ON the Beat | Live Oak Fest, S.L.O. Calling (2024)

For a few decades, avid Santa Barbara music fans of varying and/or eclectic stripes found themselves faced with a delectable one-two punch of festival action in mid-June. First came the world-famous classical Ojai Music Festival (which went down beautifully last weekend: see reviewhere), followed by the Father’s Day weekend friendly blowout of theLive Oak Music Festival, a rootsy and eclectic fundraising big top event for KCBX (locally at 90.9 FM on Goletan turf, and worldly atkcbx.org).

The June festival action lured Santa Barbarans, proper, to different corners of the region, starting in the ever-alluring hamlet of Ojai. For most of its now 36-year run, the Live Oak Festival settled into its namesake Live Oak Camp off of Highway 154, but difficult logistics with that venue drove the festival north to the San Luis Obispo’s El Chorro Regional Park, a logical homecoming in the city where KCBX lives and thrives.

KCBX, as we know and love, is a treasured beacon of independent radio on the West Coast, home to Americana, indie, jazz, classical, “world,” and other musical flavors, many of which are represented by the festival programming.

We don’t have the luxury of just popping over the hill to partake, but the strength of the festival’s programming, its root cause, and the enveloping good vibe zone of the event is enough to pull Santa Barbarans up the 101, for a day or a weekend.

Headliners this year include the acclaimed and ascendant progressive bluegrass bandMolly Tuttle & Golden Highway(also coming to UCSB’s Campbell Hall on December 6 as part of the freshly announced UCSB Arts & Lectures season), another 805 visit by ska-plus party-timersThe English Beatand singer-songwriterJohn CraigiewiththeCoffis Brothers.Digging deeper into the dense lineup, we find artists from diverse places — geographically and stylistically — from the beloved Latinx bandLas Cafeterasto theEagle Rock Gospel Singers, the jammerificHot Buttered Rum, and the jazz/not-jazz wilds ofMoon Hooch, described in the promo as “cave music.” We’ll buy that.

Live Oak lives on. Get thee northward.

Last Friday evening, roughly 200 curious and culturally (and literally) hungry humans packed into the Montecito Country Club for what is by now a significant date on Santa Barbara’s cultural calendar: the unveiling of the mighty UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) season to come. Unfortunately, I missed out, being hopelessly committed to the Ojai Music Festival. But the occasion gives rise to general appreciation of A&L, long an inspired programming bedrock — as well as a forward-thinking proving ground for new and evolving ideas and artists — which contributes greatly to making Santa Barbara as worldly-wise, music-enriched, and culturally blessed as it is.

The turning point also inspires backward-glancing overviews of the season gone by. A personal Top 10 list of music highlights: Nickel Creek, Rhiannon Giddens (with and without the Silk Road Ensemble), Daniil Trifonov, Sierra Ferrell, Herbie Hanco*ck, Samara Joy, Renée Fleming, the Danish String Quartet, and the Kronos Quartet (at 50).

Other “big news” in classical music finds the respectedLondon Philharmonic Orchestracoming to the Granada on October 12, with the wondrous violinistPatricia Kopatchinskajaas soloist. The violinist, a k a “PatKop,” has graced Hahn Hall and dazzled with her fresh vision as musical director of the Ojai Music Festival in 2018.

Meanwhile, the season continues a valuable side project, the “Hear and Now” showcase for up-and-coming artists, at Hahn Hall. This series, which once featured a young Yuja Wang, brings us pianistAlexander Malofeev(Jan. 24); theImani Winds and Boston Brass,together (Feb. 2); violinist with a classical-bluegrass bentTessa Lark(May 20); and the fascinatingOwlsquartet (Apr. 11). Timely 805 note: Owls violinistAlexi Kenneywas one of the genuine starring elements of last weekend’s Ojai Music Festival, with his stunning media-aided, Bach-anchoredShifting Groundprogram and more.

A “Global Sounds” series wisely ventures beyond America’s borders, from Mexican divaAida Cuevas(Oct. 20, Arlington) to hybridizing MalianHabib KoitéandBamada(Oct. 30, Campbell Hall) and the Silk Road–sque border-boundingDoos Trio(Kayhan Kalhor, Wu Man and Sandeep Das) (Feb. 19, Campbell).

All in all, A&L promises another rich and varied ride of a musical program from October through May. Time to mark up your calendars.

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