Welcome to Heard in Humboldt on KHSU, a program where we play a range of live music performances captured in Humboldt County.
This week we’re playing a request! It is very rare that someone reaches out with a request for this program, but our friend and listener and Humboldt alum, Greg Hardig, wondered if we might like to air another tune from Pacific Grass & Acoustic.
If you’re not familiar with the story, in fall 2025 Greg reached out to KHSU to share a recording of Pacific Grass & Acoustic playing live in the KHSU station during a pledge drive way back in 1979. He had recorded the set off of the radio onto a cassette tape, which he sent to a member of the band who digitized it.
Pacific Grass and Acoustic was a local bluegrass group primarily composed of brothers Jon and Tom Menig, Rudy Gorke and Avram Segal – who were all Humboldt State University students at the time. We’ve played a couple songs from this recording before, but it has been a while, so we were happy to oblige Greg and play another tune from this set, which we view as a fun sort of time capsule of the station in 1979. As requested by Greg, we’re gonna air today a cover of a blue grass classic “Old Train” written by Herb and Nikki Pedersen.
You’re listening to heard in Humboldt on KHSU and that was “Old Train” and performed by Pacific Grass and Acoustic, captured at the KHSU station on campus in 1979. Since it was a short tune and we have a little more time, we’re gonna play part of another tune from the set “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” written in 1960 by Reverend Gary Davis.
Thank you to Jon Menig and all the members of Pacific Grass & Acoustic and thank you to Greg Hardig for providing the recordings. Thank you for listening to Heard in Humboldt on KHSU and tune in next time, as we explore more live music from behind the Redwood Curtain.
And check out more Pacific Grass & Acoustic on KHSU with Part 1 and Part 2.
