G-Ma's Place, a young jazz band interviewed by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Char-Zard"
KZSC Santa Cruz
G-Ma's Place is a young Santa Cruz jazz band comprised of Otis Ragen-Andrews, bass; Ryu Cirillo, Keyboards & Trombone; Rowan Thompson, Guitar; Xander Shulman, Drums. Got together 2nd semester, 8th grade, in 2022 to form a band to compete in a talent show - now all high school juniors; inspired by local Kuumbwa Jazz Center; Ryu has perfect pitch, which he discovered in 8th grade - it's more of a blessing than a curse; they practice at one of their grandma's garages, thus "G-ma's Place", where they occasionally butt heads, with Otis usually the last to arrive; perform covers as well as...
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Rupert Wates - singers, songwriter, guitar virtuoso_20240809_KZSC_The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Britain to New York & Colorado via Paris, where French encouragement helped him make the leap to being a professional musician; "Guitar-based story telling", and has been called a virtuoso; "California 1" song is a love song to our iconic highway; if he sings, it's an original, but he will play some classical guitar covers; as a songwriter, antennae always up...looking for patterns; he makes a living playing music, with almost all income from plyaing live (120 shows / year - 50,000 miles / year)...CD sales cover their cost...; uses jazz form for songs; deep dive into New York City living,...
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Stephen Benson - singer, songwriter, guitar virtuoso - 20240712_LIVE in the studio_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Born in Montana, raised in Oregon, high school in Ohio, then Connecticut; New York since 1983, starting with Manhattan School of Music; busking (playing on street)...made enough to (almost) cover rent, busing with bands, duos, trios, no one place - but musicians competed for street corners, and even sent one member early to claim space; own arrangements of other's music, with few originals; subbed on "The Lion King" on broadway, and has now been playing Broadway for decades, including own chair in the pit...55 shows in total! Union? Absolutely! "Broadway is always...
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Painted Mandolin_"AiryLarry" Graff_singer-songwriter, musician_2025-01-17_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Celebrating 10 years of "Painted Mandolin"...and Monday is the 36th Anniversary of "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club"...and this year marks 40 years for "The Banana Slug String Band"; "Painted Mandolin" begins when Larry had an idea to put together an acoustic band celebrating Jerry Garcia for a show at Don Quixote's in Felton (now the Felton Music Hall)...practices for a gig that would be a "one-off"; Larry knew Matt Hartle from playing around town, and Joe Craven from the Strawberry Music Festival, where Joe had sat in with 'The Banana Slug String Band"; 10 years ago they added Dan Robbins,...
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Banana Slug String Band - 40 years!_Solar Steve_singer-songwriter, musician_2025-03-21_KZSC_Bushwhacker's_interview
KZSC Santa Cruz
All 4 founding members of the band are still together: Sun (Solar Steve), Soil (Doug Dirt), Water (Marine Mark) and Air (Airy Larry); all educators, who formed around the Pescadero Valley outdoor education program 40 years ago, and decided to take it further; now, 40 years, and 12 albums later, they have managed to make music a part of their living / life, with environmental education music for all ages; Steve is the primary songwriter; 1st song? "I'm a Tree"; "Dirt Made my Lunch" was the first album (on vinyl & casette); they now have 4 generations of fans!; songwriter process? For Steve,...
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Poi Rogers_singers, songwriters Carolyn Sills & Gerard Egan_2025-04-18_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
During Covid Gerard banged his head, and got the idea for "Poi Rogers", a mash-up of old fashioned country western meets Hawai'ian; public radio stations are crucial to up-and-coming artists, providing a way for them to reach audiences without being curated by an algorithm; the money question? Survive through a diversity of money sources, including their guitar repair shop in Soquel; been in Santa Cruz 15 years, and found the perfect place to live that allows dogs; new CD release a week from Saturday, "Twilight Blues", which will also be released on 10" vinyl; 8 week tour this summer...when...
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California State Assemblymember_Gail Pellerin_interview 2025-04-18 on KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Attending Grand Opening of Beach Ranch today, a 247 acre parcel along the Pajaro River that the Land Trust is preserving, including wetlands; Land Trust is a local non-profit; Assembly currently in Spring Recess; Assembly working on the budget, and going through it line by line; next week is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and on April 28th, Asssemblymember Pellerin will host a floor ceremony honoring a constituent, Ruth Liberman, that is one of 5000 babies born in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp; Assemblymember Pellerin hosted a webinar with California Insurance Commissioner Lara to...
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Kray Van Kirk_Singer, Songwriter_2025-03-28_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Arcata, California (Humboldt) based; start in music? Kray quit grad school (was at the Graduate Theological School at U.C. Berkeley) and started touring, playing quite a bit in Alaska; when he became a single parent he realized he needed something more dependable, and so got a Ph.D. in Fisheries Modeling before working for the government in Arcata; when his daughter left the nest he quit and went back on the road (2017); who would've thought 3 months ago that in the face of Federal Funding Chaos and Science Funding Uncertainty that being a singer / songwriter would look more stable financially...
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John Laird_California State_Senator_2025-04-04_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Deep dive into California's Cap & Trade system (Senator Laird is on the Senate's Working Group on Cap & Trade, which met last week to disuss how far we want to extend it, and whether to move up the current sunset ); How Cap & Trade works: measure emissions, and if over a cap, company has to pay a fee for the amount of emissions over the cap - alert listener Eric in Santa Cruz texts in that they can buy emissions from other companies, which is how Tesla was able to survive before they had cars to sell - Senator Laird adds that Tesla also takes advantage of emission-free car...
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Jackson Emmer_Musician & singer-songwriter_2025-01-31_KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Jackson relocated to Santa Cruz a year ago, from Carbondale, Colorado, because he's addicted to surfing!; "You're never a prophet in your hometown!"; Songwriter Round format...Jackson experienced this at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, where the performers were in the middle, the audience surrounding them, and each takes a turn; it was intimate, and Jackson wanted to try it in Santa Cruz; Abigayle Kempst is a young prolific singer/songwriter who lives in Nashville, and Jackson is flying her out to produce his next album - they thought, hey! Let's put together a show!; Jackson alwasy brings a...
info_outlineLegislative deadline for bill submittal passed (2/21); Laird submitted 19 bills - the legislature previously had limits of 40 bills per 2 year session in the Senate, 50 in the Assembly - now, both houses have a limit of 35 for each Assemblymember and Senator; Senator Laird has a few bills in "spot form", which has the focus of the bill, but it needs to be fleshed out - cannot amend within 30 days of being introduced, and spot bills must be finalized by March 26; one spot bill on battery storage (applying lessons learned from Moss Landing battery storage fire); spot bills removing sunset expiration from previously passed bills; Dylan's Q: any actions / bills to replace Moss Landing type battery storage? Senator Laird considering: what do we do with the 25% of batteries in California that are that generation? Phase out? What's the criteria? Timing? Spot bills are different from "gut and amend", which can be done any time; "moveable spot" bills are different, and include something substantive (not just intent), and have the same deadline as regular bills (2/21); discussion of Cap and Trade; Standing Committees vs. Select Committees: Select Committees have a clean slate at the start of every legislative session - Laird is on 1, aging in the LGBTQ community; Laird is on 2 working groups: cap and trade; and fire insurance.
(Senator Laird interviewed by "Dangerous Dan" Orange and "Dylan-the-Mentee" Estevez on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club". 2025 is Bushwhacker's 36th Year! Thanks for listening!)