The Dream Journal – October 2023

Hello!

The summer has come to a close, the leaves are changing, and the garden is finally slowing down. The cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, and broccoli plants have fed us extremely well this year! The tomatoes were a bit slow, but we’ve had some of the sweetest, largest brandywine tomatoes (beefsteak size) we’ve ever grown. We got a few eggplant, green peppers and jalapeño peppers, and the celery is decent. Our butternut squash plants all turned out to be acorn squash plants, but they have given us some lovely acorn squash that we’ll be eating for quite a while. Only two cabbages, but they’re dense and delicious. And then there’s the kale. Oh yes, the kale! The plants are a good 4 feet tall, and we have a lot of them. Kale lasts well after first frost, and it freezes well. Rinse, chop, toss in freezer. Remove from freezer, throw a handful into soups, stews, etc. We will eat well this winter, too!

This coming Saturday, October 7th, is the Vermont Apple Festival and Craft Show at the Riverside Middle School in Springfield, VT. Craft vendors, food, kids activities, farmers market, even an apple pie contest! Stop by the school gym starting at 9:10am and running through 4pm for a day of music with Bill Brink, Matt Meserve, Dan & Faith, Matt Munroe, and Otto Cruise. Our set runs 11:45am-1pm.

Open mics are a wonderful opportunity to get to know folks in an area, hear new music, and discover new talent. When we travel, we like to find local open mics for just that reason. Open Mic America is an online nationwide open mic for any genre of music. Each performer gets 2 songs and a brief interview. We’ve been on OMA several times now, and will be back on again this Sunday, October 8th from 8-10pm Eastern on YouTube.

We have played at Wild Hog In The Woods in Madison, WI a number of times, and are delighted to be heading back there again on Friday, October 13th. The Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, where this coffeehouse is held, has a great vibe, and Wild Hog is celebrating 45 years of bringing a diverse array of music to the community in a listening room environment. Doors open at 7pm, music starts at 7:30pm. Admission is $2 for members, $4 for non-members, and during the show, Phillup the Pig, the ceramic boar piggy bank, is passed for the performers.

It’s fun for us to find new venues! On Friday, October 20th, we get to play at the Two Way Street Coffeehouse in Downers Grove, IL. With almost 50 years of continuous operation, the Two Way Street Coffee House is the oldest music coffee house in the Midwest. Doors open at 7:30pm, music starts at 8pm Central time. Suggested donation is $10. The show is also streamed online. You can access the livestream from their website.

This Friday, October 6th, is Bandcamp Friday. On Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp waives their revenue share to help support the musical artists who offer their music on Bandcamp. Don’t look now, but the holiday season is approaching! This would be a marvelous time to consider picking up a copy of one of our albums. You can order a physical CD, or download in any format you choose. And if you end up buying on a different day, that’s OK, too! Bandcamp is a wonderfully supportive organization that we’ve sold our CDs through for several years now.

Our albums Then and Now, Seeking, and Simple Grace are available from us on our website, through Bandcamp, or you can find them at iTunes and most other online music stores. Our music is also available streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.

As always, you can find additional schedule information on our website. For additional content and stories from the road, follow us on Patreon. For more frequent news updates and information, check out our Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter (@danandfaith).

Listening to live local music is a great way to get to know folks in your community!

Dan & Faith