Dan & Faith

Hello!

Hoo boy, we’re on a wild weather roller coaster here in NH these past few weeks! Multiple snowstorms piled on each other, with ice, heavy snow, fluffy snow, you name it. Several days of higher-than-normal temperatures, then record breaking low temperatures. Mount Washington, up in the White Mountains a bit further north and east from us, tied their all-time low temperature at -47F; their -108F windchill broke the US record! Our -21F temperature and -47F wind chill from that night seem almost balmy in comparison. And now, just 2 days later, we’re at a much happier 36F. Yee ha!

We’re having great fun with our Midweek Song Swaps so far this season. We continue the fun this Wednesday, February 8th as we swap songs with Rick Drost. Rick’s songs paint exquisite mental pictures akin to Van Gogh or Monet, and it’s always a treat to hear him! Tune in live on Facebook or YouTube at 7:30pm Eastern time (00:30 UTC) when you can interact directly with us all, or you can listen later (we leave the links up).

Open mics can be magical, and we love to stop in on local open mics when we travel. The folks at Open Mic America carry that spirit online, and use it to promote open mics in general, and local open mics in particular. We’ve played on OMA before, and we’re back on there again on Sunday, February 12th. Ten acts, 2 songs each, starting at 8pm Eastern time (01:00 UTC) on YouTube. If you miss it live, the links stay up. The lineup looks to be a good one.

And then we’re off on the road for a bit! First stop: My Dead Aunt’s Books, in Hyattsville, MD on Friday, February 17th. This wonderfully quirky used book store is a favorite of ours. We’ll be splitting the evening with the contra dance trio Petrichord, which should be fun! Combining Old Time, French Canadian, and Scottish fiddling, Petrichord creates a unique blend of high energy music for the dance floor and the concert stage. There may even be a bit of collaboration! Music starts at 7:30pm.

From Maryland, we head a bit further south, stopping off at WLRN Radio in Miami, FL on Sunday, February 26th to chat with host Michael Stock. Michael has been hosting “Folk & Acoustic Music” on WLRN, South Florida Public Radio for over 30 years. We’ll talk about our early March show in Miami, and likely play a few songs. If you’re in the Miami area, you can tune in to 91.3FM, or you can listen online at www.wlrn.org/radio (click the play button on the page). The show runs 2-5pm Eastern time (19:00-22:00 UTC).

We’re both taking part in a crazy thing called February Album Writing Month (FAWM). It’s a challenge for songwriters to write and do at least a demo recording of 14 songs in 28 days (effectively an album’s worth of music). Don’t know if we’ll both pull this off (28 new songs total!!), but we’re both writing, which is what counts! We have a number of songwriting friends who have done this for years, and this year we decided we had the mental bandwidth to consider it. That, and neither of us has written many songs since Covid, so this is a nice boot in the behind to get us going again. We’ll report back next month on how we did. We’ll probably have a few “keepers” in there, so expect to hear some new songs from us over the next several months!  If you’d like to hear a few of the early demos, we’ll be putting some up on our Patreon page, where you can give us some early feedback.

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).

If you have a local venue (coffee shop, library, whatever) that hosts live local music, give them some love! And give some love to the folks who play there, too.

Dan & Faith

Hello, and Happy New Year!

We’ve started the new year with several days of unseasonably warm temperatures after several days of unseasonably cold temperatures the end of last year. We’re on quite the roller coaster here! Our 18-20” of snow from mid-December is pretty much gone, and we have lots and lots of mud. But it’s nice to not be bundled up to go out. We’re sure the weather will moderate toward something more seasonable soon. As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait five minutes, and it will change. New years are supposed to be about change, after all.

There’s a new coffeehouse starting up at the Town Hall in Francestown, NH (2 New Boston Road), run by the folks who used to run the Open Door. The Francestown Academy Coffeehouse is kicking off this month, and we’ll be playing there this Saturday, January 7th. The evening starts with several 15 minute sets (including us), and then a featured 30 minute act, Off The Cuff. The music runs 7-9:30pm.  Bring your own coffee mug and kazoo! Suggested donation of $5 at the door.  For your GPS or mapping software, use the actual 2 New Boston Road address, not “Francestown Town Hall”, as that may take you to the wrong municipal building).

Our next Midweek Song Swap features Annie & Rod Capps from Chelsea, MI on Wednesday, January 11th. Genuine and playful, effortless and endearing, this duo has been enchanting audiences in quality music venues, house concerts, coffeehouses and festivals throughout their home state of Michigan and beyond. We’ll be swapping songs with them online starting at 7:30pm Eastern (00:30 UTC) on our Facebook and YouTube channels.

We’re off to the East Lyme Public Library in Niantic, CT (yes, despite its name, it’s actually in Niantic) on Tuesday, January 17th. The library is part of the East Lyme Community Center/Library complex, and looks very cool! We’ll play a 1 hour set starting at 7pm. Advance program registration is required; click here to register.

Our second Midweek Song Swap this month, on Wednesday, January 25th, finds us swapping songs with Charlie Mosbrook from Cleveland, OH. A lifelong entertainer, Charlie engages audiences with songs old and new, storytelling, humor, and an honest appreciation for the time shared. His performances are built on informing, entertaining, inspiring, and celebrating all that we are and can be. The swapping begins online at 7:30pm Eastern (00:30 UTC) on our Facebook and YouTube channels.

If you missed our Midweek Song Swap with Friction Farm back in December, you can still watch it here on YouTube.  We had a great show with Aidan and Christine!

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 wish you a happy, healthy, peaceful, and musical new year!

Dan & Faith