Singer/Songwriter Michael Gaither

Click here to listen to Nancy Cassidy’s interview (time = 49:37)

When it comes to gathering podcast interviews from local songwriters, these things become like bubble gum trading cards: “Let’s see, I have a Keith Greeninger. A Sharon Allen. A Jay Howlett. But wait…I don’t have a Nancy Cassidy.”

Now I have a Nancy Cassidy. And in this interview, we get two hear about her TWO new CDs, “Song of Joy” and “Memphis”. Nancy’s a California native, and her ties with the land – she was raised on a dairy and spent many years as a river rafting guide – show in her music. Her KidSongs CDs have gone gold. Bruce Springsteen even recorded her song “Lizard Lips and Chicken Hips” for a Pediatric AIDS benefit CD, which sorta gives her more cred than almost anyone else who’s been on “Songs and Stories”. She’s also popular Americana songwriter. Nancy receives international airplay, though you’ve also likely heard her locally on KPIG radio.

She was working with songwriter/producer Keith Greeninger last year on “Memphis” when the illness of a close friend inspired her to write all the songs for “Song of Joy”. “Memphis” was put on hold, she finished the newer record, and then completed “Memphis” this Spring.

Nancy played a release show at our Corralitos Music Series last fall. It was full-band show featuring lots of local favorites who played on both records: Keith, Dayan Kai, Steve Uccello. Still, I wanted to hear more about this special CD. She and I got together around my kitchen table – as many of these podcasts go – a couple of months later to discuss both records, her songwriting process, and what it’s like to have one one record “play out” its newness as you’re waiting with another completed one in the wings.

Funny thing about getting older. You *know* it’s gonna happen. But every time one of your childhood heroes passes away, it takes you completely by surprise. I had that reaction when we lost Red Skelton (1997…and yes there’s a song in there). I welled up when film critic icon Roger Ebert left us just a matter of weeks ago. This morning I just stared in silence when I learned that Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop-motion animation, passed away at 92.

Everyone in my demographic – in other words, you’re at least as old as me – knows his work. He worked with tiny models and only one or two – if even that many – assistants. He posed, shot, and re-posed, and re-shot his models one frame of film at a time – standard film is 24 frames per second – bringing to life characters from Greek mythology, dinosaurs, even flying saucers – and all this decades before computers and CGI.

Those of you who grew up in the bay area might have caught his work on Channel 2′s “Creature Features” on Saturday Nights or the Sunday “Monster Mash” on Channel 36. Do any of these sequences take you back a bit?

• The sword-wielding skeleton from “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad”
• The mutated giant octopus devouring the Golden Gate Bridge in “It Came from Beneath the Sea” *
• The creepy, snakey-haired Medusa in “Clash of the Titans”

Ray Haryhausen was originally inspired by Willis O’Brien’s work on “King King”, created his own animated movies at home**, then apprenticed under O’Brien on “Mighty Joe Young”. Beginning with “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”, he started leading the effects on his own films. The process was marketed under several names including “Dynarama” and “Dynamation”, but it always meant the same thing: Harryhausen closed up in a small studio for several months, creating magic out of nothing but a film camera and small, complex models.

To learn more and get a chance to really appreciate the legacy Ray Harryhausen left behind, take a look at The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a trust he and a his wife created to help preserve his work, which includes the films and over 50,000 original armatured models, film negatives, and artwork. Meanwhile, this seems like a good night to re-watch “Jason and the Argonauts”.

* Fun trivia on this: Due to budgetary constraints, the octopus only had five arms – less to animate.
** I’m a lifelong special effects geek. I have my own reel of stop-motion animation I made when I was a kid. Will get that posted to YouTube sometime soon.

We fostered out”Angelina”, an adorable little pomeranian last week. Here’s a bit about her and a bit of a rant from me on why you should fix your pets.

Puppy season. It’s that time of year. Then again, if you regularly foster and find homes for wayward dogs, it’s *always* that time of year. Always too many dogs and not enough homes. Case in point: “Angelina”.

Hard to believe that just a few months ago, she was a stray in Turlock. When picked up by the Turlock shelter, her hair was so badly matted she had to be shaved. (She looked like a fuzzy black bear. Not exactly a fluffy pom, but quite cute.) Angelina was pickd up by Animal Friends Rescue Project of Pacific Grove.

We fostered her for two months. She was adopted last Friday by her new forever home, a very cool young couple in Scotts Valley who just bought their first home…with the intent of finally having a yard for a dog.

“Angie” was lucky, but many dogs aren’t. A few Google’d animal shelter stats stats: Nearly seven million dogs and cats enter shelters each year. Half are euthanized. Only 10% of intaked animals have been fixed by their owners.

How can you help? Two things, and they’re the only soapbox-type items you’ll ever see on my web site:

1) FIX YOUR DOG AND CAT. Don’t tell me your dog’s cute and should be bred. We have three dogs. They’re adorable. And they’re fixed. And don’t believe the myth that letting your pet have just one litter is better for their health. It’s just that. A myth.

2) Looking for a dog or cat? PLEASE DO NOT GO TO A BREEDER. Just don’t. Nearly four million cats and dogs are put down every year. Every pet you adopt reduces that number by one. It’s math simple enough for me to understand.

And if you must have a purebred – even though a mutt is generally healthier than a purebred – email me and let me know. We’ve been fostering through AFRP for over five years, and every dog we’ve adopted out has been either a purebred…or a very adorable mutt.

Need more convincing? Take a look at Angie’s photos above. I can guarantee she was much happier going to her new home than she was wandering the streets of Turlock as a stray.

I’m sharing a house concert with Steve Kritzer – one of my favorite musicians and now a frequent co-writer – on Saturday, April 20th in San Martin. Call 408-686-0374 for details. Here’s info on the show, as well as the audio from a recent appearance on KPIG Radio’s live music show “Please Stand By”. I was on the show to promote the house concert.

Click to hear the KPIG interview (time = 19:49)

I met songwriter Steve Kritzer several years back, either through Ginny Mitchell (at a winery gig I hosted) or the late Chuck McCabe. (I adore both Ginny and Chuck, but Chuck was a linchpin who seemingly connected everyone, so I’ll just say it was him.) Steve’s part of the BlahBlahWoofWoof artist collective, which means he’s good. It also means I get to occasionally rub elbows with some amazing talent. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, April 6th, KPIG-favorite Antsy McClain brings The Trailer Park Troubadours *and* an entire PBS film crew to Watsonville’s Mello Center for a big concert and a whole lot of fun.

Hard to believe that just a little over ten years ago, Antsy McClain was “ready to call it quits”.

Antsy was out from Nashville for band rehearsals last weekend. We chatted over coffee, and he told the story about how their 1998 debut record “Doublewide and Dangerous” was just sitting, unreleased, in supplier warehouses. He was about done with it all. Then the late Laura Ellen Hopper called from KPIG Radio. She invited Antsy and the band to open for Robert Earl Keen at KPIG’s annual Humbug Hoedown. Laura Ellen also told him that songs like “It Ain’t Home ’til You Take the Wheels Off” and “Skinny Women Ain’t Hip” were popular on the station. Read the rest of this entry »