IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE: Ah, love! Without it, songwriters would be mute, flightless doves, gasping and flapping in silence, crooning vocal voids into a heartless universe. Thankfully, love springs eternal, and as Santa Barbara’s Christina Apostolopoulos sings on the title track of her beautifully crafted new album, The Only Thing I’m Good At, love can be our saving grace when all else fails. “I can’t sew a button, and I can’t cook a chicken, and when I dance people think I’m itching,” she sings. “The only thing I’m good at is loving you.”
The new album, her first, has been a labor of love for the locally grown, L.A.-based singer/songwriter. She will celebrate with an album-release show at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club (1221 State St.) on Tuesday, May 1, at 7 p.m.; the album itself debuts a few days earlier, on April 27. The Only Thing I’m Good At marks a milestone for Apostolopoulos, who picked up her first guitar around age 7 or 8 and went on to study at Berklee College of Music. Honing her skills on a mix of Led Zeppelin songs and classical pieces, the Santa Barbara High School alum played some of her first shows at the Good Cup’s open mics as a teen. She cites John Mayer, Bonnie Raitt, Phoebe Bridgers, and Margaret Glaspy as influences over the years.
In many ways, music is her first love. “Writing these songs came from a pure love of what I was doing and had nothing to do with how people perceive it,” she said. She cherishes the innate embrace of her inner muse, the love for music: “That, to me, is the kernel of everything, and I protect that with my life.”