‘Music Was Our Language’: Grammy-Award Winning Producer Turns Mic on Sister
Musician Ian Brennan made a name for himself recording live shows in a San Francisco laundromat in the 1990s. He went on to become a producer, working with Lucinda Williams, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and others. He then turned to field recordings of musicians around the world, like prisoners in Malawi and survivors of Genocide in Cambodia. Now he’s made an album with his own family – his sister Jane, who has Down syndrome, and her companions with developmental disabilities at an adult care facility in Contra Costa County. They call themselves the Sheltered Workshop Singers, and their new album is called “Who You Calling Slow?”
Dan 'The Can't Stand Up Comedian' Smith
Dan Smith has been through a lot of challenges in his life. But the one thing that’s kept him going is comedy. Dan calls himself “The Can’t Stand Up Comedian” because he uses a wheelchair. Before the pandemic, a group of comics would hoist him onstage once a week at a Sacramento comedy club called the Punch Line. Comedy has been a sanctuary for Dan, but COVID has made it impossible for him to go out to clubs and do sets in person. KQED’s Asal Ehsanipour and Ainé Henderson have been in touch with Dan throughout the year and bring us his story.
Artists Capture Wildfire’s Destructive Power – and Beauty
Some visual artists and photojournalists are not just drawing inspiration from California’s spectacular landscapes, but also from the state’s increasingly destructive wildfires. There’s an exhibit at the California Museum of Photography in Riverside. It’s called “Facing Fire: Art, Wildfire, and the End of Nature in the New West.” The exhibit opened for a short while before the pandemic, and it’s going to re-open next month. Reporter Steven Cuevas went to check it out.