SS Bathtub, Chris Rosser, DVD et al

Hard to believe summer is slipping under my wheels already. The Europe tour probably contributed to the sense that I somehow missed it in the mountains. Now we're sliding into September, and I have the strange sense of being on a surfboard at the top of a huge wave (not that I've ever actually been on a surfboard on top of a huge wave, but it seems like it might be like this...). The next few months are going to be turbulent, and lots of fun.

a boy celebrating Bastille Day with sparklers on the beach in Nice

Before we get to that, though... it has been a good summer. The tour in Germany and the time in France afterward were certainly among the highlights. This summer marked my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. A couple of years ago they decided that they would celebrate the occasion with an extended trip to France, where they had lived for a couple of years in the first decade of their marriage. They got an apartment in Nice for a month and invited each of the four kids to come visit for a week. Deanna met me there on the end of my German tour and we relaxed for a week with the folks and ate an almost obscene number of crepes. It was exquisite (which means... it used to be quisite?!). My family isn't usually that extravagant, but it was a big event to celebrate, and celebrate we did. Of course, we happened to be in France for Bastille Day, so the whole country was kind enough to celebrate with us. By the way, I came home from France and bought a crepe pan. I've been having a big time with it.

Shortly after returning, Deanna and I got to spend a day working with our good friend Chris Rosser on building his new recording studio. Chris is an excellent songwriter and performer who produced my record S.S. Bathtub, co-produced Spin and co-wrote the song Chances with me. He's a good friend and it was great to have a chance to help. Of course, I have a bit of a personal interest in the project, I'll be recording my next record there in October.

But I'm getting ahead of myself again... October's going to be really exciting! But first, September - I'll be touring all over this coming month, starting in south Florida, then moving out to Texas, up to Colorado, over to Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky, then home. I've got one break in there and may end up in DC as well for the big peace events on September 24. I'll also be speaking in Florida at a Unitarian Church and at Lyon College in Arkansas for their service day, after which I'll get to spend a day working with students in the community.

OK, so now - October! First, the performance highlights: In Raleigh, NC on Sunday, October 2 I'll be playing at the very first CAM Fest, the Carolina Acoustic Music Festival, promoted by David Sardinha, the owner of the Six String Cafe. The festival will feature lots of my favorite songwriters, including Chuck Brodsky (who wrote We Are Each Other's Angels), Chris Rosser, Jonathan Byrd, Beth Wood and lots of others. A complete list of artists and links to their sites can be found at the festival link above. Music is from Noon to 10PM at the beautiful outdoor Koka Booth Amphitheatre. The whole day only costs $20, and the event benefits the Autism Society. Hope to see you there!

I've also been excited for months about the two nights (Oct. 21 and 22) I'll be playing at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA opening for America. That would be enough to make October stand out. On top of that I'll be recording a new CD (scheduled to be released in February, 2006). "But wait!" as they say in the Ginsu Knives commercials, "There's more!" The biggest October news is yet to come... If all goes well, I'll be receiving copies of the new S.S. Bathtub children's book late in the month. It's going to be a forty page hardcover 8x10 book with a CD single included. My long time friend Carrie Patterson has been working hard with me for the last year and a half or so and we're finalizing the illustrations and adding the text in so that the press can start printing them. Carrie is mostly an abstract oil painter but it turns out she's also a great illustrator, and her interpretations and development of the characters have been a blast to watch and to be a part of.

the label of the CD Single that will be included in the book - a taste of the art

A few weeks after the children's book comes out we'll be releasing the live concert DVD, so we've got you covered for holiday gift-giving: books for the kids and DVDs for everyone else! We'll let you know in a couple of weeks when pre-orders become available.

I'll also be heading back to Guatemala for nine days in late October. We've got three major school projects paid for there, as well as a couple of smaller ones, and I want to visit the sites as well as work on developing some new projects. The new PEG website is being developed, too: Check it out at www.pegpartners.org.

The amazing thing is that I've managed to squeeze out a few new songs lately. Usually when I get busy with biz, the art suffers, but these two little gifts showed up in the last couple of weeks. A lot of the songs on the new record will be more pensive tracks, and I needed a bit of balance in terms of some lighter, more upbeat stuff. Happily these two showed up. If we cross paths somewhere along the line, be sure to bug me to play them for you.

I wrote one of them last week in Forksville, Pennsylvania. I had stopped beside a country road the day before to shoot some pictures of an old International truck with a tree growing through it. I was lost in the photography when suddenly I realized someone was standing behind me. A guy who lived just down the road had seen me pull over and came over to talk to me because the truck had been his father's. He started telling stories and I ended up standing there for about a half-hour or so talking with him. When I woke up the next morning I found that the stories had distilled into, of all things, a country song. For now I'm calling it Fifty International.

the passenger window

The other song is more of an acoustic funk thing, tentatively titled Crawl Inside. It's great fun to play.

So keep in touch - I'll look forward to seeing you out there on the road. I'll get to play at some of my favorite venues in September. If you're in driving range, I'd love to test drive some of the new songs with you. Thanks for taking the time to check in.

Good road,
David