The Dream Journal – August 2023

Hello!

This past month has been fairly eventful in our area. Right at home, we are in the midst of the Zucchini Apocalypse! Our zucchini and yellow squash plants are being VERY prolific, gifting us with multiple lovely squash every day. We have put up at least 6 quarts of refrigerator pickles from our pickling cucumber plants. We’ve had a few tomatoes, including a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes and two exquisite brandywine beefsteaks that tasted even better than they looked. We’ve had first harvest of broccoli on one variety, and our kale is gorgeous. We’re oh so close to having our first eggplant. And what we thought were butternut squash plants turned out to be acorn squash plants instead, and at least one of the acorn squashes is the size of a soccer ball! The garden seems to be loving all the rain, and we’re happy we haven’t had to water it at all this year. But in our neighboring towns and our neighboring state (Vermont), all that rain has brought a lot of flood damage. We’re hoping the major flooding is behind us, but we know a lot of folks are still cleaning up and rebuilding.

As we travel around the country, we keep an eye out for open mics. They give us an opportunity to meet new folks on the road, hear new music we’ve not heard before, and bring our music to folks who might not otherwise hear us. Open Mic America celebrates open mics, both in-person and virtual. We’ve played on there several times in the past, and we will be back online with them this Sunday, August 6th at 8pm Eastern. Lots of new-to-us acts on the list, so we get to meet new folks and hear new music we’ve not heard before, and we don’t even have to leave the house! You can listen from anywhere with internet access. Tune in on YouTube for original music and interviews of 8 acts, including us.

This is the third year for the Listen & Lunch concert series at Depot Square Park in Peterborough, NH, and we are pleased to be taking part again. Join us 12-1pm on Thursday, August 24th beside the scenic Contoocook River. Bring a picnic lunch, a chair or a blanket, and we’ll sing for you! In case of rain, the concert is cancelled, and there is no rain date.

The Acworth Village Store in South Acworth, NH has been having a rough summer. The flooding in early July swept the Cold River into the back yard of the store, and they finally have it cleared out again. Come out and give the store some love on Saturday, August 26th as they continue their Summer Saturday Music series with a meal and music by us! We’ll be playing 5:30-7:30pm. This one is rain or shine.

Sharon’s On The Common, a women’s clothing shop, hosts PopUp Sunday just off the green in downtown Chester, VT on Sunday, August 27th. It includes various vendors from the shops on the green, artisans, and us! Drive to the common in downtown Chester, look for the PopUp signs. It runs 11am-3pm. We’re pleased to see that Sharon’s On The Common is selling merchandise to raise money for local flood victims in the Chester area. Please help them out! This show is rain or shine unless it’s just been too wet to set up tents, in which case they may call it off (but there’s still good shopping in the shops around the common!). If the weather is looking iffy, drop us a message to check on the status.

We spend a fair amount of time on the road, and we love to take pictures and video as we travel. Faith’s song Looking For The Road Less Traveled seemed like a great choice for a lyric video using some of those pictures and video. Enjoy!  This video went out to our Patreon patrons last month.

If you’d like to get early access to new videos, or see videos and content specifically posted for our patrons, sign up on our Patreon page.  We have a new video up today of a song that will be on our next album. You can see a preview of it here.

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).

We’re just back from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, four days of musical community. If you ever get a chance to spend a day (or more) at a folk festival, we highly recommend it!

Dan & Faith

The Dream Journal – July 2023

Hello!

We’re feeling somewhat humid. We’ve practically forgotten what dry days feel like. Our garden is incredibly happy about all the moisture, as are the blackberries and black raspberries that grow around our property. The berries are sizing up nicely! Our local turkey flock is expanding again this year, as there have been a dozen or more turkey poults (turkey chicks are called ‘poults’) running around our yard with their hen guardians. The turkeys don’t seem to mind the incessant rain as that stirs up bugs for them to eat, including ticks. Any critter that eats ticks is welcome in our yard! Now if we could just get them to be interested in the mosquitoes…

When we moved to New Hampshire, one of the first places in the area where we found live local music was at the Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse across the river from us in Springfield, VT. We’re happy to be playing there this Sunday, July 9th as part of their summer Sunday Concert Series. If the weather cooperates, the show will be outdoors on the church lawn, otherwise it will be in the sanctuary. Music runs 4-6pm.

Back in April, we were scheduled to play in a Songwriters in the Round showcase at One Broadway Collaborative in Lawrence, MA, but due to illness (not Covid, just a annoying head cold that affected Dan’s singing), we had to drop out. We’re happy to be back on for Friday, July 21st. We’ll be swapping songs with Beth DeSombre and Doug Farrell, both extraordinary songwriters, and dear friends to boot. We expect there will be collaboration! You can attend in person or stream it live. Music is 7-9pm Eastern time. Tickets are $15, and can be purchased here. If you opt for the streaming option, the streaming information will be sent after you have reserved via the ticket link. It’s our understanding that this is Beth’s last New England show before she goes off to California for a year’s fellowship assignment, so we’d love to have a good crowd to give her a proper send-off.

July is apparently a good month for rescheduling things! Last month’s Acworth Music Festival at the Acworth Village Store in South Acworth, NH was rained out, and has been rescheduled for Saturday, July 22nd. Artists include Isness Ensemble, Blue Collar Band, Pointless Culture, Clint Pecor Live, Doug Farrell (yes, we get to hang out with Doug for two days in a row!), the Hypnic Jerks, and us. The festival runs 11am through dusk. We’re kicking off the festival at 11am, so please come early!

For our Patreon patrons, we have a new lyric video posted! Faith’s song Looking For The Road Less Traveled and Dan’s photos and video from our road trip last September/October go well together. Subscribe to our Patreon page, and you’ll get full access to the video, along with other subscriber-only content.

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).

For us, music is love. Share your love with your loved ones while you are able.

Dan & Faith

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