New (and improved) site and RSS feed
Tagline for Blog A
New (and improved) site and RSS feed
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 221 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkYou know how computers REALLY work. You spend hundreds of hours on the front end to save yourself a few hours here and there on the back end. That's just what I've been doing for the past several months here at michaelgaither.com. I've converted my site (mainly this bloggy portion for now) to Wordpress, which means I'll be blogging more frequently, the podcasts are easier to listen to (check out the built-in player), and the whole thing just makes a much nicer use of your screen space.
I turned the switch earlier this week, so now michaelgaither.com takes you automatically to the new site. I'll still be maintaining this site (www.michaelgaither.com/b2/blogs/multiblogs.php) in parallel for awhile to make sure I don't lose anyone, but if you want to stay up to date, here are two simple things you can do:
1) Change your bookmark to just "michaelgaither.com". I promise it'll take you to the right place.
2) If you're subscribing through an RSS reader, please change your feed to this one: http://www.michaelgaither.com/home/feed.Free MP3: If you do change your feed over, let me know how it works. Any feedback is welcome, and I'll send you an MP3 for the trouble.
Many thanks. And we'll see you on the new site.
Songs and Stories #98: Showcasing Steve Key
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 295 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkSteve Key is real a "jack of all trades". However, in sharp contrast to that old cliche, you can definitely say he's mastered quite a few of said "trades". He's spent time in Nashville as a writer, toured the entire country, and has had several of his songs recorded by other folk. One big credit is that Kathy Mattea recorded his song "33, 45, 78 (Record Time)" on her debut album. You'll hear Steve singing that song himself in this episode.
Steve also spends a great deal of time showcasing other artists at venues up and down the central California coast (as far north as Paso Robles and at times as far south as Solvang.) He's a model DIY'er ("do it yourself-er"), creating music venues where none previously existed by bringing in a PA, an audience, and a roster of performers at bars, restaurants, and galleries. Sometimes these venues work. Sometimes he moves onto to another site. In the process over the past several years, Steve has created a music scene along the central coast, where traveling songwriters can always find a place to play during the week. For more info on that, see his Songwriters At Play web site.
We chatted around my kitchen table last summer as Steve was on his way to a show at The Ugly Mug in Soquel, CA. We chatted about songwriting techniques, how he's always showcased other songwriters, and how our paths nearly crossed in a previous life when we both worked for local newspapers. (Steve wrote the "Night Moves" column in Santa Cruz Good Times. I wrote about TV, video, and music for the Santa Cruz Sentinel.)
Click the red podcast button below to hear episode #98.
Subscribe to "Songs and Stories" in Itunes
This Sat 10/30 - Roudon-Smith "Warehouse" Concert
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 337 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkI've been constantly ranting about the measly "day and a half" we got of summer for the past month or so, and it finally came back to bite me. We had an early rain last weekend. And it's probably going to rain again this weekend. Possibly. Likely. Or at least, on Saturday, during the seventh annual (yup, seven years folks) Post-Harvest Party at Roudon-Smith Winery in Scotts Valley. About ten years ago, at a KPIG Fat Fry concert, I witnessed how electrical amplification and rain get along: Water had to be squeegeed off the stage between bands (not a comforting site), and it reached it's peak when Richard Thompson was halfway into "Vincent Black Lightning". There was a very loud "POP', the power died, and Thompson carefully (and wisely) backed away from the stage, never to return for the rest of the day.
We weren't sure how to prevent a similar event (electrocution, not a KPIG Fat Fry) in the event of rain this weekend. Then Annette Hunt, owner of the winery, had a brilliant idea (she's good for those). We'll play in the winery warehouse, behind the tasting room. We're treating this like a house concert. It'll be intimate, we'll use minimal amplification so there's less gear to hall, it'll be warmer than outside, and we'll be closer to the restroom (all pluses in my book).
Roudon-Smith Winery when it's not rainingMusic starts at noon, and the day's performers include Rob Hastings, Michelle Chappel, The Babiarz-Scott Band, and a band set from us. I'll also be playing MC for the day. A complete schedule is on my Shows page. Admission is free, food will be available on site, and wine tasting is $5.00. Roudon-Smith Winery is at 2364 Bean Creek Road in Scotts Valley. This is our last band set on the books for awhile. Hope you can join us. Should be a blast up there, as always.
And did I mention I don't have to haul as much gear?
Subscribe to this blog
A Little Bluegrass – This Wednesday at the Prunedale Libary
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 206 words6606 feedbacks • PermalinkWe really are spoiled around here. I have friends who left the rapid pace of the "big city" (Watsonville, Prunedale), to live nearly out of state and/or up in the mountains. But you pay a price. I also hear the same friends get very excited when a cover band is coming to their town in just a month or so. That's their entertainment calendar.
Around here? Well, it's just a matter of trying to decide what NOT to go see. Lack of choice is never a problem. So here's one more music option for you: This Wednesday, October 27th, the local bluegrass band Microtonic Harmonic is playing at the Prunedale Library. This is a four-piece outfit out of Monterey. Show your support for this new-ish concert series (it's the third concert) started up by our pal Marky (of the famed "Canyon Acoustic Society"). Show starts at 7:30 pm. Cover is $10.00.
Click for full-size flierNote: The Prunedale Libary is at 17922 Moro Road in Prundedale. However, be VERY careful if you use Google maps to find it. The online directions will take you to the water tower behind the library and not to the library itself. (Everyone knows that, right?)
Subscribe to this blog
This Sun 10/17: Closing Concert for Open Studios
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 422 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkI always say "playing's the easy part". Hauling the gear, booking, and promoting. That's the real work. It's always worth it in the end, of course. (Or *usually*, depending on the gig...heh heh). Looking for gigs is often a fair amount of work, too. But sometimes. Sometimes. The gig's find YOU. And those are usually the best ones.
Earlier this year, I was approached about playing at the Corralitos Cultural Center. It's literally an art gallery with a stage, out in the country, and only minutes from home. After a quick chat with the center's director, I realized they wanted to do a real music series. And at the same time, I was thinking about starting to put on shows. It seemed a natural progression in light of running open mics, doing podcasts, and playing at my own shows. This also seemed like one more way to help give other artists a new place to play.
We started back in May with Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd (here's a clip). In June we did a night with storyteller Erica Lann-Clark, backed by me, my pal Aaron Bagchee on guitar, and Dayan Kai doing percussion. (And here's a clip from that night, too.) Since then, we've been fortunate to have Jay Howlett, Nancy Cassidy, Jennings and Keller, and Cindy Kalmenson all take their place on the cultural center's stage.
Click for a PDF of the poster
The cultural center is participating in Santa Cruz Open Studios for the first time, so we're dubbing this weekend's show a "Closing Concert for Open Studios". Beginning at 6:00 pm on Sunday evening, it'll be an in-the-round with me, Sherry Austin, and Steve Kritzer. Sherry's been an inspiration for years, and she just released "Love Still Remains", a tribute to songwriter Kate Wolf. Steve is just a dynamite musician and songwriter, and I'm pleased (and humbled) to say that we've started writing a bit together. You'll hear tunes from Sherry's new record, at least one co-write from Steve and me, and a bunch of stuff from all of our other CDs.
We all have a rough idea of what we'll play and how we'll contribute to each other's songs. The rest we'll just leave to whim. That's half the fun of these things. Hope you can join us for this one.
The Corralitos Cultural Center is at 129 Hames Road in Watsonville. Doors open at 5:30 pm. Suggested donation/sliding scale: $10-20. Reserve your seats by sending me an email or by calling (831) 254-2669.
Songs and Stories #97: Summer recap, Fall preview, and the musical melting pot of Cafe Musique
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 319 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkGetting my last gasp of festival banter in this episode, as I recap last month's American River Music Festival, where I again had the pleasure of hosting the Friday open mic showcase. Out of 16 acts, three of them (Ma Muse, Forest Sun, and Dana Hubbard) all got to take their musical wares to a tweener on the main stage that weekend.) Another big highlight of the weekend was finally seeing Jesse Winchester perform for the first time.Amazing songwriter. Mesmerizing performer. And I'd never made the chance to see him before. (Where have *I* been?)
This month will be equally busy: On October 17th, I have the good fortune to share an in-the-round at the Corralitos Cultural Center. The following weekend I'll be at the FAR-West conference in Santa Clara, gathering with (and being inspired by) some like-minded artists and music supporters, playing a few late-night showcases, and hosting one of the early night's premiere showcases. We finish the month on Sat 10/30 at Roudon-Smith Winery in Scotts Valley, with my band, Michelle Chappel, and a few other acts filling out the afternoon. Complete minutiae on all this are over on my Shows page.
On Sunday, 10/31 (yes, Halloween), I recommend you join me (and as many folk as we can wrangle) for a trip up to Don Quixote's Music Hall in Felton. Cafe Musique - a Central California-based outfit that mixes everything from tango, swing, Gypsy, and jazz to folk and Americana - is doing an early show at 1:00 pm. I talked with Duane English (accordion) and Brynne Albanese (violin) of the band on their last run up this way, We chatted about the evolution of the band, what their diverse backgrounds bring to the group, and the release of their new record, "Catching Your Breath".
Click the red podcast button below to hear episode #97 (time = 35:40, size = 32.7 mb)
CD Review: Michael Franti - "Sunshine" in the Fall
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 479 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkI have a handful of favorite artists whose new releases I pick up sight unseen (or unheard) because I know I'll love (and be incredibly inspired by) whatever they come up with: John Prine (my favorite storyteller, BTW), chooses to not dabble with perfection and sticks to a formula. (We should all be so lucky to have that formula.) Others, like John Hiatt, bounce between a folkier acoustic feel on one record, and a full band on the next. Still others continue to evolve on each record, taking a bit of what worked on the last and building on it in the new one. The bay area's Michael Franti comes to mind on this last count.
Franti started out as a rap/hip-hop artist, fronting the band Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. He later chose to forgo sampling and formed the band Spearhead. I first heard Franti at the Strawberry Music Festival a few years back when he was touring with Spearhead for "Yell Fire", a political, yet optimistic collection of songs he wrote after visiting Iraq and Israel. He followed that with "All Rebel Rockers", a still very danceable, at times political, yet more reggae influenced-piece. (Much of it was recorded in Jamaica.)
His latest record, "The Sound of Sunshine", is the perfect summer record...released just in time for fall. Then again, we do get our best summer weather here on the west coast in the fall, so it's sort of appropriate.
I'd call the new one, "The Sound of Sunshine", his "happy fun record". I suspect that approach was intentional, in light of last year’s health issues: Franti cancelled a major tour in '09 his appendix burst. He survived, and his time in the hospital, I'm sure made him pine for healthier, happier days. And that's just what we get on the new record. We saw Franti at Berkeley Greek Theater early last summer. It was the beginning of his current tour, before the record was released , and we were privy to hear most of the record played live, along with the stories of how many of the songs he wrote while he was recovering from surgery.
Franti continues to write great songs, melding, rap, rock, reggae, with acoustic diversions into folk, and a very unifying message - the guy makes amazing records, but you must see him live to fully appreciate the whole message.
The title track, which opens the record, is a bouncy ode to summer. That and the CD’s, second track, “Shake It” (with it’s anthemic “you’re perfect just the way you are”) have been getting lots of airplay all summer. The rest of the record holds up just as well, full of catchy hooks and singalong choruses that make it very difficult to sit still in an office chair while writing a CD review.
Songs and Stories #96: Sherry Austin on "Love Still Remains"
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 294 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkTime for another chat with one of my favorite local people. Santa Cruz songwriter Sherry Austin (first interviewed here way back in episode #42), has a new record, "Love Still Remains". This project is a tribute the late California songwriter Kate Wolf. It also includes two "new" Kate Wolf songs, "November Moon" and "Tonight You Loved the Memories Out Of Me", which previously only existed as lyrics, and "Winter Comes On Slow", a Sherry Austin original.
Sherry and her band celebrate the new record on Sunday, September 26 at Don Quixote's Music Hall in Felton CA. This evening of Kate Wolf music (and Sherry's new CD) includes these special guests, many who have previously have been on this podcast: Sharon Allen, Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd, Mary McCaslin, Rick Shea, and Ginny Mitchell. I recently talked with Sherry about when she discovered Kate's music, how covering a few of her songs eventually grew into three hours of material, and the process she went through in picking which songs went on the new record.
Click for more about "Love Still Remains"
And if you'd like to hear more from Sherry, she'll be trading songs with Steve Kritzer and I on Sunday, October 17th at the Corralitos Cultural Center. This is a closing concert for the center's Open Studios run. The music starts at 6:00 pm. See my Shows page for more info on that.
Click the red podcast button below to hear episode #96 (time = 32:35, size = 29.9 mb)
This podcast is sponsored by Audible.com. Go to audiblepodcast.com/stories, sign up for a 14-day trial, and receive a free audiobook just for checking it out. (If you cancel the trial, you still keep the book.)
Final Vinyl. What Song Would YOU Pick?
Categories: Michael Gaither: Songs and Stories, 283 wordsSend feedback • PermalinkWe've all played the "Desert Island Record" game: If you were stuck on a desert island, what ten records would you take with you? (Never mind the fact that there's no likely electricity on a deserted island.) And many of us have played the contemporary version, where you list the Top 15 Or So Records that made you who you are today.
Here's a new one: When you inevitably shuffle off this mortal coil, what record what you pick to be left on? Seriously. And Vinyly, a British company, will bake your cremated ashes into the grooves of a vinyl record as its pressed. (Try THAT with an MP3 file.)
Musician Jason Leach, company president, said he got the idea after went out on a boat with his family members to sprinkle the ashes of his grandfather into the sea. His uncle “released them on the wrong side of the boat", and ashes blew all over everyone. (Apparently the same thing happened to his father, too!)
Many of And Vinyly's clients choose to embed their ashes onto a recording of their last will and testament or a disc containing their favorites tunes. Sort of the ultimate mix tape...in record form. I think it'd be far more appropriate (and interesting) to pick the ultimate song you'd like to leave your physical remains on as you head up to a better place.
What song would YOU pick? Something cliche? ("Stairway to Heaven") Sarcastic ("Highway to Hell?") A tune that gives away your '80 roots (Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home?") Me? I'd go for something traditional: The Staple Singers and "Uncloudy Day".
What song would YOU pick?
Click to listen
