Goodbye, Dolly
The nation — nay, the universe — has lost one of its great lights and levelers. Dolly Parton has left our mortal plane, in case you’ve been on vacation on Mars in the past couple of weeks.
As has been endlessly noted of late, she reached across aisles and demarcated demographics. She was beloved by humans left and right. Her passing even touched Trump, whose first positive act during his evil reign was to pay respects and decree that official flags go half-mast for a week (check out our own jumbo flag at the downtown PO).
Dolly (feels wrong to call this humanity family member Parton) filtered through Santa Barbara County, on stages and also as a sometime Solvang resident and philanthropist whose Dolly Parton Imagination Library project fed young minds (see news reporter Callie Fausey’s story).
I distinctly remember feeling like the presence of some down-home deity when Dolly hit the Santa Barbara Bowl stage back in 2016, on her Pure and Simple tour. On the downside, I was disappointed that she opted to replace a human drummer with a robotic/pre-programmed model, after the original drummer failed to cut the mustard before the tour began. That was a musical impurity in an otherwise inspiring encounter.
For all her entanglements with show biz machinations and Hollywood-ized (and Dollywood-ized) moves, she was a force of simple, pure goodness in a turbulent time. She had faith in and compassion for humanity. All of it.
Who do we have left as an artist who so mediates and appeals to different factions in a polarized world, who could even break through Trump’s thicket of skin? (Aside from Willie Nelson, natch.) All hail the wonder that is/was Dolly.
Bowl Notes from All Over
Speaking of country artists reaching across boundaries, the artist presently known as Johnny Blue Skies — formerly Sturgill Simpson and originally John Sturgill Simpson, so christened at his 1978 birth in Jackson, Kentucky — brings his bad mixed-identity self back to the Bowl on Wednesday, September 9. More specifically, the Bowl will see the likes of Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds on its Mutiny for the Masses tour.
Not one to be tied down to a specific genre or identity, Sturgill/Johnny wooed and wowed the masses (well, a humble, discerning slice of the masses) with a new-old country sound and a new power of songwriting and poetic lyric-making, creating one of the greatest country albums of the past many years, 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (hear here). But then he confounded expectations with the psych-rock sounds of 2019’s Sound & Fury, going unplugged/acoustic on his Cuttin’ Grass albums and the Ballad of Dood and Juanita (with our man Willie cameo-ing on “Juanita.”
Another period, another pivot: Enter Johnny Blue Skies, a new name for a new persona, including things French for this sometime Parisian, gone public with 2024’s Passage du Desir, after which he made his last Bowl visit. It’s anybody’s guess which of those personae will show up this time around, but something real good and possibly real strange is bound to materialize.
Of Soul, Sacred, Retro and Supreme
The soul music pulse and impulse run deep in American music, but in different directions. That lesson was neatly summarized and confirmed by engaging late-summer party shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl last week. Thursday brought us an encore appearance of Diana Ross, still kicking it and legacy at age 82. From a couple of generations down, Sunday’s triple header of Thee Sacred Souls, LA LOM and the Womack Sisters
For 60 years, Ross has been riding the soul train, hopping from the pop to disco-funk cars. In a strange way, Thee Sacred Souls and the Womack Sisters are more retrofitted and firmly riding the “old school” bus than the veteran Ross herself. They are a proud part of the Daptone Records world, which wears its allegiance to “old school” soul sounds on the company sleeve.
Old school and bloodline cred is part and parcel of the Womack Sisters, as granddaughters of Sam Cooke, nieces of Bobby Womack and offspring of Womack and Womack — a solid soul royalty line. “The spirit never dies,” they sang during a hearty set, with music in their blood and in the pipes, abetted by a strong seven-musician band.
Points of historical and geographical reference shifted with LA LOM (short for Los Angeles League of Musicians), a lean but potent guitar-bass-drums trio — amended briefly by the Womack sibs and the three players on hand for all three bands this night. Led by nimble guitarist Zac Sokolow, with bassist Jake Faulkner and percussionist Nicholas Baker, the group dips into vintage Latin-American genres from the ‘50s and ‘60s, including cumbia and flavors from Peru, Colombia and Cuba. At times, there are echoes of Cuban master Manuel Galban, an offshoot of the Buena Vista Social Club clan, but they make these timeless sounds fresh and tasty again.
Headliner Thee Sacred Souls, outta San Diego, won over the crowd in a major way. They also happily tap time-honored old-soul sources for their sound and fit neatly into the Daptone aesthetic (which has previously delivered us veteran soul singers Sharon Jones at the Bowl and Charles Bradley at Campbell Hall).
The 12-piece band is very much a livewire and in-sync band affair, but the spotlight is clearly trained on charismatic and circumambulatory lead singer Josh Lane (who, incidentally, joined the slender ranks of Bowl performers who trekked all the way to the tippy top of the house at the end of their set). Positive vibes are on tap here, as when he promulgated the “power of love” over the power of dominance,” and issued an urge for us to “get up now” — both physically and spiritually — on the Marvin Gaye–ish “Live for You.” They closed out with the musical question, and hit song, “Can I Call You Rose?”
Diana Ross made for an ideal Sacred Soul warm-up — not that she is second fiddle — on Thursday at the Bowl. Joined by a tight, all white-clad band, the singer, in three different costumes, put on a 90-minute, career-spanning show which was also family-spanning, with her grandchildren joining her at one point and the spotlight turned over to her daughter Rhonda, introduced as a singer-songwriter and “mindset coach.”
The show opened, teasingly, with the instrumental groove of “I’m Coming Out,” which Ross didn’t sing for several minutes. But there she was in her bright red explosion of an outfit, dishing up a medley of Supremes hits we know and love, and love hearing from the original singer’s mouth. Fuller song treatment was supplied with songs from her disco era, and the masterful tune and bold statement of self-worth “I Will Survive” (which always reminds me of Looking for Mr. Goodbar, in which Diane Keaton’s character does not survive).
The impression from his vantage point in her long and assuring career: Ross has survived, and thrived. And so has the immortal pull of American soul music, through the ages … and musicians of various ages.
Wait, there’s more. The Santa Barbara Bowl season continues with its soul parade, with Earth, Wind & Fire on Friday, September 18, and one of the coups of the season, the long-awaited return of Santana in this enlightened al fresco space, dropping in on Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13. Apparently, retro rules. That’s okay by this columnist.
TO-DOINGS:
The verdict is in:the Grand on State was on fire, in an eloquent, deep vibe-y way with the arrival last Saturday of legendary (but nice guy) drummer Peter Erskine and his dynamo trio with pianist Alan Pasqua and bassist Darek Oles. Here’s hoping for a hasty return.
Meanwhile, the much-appreciated “visiting artist” series at the new venue continues next week with trumpeter Terell Stafford serving up his contribution to this year’s popular tradition of tributes to Miles Davis, in his 100th birthday year. Joining Stafford is the estimable pianist Tamir Hendelman (who, incidentally, impressed mightily at the Grand as partner with vocalist Robert Gambarini last month). (See Jim Buckley’s story here).
Just across the street from the Grand, and up the Victoria Court stairs, the venerable and cross-genre hot house of SOhO continues its business-as-usual flow of savory music and consumables. Notable items on this week’s musical menu, and demonstrating the club’s eclectic leanings, include Santa Barbara’s mighty cover band Double Wide Kings on Friday, September 4, and on Monday, September 7, yet another — but welcome — return of the acoustic guitar supergroup Transatlantic Guitar Trio, being Django-phonic Joscho Stephan, Chet Atkins–adjacent Brit Richard Smith, and the amazing blind guitar-on-lap (vs. lapsteel guitar) player Rory Hoffman. All are impressive: Hoffman is, alone, worth the price of admission.
Importantly, this show marks the launch of the milestone 10th anniversary of Kevin Gilles’s brave S.B. Acoustic series (see story on the phenom here).
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