Singer/Songwriter/Storyteller Michael Gaither

One of the the things I dig most about this web site is the “Songs and Stories” podcast, which – for five years as of next month – has given me a chance to chat with LOTS of other songwriters and artists about what they do. It’s given me an ongoing chance to learn from others, make more than a few friends, and hopefully help promote a bit of what they do along the way.

I went through last year’s web stats over the weekend to find out what and who was listened to the most. Surprisingly, some of the most popular episodes date back before 2011, while some were posted late in the year and featured artists or bands who tour nationally and/or have a big following. Here’s the top ten, including links to the episodes themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Behind the scenes here on the web site, I’m slowly (very slowly) migrating this bloggy front page over to WordPress, which will make this main page much more spiffy. (Yes, I actually used the word “spiffy”. It’s been a long week.) In the meantime, I’ve also been combing the virtual and virtuous hard disc archives, hunting and gathering some other content that I thought might be interesting.

The Press page now has these radio interviews from the past year or so. Some include the band. Some are just me. And all of them include live performances (and chatter about) the songs played. Click on any of the shows/dates to download and listen:

KPIG Radio 107.5 FM (Freedom CA) – 2/10
Live set on Sunday morning’s “Please Stand By” with “Sleepy” John Sandige. Discussion of our “Stories and Story Songs” collaboration with storyteller Erica Lann-Clark. Includes the songs “Where’d the Time Go?”, “Roselle” and a cover of Warren Zevon’s “My Ride’s Here”.

KKUP 91.5 FM (Cupertino CA) – 1/10
Interview on “Friday Folk Off” with David Stafford. Includes the songs “Gettin’ to My Glory Days”, “Highway 17″, and “Roselle”.

KVMR 89.5 FM (Grass Valley CA) – 11/09
Live on “Rockin’ and Stompin’” with Wesley Robertson. Includes “After a Good Rain”, “Unsuperpokeable (The FaceBook Song)”, and “Gettin’ to My Glory Days”.

KSCO 1080 AM (Santa Cruz CA) – 10/09
Live on “Good Morning Monterey Bay with Rosemary Chalmers. Includes “Roselle”, “Highway 17″, and a cover of Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey”.

I’m particularly excited about this one: KC Cafe Radio, an Internet station based in Kansas City, will start running current and past episodes of the “Songs and Stories” podcast beginning this Saturday, March 6th. Shows will air Saturdays at 9:00 am and repeat on Sundays at 6:00 pm (eastern time).

Of course, anyone with even a passing interest on my web site here knows that you can always download any episode of the podcast from the main page (or from iTunes). But since this effort was started to help promote other artists (admittedly with a bit of it trickling my way), this is a very cool opportunity for these interviews and artists to be heard by a whole new audience.

John Dutton, KC Cafe’s Operations Manager, recently interviewed me about both the podcast and my newest CD, “Dogspeed”. You can read highlights from our chat on KC Cafe’s main page or just listen to the whole conversation right here:

KC Cafe Interview with Michael Gaither

KC Cafe is a grass-rootsy type station comprised of other musicians and radio folk, and some very kind souls who just appreciate music. Their focus is totally on the independent artist, so picking up the podcast for rebroadcast (I made a rhyme…heh) is a great fit. (By the way, if you’re an independent artist, click here to submit your music for airplay on KC Cafe Radio.)

Looking for a few not-so-overplayed Christmas tunes? Here are three live cuts of “Entertaining an Angel”, “The Grinch”, and “I Shall Be Released”.

(Click image for more pics.)

We played these at a recent stealthy little fundraiser. Feel free to download and pass ‘em around. And happy holidays.

Many musicians have day jobs and side work that allow us to pay the bills (and allow us to keep being musicians). And it’s pretty much the norm for bands to have their own t-shirts available as merchandise along with their CDs and such. Mark Miracle of Sawmill Road – west coast folk might have caught them last Spring at the Strawberry Music Festival – took it one step farther and developed Grassware.com, a site that sells bluegrass-related apparel. He also proves that the words “bluegrass” and “bling” are not mutually exclusive.

I first became a Grassware customer years ago when I picked up one of their “Eat Sleep Pick” shirts – which I still proudly wear. (The things are American made and hold up really well.) Grassware sports just a few key bluegrassy designs such as “MONROE” (all caps intentional), a graphic of the RCA Victor 78 “Mule Skinner Blues”, or my personal favorite, “Banjo Hero”, printed with the “Guitar Hero” font. (And when folks ask, “Hey, can you play the banjo?” I proudly proclaim, “No, I can PRETEND to play the banjo”.)

The Banjo Hero T-shirt

New this year (and just in time for Christmas) is Grassware’s line of “bluegrass bling”, customizable charms that can be suited to your favorite player (or fan).

Bluegrass Bling

And speaking of December 25th, Grassware is running a Christmas special through the end of the month. Buy any two t-shirts and get a third for free. (They also fold down into a compact little package, perfectly suited to stuff the stocking of the bluegrasser on your list.) More info is at Grassware.com.

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