Tag archives: SOhO

Going Greene with the Blue
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 24, 2024

If all you want for Christmas is some tasty blues rock with teeth, look no further than SOhO on Friday night, December 20. That’s when the veteran guitarist-singer-songwriter Alastair Greene will be throwing down at his old stomping grounds, taking to the stage in a reunion with his longtime SoCal based band mates Jim Rankin […]

Maria’s Musical Meanderings Through the Eras
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 22, 2024

Maria Muldaur’s career has been a 60-year exploration of the music she grew up with as a Greenwich Village native who came of age in the early 1960s, the era of what John Sebastian calls the “folk scare,” when acoustic music of all kinds exploded in the downtown New York scene.  “It was an incredibly […]

Tico Tells All
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 17, 2024

Jenna Tico – the multi-generational Santa Barbara native who has served as everything from a dancer to community organizer to grant writer for local nonprofits, Summer Solstice aficionado to AHA! staffer – is also the driving force behind Backbone Storytelling, a The Moth-style program that hosts periodic pop-up events at local watering holes. (Latest themes […]

Thies Time for Jazz Society 
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 10, 2024

Veteran Central Coast songstress Shawn Thies, who has been singing a variety of genres in public since her mid-teen years, makes her debut with the Santa Barbara Jazz Society at the monthly showcase at SOhO Sunday afternoon. Thies will lend her warm and playful voice to selections of jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, […]

Notes of Note
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 28, 2024

Natalie Merchant, the New York-bred singer-songwriter who a lifetime ago was the lead singer and lyricist for the alt.rock faves 10,000 Maniacs (1981-93) before embarking on an even more successful solo career, returns to town to perform at the Santa Barbara Bowl on May 23. Merchant’s latest album, 2023’s Keep Your Courage, continues to prove […]

Puzzlin’ Pete Produces ‘More Time’
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 28, 2024

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 […]

Mom, Apple Pie, Chevrolet and … ‘Rhapsody in Blue’
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 14, 2024

It seems every orchestra and their third cousins are playing Rhapsody in Blue this season to mark the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s once-controversial 1924 musical composition that combined elements of classical music with jazz piano – billed back then as an Experiment in Modern Music. Our own Santa Barbara Symphony is no exception. But […]

Sounds at SOhO: Fillmore FRENZ-y & Boffo Broadway
By Richard Mineards   |   March 26, 2024

Kenny Lee Lewis, bassist and backup singer for the Steve Miller Band since the early 1980s, has put together a five-piece band called THE FRENZ and secured half a dozen special guest singers and musicians with decades of combined rock history for a tribute show at the iconic Fillmore West in San Francisco and its […]

Nicks of Time 
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 9, 2024

Fleetwood Mac’s former heroine Stevie Nicks is still active on the road – the 75-year-old singer-songwriter having booked a series of dates starting in February. But none of those shows announced so far are west of Texas, so perhaps a close approximation will have to do. Diana Grace’s turn as the star of Stevie Nicks […]

Back in the Saddle: Shiflett Returns to SOhO
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 26, 2023

Guitarist Chris Shiflett grew up on Santa Barbara’s Eastside just a short walk from the Santa Barbara Bowl, the local amphitheater he would eventually play with as the lead guitarist in Foo Fighters. But back in the ‘70s and ‘80s it was the bar scene and house parties for Shiflett, who went to the junior […]

Sounds at SOhO
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 10, 2023

Club jazz gets its due at SOhO this week, with a series of local shows. M.O.B. Quintet reconvenes for an eclectic blend of Euro-Brazil progressive jazz and music from the 1970s ECM/Fusion era on October 8. Italian pianist Antonio Artese, who oscillates between our local foothills and the hills of Tuscany, hooks up again with […]

Notes Around Town
By Steven Libowitz   |   October 3, 2023

Santa Barbara musician Chris Shiflett, who gracious gives his hometown a Christmas gift each December via performance parties at the 300-max SOhO, shows up at the slightly bigger venue of the Santa Barbara Bowl (capacity 4,600) with his somewhat more famous band Foo Fighters on September 28, a late add to the venue’s schedule but […]

Mendeleyev Gets Self-ish at SOhO
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 19, 2023

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 […]

Reunion Time at SOhO 
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 29, 2023

Two of the most tenured Santa Barbara dance-party (mostly) cover bands are not only each appearing at SOhO this week, they’re also playing on the same night. Both Area 51, which has been fronted by the charismatic singer and Montecito resident Michael Andrews since its inception, now partnered on stage with Laura Schlieske, will be […]

Sounds Around Town 
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 22, 2023

Irvine’s indie-rock sensation Young the Giant plays the Santa Barbara Bowl, with Milky Chance and Rosa Linn as opening acts for the 6 pm concert on August 18, the last before a three-week hiatus at the amphitheater. That same night also brings a SOhO date with the Long Beach Dub Allstars, who formed from the […]

Lois Mahalia Chases the EP
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 22, 2023

The sensationally versatile and vivacious vocalist Lois Mahalia has been performing in and around Santa Barbara and across the world in a variety of settings for decades. The Guyana-born singer-songwriter has done everything from fronting the R&B-soul-jazz family band Georgetown with her three brothers, to singing backup on many tours with Joe Walsh, to appearing […]

Pop Around Town 
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 6, 2023

We’re hearing hints that suggest SB Acoustic might be moving on after the pair of shows at SOhO this weekend. Whether that’s relocating, retreating, reworking or reconfiguring we don’t know, but John Jorgenson and Carl Verheyen should provide a doubly delightful denouement. Guitarist Jorgenson is appearing with his J2B2 quartet, aka The John Jorgenson Bluegrass […]

Sounds Around Town: Bowlful of Music
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 9, 2023

The Black Keys saunter onto the Santa Barbara Bowl stage on the heels of their latest album, 2022’s Dropout Boogie. The garage rock/raw blues duo, with singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, was founded in Akron, Ohio, more than two decades ago. They saw their commercial breakthrough with the studio album and hit single […]

Making More Music with Marley’s Ghost
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 18, 2023

After a bunch of years, most bands either turn into a shell of what they used to be or fade away entirely. But unlike the famed Dickens character they were named for, Marley’s Ghost has both deepened its roots-Americana-pop approach and expanded its vocabulary over the decades. That’s the sort of thing that a while […]

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,” […]