Tag archives: singer songwriter

Arts in Lockdown Series Part 13 Multi-instrumentalist Musician Elle Archer
By Joanne A Calitri   |   November 5, 2020

Musicians are here to provide wisdom and comfort for a traumatized world, and to uplift the voices of the downtrodden,” says Elle Archer, a Portland-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Managed by Seth Loeser at Silver Morning Management, and recently signed with Kill Rock Stars, Elle’s band Shaylee is a project aimed at conveying youthful queer exuberance […]

Arts in Lockdown Series Part 10: Finding Your Voice with Heidi Jacobs, Singer-Composer and Vocal Coach
By Joanne A Calitri   |   October 13, 2020

Singer, composer, and recording artist Heidi Jacobs is a most talented and respected creative in her field. Her songs “Small Love,” “You Are Light,” and “Up” (written for the Los Olivos Dance Gallery Centre Stage Performance) show the breadth and depth of her vocal range, and her always perfect pitch. The messages in her compelling […]

Marjorie Luke, Staying Ripe in Stale Times
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 17, 2020

Venues and artists throughout the world are struggling with how to thrive or even survive during the extended pandemic. For Marjorie Luke board president Rod Lathim, joining the zeitgeist of endless Zoom performances proved completely unpalatable. Instead, the Luke – which only a year or so ago started producing its own events rather than simply […]

KT’s Coronavirus Compromise
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 20, 2020

Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall was all set to make her Santa Barbara debut at the Lobero Theatre on January 8, back when COVID-19 barely had a name, just the novel coronavirus that seemed to be contained in China. Then illness forced the show to be postponed and rescheduled for October. But the coronavirus crisis has […]

The Arts, “Lockdown Series” Part 2: The Formidable Jade Hendrix
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 13, 2020

From performing as a solo artist on the Ojai-Ventura music scene, to opening for Ronnie Spector in Los Angeles and the English Beat in Ojai, to gigs with her band on the main stage at the NAMM show and L.A., one thing sings out clearly: Jade Hendrix is a phenomenal female artist. The thirty-something singer-songwriter […]

Phillips Performs on Facebook to Cope with COVID and Racial Divides
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 4, 2020

It was exactly one week since George Floyd died in custody of the Minneapolis Police when Glen Phillips and I talked earlier this week over the phone. The issue of institutional racism and police brutality was weighing heavily on his mind, and would show up six hours later in that Monday night’s solo Zoom show, […]

Singer-songwriter Showcase Dives into Digital
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 23, 2020

Veteran local singer-songwriter and educator Nicola Gordon has been hosting showcases at MichaelKate Interiors for years. But with the showroom shuttered during the pandemic, the music has migrated over to Zoom. The third showcase in her now twice-a-month series takes place on April 29, during the usual on-site date of the last Wednesday of the […]

Regular Sets and Sounds for Sheltering in Place
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 23, 2020

Among the other area artists who are performing frequently via Facebook Live, Instagram or Zoom are the great Glen Phillips, the frontman for Santa Barbara-born pop band Toad the Wet Sprocket and a significant solo singer-songwriter. Phillips, who lived for more than two decades in Montecito, has been playing live acoustic living room sessions several […]

4Qs with Kenny Loggins
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 16, 2020

Montecito’s singer-songwriter hero is logging his time during the pandemic. Kenny Loggins is staying at home during the shelter-in-place era as the COVID-19 pandemic stopped everything in its tracks. Actually, make that homes. The 72-year-old singer-songwriter, who began scoring hits back in the early 1970s in a duo with Jim Messina, found fertile ground with […]

Quire Composer’s Set and Setting
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 19, 2019

Stephen Dombek had the unusual experience of hearing one of his compositions from the audience when the Quire of Voyces performed his setting of “Hodie – Christus Natus Est (Today Christ is Born)” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art at December’s 1st Thursday art walk. Normally, Dombek would have been among the baritone section […]

Bob Dylan and His Band Return
By Megan Waldrep   |   October 10, 2019

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, […]

7 Qs with Hana
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 15, 2019

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 […]

Cutting Footloose for 35 Years
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 15, 2019

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 […]

Tribute to an Underground Hometown Hero
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 6, 2019

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, […]

Robinson Redux
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 30, 2019

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 […]

Like a Boz
By Richard Mineards   |   September 27, 2018

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 […]

Carly Jo Jackson
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 23, 2018

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 […]

Rodriguez Returns
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 16, 2018

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 […]

Songstress True to Form with Family Ties
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 19, 2018

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 […]

Road Trip with a Reluctant Raconteur
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2018

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 […]