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, & set aside money for the arts - they were looking for mostly visual arts, focusing on energy conservations, public health, etc.; Rita applied, and, much to her surprise, was funded - thus the EP "Climate Country Radio" was born; deep dive into songwriting - it runs the whole gamut, from songs arriving fully formed, to those that take a lot of effort & time...there's a great book "Songwriters on songwriting", with a wide variety; words first or melody? "Yes to both!" Rita is a goal-oriented person, who works best with a vision of where she's going; her song "Clean", about being a Merry Maid? No, she was not a Merry Maid, but she was a housekeeper during college; the "Money Question" (e.g.: "Have you been able to make a living with your art, &, if so, how?") A: Rita made a living as a musician for 10-15 years, but is now part time; yes, merch(andise) sales were a huge part of that, but touring has become much less affordable (due to fewer merch sales); Rita is still putting CDs out, even though she took some time off because of immense frustration - she's been writing a lot, and is planning a CD after this winter when she'll take a self-imposed residency in the North Star House, a Julia Morgan-designed historic estate in Grass Valley, CA.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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 electric, & what style? "That's a really good question!"...it's a function of the structure of the song...the riff...some songs come in 3 minutes (like "Gone"), some take longer (like "Grassy Knoll"); they've got a new CD coming out, "Milk of the Moonlit Sun", which is a line from one of the new songs; their Oregonians now (Grazer Bazer is from southern Oregon; Ethan originally Portland, Maine); "The Money Question?" (Are you able to make a living with music full time, & if so, how?") A: "That's subjective." Ian does odd jobs to fill in gaps, but music is the priority; one of the other guys is in school, and the other works at a sick bar; Ian is on the verge of completing a score for an independent film which will come out next year; Spotify? Maybe he makes enough money to buy a 20 oz. latte every 6 months! Q: "How do the economics work with an album, where other artists are choosing not to put out physical media?" A: "We'll put out both a vinyl album & a CD. People are re-introducing themselves to how cool physical media is." Albums are curated, with an intentional order; this album is in the can, songs aligned, album art done...it's ready to go, working on pressing soon, plus visuals to go with singles that they will post. Show is tomorrow night at The Crêpe Place, with Dead Nettle opening.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange 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!

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 the band...and said to herself, "This is what I want to do", deciding that night she wanted to become a professional musician and play in Kate's band; took mandolin lessons with Kate's husband, Don Coffin; sat in on some songs with Kate, then stood in when Don couldn't be there, asked to play more and more..."became part of Kate's band through a luck, being passionate, and tenacity; played with Kate for 8 years before she passed away, which was devastating; played with others because she was known for playing with Kate; was playing Strawberry with Sarah Elizabeth and Greg Brown approached her about joining him for some sons - she ended up playing the entire set; Nina has been able to make a living with music her entire life; her advice? Keep your expenses down! Keep your overhead low and work hard (needed to earn to support her habit of buying instruments!); Nina's goal was to be a side person - unusual in an industry where most seek the spotlight! Ken's line in the Barbie movie, "I want to play my guitar at you!" makes Nina want to see the movie; Nina's advice to aspiring side persons.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, "Kalamity Kyle" Weller, and "Kaos" (Katrina Clugston) airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2023 is Bushwhacker's 34th 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!

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 the voters as a clear process because state law was not clear. Deep dive into "Objective Standards", California's approach to address the housing affordability crisis, with Santa Cruz & Santa Clara County, both in her district, as the most expensive. It's complicated, given impacts on traffic, water, etc. Q: has it gone too far? A: possibly, as it opens the door to the "builder's remedy"; deep dive into developments in the Seabright neighborhood - is there anything the city can do about it? And parking! 221 parking spaces for 560 units, because the state does not require developments to have parking if they are within a half mile of a bus stop! A: "That's the reality." Community members need to be involved, & there's a virtual meeting coming up next week. A record number of listeners engaged with the DJs via TextGroove during the interview, providing additional questions & comments.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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 energy, but California voted that there's a Human Right to Water, with less of a focus on affordability; but Jenny is an engineer! How does affordability fit into that? Good Question! (#1): Jenny focuses on affordability as an engineer, with interdisciplinary modeling; Q: What do you most want a public water agency like Santa Cruz to take away from this research, and what would you not want them to conclude from it? Good Question! (#2): the take-away is less exact #s, & more climate change $$ impact; Q: The research seems to highlight a tension between affordability and reliability. How should a utility think about that tradeoff when delaying investments may reduce near-term rates but increase long-term reliability risks and potentially future costs? Good Question! (#3): there ARE trade-offs, & Jenny's modeling provides a quantitative framework; How much of the affordability challenge identified in the study is attributable to climate change itself versus the underlying need to replace aging infrastructure and maintain an existing water system? Another Good Question! (#4): Jenny's modeling explicitly addresses climate change, and does NOT address infrastructure or maintenance; Q: What funding mechanisms do you think have the greatest potential to pay for this? Good Question! (#5): Jenny is not an expert, but discusses tax-funded approaches, State & Federal programs (a model could be LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program); Why Santa Cruz? Close by? Collaborative? Fun to visit & surf? Closed system hydrologicallly (every drop of water that falls in the county is either used or flows to the ocean through habitat that it sustains)? (Almost) all of the above (she doesn't surf - yet!); Q: does her model account for the strongest El Niño ever that's forecast? Good Question! (#6): her modeling does not focus on his, but the "Whiplash" with increasing swings between wet years & dry needs to be addressed; Aquifer storage? Yes, addressed in her models, but not the amount of storage - she does address reliability - desal(ination) is most expensive, but has the largest potential impact - aquifer re-charge might require additional water; there are follow-up papers that will come out of Jenny's lab, with at least one more from her Ph.D.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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 Dangerous Dan's nautical day job); Santa Cruz (both city & county) is reliant on water that falls on this side of "the hill" (the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains), with that water being used for people, habitat and protected species such as Anadromous Salmonids; to check out the Story Map, type "Explore Santa Cruz Water System" into your favorite browser, click on the Water Department link, scroll down to "Explore the Storymap" & click on it; the Water Commission, an advisory commission to the Water Department, took on the task of developing this; listener Q re: bottled water - A: water agencies are scrutinized, & Santa Cruz water is definitely safe to drink! Santa Cruz City Water by the #s; Heidi is associated with many organizations in an "Alphabet Soup", with MGA = "Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Agency", which was created by the California Sustainable Groundwater Resources Act because the city has groundwater wells & uses the Santa Margarita Aquifer; the City has relatively recent wastewater injection wells where twice-treated wastewater is injected into wells in the mid-county basin (3 injection wells); IRWM = the Santa Cruz (County) "Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM)" which serves as the nexus for water-oriented agencies to meet; following the 2014 drought, Santa Cruz County became "rock stars" with conservation, quoting Melanie Mow Schumacher of the Soquel Creek Water District; with climate change, during every drought we see a demand decline, which hardens - it doesn't rebound; Santa Cruz was projected to need 6 billion gallons of water per year, but is using 2.4 billion (!!!); most years, we're fine, but with climate change we experience "weather whiplash", with deeper droughts that last longer; with the projected biggest El Niño ever coming this winter, the city is rolling out ASW = "Aquifer Storage & Recovery", drilling 4 new wells to replenish groundwater with excess runoff (4 wells over 4 years, with 1 well ready by this winter); re: Skerker et al., 2026 paper in Nature Sustainability, & how Heidi's / SC Water's focus is different from academic deep dives, & how to translate that into day-to-day implementation? "We appreciate the collaboration & the science supports Santa Cruz, who live it in real time. Academics provide data points. Affordability is real, with our need for funds for maintenance & growth. With climate change & weather whiplash, we will pursue other funding sources."

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange 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!

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 the repair guy said he could repair it, Nick said he could, too, but he didn't have his tools; the repair guy said if he could repair instruments, he'd hire him on the spot; Nick ended up working at the Denver Folklore Center, Charles Sawtelle was already working - the Folklore Center had a 100 seat concert hall, repair shop, bead shop (for the partners to shop in), a record store with less-common records, & a music school; in 1976, he met Pete Wernick, aka "Dr. Banjo", who turned out to bew a tenacious booking agent with calling, taking notes, and they put together Hot Rize soon after with Tim O'Brien (mandolin, lead vocals) & Charles Sawtelle (from the Denver Folklore Center). By the time he was 22 (in 1978), they got a gig playing the Ramada Inn for 5 nights for a weight loss convention...2 weeks later they were on Prarie Home Cabin (because Tim O'Brien was from Minneappolis), and a month later they played the Telluride Bluegrass Festival...their 1st record followed soon after (on Flying Fish Records), then their 1st tour of Europe, then the Grand Ol' Opry. Their agent, Keith Case, also represented John Hartford, New Grass Revival, Norman & Nancy Blake, Guy Clarke, & Townes van Zandt - when he would get a gig for one at a festival, he'd work on getting gigs for the others; there weren't that many bluegrass bands then; early on, they said yes to everything, playing clubs and bars from 9pm to 1am, where they would have to play requests for Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzel & others. In 1978, soon after KGNU started in Boulder, they got a weekly 1 hour radio show where they played western swing as well as classic country - this was how their alter ego, "Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers", composed of Red Knuckles, Wendell Mercantile, Waldo Otto, and Slade, was born; Hot Rize would have about half originals on their albums, with most of the songs written by Pete and/or Tim - they put out about a dozen albums between the 2 incarnations; in 1989 RCA knocked on Tim's door wanting to make him a country star - Hot Rize had to find another mandolin playing lead singer or call it quits, so Nick joined Tim's new band, the O'Boys, with Mark Schatz, Scott Nygaard & Jerry Douglas; in 1990, right before Hot Rize hung up their spurs, Dick van Kleck from the US State Department hired them to play Eastern Europe - it was in Sophia, Bulgaria, with it's former-Soviet bloc polluted air, bad economy, but now post-communist mecca where people came to shows & celebrated around music, that Nick got the idea for eTown - which would combine the power of live music but with environmental awareness; that was May, 1990, and eTown had their 1st show in April, 1991; with Garrison Keiler's "Prarie Home Companion", it's all about him, & that wasn't what Nick's about - he wanted to be host, in the house band, and music director, while learning about the state of the planet - based in Boulder they are surrounded by great research organizations; eTown brings up challenges, but also solutions...they have an Achievments show; to start eTown, Nick started by going to a bank, knowing that he wanted to form a non-profit; they said, "Get a lawyer!", then Articles of Incorporation; Nick was naïve, but soon met Helen, his future wife, who wanted to help. They launched on NPR, then went off the air when they ran out of money. They overcame that, and it's now 35 years of eTown. They have 8 full-time equivalent employees, and 40 volunteers, with an annual budget of $2.5 million; it's syndicated, and FREE!

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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; Hot Rize started in 1978 in Boulder, Colorado...Nick started eTown 35 years ago, which is now an internationally syndicated environmental and musical radio program which has purchased their own building, the eTown Theater, where the show is produced; the "Money Question" (e.g.: "Have you been able to make a living with your art, &, if so, how?"), referencing checks in the mail & how little the streaming services pay: "The Record Business has always been terrible for musicans. The record company would pay to make an album, promote it, and pay for the band to tour - with the money paid back with usurous interest rates. It's been terrible for musicans since the 20s (that's the 1920s!)...in the 1980s, Hot Rize made 3 times what they were paid to play in merch(andise) sales at Strawberry...Nick has been a lucky guy, with a successful band, and now a non-profit (eTown) which sustains his team via interviews - their mission is similar to Santa Cruz Guitars, combining entertainment (& inspiration) through music & social responsibility; referencing an earlier Bushwhacker's conversation with Richard Hoover about succession, Nick is in discussions with his Board of Directors on this, but he's made it hard on them given how many hats he wears, including as the MC and prolific fundraiser; deep dive into the similarities between Boulder & Santa Cruz, where protecting the natural wonder had unintended consequences on affordability; will Nick take a Santa Cruz guitar home with him? Yes! A Tony Rice signature model? No! It's a "Custom OM", after the largest Martin guitar ever, an "Orchestra Model", with a cedar top

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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 model?" "Great question!" Santa Cruz Guitars does not pay to have them played - it's a mutual benefit arrangement, & it's usually pretty obvious if there's a signature there, with the artist and Santa Cruz Guitars sharing & amplifying values; guitar making is a vehicle; Q: "What's the strangest request you've had?" A: double neck guitar or questionable inlay motif (ref: Brenda's inlay gallery); "The Money Question" (e.g.: "Have you been able to make a living with your art, &, if so, how?" A: yes, through "A Rubic's Cube of Overlapping Miracles", using a low ball bid for a Lockheed dehumidifier as big as a Volkswagen bus for $700 after the market crashed in 1983; Brenda's primary hat is Sales Director, but she also wears Office Manager, Exotic Wood Procurement, and Richard's right-hand person; all of their wood is sustainably harvested or reclaimed.

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!

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 signed or vetoed, at that pointi it becomes law anyway; Senator Laird submitted 36 bills over the last 2 years, with 26 passed into law so far - in baseball, that would be a 0.722 batting average!! Hall of fame material!! Senator Laird has 5 more bills on the Governor's desk, 6 including the Dolly Parton bill; deep dive into the budget, with lots of items for Senator Laird's district; did he get an average amount for his district, or more, because he's Chairman of the Budget Committee? "I got a little more." Deep dive into "Gut-and-Amend", starting with the California bill that would ban electric shock gloves, a "last minute bill"...yes, this was a "Gut-and-Amend", then pivot to SB931, a bill establishing Sept. 25 (9-2-5) as Dolly Parton Day in California; SB931 was an unused bill of Senator Laird sitting on the Assemblly floor, so Senator Laird & his office wrote a bill for Dolly Parton Day, renamed it, and gave it to Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) as a "Gut-and-Amend" - she loved it, & Senator Laird was able to use it to rub in to a colleague who had complained about "Gut-and-Amend" that "(a foolish) Consistency is the hobgoblin (of little minds)" [Ralph Waldo Emerson]; run down of bills that have been signed, or are on the Governor's desk, including expanding opportunities for California wineries to sell wine and offer tastings at Farmer's Markets; that gifts willed to beneficiaries, including non-profits, reach who they're intended for; and one that addresses the growing financial impact of childhood sexual abuse claims on public institutions ("2 years of rip roaring pain!").

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) 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!