Sounds Around Town
After a bit of a mid-summer lull, the Santa Barbara Bowl is back in action, and exudes eclecticism in its quartet of concerts this week. The August 4 show is a conglomeration of its own as co-headliners Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Ziggy Marley are supported by Mavis Staples and the Robert Randolph Band as special guests… The annual Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival takes up its mid-Fiesta residency in the hills above Milpas Street on August 5, with performers Edith Márquez, El Mariachi del Divo, Majo Aguilar, Mariachi Femenil Nuevo Tecalitlán, Mariachi Angeles, and Mariachi Garibaldi… Then it’s two nights (August 6-7) with Rebelution’s Good Vibes Summer Tour with fellow Isla Vista-born reggae-plus stars Iration, with The Expendables, Passafire, and DJ Mackle also on the bill.
Heading south, Ojai’s Libbey Bowl is playing a wicked game of its own with live music outdoors in the warm August weather. Top of the pop this week is an August 6 date with Chris Isaak, the singer-songwriter-guitarist whose reverb-laden rockabilly revivalist style and gorgeous wide-ranging vocals have remained remarkably compelling over his four-decade career… On August 4, the Chumash Casino’s Samala Showroom is a blissfully air-conditioned space in which to travel back in time to the 1970s pop hits of Three Dog Night, which still features one of its original three-headed lead singer sensations, Danny Hutton, bringing joy to the world.
Closer to home, the Alcazar Theatre in Carpinteria has two nights (August 4-5) with the Faragher Brothers, the Redlands family band featuring the four male siblings who scored a few hits and appeared on Soul Train and American Bandstand back in the ‘70s, before going separate ways. (Davey was the most successful, as a founding member of Cracker, and later The Imposters, Elvis Costello’s backing band.) The original quartet recently reunited and added sister Pammy and two second-generation Faraghers for a “family soul” show.
