Songs and Stories #191: Dayan Kai Returns with "To Be Free"

Dayan Kai is one of this podcasts returning champions. He was a guest waaaaaay back in episodes #25 and #26 (with musical pal Steve Uccello), then dropped in with Keith Greeninger in  episodes #85 and #86, and then we caught up with him in solo mode in episodes #129 and episode #162. Dayan's become a really close pal over the years - even coproducing my "Starlite..." and "Hey Karma" records, and a podcast visit is a good excuse to document a nice long talk, and post it for posterity. If you don't know, Dayan was born in Maui HI but raised locally in San Juan Batista - there's even a wonderful song about it, of course. He moved back to his native Maui seven (yes, seven) years ago, but he makes frequent trips here to the mainland, often teaming up for a west coast run with Keith and mixing in a few solo shows. His new release is "To Be Free," a wonderful, sparse, but very rootsy and rockin' new album that was engineering by Keith at Wind River Studios. The entire project is just Dayan and his guitar, and is (intentionally) a perfect representation of what you'll get when you go to a solo Dayan. In this interview, we talked about his various music projects, his latest musical adventures ping ponging back and forth to the west coast from Hawaii, and what might be in store for his next musical project (hint: solo ukulele.) You'll find "To Be Free" (and all of Dayan's records) at dayankai.com, CD Baby, iTunes, and Spotify.