Dan & Faith

Hello!

Well hasn’t this just been an interesting month! A month ago we were looking forward to getting back out on the road and getting to visit some new venues. Now, well, we’re still looking forward to visiting the new venues, but we get to wait a while longer before it happens. We’re doing well up here on our little mountain, hunkered down, planting seedlings in the house in preparation for warmer weather. Lots of land to walk around, and lots to keep us busy! We hope you are staying home, staying healthy, and practicing physical distancing on those (hopefully rare) times you have to go out.

Yes, physical distancing. Socially, we need each other more than ever. We were looking forward to playing at the Springfield VT Coffee House at the Springfield UU Church this month, but we’ll do the next best thing and play for everyone online instead. Tune in to our Facebook page on Saturday, April 16th at 7pm Eastern time, snuggle up with your favorite fellow stay-at-home companion (or critter… or even a comfy blanket) and we’ll bring you the show we would have done live at the coffeehouse. Can’t make it at 7pm? No worries, you can watch later at your leisure! And we’ve learned you don’t even need a Facebook account to watch.  If you miss the show, we’ll post a link to it on our website afterwards.

We did our online concert last month just as states started shutting down, and it was lots of fun! If you missed it and would like to watch, you can find it here.

Cover songs are not something we normally do as part of our act.  The few we perform are ones that we truly love, and from performers whose work we respect.  We recently recorded this video of John Prine’s song Paradise, as it’s been part of our repertoire for a number of years, and we wanted to send it out as a Get Well card for Prine, who was hospitalized with COVID-19.  Last night, the news came out that he had passed.  “When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River.  Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam.  I’ll be halfway to heaven with Paradise waiting, just five miles away from wherever I am.”  Thank you, John Prine, for writing such deceptively simple songs that speak to our shared humanity.

We count ourselves lucky in these odd times, as we both have day jobs outside the music world to sustain us. Many of our fellow musicians lost their regular income when the gigs dried up. We’ve been doing what we can to help folks out, and so can you. How can you help? Lots of ways!

• Go to the websites of your favorite musicians, look up their CDs and merchandise, and order something from them.
• Find their online concerts, listen in, and donate to their Paypal/Venmo accounts during the show.
• Our union, Local 1000 of the American Federation of Musicians (the “local” for touring folk and acoustic musicians) has an Emergency Relief Fund that gives no-interest loans to members in need. If you can afford it, please consider making a donation to help a struggling musician. Any amount you can give will help. Just go to https://www.local1000.org and click on Donate Now.
• Can’t afford to help financially? That’s OK — just be supportive. Listen in to their online concerts. Help spread the word about the concerts. Invite friends to listen in to artists they may never have heard before. Point them at musicians’ websites and YouTube channels, and suggest they might enjoy a CD. Or two.

If you want to support us, you can buy one of our albums. Then and Now, Seeking, and Simple Grace are available from us on our website, or you can find them at iTunes and most other online music stores.

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

Reach out to your friends and family in this crazy time. We may all be physically isolated, but we all need to stay in touch. If you need to talk, reach out — we’re here. Stay healthy, stay safe, wash your hands! And spare some thanks for the folks in the grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, farm stands, police and fire stations, and most especially hospitals, who are out there making sure we have essential services. They deserve our respect and admiration!

Dan & Faith