CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: As the great David Bowie once observed ripples on the water ever remaining in a world of warm impermanence, we too must accept the ride of a wide world unchanging only in the constancy of its endless transformations, in that fleeting quality that never goes away. But change, as they say, is good, and show goers can, in the coming days, hear a changed-up sound from a couple of notable musicians shaped by Santa Barbara.
First, there’s Jamey Geston, the songwriter with the incredible voice who since her early teens has won the admiration of this publication and others for her rocking, haunting sound. She kicks off her Hello, Summer! tour on Thursday, May 3, at Roy (7 W. Carrillo St.) at 9 p.m.; then she plays again on Saturday, May 5, at Yellow Belly (2611 De la Vina St.) at 7 p.m.; then she’ll play a final show at Cold Spring Tavern (5995 Stagecoach Rd.) on Friday, May 11, at 6 p.m. before hitting the road on a southwest tour that will take her all the way to Louisiana and back.
Geston will be touring in celebration of her beautiful new song “Sonic Baby,” released this week. She felt the deep cut of change personally during the recording of this new single: producer/sound engineer Robinson Eikenberry died of a heart attack while working on the song with her. “It was this really shocking, sudden thing. We had plans to record a whole EP together in July, and he passed away. It kind of put everything on hold for me,” said Geston, who felt that recording with Eikenberry was “like therapy. He really understood me, and he understood how I wanted my music to sound.”