VOYAGER: Would you call your style more "folk" or "country rock?"

GANS: Folk-rock. I'm not much into the traditional folk stuff. I don't play any Old English ballads. Its modern folk music.

VOYAGER: The song "American Family" from Solo Acoustic seems to have a bit of a political bent to it. Do you believe in mixing politics with your music, or do you have the Grateful Dead policy of eschewing any sort of political stance?

GANS: I think that there's a social consciousness in my songs. I don't think of myself as being a heavily political writer, but if you're going to tell stories in music you may as well tell stories that have meaning to contemporary people.
 
     
  VOYAGER: I see you've covered the song "Normal" by Martin Mull. I take it this is the same Martin Mull I'm familiar with?

GANS: Yes, who was a musician before he became a famous actor.

VOYAGER: And also has a Master's degree in Art! I love that guy! How did you pick up a Martin Mull song?

GANS: I was a fan of his back in the `70's when he first started touring with his furniture. Do you remember those shows?

VOYAGER: The lamp and the recliner.

GANS: Yes. He played at the Boarding House in San Francisco a lot back in those days. "Normal" is a song that I just always loved. After I played it one night on this last tour I said, "I see that for some of the young people down front this song is an amusing fantasy, and for the older people in the back its the story of their lives."

  
     
   

  VOYAGER: Yeah, I thought, I'm almost offended because this is my parents' story!

GANS: (Laughs) The point is to do songs that people can connect with, and its an amusing song for me because I never did really "drop in" and get into the straight world. I sent a copy of it to Martin Mull with a cover letter saying, "I thought you might be amused to know that this song is still making people laugh."

VOYAGER: You also did a song with (Grateful Dead lyricist) Robert Hunter. What was the writing process with him?

GANS: He e-mailed me the lyrics. It was as simple as that. He said he had some lyrics he thought I might like. It was a song called "Like a Dog," and he liked what I did with it so he sent me another and that's the one that's on Solo Acoustic ("Shut Up and Listen"). I'm saving "Like a Dog" until I can record it with a band.

It was a thrill to get a lyric from Hunter, of course. He was quite easy to work with. I sent him back some changes I wanted to make and he accepted most of them, or said, "No, don't do that, do this," and it was fine.
 
     
 

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