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, a "monster" on stand-up bass; Larry wrote some originals that Matt loved, and Joe produced their CD; the money question: these days, live music is how musicians make money...as for Larry, yes! He's been fortunate enough becuase of 'The Banana Slug String Band" to make a living in Santa Cruz as a musician! 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 

Painted Mandolin_AiryLarry_singer-songwriter, musician_2025-01-17_kzsc_Bushwhacker's

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 there"...the regular (DC) pay, vs. the feast & famine (AC) of gigs - sandwich freelance between Broadway gigs. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 

Stephen Benson_singer, songwriter, guitar virtuoso_20240712_LIVE in the studio_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

&nbsp;             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 there"...the regular (DC) pay, vs. the feast &amp; famine (AC) of gigs - sandwich freelance between Broadway gigs. An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California.

Stephen Benson - singer, songwriter, guitar virtuoso - 20240712_LIVE in the studio_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

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, then most impactful folk festivals. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 

Rupert Wates_singers, songwriter, guitar virtuoso_20240809_kzsc_Bushwhacker's

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 originals, with everyone contributing to the charts. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Char-Zard", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 


G'ma's Place_jazz musicians _20241210_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

In Santa Cruz a bit unexpectedly, because the California Senate started the week with 300-400 bills that had to be voted on to be passed over to the Assembly ahead of today's deadline for bills to move out of their "House of Origin" - and the Senate finished a day early! Bills will now be assigned to committee(s) in the other house - if they include fiscal implications (more than $50,000) they also go to the Appropriations Committee and placed on the "suspense calendar"; Senator Laird had 17 bills on the floor, and the hardest (SB 29) extends the sunset date on the ability to get pain & sufferring - managed it by "shear force of will"; procedurally, need a floor manager in the other house, either in name only, or one who will do the effort; Is high speed rail in California dead? No, but it is mired down due to increasing costs and delays; deep dive into California Public Utilities Commission and solar metering (thanks to Eric in Santa Cruz): deep dive into Lompico egress thanks to Tim in PG: there's one way in and out; the legislature had a constitutionally mandated deadline to get a budget out by June 15, and not clear where the Governor is in this; although the legislature has the "power of the purse", the Governor can use a line item vetoe to remove items, unlike the federal government. 


CA_State_Senator_John Laird_2025-06-06_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

Justin Cummings is Santa Cruz County 3rd District Supervisor 

Local impact of chaos in Washington? If the proposed cuts to Medicaid go through, this will impact California, and then us, with 40,000 people (out of a total county population of 250,000) losing health coverage; Justin, formerly a soft money scientist at UCSC, is now an adjunct in the Coastal Science & Policy Program; Trust: slow to build, quick to destroy; RTC = Regional Transportation Commission, which recently received the summary of the Rail-Trail feasability study, which indicates that the project will ultimate cost ~$4.2 Billion; CZU fire aftermath, 5 years later, where state restrictions / code / requirements changed since the destroyed houses were built, such that replacement cost might not be enough to bring the rebuilt house up to code; what can be done?; Measure Q, land, water & wildlife; dealing with budget, with possible cuts to radiology & phlebotomy. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 



Justin Cummings_SC County Supervisor_2025-06-13_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

Bonny June & Bonfire (Ken Kraft & Craig Owens) are singers / songwriters / storytellers based in Santa Cruz, California. 

Topics covered in the interview include: songwriting as story telling: every song tells a story! Sometimes they come to Bonny fully formed in a dream; birthday bash coming up will feature 2 new covers; The Money Question? Craig: no. Club owners like paying what they paid in the 80s. Ken: yes. Has been able to support himself through production, music lessons, and performing; Bonny June: not entirely, as she's a care giver by day; Bonny June & Bonfire have their 4th album in the works, and are releasing songs 1 at a time as they are completed. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 

Bonny June and Bonfire_singers, songwriters Bonny June, Ken Kraft & Craig Owens_2025-06-06_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

Gail Pellerin is California's 28th Distict Assemblymember.

The legislature met their constitutional obligation to pass a budget by June 15, and they sent it to the governor - it's *very* different from what he sent over; there is significant uncertainty due to the federal government budget cuts and next year's budget, compounded by uncertainty over state tax income with LA having an extension; the legislature pushed back on the governor's budget - an example is the asset cap required to qualify for Medi-Cal: the governor wanted to revert to $2,000 (so if you own a car, you don't qualify), but the legislature stuck with current $130,000 for individual, $190,000 for couples; also pushed back on funding ($500 million) for women's health and family planning; also advocated to preserve ACEs Aware (Adverse Childhood Experiences Awareness Initiative); Governor has come around & is now working with legislature to address the PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Manager) "fox guarding the henhouse" problem; bills out of House of Origin include Semper Virens AB679 ("Third time's the charm?!!?"); Mike Rotkin passed away - a pillar of our community, former mayor, longtime city councilmember, Community Studies teacher; Alzheimer's webinar next Friday; deep dive into Gut & Amend, and need to get concurrence from all parties to utilize. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 


Gail Pellerin_CA State Assemblymember_2025-06-20_KZSC_Bushwhacker's

The Salmonid Restoration Foundation's (SRF) 42nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference will be in Santa Cruz at the end of April; Dana has been Executive Director for 20 years; the conference is the largest Salmonid / watershed conference in the northwest; 550 people are registered, but it's a challenging time: starting last year, there was a freeze on state employees traveling, and now Federal; Santa Cruz will host the conference at a number of venues; the Klamath Dam removal is the largest dam removal in history - it took decades! The secret? You have to have a big team, and find common ground; after the dam's removal, it took days (!!) for salmon to start to return, and in months, more than 10,000 returned; what does Santa Cruz get out of hosting the conference? Economic impact, plus networking, learning, and history; lessons learned? Regional issues, and urban creek restoration and homelessness; definition of "anadromous" fish; SRF was created to hold the conference, but has expanded to do more. 

An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" & "DJ Spark Plug", airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 


Chris Berry,SC Watershed Compliance Manager & Dana Stolzman, ED - Salmonid  Restoration Federation_KZSC Bushwhacker's

saving the world from commercial radio, one song at a time.

New tracks tagged #KZSC