Santa Cruz Mountains Entertainment News is dedicated to sharing local live music events all around Santa Cruz County. Managed by a team of local musicians, music lovers, and venue owners. Meet the Santa Cruz Mountains Festivals and Concerts Team!

Julie founded Santa Cruz Mountains Festivals and Concerts in 2014 after seeing a need to create a one-stop shop for upcoming shows. Starting out covering venues and bands exclusively in the Santa Cruz Mountains, it became obvious from Julie’s interest in all kinds of music that the list of shows would expand to cover live music all over Santa Cruz County, spilling over into neighboring areas in the greater 831 when a show was just too good to miss.

“The ‘Festivals’ page has been a mild obsession since I started writing articles about area bands for local publications like the San Lorenzo Valley Post newspaper,” Julie said. “I share the events I find on social and compile daily lists of live music, including the ‘Santa Cruz County Live Music Weekend Roundup’ every weekend in a dedicated effort to support the musicians and the venues. I do my best to help get the word out. I’m focused on finding under-the-radar house concerts and insider speakeasies, in addition to shows at the usual (or new and upcoming) venues and try not to miss anything! Not everyone knows how to market their events, so I’m like Sherlock Holmes! It’s a satisfying challenge to sleuth it all out! Live music is the positive universal language of community and togetherness that sees us through divisive times…and keeps us dancing with joy!”

Julie plays hammered dulcimer and fiddle in the Irish style at local pubs. Come say hello on first and third Thursdays at Rosie McCann’s Irish Pub & Restaurant – Santa Cruz and every Tuesday at O’Flaherty’s Irish Pub in San Jose. She also hosts a Celtic radio program on KBCZ 89.3FM Boulder Creek Community Radio on Monday nights from 8-10pm. Julie is also part of the promotions team at Mountain Music Productions, among others. You can often find her grooving to the China Cats at The Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building with Michele Murphy or attending “church” at Grateful Sundays with the Hartle Gold Band at The Crepe Place.

And she’d be stoked to help you with your social media presence! Whether you’re a band or a venue, if you need a few pro tips to manage your social, or need a full intervention, she can probably lend a hand. Send her a message any time!

Who’s that tall guy with the Grateful Dead baseball cap taking video of the show? Boulder Creek local and die-hard live music fan Chuck Winser, that’s who! He’s the man with the cam posting video from some of your favorite venues in the Santa Cruz Mountains and around the county. Chuck and Julie Horner team up to keep the Santa Cruz Mountains Festivals and Concerts page pulsing with life, honoring our local musicians and the beloved venues in which they play!

Chuck’s expansive musical palate is rooted in his academic background in cultural anthropology and a lifelong devotion to ethnomusicology. Rather than focusing solely on the notes, Chuck says, he views music as a social process, examining the people behind the sound, both the performers and the listeners. To him, music is a cohesive cultural force, inseparable from the human behaviors that support and produce it.
This perspective informs his wide-ranging tastes, which span from the vibrant community of the Grateful Dead to the Jùjú music of Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade and the intricate Indian classical ragas of masters like Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. His appreciation for the social power of sound is particularly evident in his love for Reggae and Rastafarian traditions; he views these not just as genres, but as profound expressions of identity and spiritual resistance. His interests further extend to Irish Celtic traditions, classical genres, and the diverse sounds of the Asian continent. He holds a particular fascination for the West African folk traditions that provided the essential rhythmic and spiritual DNA for the blues and modern rock and roll.

Chuck has successfully merged these musical explorations with a passion for cinematography. Drawing on foundational coursework in film and television production, he is a frequent contributor to the Santa Cruz Mountains Festivals and Concerts page, where he captures the essence of local performances. His signature style utilizes cinéma vérité; by eschewing tripods and relying on his own physical stance for support, he creates a kinetic, documentary-style aesthetic. This intentional, organic movement heightens audience immersion, bringing a raw and intimate energy to every musician he films, capturing the light and action of a performance so it can be shared with the wider community.

When not attending live shows, Chuck maintains a pro backyard weather station and volunteers with Native Animal Rescue of Santa Cruz County.