taken recently from a gas station near my house
taken recently from a gas station near my house
Black Mountain, NC (home)
December 8, 2005
Wow... I’ve got to remember to do these more often. Far too much has been
happening lately for me to only check in once a month. The biggest news is that
the new S.S.
Bathtub books are out! We’ve had them for a month as of yesterday.
If you missed my earlier ramblings about them, they’re forty page, full-color,
hardcover, 8x10 picture books with a CD-single of my children's song S.S.
Bathtub inlcuded. They’re designed for ages 0-6, and the text of
the book is the lyric to the song, so kids can flip pages while they listen
and sing. I’m completely thrilled with how they came out, and folks are
buying them up much faster than I predicted. I got the word Friday that they’re
the number one best seller at Malaprop’s
Bookstore, the largest independent bookstore in Asheville, and the orders
on my own website are keeping up a steady flow, too. Very exciting. I’ve
got one more book release event this weekend at City
Lights Bookstore in Sylva, but hope to continue to do signings as I travel
for concerts. If you want to see & hear more about the book, click
here, or if you want to get straight to the ordering, here.
Oh, and we just added free
S.S. Bathtub sheet music for piano and guitar to this site. If you want
to download it, go nuts.
Mixed in with the shows, the book signing events and the usual daily stuff,
I’ve been working in the studio on my next record. With all the things
that have been going on, we’ve backed up the release date until a little
later in the spring. I’m eager to get it out, and that’s a hard
decision, but I want to give it all the time it needs to season. Working with
Chris
Rosser, who is co-producing the record with me, is always such a delight.
He’s a good friend as well as an excellent producer and musician. I helped
a little in the building of his new studio, so it's especially fun to record
its maiden project. Derek
Murphy came up from Atlanta to do the percussion, and he nailed it. Stephanie
Winters flew down from New York with her cello in a flight case. She played
on Change
in Me way back on Hard
Earned Smile, which was released in 1997, and it was great to work and hang
out with Stephanie again. And that’s all the instrumentation there is;
guitar, voice, percussion and cello. I’m thrilled with what we’ve
got so far. In some ways the production is really bold. I think whatever you’re
expecting, the record is likely to surprise you in places. Can’t wait
to hear what you think!
Derek grooving on drum tracks
I also just picked up the newest video edits on the DVD project. I’m delaying
the release on that as well, because I've decided to add some video on the PEG
project in Guatemala as a bonus feature. It will take a little time to get that
together, but I think that will be worth the wait, too.
In the midst of all that, I’ve really been enjoying performing lately.
It was great to be back at the Grey
Eagle last weekend and make the rounds of my favorite regional rooms before
settling in for the holidays. I’ve been trying out some of the newer songs
from the next record, and dusting off some old ones that haven’t seen
an audience in a while. Next time I play at the Eagle will probably be in April,
and it looks like that might be a CD/DVD release party.
on stage at Lyon College in AR a few weeks ago
MJ’s
been doing a wonderful job with booking and running the office, and has managed
to survive November without being completely buried under a pile of children’s
books. We’ve just put out a nice glossy flyer on workshops I offer, so
she’s been working on getting those out to some folks I’ve worked
with in recent years. If you’d like to get a flyer or you want to talk
about bookings for the coming year (now’s the time), let
her know. We’ve also had some great extra office help lately from
Kim Dolan, and Angela’s been doing a great job with publicity. Now she’s
full-steam on applying for book awards.
After the next couple of nights I’m actually going to be more or less
home for about a month. It’s good to be spending some time with my wonderful
wife Deanna. Last night we played backgammon before we went to bed. Yep, it's
always a wild party at the LaMotte house! Those quiet times together are such
a treasure, though, and it seems to us that all the time I spend on the road
makes those moments a little sweeter when we get them. The traveling’s
hard sometimes, but I don't forget how blessed I am to get to do what I love,
and to work for you. You’re a great boss.
It’s been a strange adjustment getting back from the Guatemala
trip and jumping into the flurry of book release activity, playing music
for folks and recording for the next CD. Guatemala was so powerful emotionally,
and a completely different world in many ways. I suppose that’s often
how our days go, though. All of these things mixed in together.
girls carrying water near Panabaj Atitlan, Guatemala
Those two worlds intersected for me recently at the School
of the Americas protests at Ft. Benning, GA. Every year on the weekend after
Thanksgiving people come from all over to protest the training of Latin American
terrorists at a U.S. Army base in Georgia, and this year I was there too, playing
at a benefit concert on Friday night. Countless Central and South American massacres,
including many in Guatemala, have been committed by people who were trained
with our tax dollars, in Spanish, at this base. There are classes in torture
techniques there. It was good to be there with tens of thousands of like-minded
people, though sad to have to be.
And now I'm home to the mountains I love, and after this weekend's shows I'll be gearing down for a few weeks. It’s a time for considering what and whom we value, and for making effort to communicate that. Deanna and I will spend some time with our families and catch up with a few friends, and maybe I'll even finally get the back deck built. I'll look forward to seeing you in the new year.
Merry Christmas,
David