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Underneath Kate Clover’s Sound, a Tough Noir World
Last month, I went to one of the weirdest shows you could hope to sign up for: the John Waters Easter Show at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The grand finale of this six-hour marathon of...
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The Unusual Roots of AJ Lee’s Music Career
On “Grass Valley,” from her new album Crooked Tree, rising Nashville star Molly Tuttle sings about the NorCal bluegrass festivals that her father—renowned bluegrass instructor Jack Tuttle—took her to...
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The Guthrie Girls Make California Debut at Michael’s on Main
From Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” to Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore,” Sarah Lee and Cathy Guthrie’s earliest performances at Sam’s Town Point in Austin, Texas radiated with...
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Son Lux Bring Mild-Altering Synth Sounds to Felton Music Hall
During the intimate and soaring performance by experimental indie band Son Lux at the Felton Music Hall on May 14, lead vocalist and synth-maestro Ryan Lott paused to give the few-dozen attendees...
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Cali Roots is Back and Bigger Than Ever
Following a two-year pause, Cali Roots is still one of the largest and most popular reggae-rock festivals. And the 11th annual gathering’s lineup is full of big-time acts, ready to perform for the...
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Moe’s Show Celebrates a Decade of Tomboy
Before playing “Love Luck” for Little Hurricane’s Tomboy Session video, singer and guitarist Anthony Catalano takes note of his surroundings. “It’s always fun to play abnormal music venues,” he says....
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WITCH Brings Zamrock to Moe’s Alley
Thrown off by the 10-hour time difference, I wake Jagari at 4am Zambia time. I can hear the sleep in his voice. I apologize profusely, and offer to call back at a later time. “No, no!” Jagari perks...
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Noise Pop Collaborates with UCSC’s Quarry Amphitheater
In the early ’60s, modernist landscape architect Robert Royston took on an ambitious project: designing what’s now the Quarry Amphitheater on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Like Red Rocks Amphitheatre in...
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Why Santa Cruz is the Perfect Spot for Third Eye Blind’s Tour Warm-Up
I’m talking to Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins by phone as he walks around the new Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit in Manhattan’s Starrett-Lehigh Building, which features more than 200...
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Santa Cruz Symphony Celebrates Frans Lanting’s ‘Life’
On June 18, the Santa Cruz Symphony (SCS) will present Life: A Journey Through Time, a multimedia performance that first premiered at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2006. Featuring...
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The White Album Ensemble is Performing a Pair of Shows at the Rio
For those who’ve felt the last two years of the pandemic have left them feeling like a nowhere man, lost in a Norwegian wood, then it’s time to think for yourself. Look at all the lonely people and...
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Street Freak Explodes onto the Local Punk Scene
Someone once told me, “As long as there’s a pissed-off kid in a garage with a guitar, punk rock will never die.” Personally, I think we’re much better as a society for that simple fact. Punk music...
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Bob Dylan’s Mentor Ramblin’ Jack Elliott Tells Little-Known Tales About the Icon
About nine years ago, folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (who turns 91 on Aug. 1 and continues to perform live) and Bob Dylan crossed paths after Dylan performed a show in Oakland. Before that, Elliott...
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The Return of the Hop N’ Barley Festival
Beginning in the 2010s, beer festivals really became a thing in Santa Cruz County. Thanks to Covid, however, they all but disappeared over the last two years. Now, like so many things we’ve all missed...
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Heartless Bastards Bring an Explosion of Cathartic Rock to Felton
“Revolution,” the opener on Heartless Bastards’ 2021 A Beautiful Life, begins gently with an acoustic guitar moving back and forth between two simple chords. Frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom’s vocals...
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Tropa Magica Bring Their Fearless Music to Moe’s
Los Lobos usually doesn’t have the time to see every band who opens for them. However, the renowned Grammy Award-winners made sure they made time to check out their opening act, Tropa Magica, the last...
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Scott Ordway’s ‘The End of Rain’ Makes World Premiere at Cabrillo Festival
Composer Scott Ordway is a 21st-century auteur. His eclectic creations involve music, video, performative installations, poetry and photography. All of this handmade rigor dissolves boundaries while...
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Lee Fields Leads the Ongoing Soul Revival
“Everything that we do on Earth is meant to be,” Lee Fields tells me over the phone. It’s the first time I’ve spoken to the soul singer, and we’re already talking about the meaning of life....
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Anders Osborne Goes Wherever Music Takes Him
When Anders Osborne was 19 years old, he sat next to an older man at a bar, waiting to perform. The man turned toward Osborne and asked, “You call yourself a music man or a musician?” “I had never...
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The Brothers Comatose to Play Three Nights at Moe’s Alley
“A lot of people call it bluegrass, but it’s not traditional bluegrass,” says Ben Morrison, multi-instrumental co-founder of the Brothers Comatose. “It’s folk and bluegrass with a little bit of rock...
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