Unfolding The Doublewide Kings Show with the Santa Barbara Symphony

The Process Behind John's Symphony Gig (Installment One: How it Came About)

Hi Friends, Welcome to Unfolding, our at-least-quarterly paid subscriber series where we recollect the process behind our various creative endeavors. In our first piece, John shares what it took to pull off the biggest gig of his life thus far. Enjoy!

— John + Patti

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Unfolding The Doublewide Kings Show with the Santa Barbara Symphony

I found myself daydreaming about what it would feel like to sing with an actual orchestra playing around us.

JOHN: Seems as though as a member of the Doublewide Kings band, we are always brewing up a new artist-specific project. We’ve done shows celebrating the music of Neil Young, Crosby Stills and Nash (and Young), The Allman Brothers, The Stones, The Dead and most recently a Van Morrison collaboration with the Santa Barbara Symphony (backstage tour here).  

So, you could say that we’re pretty used to getting ready to put on a show we can be proud of - choosing the tunes for the set, learning our parts and getting into the weekly rehearsing rhythm. But this was definitely going to be a different kind of evening all together. And process.

The Invitation from Maestro Nir

At first when Nir Kabaretti, the artistic and musical director of the Santa Barbara Symphony, suggested that we team up for a show, Palmer Jackson (our defacto band leader) said he was flattered but he demurred. He told Nir something to the effect of, “Nir, we’re just a rock n roll band. We don’t do symphony collaborations!”

Maestro Nir Kabaretti, photo by Steve Kennedy

Fortunately Nir pressed him, assuring him that he was certain that it would be a great collaboration and wonderful event. 

We do take our roles seriously to serve the music that we commit to performing, but we also want to serve up a really satisfying evening to our own fans as well as anyone that may be coming because they are a fan of the artist that we are celebrating. So when we began talking of this larger gig in earnest, we wanted to make sure that it would be worthy. Could we really bring it?