The Californer - Arkansas Duo Cliff & Susan Return for Seventh Santa Barbara Summer to Headline The Red Piano's 10th Anniversary

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The two-time Arkansas Country Music Awards Entertainers of the Year will perform during an August 5 anniversary celebration as Old Spanish Days Fiesta begins in Santa Barbara.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Californer -- When The Red Piano opened at 519 State Street in August 2016, its future traditions had yet to be written. Ten years later, the downtown live-music venue will celebrate its anniversary with Cliff & Susan, the married Arkansas duo whose annual summer residency has become part of The Red Piano's story.

Cliff & Susan will headline the venue's 10th-anniversary celebration on Wednesday, August 5, coinciding with the opening day of Santa Barbara's Old Spanish Days Fiesta. The duo will perform at 8 p.m., following Jason Libs' 5 p.m. set.

The anniversary falls during Cliff & Susan's seventh summer performing at The Red Piano. They began their Santa Barbara residency in 2017 and have returned every summer the venue has been able to host them, with the tradition interrupted only during the pandemic.

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"Santa Barbara has truly become our second home," said Susan Erwin Prowse. "We have watched The Red Piano grow, and this community has watched us grow as artists and as a married duo. Celebrating the venue's 10th birthday on the opening day of Fiesta feels like several chapters of our lives coming together in one night."

Featuring Cliff Prowse on fiddle, guitar and vocals and Susan Erwin Prowse on piano and vocals, Cliff & Susan have built their career around an energetic, all-request show spanning country, rock, blues, soul and American roots music. Their repertoire includes more than 2,000 songs, allowing each performance to be shaped by the audience in the room.

The Little Rock-based duo performs more than 200 dates annually and has appeared in seven countries. Their debut album, Fiddle & Keys, reached the Top 40 on the iTunes country albums chart and was named Album of the Year at the 2025 Arkansas Country Music Awards.

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Cliff & Susan were named Arkansas Country Music Awards Entertainers of the Year in both 2025 and 2026.

Their relationship with The Red Piano began not long after their own story as a duo. Cliff and Susan met while performing at a dueling piano bar in Little Rock and married in Las Vegas in 2017—the same year they began spending their summers in California.

"The Red Piano is more than a stop on our calendar," Susan said. "It is part of who Cliff & Susan became. We have friendships here, traditions here and people we look forward to seeing every year."

Cliff & Susan will perform at The Red Piano, 519 State Street, Tuesday through Sunday through August 9.

More info at www.cliffandsusan.live