly and decisively. “I listened to it, and I was like, ‘Oh, I know exactly what this song needs,’” he said. “We’re just gonna snip out that section and fix that one.” The album’s final shape emerged.
“When I listen to those tracks now, it feels like they’re alive again. They’re still living through the music”
That clarity carried emotional weight. Two key collaborators on the record—guitarist Drew Zingg and bassist Steve Evans—died before the album was finished. Their presence on Side Hustle is not framed as a memorial, but their absence sharpened Rahn’s sense of responsibility to the work. “When somebody passes away, you’re reminded that everything has a time limit,” he said. “That built a fire under my butt… it became even more special because I had tracks of Drew and Steve playing.” Listening back now, he hears something enduring. “They’re alive again. They are living through their music.”
The album’s breadth mirrors Rahn’s unconventional professional arc. For more than two decades, he built a parallel creative life in Silicon Valley, composing and producing audio for the video-game industry. That world demanded fluency across styles and the ability to serve the narrative without drawing attention to itself. “Your day consisted of everything from composing and producing music to casting and recording voice talent… all aspects of audio,” he said. The discipline of that work—its demands on structure, pacing, and color—quietly informed Side Hustle, even when the grooves are loose and the textures playful.
Across the record, Rahn moves between idioms the way a seasoned speaker shifts registers—never announcing the change, never apologizing for it. That approach traces back to an early encounter with Chick Corea, who urged him not to narrow his focus. Rahn took that advice literally, seeking teachers and collaborators across genres rather than anchoring himself to a single lane. Side Hustle sounds like the long view of that decision.
That perspective will be on full display February 6, when Rahn brings the album to the Empress Theatre in Vallejo for a release show that functions as a living extension of the record. The lineup mirrors the album’s range: a core band capable of navigating jazz-rock and funk, joined by guests who bring blues, Latin, and New Orleans vocabularies into the room. “The album is very diverse,” Rahn said. “So, I needed a diverse set of musicians to pull it off.”
Rather than reproducing the record verbatim, the performance is designed as a gathering—an evening where different strands of Rahn’s musical life intersect onstage. Blues guitarist Chris Cain joins for selections rooted in that tradition; percussionist Juan Escovedo brings Latin color; horn player Luke Kirley expands the New Orleans-inspired material. The goal is not spectacle, but cohesion. “I’m trying to recreate most of the tracks on the album,” Rahn said, “and bring them to life in a way that feels natural.”
For audiences, the Vallejo show offers a rare chance to hear a body of work shaped by patience rather than momentum, performed by musicians who understand its internal logic because they helped build it. Side Hustle may have taken the long way around, but its arrival feels unforced—and very much on time.
Show Details
Upcoming Show: Greg Rahn celebrates the release of Side Hustle with an all-star lineup at the Empress Theater in Vallejo on Friday, February 6th at 8:00 PM. The show features Frank Acosta (guitar), Darryl Anders (bass), Randy Hayes (drums), Chris Cain (blues guitar), Juan Escovedo (percussion), and Luke Kirley (tuba/trombone).
Get Tickets: https://empresstheatre.org/event/greg-rahn/
Learn More:
Greg Rahn's website: https://gregrahn.net
Photo: Phil Hawkins
