John Gorka is no stranger to the Santa Barbara music scene. The New Jersey-born, literate-but-fun singer-songwriter who started playing out in the late 1970s before moving to Minnesota in the 1990s has played at SOhO, done the Sings Like Hell thing, and made repeat visits to the Tales from the Tavern series in Santa Ynez, […]
Paul Willis, professor of English at Westmont and former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, hosts the 12th annual community poetry reading to honor the life and work of William Stafford (1914-1993) on Saturday, January 27, at 2 pm at the First Crossing Day Use Area in Los Padres National Forest, across from the Los Prietos […]
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When your company is named after a fungus that grows on cow poop, clearly you’re involved with an outfit that loves playfulness as well as metaphors. Pilobolus formed at Dartmouth back in 1971 but has grown more explosively than its light-seeking namesake, now numbering more than 120 dance works in its repertoire, including three entities […]
Curtis Salgado harmonica and singing added color to both Robert Cray’s band and Roomful of Blues for years before he started making records on his own about 25 years ago. Five years after that, Salgado, who also has an attention-grabbing highly emotive blues voice, started playing with Portland-based guitarist Alan Hager. Just this week, the […]
The Jazz Ensemble at UCSB held its end-of-session concerts in early December, despite being the first day of the Thomas Fire with smoke in the air and evacuations. The 50 musicians and four vocalists range from professionals to students forming into seven mini-orchestral jazz bands. The bands are led by Jazz Ensemble director Jon Nathan […]
St. Louis has been in the news in recent years, for triumphs such as the Cardinals continued baseball dominance and the tragedy of the Michael Brown shooting in nearby Ferguson. But the city also happens to have a highly prized symphony orchestra, notable for both its history as the second oldest such ensemble in the […]
Santa Barbara-born, Berklee-trained blues guitarist-singer-songwriter Alastair Greene has been plying his trade professionally for 20 years now, but the last seven or so has seen him put his own trio on the back burner in favor of a lucrative role as sideman to Alan Parsons, one of progressive-rock’s progenitors, who also lives locally. But now […]
Santa Barbara Revels founder and fifth-generation Californian Susan Keller moved to Canada with her new husband after graduating from Stanford but returned to California, sans husband, some years later. She is not only a lifelong stage and TV performer but has also earned a law degree from UCLA. She moved to Montecito in 1994 with […]
Dolly Parton giggles her way through the last question on our group phone interview and she is refreshingly everything you hope her to be – sweet, humble, funny, the Dolly with whom you’ve grown up watching on TV. Dolly began her solo career in 1967 with Hello, I’m Dolly and has since amassed success in […]
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Westmont hosts its 13th annual Christmas Festival, retelling the Christmas story by weaving narration with music from the Westmont Orchestra, College Choir, and Choral Union on Friday, December 1, at 7 pm; Saturday, December 2, at 2 pm and 7 pm; and Sunday, December 3, at 3 pm, all at First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. […]
Back in 2015, Joanna Murphy was searching for an outlet in art to counter frightening medical issues she was suffering as a result of trauma when she came across alcohol-ink paintings on the social media site Pinterest. Drawn initially by the bright colors associated with the medium, Murphy found an even greater affinity once she […]
Santa Barbara’s 99-year-old Community Arts Music Association (CAMA) launched its Masterseries at the Lobero with the esteemed Juilliard String Quartet, which, as usual, was in top form with new cellist Astrid Schween. The 71-year-old multi Grammy Award-winning Fab Four, including violinists Joseph Lin and former UCSB faculty member Ronald Copes, and Roger Tapping on viola, […]
