The hands-free cell phone law goes into effect in California on July 1st. (Yay!) Not completely uncoincidentally, my song "Hang It Up" talks about drivers "with a phone to their head" in the first verse.

"Hang It Up" will be on my new CD, "Dogspeed", due later this year. In the meantime, you can hear "Hang It Up" in quite a few places, including KPIG, KVMR, and wildwestradio.com. There's also a live version of the song here on the web site in "Songs and Stories" episode #33.

Sign up on my mailing list for the latest news on the "Dogspeed" CD (and get a free MP3 just for signing up) over on my Contact page.

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"Dark, Appalachian dance music". That's how I've always described The Crooked Jades, a bay area-based collective of musicians dedicated to keeping old-tyme string-band music alive and quite well. In this episode of "Songs and Stories", I talk with Jeff Kazor, who since 1996 has pursued this vision through the Jades and their revolving roster of quite talented musicians. (The band currently features Kazor, along with Leah Abramson, Sophie Vitells, Charlie Rose, and Rose Sinclair.

A California native (born down south, raised in Santa Cruz, now residing in San Francisco) and lifelong musician, Kazor is a music historian, as you'll learn when he discusses how string-band music gave way to bluegrass (and the advent of radio). He also gives a good argument as to how technology (iPods, the Internet) has *helped* promote old-tyme music in the modern age. You'll also hear Kazor talk about about about the new Crooked Jades release, "Shining Darkness", their first album of completely-original material.

Click the red icon below to hear "Songs and Stories" #34 (time = 22:59, size = 26.4 mb)

Contest Announcement: You can still register to win a Grateful Dread Public Radio t-shirt. Listen to this interview for details.

Here are a few links to go with this episode:

• The Crooked Jades official web site (and their Myspace page)
• "Shining Darkness", their new record
• Buy tickets for their August 16th show at The Freight and Salvage in Berkely
• My "Songs and Stories" interview with Mark O'Connor
• Recordings of Reverend Utah Smith

Note: The "Songs and Stories" podcast is sponsored by my CD, Spotted Mule and Other Tales

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I've always appreciated what firefighters do. This past weekend I learned to appreciate it a whole lot more. On the first day of summer, with the hottest June 20th on record and the Summit Fire and the Martin Fire less than a month behind us, Santa Cruz County was hit again. A series of fires, dubbed the Trabing Fire, started up less than a mile from our home. And once again, guardian angels (firefighters) from around the state swooped in with trucks, planes, and helicopters.

Click for interactive map

Around 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon, my wife received a knock on the door and the "you need to evacuate" order. Meanwhile, I was as effective as I'd been during the '89 earthquake - meaning not at all - since I was stuck in traffic trying to get home along with what seemed like the rest of the county.

That's when you learn to also appreciate your own personal guardian angel, like our pal Jody who pulled up and asked Cyn, "Hey, need any help?" He and Cyn loaded the dogs, cats, and Mr. Giles The Bunny into our cars and headed out. Jody managed to snap this picture from the front of our house, facing the fire:

Click for more pics

We were home Saturday morning, when firefighters had things 90% contained. These folks indeed are heroes. They weren't done yet, unfortunately, since a freak summer thunder and lighting storm blew in, which set off another small set of wildfires.

I ran into one of the CDF pilots at breakfast yesterday morning. I thanked him, he thanked me back, and then said they just felt really bad that they couldn't have saved more homes in the fire.

Lessons learned: Continue to count your blessings every day, thank God for the folks who come in and save your ass when you need it, and say a little prayer for the people (and the animals) who weren't quite as fortunate we were this time out.

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A few years back we raised Guide Dogs. Last year we fostered dogs for Animal Friends Rescue Project (AFRP). This year, we've found ourselves fostering kittens, which is even way more fun than it sounds: Get kittens, play with kittens, get them fixed, play with kittens some more, send them off to loving homes.

We're planning on taking a break from kittens, since we're heading north in a week. I called the wife on the way home yesterday and asked, "So, we're out of kittens?" Cyn said, "Well, not exactly." I said, "Sue didn't pick up the kittens?" Cyn said, "Yeah. But. We traded."

(Click for more pics)

And I came home to a batch of five new kittens. No complaints on my part. It's easy volunteer work, and we're helping ensure that another litter won't get feline lukemia and/or breed into the population of feral cats.

And we get to play with kittens.

Speaking of AFRP, the big gig next month is "Paws Fur a Cause" at Hidden Valley Theater in Carmel. We're on the bill, along with Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd, Jonah and the Whalers, and Trusting Lucy. Plus, I had the privilege of writing a new song, "Unconditionally", for AFRP's new promotional video. You'll see the video at the party, too. Sign up on my mailing list for more info about the event, or just keep checking here on the website. I'll be posting more info about "Paws Fur a Cause", along with a couple of related things on my "Songs and Stories" podcast, in the coming weeks.

If this keeps up, I'm going to end up writing a bunch of songs about cats.

(Oh, and if you're wondering, no, we've never fostered mules. We don't have the land for that. And that's probably a good thing. Imagine the menagerie we'd have if we had acreage.)

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This year's Spring 2008 Strawberry Music Festival will be (ahem) fondly remembered as "the cold, wet, muddy one". It's not unheard of to have one day of rain in the Sierras. This year, however, the rain decided to enjoy the entire festival, showing up on Friday and staying the entire weekend.

Troopers that we are, we managed. On Friday morning, Jim Dyar and I, along with a few choice pickers from our Camp All Ya'll contingent, closed the Friday morning Breakfast Club with two, four-song sets. Here are some highlights from that morning: You'll hear me do "Broke" and a new song "Hang It Up". Then, Jim and friends do two Dyar originals: "I'm Comin' Home" and "Magical Land".

And if you want to hear more from me and Jim, and you're up in vicinity of Redding, CA, head over to the Post Office Saloon & Grill on Friday, June 27th. We're sharing the night there, trading songs from 8:30-11:30 pm.

Click the red icon below to hear "Songs and Stories" #33 (time = 22:59, size = 26.4 mb)

Michael Gaither and Friends

Jim Dyar and Friends

Contest Announcement: Want to win a Grateful Dread Public Radio tshirt? Listen to this interview for details. (And congrats to Dale back in New Haven, CT, who won a copy of Houston Jones' "Calico Heart" CD last month.)

Note: The "Songs and Stories" podcast is sponsored by my CD, Spotted Mule and Other Tales

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Last Saturday we played again at The Barn, a house concert series run out of an ex-winery in Gilroy, CA. The barn itself is sort of a hybrid: It's really a house concert (run as a labor of love by owners Eric and Cheryl and all the door goes to the artists), but it's also very venue-like. Most house concert hosts, God bless 'em all, put on shows in their living rooms. But when you walk into the barn, you see a stage, a lighting grid, and about 60 seats. And when the show starts, you realize that this rustic-looking place is even more deceiving: There's a kick-butt sound system wired into the building.

Saturday night, as I suspect all nights at The Barn are, was particularly special. My pal David Anderson and I split the bill. He has a new, finely crafted CD called "Layover In Reno". (Soon to be available online, and I'll add a link here when it's up.) David and his band played first, closing their set with a beautiful tune about Amelia Earheart called "Daughter of the Sky". This was accompanied by video of footage of Amelia projected onto the back wall:

After the break, we opened our set with the video for "Spotted Mule". Multimedia works great here, and I'm doing more of this when we play there again. Had a wonderful time at this wonderful venue, and Aaron and I went at it with a slightly different band configuration. Patrick McKenna was subbing on standup bass. And the lovely and talented Breanna Eddy took her first time with us adding vocals on a few songs.

It was a busy weekend. Besides Saturday at The Barn, we were also up at Roudon-Smith Winery in Scotts Valley Saturday and Sunday, playing at their annual Vintner's Festival. (And if you blinked and missed it, we'll be back at the winery on October 25th and 26th. (My Gallery page has pics of both The Barn and the Vintner's Festival.)

And speaking of split bills, I'll be in Redding, CA in a few weeks, splitting the night with Jim Dyar at the Post Office Saloon & Grille. Check out "Songs and Stories #32" in a few days, where you'll have a listen to Jim himself.

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Shortly before fingerstyle guitarist Stevie Coyle left The Waybacks last year, he and I sat down for a chat in the green room at Don Quioxte's Music Hall in Ben Lomand. Note: The "green room" is the dining room nearest the somewhat noisy intersection of Highway 9 and Felton Empire Road. If you're looking for an interview with ambiance, this is the one.

Stevie and I discussed how "the kids took over Myspace", went on a long tangent about bay area comedy (well, it was interesting to us, anyway), and finally made our way around to discussing Stevie's own musical influences. (Click here to listen.)

Stevie performs locally at the Canyon Acoustic House Concert series in Aromas, CA on Friday, June 6th. Contact Marky for reservation info.

Here are some links to go with the show. I mention these in the podcast:

• Stevie Coyle's Myspace site
• The Waybacks' tour schedule
• The Waybacks' CDs
• What if the Beatles were Irish?
• Contact Stevie Coyle for guitar lessons
• Felton Library Friends

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