Families can celebrate the New Year early in family-oriented fun at Cameron's Restaurant and Inn (1410 S. Cabrillo Highway, Half Moon Bay, 726-5705).
The emphasis is on sharing an upbeat holiday with family and fellow Coastsiders, said restaurant owner Cameron Palmer.
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There will be no cover charge for an evening that includes dancing to music by a deejay, which will go from 9 p.m. until "late," Palmer said. There will be a special New Year's Eve countdown and celebration at 9 p.m. - right when the ball drops in Times Square in New York City at midnight.
There will also be a menu of dinner specials. Kids get their meals for free from the kids' menu.
Close to the heart of Half Moon Bay, at Cetrella Bistro and Caf/ (845 Main St., 726-4090), sax-wielding regular Michael O'Neill will present a quartet that will step away from jazz for an evening of dance music.
Joining O'Neill, who will play the alto sax, will be pianist John R. Burr of Pleasanton, another Cetrella regular when he isn't on the road. Burr has played with Allison Brown and Robin Ford.
Also in the quartet are drummer and vocalist Scott Kirkpatrick who hails from Walnut Creek and has played with late bassist Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report, and vocalist/guitarist Joe Sheldon of Berkeley.
The quartet will play from 8:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 31, to 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, New Year's Day. Party favors and champagne will be available to add to the festivity.
At the San Benito House (356 Main St., 726-3425), the Robin Campbell Band will rock the house with its high-energy rock covers and originals from 9 p.m. Monday to 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
This will be a chance for locals to come see locals, said San Benito bartender Sharon Scott. It will also be a last festivity under longtime San Benito House owners Carol Mickelsen and Greg Regan, who recently sold the establishment, and mark the return to the stage for Campbell, who recently gave birth to a son.
There will be a $5 cover charge for the evening. Light snacks and hors d'oeuvres, and party favors, will be available.
Down south, the San Gregorio Store (Stage Road and Highway 84, San Gregorio, 726-0565) will celebrate New Year a little early, with a party featuring David Elias and the CasualTees, from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 29.
A little north of Half Moon Bay, in Princeton, the Old Princeton Landing (460 Capistrano Road, Princeton, 728-9103) is also planning New Year's Eve festivities featuring the rock and blues of the Stan Erhart Band with party favors and free champagne at midnight. The Half Moon Bay Brewing Company (390 Capistrano Road, Princeton, 728-2739) is planning an Early Bird New Year's Eve party with the Lords of Tone, Michael Ahern's new band.
September saw the close of his Little Wheels Band, known for its uptempo Americana, after a four-year run in which the band produced four CDs and played more than 100 Bay Area shows including the Pumpkin Festival.
"It was time for us to each move on and explore new musical directions," said Ahern.
His new band, the Lords of Tone, is a six-piece ensemble that covers Southern rock and the classic rock of the 1960s and 70s.
"Think Bic lighters, Pony Cars, eight-track tape players and concerts at Winterland and the Fillmore," he said.
Band members include: lead guitarist/vocalist James Goodkind of the Peninsula, whom Ahern calls "a player's player" who grew up in the Chicago music scene and has played with Ric Ocasek and the Cars; Adan Schwartz of San Francisco on keyboards and harmonica; bassist Brian Courtney of Belmont who also grew up in the Chicago music scene and had been a session player in Nashville and publisher of Guitar Player magazine; and Ahern on acoustic and electric guitars and vocals.
The band will render the music of the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Neil Young, Bad Company, Bob Seger, the Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin.
There will also be healthy doses of Ahern's own originals, which he developed over the past few years with the Little Wheels Band and with an Americana/country flair.
On New Year's Eve, at the Brewing Company's 2007 Early Bird New Year's Eve, the band will be joined by special guests Drew Pieros from Felton on percussion and conga, and possibly TJ Murphy on drums and vocals and straight from performing in Austin, Texas.
The new band began when the Little Wheels Band opened for a gig in San Francisco and Ahern met Goodkind, by whom he admits he was "very, very inspired." The two discovered a mutual love of Americana and rock, and forged a musical partnership in "unplugged" sessions at the Brewing Company. The next one takes place Thursday, Jan. 3, from 6 to 9 p.m.
It's a next step for Ahern, who began playing music in high school in the 1970s, when the musical climate was shaped by New Age and New Wave sound. His major influences were singer/songwriters the late Dan Fogelberg, James Taylor, Kenny Loggins, the rocking Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and country's Charlie Daniels.
After his years with Little Wheels, he "realized I needed to speak to the nature of classic rock," and he and Goodkind developed the Lords of Tone.
The Brewing Company's Early Bird will run from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday. Festivities include steak and crab specials, Mavericks Big Wig barbecue sauce and surprise giveaways. There will also be some party favors for families and kids.
There is no cover charge.
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