My pal Marky (of the Canyon Acoustic Society) recently commented that I selflessly dedicate a huge portion of my web site to podcast interviews with other artists. “Selflessly” is only half the story. When I started this web site (it’s almost been three years), I had a hard time with a domain titled “michaelgaither.com”. Seemed awfully darned self-serving, and I even wrote about my struggle with it. But time went on, I realized that this was how to promote my music, and “me.com” finally seemed reasonable.
Then it struck me that this would also be a great forum to do an online version of my music interviews I used to do for the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper. I got into songwriting because of my interest in other writers, anyway. Why not bring it here? That evolved into audio interviews (podcasts) with folks like Paul Thorn, The Wailin’ Jennys, and local favorites like Keith Greeninger.
Which brings me to The Crooked Jades, a local-ish band I’m quite fond of. The Crooked Jades are a bay area-based old-tyme string band led by founder Jeff Kazor. I’ve always described their music as “dark, Appalachian dance music”. (The first time we saw them at the Strawberry Music Festival, my friend David said that he expected a raven to land behind them onstage. Appropriately enough, when they played the Sunday gospel show that next day, a big crow landed in the tree next to them. Ominious, but in a very cool way.)
The Jades have had a few personnel changes over the years, but they’ve always been called the Crooked Jades and have always been under the vision of bandleader Jeff Kazor. I interviewed Kazor in a recent podcast where he talked about the work on their new release, “Shining Darkness”. The record is finally out, and it fulfills a wish Kazor’s had for a long time: A Jades album of completely original music. (Earlier Jades records always mixed original songs with intricately reworked old fiddle tunes.) “Shining Darkness” is a mix of instrumentals and songs that culminates with the album’s title track, a gospel tune that clocks in at a whopping 10 minutes.
This is not a record to play as white noise in the car. This is an hour long piece that is best appreciated in one session, sitting at home with your full attention. The instrumental fiddle and banjo selections give way to some wonderful tunes (such “The Marrow of a Young Girl” and “Let It Show”). There’s an organic feeling to this music that you don’t hear a lot of anymore.
The Crooked Jades current incarnation is spread out along the west coast (California up to Washington), so they don’t perform in the bay area often. This weekend, though, they’ll be at The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz, CA on 8/15 and The Freight and Salvage on 8/16 for a couple of CD-release concerts. They’re then heading up to Washington for another set of shows. Here’s your chance to hear the new record performed live. I’m going to do my best to make tonight’s Santa Cruz show. And if I do, you can guarantee I’ll be selflessly writing about it here in a day or so.