The Musical Mecca of Laurel Canyon Comes to the Santa Barbara Lobero

Once upon a time, an incredibly talented group of musicians formed bands together, slept together, took drugs together, and made such iconic music together during the late 1960s and early 1970s that it still resonates today. 

Much of this legendary music scene — featuring artists such as Joni Mitchell; Jackson Browne; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Carole King; The Byrds; Buffalo Springfield; David Crosby; Neil Young; Poco; James Taylor; the Mamas and the Papas; and Linda Ronstadt — took place in the hills above Los Angeles in an area called Laurel Canyon. Now coming to the Lobero on November 13 is Lookout Mountain: The Music of Laurel Canyon, an all-star band and living documentary concert experience celebrating the music of these influential artists. 

Esteemed rock photographer Henry Diltz is in the mix, along with musicians Kiki Ebsen, Kipp Lennon, Gary Novak, Andrew Ford, Jeff Pevar, special guest Glen Phillips, and the two men responsible for putting this whole thing together: Steve Postell and James Raymond. 

How did Lookout Mountain come about? 

“I was trying to think of ways that I could play really fun music with my friends and people that I really enjoy making music with, and I started doing a little bit of research about tribute bands and bands that play other people’s music,” said Raymond, whose late father, David Crosby, was an integral part of the Laurel Canyon music scene.

There was so much great music from the timeframe between 1968-1972 that Raymond got inspired by that era as a focus. “So, I just called Steve and ran it by him and it just kind of took off from there,” he said. 

The beauty of that time period is the quantity of excellent music to pull from. “What’s great is that we could completely change the set list for the next show, and it’d still be great. The reason I was so thrilled at the idea is because it’s music that informed us so much. … And it’s an opportunity to delve into music that certainly, for me, molded a lot of what I am as a songwriter, for sure,” said Postell, an accomplished musician who has worked with everyone from Crosby to Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Carole King, and The Immediate Family, among many others. 

“This is our kickoff show,” said Postell, who is planning to take it out on the road after the Lobero debut. “We’ve got a great team, and business team together with management and marketing, and everyone loves the idea. So, I guess unless James and I do something wrong, we’ll keep doing it.”

“This is kind of our dream team, basically for this endeavor, just because we’ve got such great vocalists and great players, and everybody’s really cool and gets along,” said Raymond. “If we do our jobs and make this a really compelling show, the sky’s the limit, as far as taking it out and playing at theaters around the country and things like that.”

When Diltz is available, as he will be for the Lobero show, he’ll do a short talk before each musical set. “It connects the dots a lot,” said Raymond. “He has so much firsthand experience with these people, and with that era. He became known as a great photographer, but he was a folk musician. So, when he was at Lookout Mountain, he was already taking pictures of everybody, but he was also sitting around playing with them.”

They will record the Lobero show and use some of those recordings of Diltz when he’s not able to be there live. 

Added Postell, “One thing about it that’s interesting to me is, I think James and I are in this position where we are in the middle of the younger people who aren’t as familiar, and the people who made the music that we actually know, and have worked with them. I think we’re in a very prime position in terms of our era to carry on and show people, you know, present this wonderful music in a really cool way with a lot of the gravitas of having grown up around it. So, it feels very personal to me.”

Any theories on why that was such a creative and prolific period of time in music?

“I think a big component of it was the right place, right time,” said Raymond. “In talking to Crosby about it, it was just kind of a peaceful enclave up away from the madness that was happening just down the street on Sunset and on Hollywood Boulevard, and this was like this idyllic, peaceful Nirvana kind of place for these artists. I think it just gave them the right amount of camaraderie and space to create all this great music. 

“I think it was kind of accidental, but I think once a little scene kind of formed up there, it attracted more people. And I think the beauty of it was that it never got out of hand and became like a tourist thing. It was very kind of cloistered. But I think it was just the right conditions for this really cool soup of creativity.”

See Lookout Mountain: The Music of Laurel Canyon at the Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.) Thursday, November 13, 7:30 p.m. See lobero.org/events/lookout-mountain.