VC REPORTER
JANUARY 25TH 2001
CHRIS JAY - REPORTER - HERE IN THE FAN "COWBOY SURFER RIDES INTO TOWN"
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The dawn of a new era is about to occur in Ventura County music. Longtime Santa Barbara scenester Stu Shulman, a.k.a. Cowboy Surfer makes his local debut.

Stu, who moved to Ventura last year, is geared up to make some waves, and I'm here to tell you that no one is more capable of kicking the scene in the butt like the Cowboy. Just take a look at his current projects and you'll see what I mean.

1. Founder of Seedless Records, a label which distributes various projects.
2. Writer for the popular online 'zine, Music Dish.
3. Director of West Coast Operations for Amp Cast, a wireless Webcasting Company.
4. Media & Musical Director for the movement to save Carpinteria's Bluffs.
5. Executive West Coast director for Golden Eagle Video, which will be releasing a documentary on famed tree hugger Julia Butterfly Hill that contains music by Cowboy Surfer.
6. President and founder of T.I.M.S. (Totally Independent Musician Services), a service which assists indie musicians in absolutely all phases of their careers.

With all that going on in Stu's life, he still finds time to rock, most notably in his new project Sea Breeze, which features local blues man Tom "T Bone Steak" Molinelli. Sea Breeze will be debuting locally with a free show at the Garden Village Cafe on Saturday Jan. 27, and you can expect the man's musical sounds to be as eclectic as the business projects he's involved in.

"Sea Breeze is blues, rock, jazz fused together," explains Stu. "We're looking to break all the rules in live acoustic music."

After seeing the energy this man has first hand, there's no doubt he's capable of that. In fact, Stu's main mission is far from personal glory. He wants to be one of the key players in a Ventura's local music renaissance.

"We need to unite Ventura and Santa Barbara's music scenes. Since moving here I've come to find out that Ventura has a vast scene, but it's just not united. I want to help that. Ventura has the potential to be one of the most vibrant music scenes in the country. I believe that Ventura County is huge. It's got venues of all sizes from Seaside Park to the Ventura Theatre to Nicholby's to coffehouses, and having different size places is half the battle right there."

"The next step is we need to create a network where everybody helps each other and not against each other. Where club an bands don't fight for shows and support each other's shows. It can be done."

For links to all of Stu's above projects you need look no further than his Web site, www.seedlessrecords.com, or you can get personal and talk to him this Saturday night at Sea Breeze's gig. He's a man to know and one who very likely will be pivotal to Ventura's musical growth this year.