SOhO has been booking some excellent acts in the last few months. It’s to their credit that Santa Barbara audiences have a chance to see A-list, nationally touring groups like TV on the Radio, Calexico, and now Stephen Malkmus, former front man for truly the best American rock band of the ’90s, Pavement.
As the arctic wind put a serious chill over Santa Barbara Saturday night, David Bromberg warmed his audience with an infectious belly laugh and his fiery delivery of bluegrass and blues. Never one to be neatly categorized, Bromberg blended many styles as he let his fingers fly up and down his guitar’s fretboard, bending notes along the way.
Americana. Ask 10 people what it means, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Simply put, it’s the culture of America. In the music world, the term can be applied to anything from alt-rock to folk, from no depression to rockabilly. But for some, the word Americana transcends any single meaning. For these people-many of whom are not American themselves-the word represents an attitude, a way of being, a cloud of unsettled dust on the horizon of the American West or a long, lonely stretch of highway.
There is a sense of timelessness with Elliott Brood. Whether it’s the dusty trails the band’s stories often roam or its rustic embrace of music itself, Elliott Brood is a breed distinct from the rest. For almost four years, the Canadian three-piece-composed of bassist/guitar-player Casey Laforet, percussionist Stephen Pitkin, and lead vocalist and banjo player Mark Sasso-has been releasing impeccable recordings and delivering vaudeville-tinged live performances.
New York choreographer Stephen Petronio was the first male member of the legendary Trisha Brown Dance Company, where he performed from 1979 to 1986. He founded his own company in 1984, and has become one of the world’s most sought-after dance artists.
In a white tie and looking precisely like the Spanish nobleman he plays in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Eduardo Villa took the stage of the Marjorie Luke Theatre on Friday night with an air of dignified command. Accompanied by pianist (and conductor) Frank Paul Fetta, he sang with fluency and passion in Spanish, Italian, French, and German, with art songs and opera arias ranging from the comical, Offenbach’s “Chanson de Kleinzach” from Les Contes d’Hoffmann; to the rapturous, Tosti’s “Aprille;” to the tragic, Verdi’s “Niun mi tema” from Otello.
Graced with the formidable talent of guest soloist Jennifer Frautschi, Adrian Spence chose to court controversy at this concert by introducing one of the most challenging and deliberately absurd pieces in the entire violin repertoire: “Klangwlfe,” by Mauricio Kagel.
Art is a solitary business. You confront the canvas alone,” Harry Carmean said. Carmean, who has a fanatical devotion to drawing the human form, is considered to be one of the finest figure painters alive. Thus it’s exciting to see that a retrospective of his sketches of nudes is opening today, Thursday, January 18, at Reynolds Gallery at Westmont College. The show spans Carmean’s work from 1964 to 1999, and in addition to Carmean’s 13 drawings, there are another five by his wife, Miriam Slater.
Despite middling success in national markets, Alpha Dog finds success in city that served as the setting for the real-life events that inspired film.
The Law of Dreams, Peter Behrens’s historical novel about the 19th century Irish potato famine, has left critics grasping for words to convey what makes it such an astonishing piece of work. Beautifully written, but more adventure story than melodrama, the tale is told from the point of view of Fergus O’Brien, a teenager who survives and emigrates to North America. Winner of the 2006 Governor General’s Literary Award in Canada, it is Behrens’s first novel.
