ON Culture: Bright Stars, Artist Studio Tours, and Plenty to Smile About Coming our Way

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on July 29, 2023. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletter

ON the Stage (Music)

We’ve got so much great music coming our way, including all of the incredible Music Academy summer festival offerings; Jimmy Webb, Graham Nash, and the Cowboy Junkies at the Lobero (respectively, July 13, 15-16, and 21); and Neil Young, Little Big Town, and Jason Mraz (respectively July 7, 15, and 21 at the Santa Barbara Bowl), as well as the recent announcement that Daniel Caesar is coming to the Bowl on September 23, as part of his Superpowers World Tour. His latest album Never Enough debuted at #2 on Billboard Top R&B Albums Chart and features singles “Do You Like Me?” “Let Me Go,” and “Valentina,” as well as the viral hit song “Always.”  It was also just announced that the bearded wonders of ZZ Top are coming our way in the fall (October 20) at the Arlington Theatre, with tickets on sale here. Also heading to the Arlington is Wilco (October 13), whose keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen happens to live in Ojai and happened to give a great artist talk at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art this spring. 

But even with all of the richness in Santa Barbara, it’s nice to get away sometimes, too. With that in mind, Joe Woodard has a nice story about the summer sets coming to Ojai’s Libbey Bowl, including (and this is just the first part of July): The Gin Blossoms (July 1), Toad the Wet Sprocket (July 5),  Lyle Lovett (July 7), and Dishwalla with the Smithereens (July 8). Speaking of Toad, a friend shared this lovely story about the generosity of lead singer (and Santa Barbara’s own) Glenn Phillips. I love to hear that supremely talented people are also GOOD people, don’t you?

The Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation FREE Summer Concert Series also starts up next week, with Paradise Kings playing on July 6 at 6 p.m. at Chase Palm Park, followed by (same time, same place) The Molly Ringwald Project on July 13, Captain Cardiac & the Coronaries on July 20, and Mezcal Martini on July 27.