Fifty years after becoming a breakout star at the original Woodstock festival, Carlos Santana and his namesake band will mark the occasion via a love-spreading summer tour with the Doobie Brothers coming Aug. 3 to Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Santana's 2019 trek will also mark the 20th anniversary of his mid-career album, "Supernatural," which swept up at the Grammy Awards and landed the megahit single "Smooth" with Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted guitarist/bandleader is promising songs from that album and from his 1969 Woodstock set at the shows, plus a new batch of songs on an EP coming next week, titled "In Search of Mona Lisa."
Tickets for the Xcel Center date go on sale next Friday, Jan. 25, at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster and the arena box office. Promoter Live Nation and the operators of the publicly owned arena once again did not give the public any hint of what tickets will cost, in keeping with modern "dynamic pricing" practices.
It's not clear if Santana will also be a part of the official Woodstock 50th anniversary concert happening two weeks after the St. Paul date in Upstate New York, but his tour will be in the area those dates and includes a night off that could allow a performance there. The Woodstock 50 roster won't be announced till next month.
