The Dream Journal – June 2024
Hello!
We just finished a marathon of garden prep! We have kale, tomatoes, broccoli, hot and sweet peppers, celery, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, Kennebec potatoes, parsley, basil, and butternut squash all planted. The farmer who hays our fields has cut and tedded the hay, and will likely be back tomorrow to bale it. Just about all of our fruit trees (apples, peaches, pears) were coated in blossoms this year. Our rhododendrons are a blaze of purple right now. Daisies are just opening. It’s a beautiful time of year here in New Hampshire! And our shows this month are fairly close to home.
We start the month with a new venue for us. By day, the Luthier’s Coop in Easthampton, MA is a full service fretted instrument sales and repair shop. In the evenings, their Backstage Bar opens and offers a variety of musical entertainment. We’ll be playing there this coming Thursday, June 6th from 7-8:30pm. We’ve heard good things about the place, and are very much looking forward to playing there.
Since 2010, co-founders Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards have organized an annual non-profit walking concert tour of Massachusetts towns and trails in support of arts and culture throughout the state, known as the Massachusetts Walking Tour. Every day, they hike along the planned path, carrying full packs with camping gear and musical instruments. Each evening, they and their walking companions give a free concert for the people in the towns they pass through, with invited local musicians and poets opening for the walkers. Since 2015, we have joined them as an opener one night of their walk, and have done day hikes with them a few times as well. This year the walk is through Hampden County. We will be opening for them on the final day of the walk, Tuesday, June 25th, at the Wilbraham Public Library in Wilbraham, MA. The show starts at 6pm. You can find their full schedule of hikes and concerts here, and you’re welcome to hike with them as well as attend the concerts. FYI, the day of the Wilbraham show, there is no official group hike; the walkers themselves are doing an 8.9 mile hike.
The South Acworth Village Store’s Annual Music Fest and BBQ on Saturday, June 29th is a fundraiser for the South Acworth Village Store in South Acworth, NH, a great little community general store. This is always a great day of music, BBQ, and craft vendors on the banks of the Cold River in back of the store. The music runs from 11am to 7:30pm. Get there early, bring sunscreen, bug spray, and a picnic blanket or lawn chair. We expect we’ll be playing sometime near the beginning, but the schedule for the music has not yet been finalized. As soon as we have the final schedule, we’ll post it on our website and Facebook page.
June is Pride Month, a celebration of the progress made in LBGTQIA+ civil rights around the world. We wish a Happy Pride to all our beautiful LGBTQIA+ friends and family! We send extra love and support to our trans friends and family, as it seems to us the trans community is facing extra persecution in the country today. We have been sharing Faith’s song My Name Is George in our performances for the last couple of years, and have been encouraged by the positive response it has gotten, even in places like Florida. We hope that it can open some eyes and hearts as we share it.
Our albums Then and Now, Seeking, and Simple Grace are available from us at shows and 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).
Got a place near you that offers live local music? Or would you be interested in hosting a house concert yourself? Let us know! We’d love to play in your neighborhood.
Dan & Faith