GETTING IN THE MOODE: The last week of July is an interesting period in Santa Barbara. Since time immemorial, or at least the length of a Santa Barbaran lifetime, these last days of midsummer have preceded the greatest party our town is known to throw, the Old Spanish Days of Fiesta. As we prep for party mode, we’re given one last chance to hibernate in the cozy comfort of our often-hazy summer sun, filtered through fog or fire, before the cultural cork pops and out pour all manner of cascarón confetti, flamenco footwork, and people on every inch of State Street sidewalk.
For the mellow among us, Goleta’s Mercury Lounge (5871 Hollister Ave.) always has been known to provide a safe haven of ease and relative quiet no matter the season. This weekend, area music lovers can look forward to a musical match “Madden” heaven: Zach Madden, the celebrated singer/songwriter/yogi, and husband-wife duo Moode, who play on Saturday, July 29, at 9 p.m.
Madden writes in an intimate style that has earned comparisons to greats like Neil Young, Donovan, and Joni Mitchell. His newest album, Daybreak Songs, is aptly named, arriving gently to your ears with a soft, Gram Parsons-esque tenderness. Like other famed area songwriters such as Glen Phillips and Spencer the Gardener, Madden’s thoughtful lyrics possess a sea-breezy quality, with the sort of wisdom and gentle-heartedness that come from days buttressed by beachside beauty. Moode, meanwhile, mixes Afro-Colombian folkloric rhythms into a style “as diverse as the Pacific Coast,” in its words; indeed, as our mid-temperature oceanic channel welcomes visitors from seas and borders north and south, so too does our coastal music remind us of islands and tropical climes near and far. It shall be an easy way to relax one last time before Fiesta commands you to get up and dance.