We have lots of music swirling around our heads at the moment.

Saturday, June 14, 5 PM…….The Kid’s Cove, Tsunami on the Square Festival in Prescott, AZ
(Cortez St. side of the Courthouse Square) FREE! www.tsunamionthesquare.com

Friday, June 20, 7:00 PM, Folk Sessions’ 5th Anniversary Show. Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Church, 882 Sunset Ave., Prescott, AZ. Performances by D-Squared, Vyktoria Pratt Keating, Dennis Garvey & Remedy, with Linda Bilque, Alexa MacDonald, Tom Agostino, and Layne Longfellow. All this for only $5! www.folksessions.com

Saturday, June 21, 7:00 PM, Don hosts the Folk Sessions Live! radio show on 89.5FM and 90.1 FM. This signal can be heard from Kingman and Flagstaff, Verde Valley to Prescott. Taped replay is Midnight- 2:00. Don’s been spinning some great tunes, telling tales and waxing philosophical on occasion. (Even I listen to his show………and I have to listen to him all the time! ~Deb)

Saturday, June 28, 7:00 PM, Don hosts the Folk Sessions Live! radio show. (see above)

Sunday, June 29, 1:55-2:40 PM, Main Stage at FFOTM’s Flagstaff Folk Festival, Coconino Center for the Arts,
2300 N. Fort Valley Road. Come for the whole festival, Saturday and Sunday! http://www.ffotm.net/folkfest

And the thing we’ve been working the hardest on is the all original folk opera “Joe Mayer and the Town That Built Him”, written by Jody Drake (of the Blue Rose Theater at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott), music by D-Squared. We’re in production now and will perform the play July 18, 19 and 20 in Prescott. The actors are kids with great talent and we feel honored to be a part of this adventure! This is a story about Joe Mayer, the founder of our fair town! More details later……………

See ya ’round town,
Don & Deb

Fred Coon learned the banjo growing up in the mountains of West Virginia. His father played a two finger style that Fred adapted as well as a frailing style prevalent in the local ‘hollers.’ He picked up techniques from Wade Ward, Franklin George, Aunt Jenny Wilson, Mike Seeger and others while making extensive field recordings of banjo players. He has played with many of the greats in folk music including Doc Watson and David Holt and currently resides in Phoenix.

Bill Burke has been a fixture in the Flagstaff music scene for decades as a guitar, banjo, and mandolin player. He has appeared on stage with Jay Ungar, John Cohen, and the New Lost City Ramblers and toured for many years with Rick and Lorraine Lee. Burke makes his living as a woodworker and luthier and plays his own beautifully crafted instruments on stage. His fine furniture is on permanent display at both the Henry Moore Trust and the American Craft Museum.

While D-Squared is best known as a harp and guitar act, they have long incorporated the tenor banjo into their intriguing sound as well. Charles credits his banjo style to “trying to sound like an old-timey player with one string missing.” They have promised a set of original banjo hits and a few you haven’t heard.

If you like banjos, this is a concert you won’t want to miss. The suggested donation is $10 with refreshments provided. Big Bug Station is located in the Old Mayer Mercantile Building at the stop sign on Central, catty-corner from the Mayer post office. Call (928) 632-4177 for information or visit bigbugstation.com.

It’s one of our favorite venues to play and we look forward to seeing your shining faces there……….

We love it when Bill can join us on stage, which doesn’t happen enough as far as we’re concerned.

So, Bill’s 40th birthday was on March 14th. All his friends met him with (what seemed like) gallons of Silly String, while his wife, Tracy, trumpeted him through the door. A fun night.

Friday, January 4, 6-9 PM, 2See Studio in the Garfield Galleria, Suite 201, 316 West McDowell Road in Phoenix (TODAY!)

This is part of the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Phoenix. We will be providing ambient music at our friend and collaborator Cheryl Colan’s new downtown art gallery. The show is entitled Shadows and Reflections and features works by a number of interesting photographers including some of Deb Gessner’s new work. Gallery opens at 6 PM, Admission is free.

Friday, January 18, 8 PM at the Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 North Fort Valley Road (Highway 180) in Flagstaff

This is the kick-off event for the Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music (FFOTM) series, co-sponsored by Flagstaff Cultural Partners. Opening the show will be The Springfield Band featuring our old friends Tony Norris, Bill Burke and Fred Coon. They have added fiddler, Elena Gonzales, and singer, Megan Buchanan, to their already impressive talent roster. This is a band with deep traditional ties and we’re excited to hear the new line-up. We have a few new tunes in our bag as well as some old favorites. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a wonderful evening of music. Tickets for this concert are $15 in advance, $18 at the door and can be purchased online or by calling (928) 779-2300. (directions)

Saturday, January 26, 2 PM and 7:30 PM (two shows), Blue Rose Theater at the Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 West Gurley Street in Prescott

Make it Snow is the theme of this season-opening show for the Blue Rose Theater and we have the material to make it happen. Our long association with Jody Drake and the Sharlot Hall Museum has been a blessing to us in many ways and we have always loved that room. It is where we played together for the very first time in public more years ago than we want to think about. Tickets are $10 for museum members, $12 for general public. Please call (928) 445-3122 for tickets and information. You can look them up online at sharlot.org.

We’re not sure why but winter concerts always seem to have a little extra energy, for audience and performer alike. So join us and take a little sip.

Don & Deb

If I was a bumblebee
Buzzin’ round the bowers
In pantaloons of pollen sweet
I’d wile away the hours
Dancin’ with the flowers

If I was a common moth
No fancy flutterby wings
I’d powder softly through the night
To fragrant offerings
And what the moon might bring

Each has a name here
Each has a place here
Each one under the sun
A part of forever
Apart and together
A part of everyone

And if I was a blade of grass
Growing straight and tall
The prairie beasts that thunder by
Would love me best of all
To feed the summer all

If I was a bit of clay
With shiny specks of sand
I’d bless the fires of the kiln
And bend beneath the hand
Of artists great and grand

Kind of nice to know they’re trying to do something to stop the rape and pillage of the desert…………

See article here.

To do our part we have committed to producing shows there on a much more regular basis - to feature D-Squared as well as other fine regional and national acts. For those of you who have attended past shows you know how lovely this room sounds and feels. Old wooden bar and floor, rounded glass windows, and high pressed tin ceilings - the place just oozes history. We are excited about this opportunity and ask for your continued support of what passes for culture here in the heart of Arizona.

So to kick off this venture, the new Big Bug Station at the Old Mayer Mercantile will present D-Squared and special guest Michael McGarrah at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, September 22, 2007. Suggested donation $15. The new Big Bug Station is located at Central and Main Streets in old downtown Mayer, AZ. (map link in case you need it).

Michael McGarrah is an exceptional songwriter who moved down from Seattle a few years ago. His songs are masterfully skewed vignettes that always reveal a deeper truth. We were honored to play on his brilliant new CD, Love Boat to Reno, this is a record you will want to own. Check it out at www.michaelmcgarrah.com.

As we will be leaving for an extended road trip after this show, we will be showcasing parts of our latest road set. Unfortunately we will miss the Sharlot Hall Folk Festival this year so this will be your opportunity to hear what we would have played there. Deb has a couple of brand new ones that are very cool.

So mark your calendar and join Mike, Susan and the girls at the Old Mayer Mercantile for an evening of tasty songs and tasty treats. We hope to see you there.

Thanks, Don & Deb

To view the video, please go to http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/lwwvideospage.html , our video is currently ranked at #17. And, of course, every time you view it there, our popularity ranking goes up. So feel free to send the link to anyone you think might be interested.

To explore Neil Young’s website please go to www.neilyoung.com . Lots to see and listen to.

Peace,

Don & Deb

When the sky
Is hot and dry
I can’t seem to find
My way back to you

In this world
No one keeps their word
And the promised bird
Flies away from you

There’s no sleep on this bed of nails
Bitter weeping and keening wails
Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo

Water’s deep
And minds are weak
And the raven beaks
Her way back to you

Bluey bright
Burn the stars at night
And the blindman’s light
Shines the way for you

Tattered prose in the silence rages
Forgotten rose ‘tween the empty pages
Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo

When the sky
Is clear and wide
The raven flies
Calling out to you

Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo
Oohoo oohoo oohoo

Due to a family health crisis, all D-Squared concerts in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, from July 4 to August 5, 2007, have been canceled until further notice. We will keep you posted if there are any changes. If you need to get in touch with the venues and have lost their contact info, please drop us an email at d2@dsquaredmusic.com and we will get that to you.

Thank you for your understanding.
Don & Deb

Tickets are on sale at The Museum Store at Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley St., Prescott, AZ 928-445-3122, www.sharlot.org

There will be lots to see and do, workshops to participate in and musical acts playing in the Elks Theater, the Raven Cafe, and the Prescott Public Library. And it’s cooler in Prescott.

Hope you can join us!

This is exciting for us! Our friend and webmistress, Cheryl Colan, went on a camping trip with us to the desert and video taped our newest song, “Little Iraq”. The song was inspired by a camping experience several weeks prior to the filming, when we embarked on an impromptu Birthday Camp in the desert just north of Phoenix.

It started out innocently enough - hiking among the saguaros, throwing the frisbee for Yippy and a gourmet campfire meal. But from dusk to noon the next day we witnessed an assault on the desert unlike anything we had ever experienced. Drunken fishermen drove throughout the night around Lake Pleasant in their diesel trucks (one right through our camp); the moon kicked up a small arms barrage that lasted until 3AM; and the next morning, after the sheriff had tried to ticket us for an unrestrained dog, a horde of off-road vehicle enthusiasts descended upon the river bottom we were camped in. When we were finally driven out, we passed hundreds of people with all manner of armaments from pistols to shotguns to AK47s, standing upon mounds of spent shell casings firing into the desert - a most impressive display.

At one point we climbed a small mountain only to command a 180 degree view several miles deep of churning dust accompanied by a soundtrack that bore a striking resemblance to Apocalypse Now. It was then that we dubbed the place Little Iraq. And it pissed Don off enough to go home and write this song.

To vote for “Little Iraq” on YouTube go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWJbQ0KJTus

The dudes in the diesels come spoiling for a fight
They circle ’round the campfires hunting for Friday night
Every now and then you can hear ‘em bogging down
Where the sand gets soft cussing their luck and
Pushing that truck that they do not dare turn off
Do not dare turn off

The moon rises yellow hooded like a weeping eye
Tired of dripping light down on the scenery sliding by
On the AK47s and the shot to shit tvs
If it’s shiny we shoot at it my country tis of thee
Oh my country tis of thee sweet land of liberty
Of thee I sing

Dawn brings the deputy to survey the battle scars
Beating the thickets writing tickets to unabandoned dogs and cars
It’s the only quiet of the day and he wants to be gone real soon
Nobody’s dying to be high sheriff of this country
At high noon

The quadrunners and the ghostriders start gunning their engines
The shiny plastic helmets make them look like little aliens
Popping wheelies in the river bottom ’til the dust just chokes the air
And mom follows behind with the sandwiches’cause it’s a family affair
It’s a family affair

My grandpa showed me this country when I was a kid
Saguaros soldiered everywhere
Now they only march on the mountains and the few
That are left down there in the flats are peppered
With bullets the size of golfballs buried in the rotting wood
And if you’re the one with the biggest gun
I guess you just call that good

Yeah and everyone else is evil everyone else is wrong and
If you won’t fight for what is right then you simply don’t belong
And we do not feel for pulses and we do not feel for pain
Pay very close attention listen to the rhythm of the fallen reign
Telling me what a fool I’ve been
What a fool I’ve been

They’re shooting up the desert tonight down in Little Iraq
Some of the boys going out there will not be coming back
They’ll drown in a dry wash of shotgun shells and beer
With the sound of freedom still ringing in their ears
In their ears, in their ears
The sound of freedom

And for those within the listening range of KJZA 89.5 FM, you can catch us tonight at 7:00 p.m. on the Folk Sessions Live! radio show hosted by Tom Agostino and Alexa McDonald. The same show is broadcast again later the same evening at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.

This concert is being held in the immaculate new studio at the Phoenix home of Cyd and Greg West. Greg is a highly respected trompe l’oeil artist, he makes fruit fly, and Cyd is a longtime friend and artist in her own right, she sang with us on our first CD as Cindy Barber. Perhaps she can be persuaded to sing one or two with us. This will be a particularly fun show with some old friends in a cool space with art in it. Music and art, imagine them going together. Suggested donation is $15. You can email or call to reserve your seats and they will provide you with the address and directions: cydwest[at]cox[dot]net or (602) 526-1110.

Folk Sessions, 7:00 PM Friday February 16 in Prescott

Held at the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Hall (882 Sunset Drive, off Whipple behind True Value), Folk Sessions is a regular coffeehouse series hosted by Alexa MacDonald and Tom Agostino in Prescott. For the past several years they have been bringing in some very good regional and national touring acts as well as hosting a folk radio show on KJZA 89.5FM every Saturday night. This will be an all-local night as we split the bill with Jonathon Best, a wildly talented and very fun keyboard player. This could be an interesting pairing. Tickets are $10 at the door.

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

Hittin’ the Road

We left Mayer July 25^th headed for the midwest to attend the wedding of a dear friend and hang out with old buddies in Ohio for the month of August. We have a couple of ‘gas money’ gigs at the front and back end but basically this is a vacation and we’re ready. Deb is particularly ready to see things that are green.

The first night we stayed with Jerry & Karen Page in their cool new place outside of Albuquerque. They ran the Prescott Folklore Center for many years and are old friends from “May in the Mountains” days on the ranch. We played some tunes, bought a banjo case and Karen fed us up good for the road.

We would need it. Let me say that neither one of us is overly fond of the I-40 drive twixt Albuquerque and Oklahoma City. It is stupidly hot, we have no AC and we get absolutely no relief until we hit the Arkansas line. Not that much there either.

The good news is that after 15 hours of driving (something we try hard not to do much of anymore), we’re staying in Fayetteville with Kelly Mulhollan & Donna Stjerna of Still on the Hill. These are two of our favorite people and favorite musicians. They are powerful artists with a marvelous vision and their enthusiasm is infectious. They were just releasing their new Toucan Jam kid’s CD, “A World of Music”. This is just a beautiful record; they are producing the kind of music you can raise healthy children on and their adult work is killer too. Kelly’s “Never Ending Conversation” has been in regular rotation at our house for about a year.

The next night we spent at my cousin Sarah’s in Bowling Green. She and her wacko Kentucky husband Harvey have built the world’s greatest pool house, the inside of it smells like a cedar forest and is one of the most comfortable places we have ever stayed.

On Friday evening we played the Eden Song Concert Series in Cincinnati. Eden Park has this beautiful outdoor bandshell that we got to share with Wishing Chair, guitarist Brian Henke and some great local talent. We stayed with our good friends, Pamela Temple and Spencer Funk. Pam DJs for WNKU out of Newport and she and Spencer make up a very fun band called Wild Carrot.

Did I mention yet that all this time it has been stupidly hot! We’ve simply traded our 100+ degree dry heat for the sweltering discomfort of 95 degrees & 90% humidity. The kind of heat that keeps you just moist enough so that your skin starts to turn to soil and grow stuff.

The Hunsicker Affair

Now the whole excuse for this vacation has been to attend the wedding of one Oscar Aaron Hunsicker III, late of Cuyahoga Falls. Oscar is one of the first people I met in 1970 when I went away to college at Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio. We’ve been friends ever since.

So Osk is marrying his high school sweetheart, Barbara, on the 40^th anniversary of his having told her that he loved her. How sweet is that? Sweet enough to get written up in the Akron News as a feature story. This was THE most anticipated mid-life wedding the world has ever seen, people came from all over the country to attend. Oscar had a grin that just wouldn’t stop while the rest of us just leaked.

Sally Godfrey of the Winchester Godfreys, another one of my oldest friends, was in attendance as was Oscar’s old roommate Gene Ward. We had many adventures together as young hippie wannabes and it was cool to get to see them both.

One adventure included going down to the Southern Ohio Folk Festival in the spring of 1971 where we saw Pete Seeger play to a coliseum full of folks that would have done ANYTHING he asked them to do that night. I had never seen such charisma and, come to think of it, haven’t seen it since.

It was on that same trip that I bonded with southern Ohio in general - hilly, backwoods country. Athens is home to Ohio University and has always attracted the artsy/craftsy crowd; it was hip back then and it’s still hip. There is also a deeply rooted hillfolk contingent, many of them ancestors of the first pioneers in that country. It’s just the right mix of hippies and bubbas for my taste.

Athens, Center of the Known Universe

We spent the bulk of our time just outside of Athens with our friends Ron Hosenfeld and Betsy Beebe. They live off the grid in much the same manner as we did on the ranch so this place always feels right to us and has the advantage of being inhabited by some of our dearest friends. Ron has done all our promotional pictures for years, he’s now ‘retired’ (whatever that means). Betsy kept us in good health by feeding us the best fresh produce from her wonderful garden.

Their house sits on the edge of a cliff so that when you exit to the rear deck, you are suspended in the trees. It’s a magical setting. We spent the bulk of our time messing around in Ron’s new shop. Deb made things out of wood and discovered her inner cartoonist while painting the shop doors in bright, whimsical images. I played around with mangling iron in the forge and recalled that I really do love that work.

All during this trip we are in contact with communities of folks doing things they love to do and do well. Enjoying good music, good art, good homemade food. This rubs off on you and that’s just another reason I love to go back there.

We leave Ron & Betsy’s at the end of August, much to our dog Yippy’s dismay. She loves their place, has the run of the woods, and can earn valuable wildlife credits at what she refers to as ‘Southcamp’. The night before we left she was honored at a solemn awards ceremony where she received her Squirrel, Wren, Deer and Turtle badges.

Hunting Buckeyes

We headed north to Charm, Ohio in the heart of Amish country and a house concert at the Hazlett’s. Toby & Denise are a pair of back-to-the-land-ers homeschooling their kids on an ‘english’ island surrounded by the Dutch. Their kids are quite talented and shared a song they had written and it’s still in our heads. We sing it to Yippy.

The Hazletts put us up in a wonderful cabin on the property with an outdoor shower and an outhouse (we love this stuff!) and, after the show, I was decompressing on the porch around 1AM when I heard a horse and buggy come trotting hard down the road. Them Dutchmen can party some too.

The show was great fun and some old friends, Mark & Janet Bokenkamp and Jim & Mindy Ingalls, were in attendance along with their families. Jim is an old horseshoeing buddy and Mark is one of this country’s finest blacksmiths. He made the rings for my first marriage and I have always blamed him personally for its failure. He takes it pretty good.

We stayed with Mark & Janet and their two girls the next night then went to visit an old music buddy, Bob Bellamy, at his farm and studio in Bucyrus. Bob and I were in several bands together in the old days and he remains one of my favorite playing partners. He and Wendy Barlow are a wonderful hammered dulcimer and harp duo, they have a number of great instrumental CDs out featuring American standards that are worth checking out. Bob and his son Ben regaled us with some duets that they have worked out, passing the tradition on.

Hoosierland

Now we head for Crawfordsville, Indiana to spend several days with my brother, Steve, his wife, C.J., and daughter, Caity. Steve is the editor of the Wabash College Alumni magazine and an extremely talented writer, musician and photographer. We do a lot of giggling when we’re together. They are currently being completely consumed by their horse herd.

Deb had booked us a gig at Coffee Grounds in Terre Haute. C.J. and Steve came and took pictures while our friend, Ashley Drake, who has just moved from Prescott to Indianapolis, surprised us by showing up. One of Ashley’s earliest memories is being bounced on her dad’s knee to “Mama Start the Fire”; train `em early I say. Proprietor Pete Wilson and his wife Jackie provided us with a good night’s sleep in their OWN bed, a biscuits and gravy breakfast, some great stories and a couple of new traveling mugs full of good coffee.

Getting from Terre Haute to Fairfield, Iowa was the only time we took the interstate on the whole trip back home. The rest of the time we took the ‘blue highways’. The pace is more relaxed and you get to skip the whole interstate culture.

Coffee in Paradise

Fairfield, Iowa was a surprise to us. Such a small town with so many choices of good food and culture. We played at the Café Paradiso in front of a stunning mural depicting the Oracle at Delphi on a great sound system to a wonderful listening crowd. It’s a tough life. Steve, the proprietor/coffeemaster, and I talked late into the night and Meret, foodmistress, kept us plied with all the necessities for life.

We awoke early Sunday morning to a dropped-sky rain and the best cup of coffee ever and that includes Kona coffee in Kona. Fairfield is the home of the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi’s (he of Beatles fame) University of Management, it’s a magnificent arts town with a great community that all seemed to be gathering around Steve’s coffee at the Paradiso that morning. Lots of interesting folks to talk to, many of whom look 10 years younger than their chronological age. Perhaps it’s the Ayurvedic diets.

When the crush at the Cafe got to be too much we motored westward on US highways through Iowa, stopping in Fairbury, Nebraska for the night. Our goal was to travel home avoiding the interstates for Labor Day weekend, we’re not too concerned with time at this point. The next morning we went looking for breakfast in a town too busy rebuilding its downtown to have anything open on Labor Day. So we headed west hungry and missing Steve’s coffee with the vague notion of going by Republic, Kansas - the town my great grandfather left in a covered wagon in 1907 to seek his fortune in New Mexico.

I’ve had pieces of a song in my head for many years that includes a line about my grandpa’s mother being “…buried back home by the Republican River/In the country that she loved the best.” Grandpa used to tell the story of going back to Kansas as a boy to attend his mother’s funeral and having to ride with his brother in the hog car because they couldn’t afford seats on the train. He said he had never cared much for pork since.

Kansas

We took the northern route through Kansas. Driving through Kansas is not normally Deb’s idea of a good time. Our last crossing occurred a decade earlier to the south - endless miles of granaries sailing the horizon like ships on a vast sea of devolving agriculture. It involved the unsuccessful dodging of Prairie Chickens that would hurl themselves at our bumper, leaving a wake of feathers drifting behind. Their suicidal tendencies caused us to look them up in our fieldguide, where it says “uncommon and very local”. Go figure. But this time Kansas showed us a hilly, sometimes treed country with rivers and tidy towns nestled along their banks.

We stopped in Belleville first. Nice little country town with a square, a closed eatery, and a siren going off for no particular reason we could discern. Then we drive on a series of dirt roads to Republic - one church, one feedmill, closed cafe, and the smell of folks at home cooking meat. We visit the Pawnee Village on a butte west of town then back-track through town to hunt for a cemetery. We stop to ask the only person we have seen, an older gentleman who describes himself as “retarded, I mean, retired”, if there is a cemetery in town. He allows as how there is not, I ask then where do you bury your dead people and he says they’re scattered around here in the country, who ya lookin’ for? I said Charleses. He said well you just passed Mike Charles’ house back there on the corner and the old Charles place is out on the highway a couple miles and Mrs. Charles still lives there and come to think of it Mike and the rest of the family are probably out there right now. You can’t miss it.

The Homestead

So we drive by the old homestead and we know it’s the old homestead ’cause it says Valley Point Farm - Charles Homestead - 1868 in stone. There’s a tall guy about my age in the woods beside the house burning brush and he waves as we do the slow drive-by. Deb says we oughta stop, I say these people are Charleses and we might be there for awhile. But we’re here now says Deb. Yeah and I’m thinkin’ they’ve probably got food!

We pull in the driveway, I get out and the tall guy in the woods comes toward me as I advance toward him. “Are you Mike?” I ask. “No, I’m John” says John. “My name is Don Charles” says I and John’s eyes get big and he says “That was my Dad’s name” and I might have said “Mine too” before he said “We sort of look alike, don’t we?”

And we do. I can’t recall the pleasantries exchanged next because I was busy hunting and finding the parts of him that seemed to match up with parts of me. I think he was doing the same thing. Then his brother Mike comes out, shorter but with similar features and sporting the same goat-like growth I have on my chin. I recite my patriarchal lineage, John & Mike go through theirs, and it turns out our great-grandfathers were brothers.

Now I swear we did our best not to invite ourselves to Labor Day lunch but we ate good anyway. Ostensibly we went inside to view family pictures normally housed in the attic but brought out earlier that day. There we see pictures of people we know - Grandpa in his dress hat & Grandma, Great Grandmother Charles, Uncle Kamp, Aunt Louise and Aunt Lucille - all taken at the farm years ago. We meet Jean, Don’s widow, John’s biologist wife, Mandy, and their eldest son, Hayes, who’s at Kansas State in Manhattan studying cerealogy.

The farm occupies the V between two rivers east of Republic. The country rolls gently and the soil looks fertile - mostly corn, beans and alfalfa in small family farms. Nothing much else going on in the area and it particularly lacks that voracious sense of growth that we know and so love in the West. This is truly rural country.

The old house is beautiful with big trees around it and a barn and outbuildings in the back. John said it was traditionally the uncles’ job to keep the grounds clean and that was what he was doing when we drove by. He and Mike and a sister, who died several years ago of leukemia, all grew up there and deeply loved the place. If work is love made visible (and it is), it shows.

There are some other things showing as well. I was struck by their obvious love of the land but also their love of family history. They were proud to be part of a Welsh pioneer family, one that had stayed on the land. They love telling stories, have a great sense of humor, an obvious love of learning and they all sing in the choir. They also have good table manners. And in the manner of good country folk they ’scraped’ together an 8 or 10-course meal featuring Mike’s meatloaf and finishing with Mandy’s Friendship bread - there wasn’t a thing on the table that wasn’t outstanding. We oughta eat like this all the time.

They also don’t show their age. I would have guessed both John & Mike as the same age or younger than me. Later in the afternoon, after we had taken a couple of pictures standing in front of the house and the homestead sign, Mike took us to the cemetery where our great great grandparents, the original Welsh immigrants, are buried. It’s on a lovely little rise looking down the valley.

We Gotta Go Now

We left them with CDs and the promise to return. When he learned we were musicians, Mike told us about an old opera house in Concordia that does shows and he knows the woman that used to book it and wouldn’t it be fun for us to play there. These are my kind of people. They seemed legitimately pleased to have met us and to know that the Tom Charles line is alive and well.

Now perhaps it’s the fact that this occurred on the way home from a six-week vacation where I got to visit a number of seminal friend and family communities as well as get introduced into vibrant new ones. Or maybe I was listening to the voices of the ancestors I carry around in my head or just listening to my wife for a change. But I did a good thing, reached out a little and got paid back in a currency of great value to me. And I feel where I come from a bit more deeply.

We crossed the Republican River drainages all the way out of Kansas and camped at Prairie Dog State Park on a lake whose fish jumped and slapped the water with moonlight. The geese honked their way through the mist the next morning and so did we.

Performance details:

Friday, November 10, 2006
Elks Theater
113 East Gurley Street
Prescott, AZ
map

Related link: Visit-Prescott.com

Here’s some good news! If you purchase tickets in advance and tell them you are fans of D-Squared you will receive $5 off the $15 ticket! Tickets are available by calling the Sharlot Hall Museum at 928-445-3122 or visiting the Sharlot Hall Reception Desk at the Museum. At this point it looks like tickets will still be available at the door as well but probably sans discount.

Evening Performance Schedule:

• 7:30 opening with Bob Ward, emcee and storyteller
• 7:40 Ken and Lynn Mikell, singers of traditional AZ songs
• 8:00 Caji, Brazilian guitarist and singer
• 8:20 Dennis Garvey, guitarist/singer/songwriter
• 8:40 Tom Agostino & Alexa McDonald, guitarists/singers/songwriters
• 9:00 intermission
• 9:10 welcome back, Bob Ward, emcee
• 9:20 Rita Cantu, singer/songwriter, AZ wildplaces
• 9:40 Gail Steiger, cowboy singer/songwriter
• 10:00-10:45 D-Squared, harp & guitar singer/songwriters

This oughta be a fun (if long) night with some old friends. Hope to see you there!

Don & Deb
]]> http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/2006/10/28/d-squared-in-prescott-november-10/feed/ http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/2006/09/27/performances/ http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/2006/09/27/performances/#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:22:24 +0000 Deb http://www.dsquaredmusic.com/2006/09/27/performances/ 7:00 pm Thursday, October 19, 2006 at the Glendale Public Library

5959 W. Brown St. Glendale, AZ FREE!

3:00 pm Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006 at Sharlot Hall Museum

415 W. Gurley St., Prescott, AZ FREE!

Accidentally Live

featuring Arizona harp & guitar duo

D-SQUARED

(Don Charles & Deb Gessner)

Available today for only $15 at CD Baby (link opens a new window) or by calling 1-800-BUYMYCD - they can accept your credit card or PayPal.

We are planning one CD Release Concert at the Glendale Library for Thursday, October 19, 2006. Details will follow in a subsequent message.

The Story

And how can this be, you ask? A couple of years ago we did a show connected with a sustainable lands exhibit by the Smithsonian at the Glendale Library. We loved the premise, thought we had a bunch of stuff that fit, and that room has always had a good feel to it - our Phoenix “Big Sky” CD release there remains one of our favorite shows. We had Kyle Harris from PlayR Recording to do live sound so we know it’s going to shimmer and we had a production team from the Glendale Cable Access Channel shooting the show in the hope of gleaning some video footage for promotional use.

It was a fun night. Much of the material for the show was brand new at the time with a few “matter of life & death” standards thrown in for good measure - all very land-connected stuff. It begins with Deb’s spacious harp & guitar instrumental, “The Thirsty Land”, then moves through “Rain”, “Sticky Thighs” and “Mama Start the Fire” to a haunting rendition of her concertina tune “In the Cool Green Shade”. At which point Don takes over with the very first performance of the “Kiwi Story” followed by the very first performance of “Kiwi Blues”. We were starting to have a lot of fun by then.

So we quiet it down with a mandola & harp instrumental called “El Dia de los Muertos”, a tune commemorating the passing of our dear friend and avid contradancer, Rissa Miller. We medley this with a song we co-wrote on one of our infamous Great Plains tours when we were pretty sure we were going to die, it’s called “Owlsong” and is our pick on the CD.

Deb follows with a gorgeous harp solo on the traditional French tune “Chateau Chervix” then does a particularly moving version of Don’s song, “High Ground”. Bette Mirgon, another recently departed friend, always requested this song causing Deb to go back and pick it up after Don quit singing it. The CD is dedicated to Rissa and Bette.

A mouthbox/banjo/harp/bodhran tune called “Stormhorses” is probably the most exciting piece on the CD, calling to mind visions of spring storms in the mountains. All that rain has to go downriver at some point so we end with “Row” and the audience helps out.

The CD runs 51 minutes, the sound is dead-on true and edited only to eliminate extraneous tuning patter.

The Rest of the Story

OK, the video doesn’t turn out because we had not paid enough attention to lighting before the show. Bummer. A couple of weeks later we’re at a birthday party for Deb where Kyle hands us a CD from the show declaring, “I think this is your next CD”. “I doubt it,” says Don, ever the optimist. “Listen to it,” Kyle insists. So we did. Kyle is often right. Happy Birthday, Deb!

Now even with a master in hand we did not have the funds available to produce the CD but we bootlegged ourselves and sent some copies out to friends and family. They responded most favorably and wondered why we didn’t have it out yet. Well … money, we said. So they sent some. Then when they asked why it still wasn’t out yet we said we have to learn how to do the graphics. And they waited patiently while we learned and that pretty much gets us to now.

The reason for telling you this is simply to point out how indebted we are to a whole slew of angels - some of whose names appear on the CD, some do not. Perhaps the person we need to thank most is the guy who humped the gear in that night to do the live sound and, unbeknownst to us, also brought his recording stuff and managed to get both of them right. Thanks, Kyle. That was quite a performance.

For years people have asked us for a live CD. Here it is … by accident. Accidentally LIVE. We are very proud of it. We hope you like it and we thank you for the interest, love and patience that you have shown us and our music. Without you, we’re just playing in the kitchen.

Thank you, Don & Deb, D-Squared

7 PM, Saturday, July 8, 2006 at the Old Mayer Mercantile in the heart of historic downtown Mayer, Arizona on the corner of Central & Main (overflow parking at post office across the street). $10 Suggested donation, refreshments provided. Call 632-4177 for further information. Let’s make it rain!

This is a double bill with our friends Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna of Still on the Hill. Donna is a bundle of energy that writes, sings and plays a hot violin while Kelly sings, plays all manner of instruments and is particularly adept at creating musical settings for poetic works of the masters —–Blake, Yeats, cummings, Stevens, Auden and Hughes. If you like us, I can guarantee you’ll like them as well, maybe better—they are younger, cuter, hipper and shorter than us.

$7.00 Admission. Call (928) 778-1213 or look them up at www.folksessions.com.

“Flower Power” celebrates the start of spring with a festival all about flowers. Tours, demonstrations, wine tasting, delicate flower cuisine with music to stroll through the garden by. Cool idea, we’re looking forward to playing in our old home neighborhood. All activities included with membership or paid admission ($10 Adult, $9 Senior, $6 Student, $4 Child).

Call (480) 941-1225 for more information or look them up at www.dbg.org and click on Flower Power.

Sharing the stage with us will be our good friend & longtime percussionist, Bill Meldrum, plus singer & sister, Kelley Poynter and her two talented kids, Robyn & Sean — it’s a family thing. We’ll be doing songs & tunes for the long winter nights that lie ahead.

We’ll also be conducting our second Holiday Cookie Contest at this show for those of you willing to share a plate of your favorite holiday cookies with others. Prizes will be awarded based on audience response. There will be suitable holiday refreshments to wash down all those good cookies. The suggested donation is $10 per person (kids free!) but we don’t want that to limit your generosity nor keep you from coming if you don’t have 10 bucks.

Those of you who attended last year’s Winter’s Eve Concert may remember what a magical night it was — snow & music & good company. We hope you can join us again, bring a friend or two, and help us celebrate the holidays. For folks planning on attending the lighting of the square in Prescott, you have time to do both and Don has solemnly promised not to razz anyone arriving a little late.

The Old Mayer Mercantile is in the heart of historic downtown Mayer, Arizona, at the intersection of Central & Main with overflow parking at the post office just east of the venue.

For further information and driving directions visit the Arizona State Parks Foundation.

Hundreds of hours of fieldwork provided the foundation for the CD, which is produced by the Western Folklife Center’s Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis. Cannon says of the CD, which was five years in the making:

This recording is a rare look at how people who live here, year after year, have interpreted the Grand Canyon in story and song. We don’t know of another recording like this and hope that it will be the first of a series that explores the music and stories of America’s most treasured places.

See Don’s blog at westernfolklife.org for more information.