Tag archives: Jackson Gillies

Musical Moments of 2023: Catching up, Concert-wise
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 9, 2024

The last concert of the year, ending just two hours before midnight on December 31, found the Santa Barbara Symphony rocking out to close out 2023, a far cry from its usual New Year’s Eve pop concert fare as guest conductor/host Andrew Lipke led the chamber-sized orchestra-plus (with electric bass, drum kit, and Lipke’s own […]

The River City Rocker Around the World
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 28, 2023

Jason Libs didn’t migrate to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara from the Midwest via Miami, Nashville, and Barbados to play six nights a week in a piano bar. It just kind of worked out that way. “I came out here to be a songwriter and to sell my songs to, and produce for, other artists,” […]

A Bee-autiful Day in the Montecito Neighborhood
By Sharon Byrne   |   November 15, 2022

Last Saturday, something amazing happened. The day was gorgeous and crisply cold. A deluge of caring Montecitans amassed in the Upper Village in front of Tecolote Book Shop. They chatted with neighbors, over coffee and pastries provided by Andrea Eltinge Newquist and Jacqueline Duran. They donned neon yellow safety vests, picked up green trash pick-up […]

Bee-utiful Montecito!
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   November 8, 2022

Save the date for this Saturday, November 5, for Montecito Association’s annual Beautification Day! Sponsored in conjunction with the Montecito Community Foundation, the event will be back at the Village Green in front of Tecolote in the Upper Village. The event was canceled in 2020 and was much smaller scale last year in 2021. Hundreds […]

A Shapeshifting Solstice Performance
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 28, 2022

Shapeshifting, in mythology and folklore, is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, or sorcery, Wikipedia says. Metaphorically, at least, and leaving out the part about demonic manipulation, that pretty much sums up Santa Barbara’s The ShapeShifters, the new supergroup/house band hosts created by Randy Tico.  “It’s about changing […]

A McKaig Celebration
By Richard Mineards   |   April 19, 2022

Santa Barbara uber realtor Adam McKaig, founder of the homeless charity Adam’s Angels, marked the 11th anniversary of his half century in style at the Carriage & Western Museum when more than 100 guests turned out to help him celebrate. The La Boheme dance company production, under director Teresa Kuskey Nowak, was co-hosted by Adam’s […]

Talkin’ Tunes and Times Through TEDxSB
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 31, 2020

TEDxSantaBarbara founder and executive producer Mark Sylvester realized early on as COVID-19 crept into our consciousness that he’d probably have to cancel his annual convention that each fall brings together as many as 10 speakers with local spins on the TED trio of topics (technology, entertainment, and design). That’s when the disappointment set in.  “It […]

Gillies Goes from ‘American Idol’ to Star of His Own Heart
By Mackenzie Boss   |   December 24, 2020

No one could fault Santa Barbara singer-songwriter-guitarist Jackson Gillies for letting early success go to his head. After all, while still battling both Type 1 diabetes and a painful skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, Gillies was a surprise winner of the 2016 local Teen Star competition at a sold-out Arlington Theatre at age 15, sang […]

Celebrating Sculpture
By Richard Mineards   |   September 5, 2019

Santa Barbara has just added a new art gallery to its myriad collection with the opening of Chessmar Sculpture Studios on East Anapamu Street by Brian Anders Chessmar, a graduate of The School of Art Institute of Chicago. “My work is an exploration – emotional, physical, and spiritual – of what is seen and unseen […]

Cutting Footloose
By Richard Mineards   |   August 29, 2019

The Marjorie Luke Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High was packed to the eaves when Montecito rocker Kenny Loggins, in collaboration with Janet Adderley’s Advanced Conservatory, celebrated the music of Footloose on its 35th anniversary. Kenny, who also showed some fancy footwork, composed theme music that would become the 1984 film and, later, a Broadway […]

Book Bash
By Richard Mineards   |   June 20, 2019

The amazons were out in force when Santa Barbara stock broker Monica Timpe threw a bustling bash at her Anacapa Street home for English author friend Deborah Richards, who debuted her first book, Shift & Shine, which took her ten years to complete. The memoir, a mixture of pathos and humor, chronicles dealing with trials […]

Rock Out
By Richard Mineards   |   May 16, 2019

The amazons ruled when Girls Rock, which helps youngsters through music and arts appreciation, threw a third annual beach bash at the rustic Carpinteria home of music entrepreneur Marla McNally Phillips and her husband Lee. Our Eden by the Beach is home to the largest Girls Rock program in the world, says president Kerri Murray, […]

Nashville Nights
By Richard Mineards   |   April 18, 2019

The Council on Alcoholism and Drugs Abuse’s 33rd annual Amethyst Ball at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara was a real gem! The bold-faced name-filled bash attracted nearly 360 glamorously garbed guests, many in Western outfits, and raised around $650,000 for 70-year-old CADA, which has an annual budget of $5.6 million serving more than 8,600 people with 23 […]

SBYC Makes Waves
By Richard Mineards   |   March 14, 2019

It was history in the making when Santa Barbara Yacht Club marked its 147th opening day when the sea of blue blazers inside matched the Pacific outside. Executive chef Michael Blackwell laid on a culinary display of food, accompanied by gallons of mimosas, that would have made Belshazzar green with envy as Teen Star winner […]

Teens Sing Event
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   May 24, 2018

This Sunday, May 27, at 8 pm, KEYT will air the Teens Sing for Santa Barbara sold-out concert that took place on March 9 at the Marjorie Luke Theatre. The concert raised $65,000 for the Unity Shoppe Santa Barbara and Montecito Disaster Survivors Fund and featured the talents of local teens, as well as Montecito […]