{"id":7341,"date":"2018-09-28T16:19:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/?p=7341"},"modified":"2018-09-28T16:29:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T21:29:49","slug":"songs-and-stories-180-michael-gaither-and-his-new-best-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/songs-and-stories-180-michael-gaither-and-his-new-best-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs and Stories #180: Michael Gaither and His New Best Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_5152\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-7341-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/songs_and_stories\/www.michaelgaither.com\/podcasts\/songs_and_stories180.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/songs_and_stories\/www.michaelgaither.com\/podcasts\/songs_and_stories180.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/songs_and_stories\/www.michaelgaither.com\/podcasts\/songs_and_stories180.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/songs_and_stories\/www.michaelgaither.com\/podcasts\/songs_and_stories180.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/?powerpress_pinw=7341-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/songs_and_stories\/www.michaelgaither.com\/podcasts\/songs_and_stories180.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"songs_and_stories180.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>Subscribe: <a href=\"http:\/\/ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net\/WebObjects\/MZStore.woa\/wa\/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F%252Fax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewPodcast%253Fid%253D216646993\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iTunes<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/michael-gaither-songs-and-stories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stitcher<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Collage-300x257.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"257\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Collage-300x257.png 300w, https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Collage-768x657.png 768w, https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Collage-1024x877.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>As much fun as it is to write and play songs, this year I remembered how much MORE fun it is to play them with a band backing you. Especially when it&#8217;s a group of your &#8220;new best friends&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, I thought of that name before I assembled this little gang. I handpicked people I wanted to really assemble and play with: Joe Bac (guitar), Eliza James (harmony), Greg Abelar (bass), and Jeff Baker (percussion). We got together and practiced weekly. With all the time we&#8217;ve spent together, though, they really have become &#8220;my new best friends&#8221;. (My &#8220;old best friends&#8221; aren&#8217;t too slighted by this. I have a pretty big tribe of special people in my circle. I&#8217;m a lucky guy.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FfgrU7sxvK4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve been busy, kicking things off with an appearance at this year&#8217;s Days of Wine and Wet Noses festival in Scotts Valley, which included a set from us AND a few songs in a mid-day Tom Petty tribute. Since then we&#8217;ve been hitting a good percentage of the microbreweries in the county, getting lots of stage time, and playing to lots of new people. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/live-on-kpig-300x121.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"121\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/live-on-kpig-300x121.png 300w, https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/live-on-kpig-768x309.png 768w, https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/live-on-kpig.png 944w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A highlight was a benefit for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobsheart.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob&#8217;s Heart<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shfb.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Second Harvest Food Bank<\/a> last summer at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kuumbwajazz.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kuumbwa Jazz Center <\/a>(see the &#8220;Hey Karma&#8221; video above). Pretty nice that our fifth gig out was at the nicest venue in the county. To promote that, we did a set on <a href=\"http:\/\/kpig.com\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KPIG<\/a> radio&#8217;s live Sunday morning music show, &#8220;Please Stand By&#8221;. That set is what you&#8217;ll hear in this episode, which includes live takes on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QaNNNiRP63Y\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Somewhere I Went Right&#8221;<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/p-PUKMmeJYE\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;It&#8217;s Nothing Personal (The Layoff Song)&#8221;<\/a> from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/music\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Hey Karma&#8221;<\/a> record, and a cover of Tom Petty&#8217;s &#8220;Learning to Fly&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>We have lots more in store as we wind down 2018 and plan for 2019. Learn (and hear) more on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/band\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">our band page<\/a>, and subscribe to my mailing list (over there on the right) to learn what we&#8217;ll be up to next.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelgaither.com%2Fhome%2Fsongs-and-stories-180-michael-gaither-and-his-new-best-friends%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;&amp;width=800&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:800px;height:30px;margin-top:5px;\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher As much fun as it is to write and play songs, this year I remembered how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7341"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7352,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7341\/revisions\/7352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelgaither.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}