Minnesota native Rachael Kilgour's songs have been called "brave and humane." That's well put. Rachael is not afraid to write, or to sing that thing that needs to be said, even at the risk of making everyone in the room (including herself) uncomfortable. Many songwriters don't risk so much on a stage. Vulnerability takes courage. Rachael never shies away from the true thing, even when it's the hard thing. But then, so much tenderness and empathy shines through even the most piercing lines that it's impossible for the listener to be afraid of going there with her.

It was a privilege to witness and experience this from a few feet away on stage this past August and September, on a Midwest tour with Rachael this year. Getting to hear her, from the best seat in the house, was well worth the challenges presented by touring in the age of Corona.

Beyond that, you should know that Rachael is both a grand prize winner of the esteemed international NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition and a winner of the 2017 Kerrville New Folk Contest. She has been featured at NYC’s Lincoln Center, at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and by the ASCAP Music Cafe at the Sundance Film Festival. Rachael is also the recent recipient of an “Artist Initiative Grant” from the state of Minnesota, which she is utilizing to create new recorded work.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 13, “The Conscience of the King." Topics include: Rachael’s background in the Arctic Minnesota and Canadian Tropics, the NewSong Songwriting Competition and how it was a diving board for both Rachael and I, in very different times in our lives, “creating art around it” or how to turn trauma into songs, Hamlet, a play within a play within a play, “night lighting” on the Enterprise, this episode not as a whodunit but as an examination of moral and ethical complications, "Star Trek Day" (Sep 8th), why was it so hard to identify Kodos’ body and how was Kodos able to kills so many people so quickly, the Galactic Cultural Exchange Project, Qo’noS and Minneapolis as sister cities, why does the Vulcan lyre use a Western musical scale?, the nine year tour, Rachael and Grace on tour in the Midwest during Covid, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, “Because survival is insufficient," why we should continue to make, appreciate, and support art in trying times, Kirk is just trying to straight male fix everything without asking for help from Spock or anyone else, the power imbalance between Kirk and Lenore, Martha’s weird reaction to Tom dying, Grace Lee Whitney’s last Original Series scene, Vulcans and alcohol, Lenore’s cringey porno dialogue, Kirk as Hamlet, Lenore as Ophelia, “Beyond Antares,” Gene L. Coon, (“the other Gene”), Nazis, the Nuremberg trials, Central and South America, the Catholic Church, Adolf Eichmann and “the banality of evil,” why didn’t they cancel the play at this point?, the origins of the Vulcan salute and “Live Long and Prosper” (LLAP), and Leonard Nimoy’s Jewish heritage and immigrant story.

About this "Double Feature" Edition of Troubadours on Trek:

Listeners may know that Episodes 11 and 12 of the first season of the Original Series of Star Trek are actually one, long two-parter episode called “The Menagerie” (with Parts I and II). In honor of that fact, I invited two incredible musicians, Ellen Angelico and Ryan Madora, who play together frequently (including on my new album, Working Woman) to be my guests for Parts I and II, with each Part focused on each and the other chiming in sporadically or just mostly noodling on the bass inaudibly in the background, as was the case with Ryan in Part I.

Part I is All Things Ellen and Part II is our Ryan-a-rama. Last time on “The Menagerie Part 1” we learned about the great Ellen Angelico and how they’re tearing it up in Nashville. Ryan Madora is another Nashville star and one of the great bass players on the planet. She and Ellen have played together on a lot of records and projects, including my newest album, Working Woman.

About Ryan Madora:

Hailing from the City of Brotherly Love, Ryan Madora has been a fixture of the Nashville scene since 2012. With names like Robben Ford, Molly Tuttle, Bobby Bones and The Raging Idiots, Pat McLaughlin, Tenille Arts, Kyshona Armstrong, Alicia Michilli, Nicole Boggs, Fred Mollin, and Lamont Dozier in the "has played with" section of her resume, Ryan's got cred to spare. Additionally, she's backed up Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Marren Morris, and Hanson and has been the longstanding Musical Director for the annual “Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots Million Dollar Show at The Ryman” to benefit St. Jude’s. She's made frequent appearances on several seasons of the hit TV show “Nashville." In 2019, Ryan published her first book, Bass Players To Know: Learning From The Greats. She's also a regular contributor to the online bass magazine, No Treble, and Bass Player Magazine. Ryan was voted “6th Best Bassist of 2020” by Bass Player Magazine/Music Radar.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 12, “The Menagerie, Part II." Topics include: How Ryan and the bass found each other, how Ryan started playing with “one of the greatest guitar players of the 20th Century,” being the music director versus being the bass player, Ryan’s (and Ellen’s) first episode of Star Trek, the impressive, creative camera tricks, etc. used in the 1960s to create the Star Trek universe vs. modern CGI and special effects, questioning whether you’re on the right path or whether you should’ve chosen an easier path, Pike’s illusions as possible other realities for his life, pulsating veins and the butt/ballsack hybrid, the hypothetical amount of a whole lot of money that it would take to convince any of us to cover our bodies in green paint, if Ryan betrayed Neo and the gang and got to be reinserted into the Matrix and to choose her own illusion, she would be living on Kauai, working on a coffee farm (just for fun) and practicing ice hockey in her backyard, Ellen is already living their dream life and has plenty of cheese and doesn’t need the Matrix, cheese grater communicators, Ellen timestamps themselves, “Decorate the caves, man!”, the Vina takeaway: that bodies that differentiate at all from the “norm” should go and live in caves, the creepy thought of thousands of Talosians watching your every move, the parallel with reality television, “quality of life” and the danger of valuing one human life over another based on ability, whether or not Pike’s choice to beam down is plausible, and the ending of “The Cage” versus the ending of “The Menagerie” and which is truer to the Trekian spirit.

About this "Double Feature" Edition of Troubadours on Trek:

Listeners may know that Episodes 11 and 12 of the first season of the Original Series of Star Trek are actually one, long two-parter episode called “The Menagerie” (with Parts I and II). In honor of that fact, I invited two incredible musicians, Ellen Angelico and Ryan Madora, who play together frequently (including on my new album, Working Woman) to be my guests for Parts I and II, with each Part focused on each and the other chiming in sporadically or just mostly noodling on the bass inaudibly in the background, as was the case with Ryan in Part I.

Part I is All Things Ellen and Part II is our Ryan-a-rama. But you have to stick around and listen to the next episode to hear more about the amazing Ryan Madora. Just like with "The Menagerie, Part I," we’re ending on a cliffhanger and the cliffhanger is: who is this Ryan Madora person??? Stick around to find out.

About Ellen Angelico:

Ellen Angelico is an in-demand session musician and currently tours with mega famous country artist Cam. They are featured on numerous records (including my latest, Working Woman) and have played everywhere from the Grand Ole Opry to Križanke (which I had to Google. Turns out, it's in Slovenia). Ellen is also the face of legendary Nashville guitar store Fanny's House of Music, overseeing and producing YouTube videos and social media content for that establishment. Under the moniker "Uncle Ellen," Ellen releases original music every once in a blue moon. Since January 2021, Ellen has proudly served Nashville as a Commissioner on the Metro Nashville Arts Commission. The Nashville Scene called Ellen an "ace of all things stringed" and "one of the greatest utility players in Nashville.”

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 11, “The Menagerie, Part I." Topics include: What’s at the top of Ellen’s illustrious resume, how people end up in Slovenia, Ellen’s occasional, infrequent, brilliant solo project, Ellen and the Nashville Metro Arts Commission, the Ellen and Ryan friendship continuum that has no beginning or end, Ellen and Ryan wearing the same clothes, Ellen watches nothing, Ellen’s minute by minute play by play, including bathrobes, lunchboxes, green earrings, cheese graters, and other observations, the surface of Talos IV is uninhabitable but Las Vegas exists, big buttheads, jewel-encrusted fancy dress uniforms, supporting actors Julie Parrish, Malachi Throne, and Meg Wylie, the actor who plays Vina, Susan Oliver, her fear of flying, her later historic transatlantic flight, and her pioneering director work, the rampant ableism in this episode, disability as plot device, why we get telepathic aliens but none of differently abled Christopher Pike’s thoughts or personality in this episode, how the core messaging of “The Menagerie” is contrary in ways to the core messaging of “The Cage,” the crew is forced to watch Talosian home movies while the viewing audience at home is forced to watch Roddenberry’s original pilot, futuristic technology inspired by Trek technology, the failure of that futuristic technology in the doors and the windows of a tour bus Ellen was in one time, and Ryan inaudibly noodling on the bass in the background.

Ted Young and I have two favorite things in common: Star Trek and making music. But unlike me, Ted is a Grammy award-winning audio engineer. He’s spent the past twenty years recording, producing, mixing, running live sound, and doing studio installation. Ted’s career began at Water Music (Hoboken, NJ) and The Magic Shop (NYC): two storied studios. He’s worked with a lot of big artists, including Kurt Vile, Alice Cooper, Mick Jagger, Andrew W.K., The Gaslight Anthem, and Sonic Youth, and renowned producers like John Agnello, Bob Ezrin, Kevin Killen, Mike Barbiero, Tony Visconti and Niko Bolas. He won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for mixing The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Is My Darling. These days, he spends a lot of time in his own studio, Outer Space, in Philadelphia, and travels nationally and internationally for recording projects. He frequently collaborates with Fort Worth native Matthew McNeal and his drummer, Andre Black, co-producing, recording and mixing McNeal’s latest offerings, including his most recent record Good Grief (April 2020) and a new forthcoming concept album, dreamed up during the pandemic.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 10, “The Corbomite Maneuver." Topics include: Star Trek conventions and the struggle to not drop $500 on signed headshots, how Star Trek teaches a different kind of heroism: people working in teams, scientists saving the day, and everyone working together for the betterment of humanity, Trek’s unfailing optimism about the future, the first album Ted worked on- analog with the Allman Brothers, working with Tony Visconti and the importance of creating good vibes in the studio, Grace’s all-womxn recording session, the gendered roles we fall into in the studio, why we respect Taylor Swift so much, Matthew McNeal’s new concept album about a guy and a girl and a gas station, Corbomite vs. Carbonite (Jerry??), Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s younger brother) playing Balok, Ensign Rand and phasing coffee, Kirk’s unhealthy and weirdly sexual relationship with his starship, “The Corbomite Maneuver” as an introductory episode, Kirk is sweaty, McCoy is sassy, and Spock is smart, how did Bailey make it this far in Starfleet?, what will Balok learn about humans from this encounter and from Bailey?, “Balok and Bailey: Travels with Tranya,” the First Federation’s buoy cube vs the Borg cube, humanity’s drive to explore and connect with new cultures, weighed against its inability to leave well enough alone, why are scientists putting human cells in monkey embryos?, the Arecibo radio telescope, searching for the unknown far away, juxtaposed with the unknowns of the jungle immediately surrounding it, how Star Trek taught us not to fear the unknown, and to recognize the value of diverse perspectives and the strength in difference.

BettySoo is the ultimate "musician’s musician." She plays about a million instruments, sings like a bird, writes her pants off, and is both an accomplished studio musician and respected performer. A true Texan, and the child of first generation Korean immigrants, she grew up in Spring, just north of Houston and went to UT. At one point, she was going to be an English teacher. Instead, she became a touring musician and songwriter. (But she finds time for her lifelong love of books, working as an audiobook narrator on the side.) In that line of work, she's shared stages with Jimmy LaFave, Butch Hancock (of the Flatlanders), Michael Fracasso, Jaimee Harris, Jon Dee Graham, Bonnie Whitmore, James McMurtry, and Eliza Gilkyson, and many others. A founding member of both Charlie Faye and the Fayettes and Nobody’s Girl (along with yours truly and Rebecca Loebe), BettySoo is known first and foremost for her own work. As Acoustic Guitar put it, "BettySoo may well have the most gorgeous voice in Texas at the moment, if not in all contemporary folk." I may be biased, but I happen to agree.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 9, "Dagger of the Mind." Topics include: the importance of a piece of paper that says “I have a right to be here,” why BettySoo and Grace didn’t go to art school or music school, respectively, why BettySoo is loving this stage of her life, learning to be one’s own sound engineer and videographer, BettySoo’s and Grace's mom's crush on Patrick Stewart, why Worf was our favorite, the different female archetypes of Next Generation, Dr. Noel’s very, very short mini skirt, Macbeth, the accepted and common practice of lobotomizing (mainly minority groups) in the 60s, male-dominated scientific research, why it’s important that Kirk changes his mind, Tantalus, Lethe, and the River of Forgetfulness, Truth be Told (a wonderful Austin nonprofit), how not to talk to incarcerated people, this episode as social commentary on everything from consent to patients’ rights, to the prison system and the human dignity of incarcerated persons, the first appearance of the oddly sexual “mind meld,” Kirk's hotness factor vs Spock's hotness factor, the variety of television available these days, as compared to TV of the 60’s, and how that affects the conversations we’re all having in our living rooms, Ruby Falls and Rock City, the importance of taking a day of rest, and what would happen if everyone took a sabbatical.

(This episode was originally recorded Sep 2020).

Rebecca Loebe is an award-winning Americana singer-songwriter, based in Austin, Texas. She holds down duties as a member of Nobody's Girl (with BettySoo and Grace Pettis) and is signed to Blue Corn Music as a solo artist. She is a widely respected, driven, creative force. Equally adept at the artistic and the professional aspects of life as a working musician, she brings her own brand of fierce joy to it all.

She started her career as a sound engineering major at the prestigious Berklee College of Music but ended up pursuing a career as a full-time touring songwriter instead when she left school. Rebecca has released six studio albums as well as a live album. Her album, Mystery Prize, which she released in 2010 and made by bartering studio work for recording time, spent 2½ months on the Americana Music Association’s airplay chart and made its yearend top 100. She was a contestant on the first season of The Voice, and proceeded to spend the following years touring across the United States, Europe, and Japan. Her latest album, Give Up Your Ghosts, released on Blue Corn Music in 2019, "is an exercise in honesty and bravery alike for Loebe...the most important chapter she's written in her musical journey thus far." -PopMatters

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 8, "Miri." Topics include: unicorn brain and how to be a left brain / right brain creative, Rebecca’s origin story: sound engineering by way of music, then music by way of sound engineering, the 17-year-old second youngest freshman at Berklee, the teeny tiny fish in the big pond and how that prepares you for the music business, Trek-binging 90’s parents, the uncomfortable sexual tension between Kirk and Miri, this episode as a metaphor for the pubescent plague that befalls every kid, Grace’s constant state of Trek on tour, Star Trek-themed eyeshadow palettes, the far-fetched plot line of a global pandemic that wipe out all the old people, satellite images of Earth in the 60’s, Yeoman Janice Rand and Grace Lee Whitney’s exit from Trek, the creepy kid tribe, KIRK PUNCHES ZOMBIES, and why this episode was banned on British television.

(This episode was originally recorded July 2020).

Barbara Nesbitt is a lifelong Trekkie and an Americana/Folk singer-songwriter, based in Austin, Texas. She's just released her fifth studio album, entitled Someday, Maybe Sooner (July 2020). Nesbitt's talents have helped her amass a devout following. She's won top honors in the Austin Music Awards as both a singer and songwriter. Her last album, Right As Rain, is in rotation on SiriusXM Radio.

In addition to her own solo work, Nesbitt is co-founder of The Whiskey Sisters, a highly acclaimed Austin musical project. Barbara Nesbitt has shared stages with Willie Nelson and Bob Weir and was a 2019 Official Showcase Artist at South by Southwest. Lizzie Wann writes, "Barbara Nesbitt, a Georgia native, has found her home in music. Her life is reflected in the songs she writes which are about the ways, large and small, we abandon and seek that elusive safety of home."

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 7, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" Topics include: Barbara’s early days in a Virginia hippy jam band, from teenage runaway to a degree in aeronautical science, Barbara’s deep and abiding love of Trek, “the band is the battery and the audience is the alternator,” chainsaw bleep noise, the “Willie Nelson moment” and then what, Wrath of Khan as commentary on the human condition, tie-ins with The Addams Family, Lost in Space, and the Kennedy Assassination, redshirt deaths, that bottomless pit and which characters we’re supposed to care about, what are “snips”?, android stories and Pygmalion stories and female personhood, Pinocchio stories and “Is he a real boy?”, Kirk talks computers to death, that giant purple penis stalactite, and what does it really mean to be human?

"Americana musician and songwriter Raina Rose revels in sharing with you her beautifully twisted, yet refreshingly optimistic perspective on the world. Her unique voice and exceptional guitar playing transcend age, gender, generation, and even catch the ears of those who aren't typically into acoustic guitar-driven songwriting. With a naturalist's eye, an artist's pen, and a lion's attack, Raina lays everything she has on the line; she makes you feel as if she's your best friend whispering a honeysuckle-sweet secret in your ear, warmly inviting you into a joyfully intimate and darkly candid conversation."

Fun fact: Raina penned a song on my band Nobody's Girl's debut EP, Waterline, called "Bluebonnets," which I actually got to sing lead on in the studio. It's become one of my all-time favorite songs- to sing and in general. Every line is poetry, and the melody sings itself, like a classic Willie Nelson song. None of this surprises me, now that I know that Raina is the daughter of both a "country music historian and a Jewish poet." But the soul in every one of Raina's songs is unique and all her. "Raina Rose: even her name reads like a poem,” said William Harries Graham in the Austin Chronicle. It's true, y'all.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 6, "Mudd's Women." Topics include: the "folkanomics" of touring in your 20s with a baby, sexism blows and let's fix it, countries we daydream of moving to that support artists and families and the overwhelming temptation to just get in the car and drive north till we hit Canada, Childress has no chill, Spock is amused, pretty drug withdrawal = every woman ever before coffee and brushing her hair, beauty addiction culture, Harcourt Fenton Mudd's appearances in the Star Trek universe, Mudd's mail-order brides as stand-ins for Ivana, Marla, and Melania, the actual women who played them (Karen Steele, Susan Denberg/Dietlinde Zechner and Maggie Thrett/Diane Pine), creative followthrough as an act of keeping promises to yourself, Raina's starring role in a children’s production of “The Trouble with Tribbles," why you should always take the placebo and forgo the drugs and losers on Rigel 12, and a re-written last act for this episode, courtesy of us, with a much more satisfying, empowering, and logical ending for Eve.

Toledo native Calloway Ritch is an Austin, Texas-based songwriter and guitar player. Ritch is a mainstay in the Austin music scene, lending his musical talents over the years to various Texas outfits, including The Matthew Kline Band, The Conquistadors, the Ruby Dice trio, and the Grace Pettis Band. Ritch is a long-standing member of both the Ruby Dice and the Grace Pettis Band (6+ years). With Pettis, he co-wrote and recorded an independently released acoustic collection of songs, entitled Blue Star in a Red Sky (2017). His latest work can be found on duo partner, co-writer and fiancé Ruby Dice's latest EP, Wild Ones (2020).

In The Pocket Magazine writes: "Based out of Austin, Ruby Dice Band is a combination of two songwriters Ruby and Calloway Ritch. Together they create a mix of soul and rock n' roll that fits just fine here in the heart of Texas. Dice's soulful vocals and Ritch's articulate but bluesy guitar make for a sparse, powerful combo. Any millennial rocker that grew up infatuated with the White Stripes and/or the Black Keys will easily dig what they hear in Ruby Dice.”

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 5, "The Enemy Within." Topics include: Michigan and Ohio fighting over Toledo, how Grace stole both a stage and a lead guitar player, Calloway and Ruby are getting hitched, Spock's last name, medicinal brandy in space, Evil Us 's drinks of choice, Bad Kirk is bad at pretending to be Good Kirk, Grace Lee Whitney’s assault (life imitating art and/or the other way around), characteristics of a good/bad person, characteristics of a good/bad man, the unicorn dog, incidents of shirtless-ness, and that weird joke at the end of the episode.

"...imbued with a musical spirit that can’t be denied." That's as good a description of Lisa Sanders as any, from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Lisa is an award-winning, genre-defying singer and songwriter, based in San Diego. In her decades of touring, writing, and recording, she has opened for B.B. King, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Lucinda Williams, James Taylor, Stevie Nicks and Sting, among many others. She's performed all over the world with her duo partner, Karen "Brown Sugar" Hayes, and has been self-releasing her albums on her own label, Maya Jade Records, since 2004. She's got a brand new album in the works, Daughters of the Rising Tide, a collaborative effort with producer JT Nero (Birds of Chicago), feat. Sadler Vedan, Jamie Dick, Christopher Merrill, Steve Dawson, Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago) and others. You can't put Lisa Sanders in a box, you can't hold her back, and you can't keep her from smiling.

We review Star Trek (the Original Series), Season 1, Episode 4, "The Naked Time." Topics include: finding your voice, the boxes they try to fit you in, “keep moving,” racism and representation in the music industry, the “only girl in the studio” complex, Lisa’s new album, Grace’s new album, sword fighting Sulu, George Takei is the actual best, Lt. Jr. Grade Dum Dum, Spock and Nurse Chapel, Spock and Uhura, and there's not much time travel and nobody’s actually naked in this episode ("sorry, neither").