'The Pillars' aka Sleepy John Sandidge & Richard Stockton, hiking the Coast from Santa Cruz to San Francisco _interview 2026-07-31 on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club"
Release Date: 07/31/2026
Rita Hosking -Singer, Songwriter_2026-09-18 interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & DJ "Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Rita is calling in from Nevada City, California, in Grass Valley (shout out to KVMR!), & will be coming to Santa Cruz with her musical partner (& husband) Sean Feder, who accompanies her on Dobro (resophonic guitar) & banjo; Sean is a UCSC graduate (biology major), and a multi-instrumentalist who studied under Arthur Hull, legendary Santa Cruz drummer & widely considered the father of the modern drum circle movement; Sean taught drumming at U.C. Davis where he & Rita met, & they began performing together; during COVID, California had a budget surplus in 2022,...
info_outline
Ian George - Singer / Songwriter; band leader of "The Knee Pockets"_2026-09-11_interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange
KZSC Santa Cruz
They are calling from the road, after Ian & "the boys" loaded their 2013 Toyota Sienna "Tetris-style" in Oregon; Ian's boys are 15 & 9, but "the boys" in the van are Ethan Boardman on drums, & Grazer Bazer Phelps on electric bass; this trio, Ian George & the Knee Pockets, is more of a rocker, with Ian plugging in & "shredding" the electric guitar; Ian hails from Bob Dylan's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota (the bluest state in the mid-continent! "Hell, yeah! We take care of our own!"); when Ian writes songs, does he have a vision of where they'll end up, acoustic or...
info_outline
Nina Gerber_Folk guitarist & consummate sideperson_2023-09-08 interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange, "Kalamity Kyle" Weller, and "Kaos" (Katrina Clugston)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Nina's band, "Duo Quartet" playing tonight; How did Nina meet Pam Delgado & Jeri Jones? "A happy accident!" - they were all playing a memorial show for Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, and Pam & Jeri were there as part of the band "Blame Sally"...later, they called Nina about doing a double bill at the Freight & Salvage; how did Nina end up playing with Kate Wolf? Nina and her brother were in a high school bluegrass band in Sebastopol, and her brother suggested they see Kate...she was playing at West of the Laguna, and Nina was blown away & moved with the music, the connection among...
info_outline
Gail Pellerin - 28th District California Assemblymember_2026-09-25_interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & DJ "Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Gail is just getting back after her daughter's wedding in Oregon last weekend; we're in a limnal period where all the bills that made it out of the legislature are out, and have either been signed, or are on the Governor's desk to be signed, vetoed, or become law if he does neither (with the deadline at the end of the month); rapid run down of the bills that have been passed (4) and those that are awaiting action (9); September is Suicide Prevention Month, & Assemblymember Pellerin has 15 Heroes in the district; correction on AB1919 regarding the Santa Cruz metro tax being given to...
info_outline
Jenny Skerker - Santa Cruz Water Affordability Modeling, Stanford Ph.D._2026-09-18_interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & DJ "Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Jenny completed her Ph.D. at Stanford in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, so how did she settle on studying the impact of climate change on water in Santa Cruz? Great Question! (#1): she's now working for a water department in the East Bay, but she worked [MORE HERE DAN] on Santa Cruz because they were collaborative, and made for an interesting case study on the impact of climate change on water affordability; why water affordability? Great Question! (#2): because there are a lot of open questions - there's a lot of attention on the impact of climate change on...
info_outline
Heidi Lukenbach - Director of Santa Cruz Water Department_2026-09-11 interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange
KZSC Santa Cruz
Heidi is Director of the Santa Cruz City Water Department - which has 120 employees, but that includes a lot of temp workers in the summer (who work at Loch Lomond Reservoir & Recreation Area; the Water Department's budget is $45-50 million (!!); Heidi is a 1st generation Santa Cruzan, having moved here in the late 1990s - she was interested in engineering, & got a job with the Santa Cruz Water Department (her background is Civil Engineering, specifically soils) - as such, she started "ahead of the mast", & "came up through the hawse hole" (or "hawse pipe", taking a phrase out of...
info_outline
Nick Forster - Musician, eTown, Hot Rize, Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers_2026-09-25 interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & DJ "Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Boulder, like Santa Cruz, is a college town filled with artists & creativity, surrounded by green space; he's loving his Santa Cruz Guitar, and it's great to be a a part of their celebration. Nick graduated high school (in the Hudson Valley of New York) when he was 16 years old - young! - & not ready for college...interested in working on instruments, having worked on mother-of-pearl inlays in guitars...he fell in love dulcimer and harpsichord, and tracked down Jean Ritchie, who he opened for...he hitchhiked to Ohio, Arkansas...back in Colorado he needed to fix his mandolin - when...
info_outline
Nick Forster - Musician, MC for Santa Cruz Guitar 50th, eTown_2026-09-18 interview on KZSC's 'Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club' by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & DJ "Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Nick is coming to town to MC the 50th Anniversary Concert in honor of Santa Cruz Guitar Company, (co)-founded by Richard Hoover, who has created incredible sounding musical instruments using sustainably harvested woods; shout out to the Strawberry Music Festival, which Nick, with Hot Rize, started playing in the early 80s, & is where they crossed paths with Tony Rice & his Santa Cruz Guitar...later Ed Littlefield, with Marley's Ghost, also a Strawberry regular, let Nick play his; in that era Hot Rize was on similar circuit to New Grass Revival, John Hartford, & The Tony Rice Unit;...
info_outline
Richard Hoover (co-founder) & Brenda Martinez (sales director) - Santa Cruz Guitar Company_2026-09-04_interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
Q; Can Richard "hear a song & know whether the guitar is a Santa Cruz Guitar?" A: "You can pick your own kid out of a choir!" Succession planning? Richard is fiercly loyal to the team, with Brenda, and David Osdoll calling shots...working on some kind of employee ownership (Taylor Guitars did this) and "focusing on transitioning to a low resolution form of management" ;) Ahead of the upcoming 50th Anniversary Concert - "A Night of Legacy & Music", there will be a free block party. Q: "When & how do you take a guitar that you've made for an artist, & turn it into a signature...
info_outline
John Laird_California State Senator, 17th District_interview on KZSC's "Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez)
KZSC Santa Cruz
California's Prop. 54, passed in 2016, requires any legislative bill to be published online for 72 hours before it can be voted upon - this resulted in the last bill in the legislature being voted on a 3:46 AM last Tuesday morning, Sept. 1st, even though the constitution requires all bills to be out of the legislature by midnight, Aug. 31st - bills that pass a 2/3 vote for urgency can also go past midnight; one of those last bills was the Dolly Parton bill; normally, the governor has 12 days to sign or veto a bill, but with the sprint to the finish line, those bills have 30 days - if it's not...
info_outlineSleepy John & Richard were 2 of 4 (the others being Ben Rice & Laurence Bedford) hiking the northern California coast when they came upon a big building with part of the underlying earth washed out, allowing them to stand underneath it, and pose as pillars holding it up - the the name "The Pillars"; they are hiking the northern California coast from Santa Cruz to San Francisco for the 4th time, hiking 4-5 mile increments weekly...more "lollygagging" than hiking, with easy walks you could do in flip flops, along the bluffs; John came to Santa Cruz in 1977, running from the law, and yes, he did sell those ubiquitous yellow smiley face buttons that may have said, "Have a Nice Day!"; Richard came in 1968 to attend UCSC in its 3rd year (1st year for Merrill College) - he remembers Dr. Timothy Leary sitting on the college steps, saying that "If you don't make your life an experiment, it'll be a life wasted!" - the one thing he learned at college; Richard became a full time comedian in 1986, touring as a headliner; his answer to "The Money Question": "Great question! Yes! It was "the" time in Comedy, where every venue hosted comedy nights, and the "A-Clubs paid big bucks!"; more recently writing for the Good Times (which does not pay Big Bucks); Sleepy John's answer: "Sort of. 33 years at KPIG, starting at $6/hr in the 1980s increasing to $15/hr in 2023"; Sleepy John has been fired by KPIG (twice), KZSC (3 times), & quit KSCO (he's also DJ on KAZU & KKUP) - he was also voted Best DJ in the Good Times Santa Cruz Best Of poll...14 times!!! What it's like to hike with Sleepy John, where everyone recognizes...his voice! On the current hike they are at Waddell Creek, hiking generally 3-5 miles each week, but not always a straight line (they hike every Tuesday, meeting at 8:30 at Alta Coffee); on their hike they have one rule: walk as close to the beach as you can!
An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) & "Momento Maury" (Maury Burnett-Cavoto) airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening!
To support KZSC (& these podcasts), please go to KZSC.FM and click on the "Donate to KZSC" button in the upper right-hand corner. Thanks!