Tag archives: singer songwriter

In her four decades as a recording artist, singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega has displayed a remarkable knack for creating songs that sound at once deeply personal and utterly universal, a true gift given that almost all of them are written from the first-person point of view. The observational pieces date to her early days with such […]

“I’m in Maine, looking at New Hampshire across the Piscataqua River,” Tom Rush said over the phone late last month. “The leaves are turning and it’s gorgeous.” Rush’s voice is unmistakable, and so is the approach; a laid-back sincere tone that sounds like a chat across the porch with an old friend. He’s not just […]

Heading east on a plane, Pete Muller calls within moments in response to my text to talk about his new album and special concert at SOhO. It’s a trip that combines his two passionate pursuits (apart from his family); spending some time at PDT Partners – the Wall Street hedge fund Muller founded and whose model […]

Aimee Mann’s gift for literate lyrics that belie the bright melodies of her chamber folk-pop music has defined her own genre for more than 30 years of a solo career.  Her oeuvre is the vulnerable truth laid bare, mostly drawn from her own experiences, but in such refreshing ways that it’s decidedly universal, and healing […]

Bill Lanphar wasn’t the best-known singer-songwriter-guitarist who called Santa Barbara home. But he might very well have been the best-loved among his peers.  Lanphar, who had a rock band when he lived in L.A. before relocating to Santa Barbara and La Conchita, started playing music during open mic nights at Dargan’s Pub and quickly became […]

Pete Muller didn’t set out to make a record in Memphis with an entirely new band when he visited producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell) on the advice of his manager. But the two hit it off, and when his previous producer Rob Mathes proved too busy with his Sting projects to get away, Muller committed […]

Blues guitarist/singer-songwriter Chris Cain was already 30 before he formed his first band in 1986 in his hometown of San Jose, far from the blues meccas of the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, or Chicago. In fact, even to this day, Cain has never lived anywhere else but northern California.  But he’d grown up listening to his […]

Charley Crockett, a Texas original who draws from traditional hillbilly music, vintage soul, and R&B to give his old-school country twang an extra earthy feel, opened UCSB A&L’s season at the Arlington almost exactly a year ago. The Americana Music Awards’ Emerging Artist of the Year for 2021 heads back to the venue on Friday, […]

Santa Barbara native singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mendeleyev’s new album won’t actually be available in CD form for his concert at SOhO on September 21, as the record isn’t officially released until eight days later. But that won’t stop him from making this particular homecoming show into a special evening in every way.  For one thing, it will […]

If Jesse Colin Young never sang another song besides “Get Together,” his place in rock history would be assured. Indeed, the ‘60s feel-good, quasi-protest song is so iconic that FestForums has borrowed it as the title of their tribute concert to the late producers of Woodstock and Newport Folk & Jazz festivals. Young will both […]

Early career singer-songwriter Makena Tate attributes her confidence on stage to her Santa Barbara upbringing. The Crane School alumna says: “Being at Crane really gave me this great foundation for what I love now. It felt like there was no judgment, that everyone there wanted you to succeed. But having supportive teachers like Shana Arthurs […]

Palo Alto-raised, Boston-trained, Nashville-based guitarist/singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle inspires critics to manufacture metaphors to describe her dexterity on an acoustic six-string guitar – “her fingers are like 10 Olympic athletes” or “she could pick your pocket without breaking stride.” That’s not surprising since after years of participating in bluegrass jams all over Northern California, Tuttle broke […]

Singer-songwriter Americana roots-rocker Jason Isbell has won four Grammy Awards since separating from the Drive-By Truckers, and with his band 400 Unit represents some of the best of Southern rock music today. But the opening act for the concert at the Arlington Theatre on February 26 isn’t far behind.  Thirty-three years into her career, it […]

SOhO has secured a bit of a booking coup for the end of the month in Molly Tuttle, the singer-songwriter-guitarist who became the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Awards’ Guitar Player of the Year awards in 2017 and repeated in 2018, when she was also named the Americana Music Association’s Instrumentalist of […]

The COVID pandemic has been an ongoing career if not a personal crisis for a lot of musicians around the world. But for Drew McManus, the shutdown actually afforded him a chance to slow down, regroup and, most importantly, reconnect with his roots in the mountains of Montana. Although he was born in the western […]

Credit Béla Fleck’s son for sparking the banjo master’s desire to return once again to his bluegrass roots. Fleck, who was first inspired to take up the five-string instrument as a child when he heard Earl Scruggs play the theme song for Beverly Hillbillies, has long since become an ambassador of the instrument who has […]

Singer-songwriter Marc Broussard made his stage debut before he reached first grade, belting out “Johnny B. Goode” at age 5 as a guest singer in his father, Louisiana Hall of Fame guitarist Ted Broussard’s, famous band The Boogie Kings. Swamp pop and blue-eyed soul runs through his veins and makes up his bones. But classic […]

Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale came together in 2011 as the acoustic duo Milk Carton Kids after the singer-songwriter-guitarists, who both lived in the Los Angeles neighborhood known as Eagle Rock, had stagnated in their solo careers. Back then, nobody could possibly have predicted just how much the synergy of the pairing would exceed the […]

Although even its outdoor theater in Solvang was dark all last year, PCPA Theaterfest took to virtual programming right away after COVID hit, offering weekly conversations with alumni around the country along with Zoom readings of works new to the area, then upped the ante with produced longer-form videos, including cabarets over the holiday season […]

Montecito singer-songwriter Brad Paisley, who was generous with his music and contributions during the 2018 mudslides disaster, as well as being a major supporter of the Unity Shoppe along with fellow musician Kenny Loggins, brought major help to Nashville, Tennessee, after the Christmas bombing, I learn. Brad, 48, who has sold 11 million albums and […]