D-Squared

For many years now, the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona has opened its gates to the public on nights between Thanksgiving and Christmas for a unique celebration of the holiday season. The pathways of the garden are lined with 7000 luminarias, paper bags with a scoop of sand in the bottom for ballast and a votive candle glowing inside. This is an old Mexican tradition that quite naturally found its way to the Southwest and, to anyone who grew up in this part of the world, has the immediate effect of signaling party!

The Magic Path

You wander on luminaria-lined paths through a veritable museum of Sonoran desert flora discovering intimate little venues subtly lit by twinkly lights and staffed by more than a dozen talented local music acts to entertain the throng. Mariachi Loco greets you outside the front gate and a solo harpist graces the entrance plaza. Then the paths dictate that you begin to make choices: take the first left to the Amphitheater and you find folk music (that’s us), continue forward and there’s a barbershop group singing holiday standards and then another plaza featuring wine tasting, fine food and a hot Nuevo Spanish band called Del Sol. If you make a right back there instead of a left you encounter a bonfire and Meadowlark, a flute and guitar duo. Proceed on to a handbell choir and a Latin band called Cascabel. Now there are more choices: up the hill on the Nature trail for a view of the city and garden below with singer and guitarist, James Linton, or down the People and Plants of the Sonoran Desert trail to hear Native American flute (Wolfs Robe or Jesse Kalu), fiddler Ron Privett, and the beautiful classical guitar and violin duo, Lyra. (Those familiar with our “Big Sky Full O’ Dumb Stars” CD will know Allen Ames’ work - he played the stunning violin and violira solos on “Ice Crystals” and “Luna.”) My advice as you travel through this wonderland is the same as Yogi Berra’s: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”. I have heard or know all of the acts and there’s not a clinker in the bunch. Take your time and hear them all. Explore the intimate nooks and crannies of the garden - eat something, drink something, and enjoy the fact that even with 2000 other hominids the garden is large enough to provide the sort of solitude that turns the desert night luminous.

If you have a date, this is one of the world’s great make-out spots. It is tres romantique. If you’re with your mom, maybe not so much. But remember that your mom knows a little something about romance too or you wouldn’t be here.

Photo by Randy Arneson

Old Friends

Now perhaps I would not have thought of the angle of romance had we not been visited last night by three girls (and they will always be girls to me) that I went to high school with: Judy, Linda and Kristin. Judy and I dated back then, Linda and I didn’t, and I’ve known Kristin since she was Christy in grade school. In fact, the most vicious fight of my life was in the playground at Ingleside Elementary with Billy Albright over who got to dance with her. It took two teachers to pull us off each other. We were in 3rd Grade.

The girls were there for the second set - an hour and a half of sitting on cold masonry benches, no small feat. Their presence made it even more fun for us. The nature of this event and the weather dictate that audiences are constantly on the move so we often only get them for a song or two and then they go on. Add to that the fact that we can’t see them very well and it makes it difficult to spin the thread of a show. But they got to see us at our best, telling stupid stories and playing with good energy.

When our carriage turned back into a pumpkin at 9:30, the girls stuck around and we had a chance to catch up. It doesn’t disconcert me at all that I always play better when there are girls I like in the audience. That’s why I got out from behind the drum kit years ago and took up guitar, I wanted to get in front of the band so the girls would notice. We caught up for so long that they turned the lights out and we had to pack up in the dark. But a friendly ranger came by and saved us with the headlights on her golf cart.

Christmas Spirit

Everyone we have had dealings with at the garden has been invariably gracious and helpful. This is a large undertaking and the employees and volunteers do a fabulous job for 19 nights. From Katie & Courtney who booked us; to the staff at the shop selling CDs; to the luminaria lighters, snuffers and guides; to the guys who come around to light our little heaters; to the night watchman: they embody precisely the spirit of the season. Each night I am struck but what a cool event this is and how lucky we are to be a part of it. We have our friend, singer and storyteller Tony Norris of Flagstaff, to thank for that. DBG pays fair too, we like for you to know that because it takes a little juice to make culture.

Having our first steady gig in years fills me with Christmas spirit and we will miss it when it’s over. I hope your holiday season contains some magic; if it does, spread it around because we need it. And to restate Yogi a la Carlos Casteneda: when you come to a fork in the road, choose the path with heart. I leave you with a little song I wrote around a campfire on New Year’s Eve, 2000:

We’re countin’ down the days and the hours before Christmas
We’re countin’ on the promise of the phases of the moon
We bless the faithful arrows and the ones that have missed us
Still the next thousand years comes a little too soon
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
We gather ’round the home fire with our friends and good relations
To talk about our hopes and the presents we received
The bubbles of our future are uncorked in jubilation
But the best present of all is this very New Year’s Eve
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Gods Bless Us, Every One.

Don