Tag archives: singer
Santa Barbara Teen Star Sofia Schuster, a sophomore at San Marcos High, is widening her vocal horizons. The 15-year-old traveled down to Los Angeles to audition for the latest series of the ABC TV show American Idol in front of local, singer Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan. Sofia, daughter of ShelterBox USA president […]
Award-winning actress and opera singer Deborah Bertling has been appointed president of the women’s board of the Community Arts Music Association. Her extensive performance history throughout California has included dozens of plays, musicals, staged readings, concerts, feature films, and several Opera Santa Barbara productions. Deborah is also president of the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation. In […]
I may be prejudice since Broadway is my favorite thing, but I think the best concert I’ve ever seen for UCSB Arts & Lectures was Kristin Chenoweth. She’s a teeny tiny thing (4’ 11”) with a mighty voice that reaches the rafters. And she thinks we Santa Barbarians are so lucky to have Hidden Valley […]
Where were you when you first heard Bob Dylan? Arguably one of the greatest poets and musical artists of our generation, Bob Dylan has been covered and worshiped by fans and artists of all walks of life. Born as Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, the musician has been in the game for sixty years, […]
The Great American Songbook has captivated singers from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to modern pop stars such as Rod Stewart and Linda Ronstadt. But rarely has success with the timeless tunes from the 1930s-50s come so surprisingly as with Steve Tyrell. A throaty crooner with roots in Houston’s gritty Italian neighborhood whose first love […]
“Kick up your heels (flats only) and dance to the sounds of Frank Sinatra with Crooner John Paul Goodie on our new lawn,” the invitation read. Lana Marmé and Michael Phillips‘s house was spared in the January 2018 mud-and-debris slide, but their front yard and lawn were destroyed. So, instead of re-planting, they installed an […]
Guitarist Al Di Meola was merely fantasizing when he told a friend back in 1974 that he’d “give anything” to be able to play in Chick Corea’s Return To Forever jazz fusion band. After all, the Jersey City-bred Di Meola was only 19 and still studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. But the […]
If you missed Maile Kai Merrick‘s performance with Kenny Loggins and Sofia Schuster at the Marjorie Luke in August during a special “Footloose” Summer Stock concert, you’ll have another chance to hear the young singer, as Maile is scheduled to join Kristin Chenoweth on stage at the Granada on October 2. Here’s how that happened: […]
Melissa Manchester’s career began at an early age, including studying piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, singing commercial jingles at 15, and serving as a staff writer for Chappell Music while still attending Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts. After serving as a member of the Harlettes, Bette Midler’s back-up singers, Manchester […]
Despite the fact that she is Kenny Loggins’ youngest daughter, and half-sister to Crosby Loggins, once a stalwart on the Santa Barbara music scene who was the winner of MTV’s Rock the Cradle back in 2008, it wasn’t pre-ordained that Hana Aluna would become a professional musician. Sure, Kenny wrote and recorded the lullaby with […]
When Kenny Loggins composed the music that would become “Footloose” back in 1983, the singer-songwriter didn’t even give it a second thought. With “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack from a couple of years earlier his lone movie song smash, Loggins had yet to become the “King of the Movie Soundtrack,” so he stuck it on the […]
When Robinson Eikenberry passed away suddenly at age 47 on July 4, 2017, the Santa Barbara community lost one of its most influential musicians, although very few outside of his circle ever heard him perform. That’s because Eikenberry didn’t crave the spotlight, preferring instead to stay behind the scenes as a producer, engineer, songwriter and, […]
The Santa Barbara singer-songwriter community was devastated when the tirelessly eclectic producers, sound engineer, and songcrafter Robinson Eikenberry died unexpectedly on July 4, 2017. The 35-year local resident who graduated from Crane School in Montecito was honored soon after with a memorial concert at the Lobero Theatre, where many of the Santa Barbara artists he […]
Rock singer Ronnie Platt had been making most of his money as a truck driver in Chicago for the better part of 25 years – singing along to Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” and “Carry On Wayward Son” on classic rock radio in the cab – when someone forwarded him the press release indicating that […]
The last time I saw Grammy-winning singer Boz Scaggs was when I first moved here from Los Angeles in 2007 and I was invited by developer Pat Smith to attend a lavish 50th birthday bash for his then-wife, Susan, at actor Michael Douglas‘s former estate on Hot Springs Road, which he was leasing from the […]
In an impromptu gig at Roy’s Restaurant on August 16, locals were treated to the music of upcoming Generation-Y songstress Carly Jo Jackson, who was in town to begin recording her first LP with music guru producer and par-none sound master Chris Pelonis [Jeff Bridges], at his studios, Lost Coast Records. The album’s release date […]
Like just about every other community across the nation and around the world, Santa Barbara had to wait 40 years to see the singer-songwriter Rodriguez perform in concert in town – something they didn’t even realize they were missing until the movie Searching for Sugar Man appeared five years ago – when he performed at […]
Louise Goffin, daughter of the iconic songwriting duo Carole King and Gerry Goffin, has long been a singer-songwriter and producer on her own, dating back to Kid Blue,her debut album more than 40 years ago. Her style has always drawn from both her parents’ pop sensibilities, her mom’s piano-based melody-driven music, and the folk-rock of […]
Don’t talk to Peter Case about craft. The veteran singer-songwriter who started life as a power pop/punk rocker in such bands as The Plimsouls and The Nerves back in the 1970s and ’80s finds hearing that people love his “well-crafted songs” something close to an insult as it undercuts the artistry. Which seems reasonable, since […]
It would be sheer folly to expect a linear conversation when interviewing Nellie McKay. The British-American singer-songwriter and actress may be sharp as a tack in creating diverse albums that range from her brilliant 2004 debut Get Away from Me – a double-album from a 21-year-old that was full of clever and original pop songs […]
