Review | The Head And The Heart Touched Ours at the Santa Barbara Bowl

The heartfelt harmonies of The Head And The Heart were on delightful display at the Santa Barbara Bowl this week. From the opening title track of their new album Every Shade Of Blue — a timely reflection of the soul-searching ups and downs of the pandemic waves we’ve weathered the past few years — to the 2011 sentimental capper “Rivers and Roads” — with the lyrics “Nothin’ is as it has been/And I miss your face like hell/And I guess it’s just as well/But I miss your face like hell” making it such a perfect ending song that TV shows like Chuck and New Girl adopted it for their series and season finales. 

One of the biggest revelations of the night for me was the ethereal voice of violinist/vocalist/guitarist Charity Rose Thielen. Her haunting vocals on “Let’s Be Still” reminded me of the late, great Julee Cruise, whose songs set the tone for so much of David Lynch’s memorable work in the late 1980s and 90s. And the way she breezed through every quadrant of her vocal playground on the very modern, whatever-the-opposite-of-a-Hallmark-movie-is love song “Honeybee,” combined with the yin and yang of her coiffure and harlequin outfit, was simply fabulous!

It’s a tricky thing for a band to perform an oft-played hit live and still have it sparkle for the audience — and themselves — but The Head And The Heart did a great job with this, particularly on “Missed Connection” and “All We Ever Knew” where (mostly) lead vocalist/guitarist Jonathan Russell managed to make the practically anthemic tunes sound both familiar and fresh.