There’s a new venue in town, and it’s quite the cool, artsy place. The Haute Enchilada, behind the WHOLE Enchilada in Moss Landing, has a new performance space. It’s very cool, and it’s in the capable hands of Bourne Archer, who ran Treasures Roadhouse here in town most recently. In prep for the show, Adam Joseph of Monterey County Weekly interviewed me and wrote this nice piece. It’s reprinted here by permission:
Michael Gaither and the Rayburn Brothers Bring Americana Roots to Moss Landing by Adam Joseph
Michael Gaither is pissed. The City Council voted in favor of opening another McDonald’s, which will make three within Watsonville’s 6.7 square miles. And the city’s historic theater recently shut. Gaither probably won’t protest the fast food giant’s city takeover or gather signatures for a petition to save the theater. He may, however, write a song about it.
From his twangy “Still a Small Town,” which cites local institution Taylor Bros Hot Dogs, to his harmonica-driven response to the influx of Mexican joints, “Now It’s a Taqueria,” his hometown is the inspiration behind much of his material.
The singer-songwriter fell into a career in music after a stint as a stand-up comedian. Gaither even sold jokes to Jay Leno early in his career. Though he didn’t gain a following, Gaither says the experience got him into writing regularly and it got him over onstage anxiety. “After telling jokes to drunks at 2am, everything else is a cakewalk,” he says.
Bringing humor to his music made the transition from comedy to singer-songwriter smoother. But mixing comedy and music is an area few succeed at. “It’s got to be more than just a funny title like, ‘Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,’” Gaither says. “There has to be a good story behind the title.”
Influenced by the likes of Warren Zevon and Loudon Wainwright III, Gaither’s humor is understated, good-natured and paired with observations of everyday life. His California honky tonk “Tell Me Where it Hurts,” off 2012’s Starlite Drive-In Saturday Night, finds humor in a universal truth: “Eyesight is the first thing that goes/ But you can still read books if they’re not too close.”
Like prolific songwriting machine Todd Snider, Gaither uses songs as vessels for stories he wants to tell, as with Starlite Drive-In’s title track: “Back in 1953, my hometown made history with the county’s only outdoor movie screen/ You don’t see drive-ins now at all, they’re parking lots and shopping malls, but back then it was quite a scene.”
On Gaither’s most recent release, the 2014 EP Lump of Coal, he explores more universal truths, including some of the strange holiday season rituals like Black Friday. With a new tune he has in the works, though, he’s back to the home front, with a song about the recent demolition of a longstanding bowling alley.
“I think it’s going to become a lawn mower repair shop,” he says. It sounds like he might be holding back both tears and laughter.