Has it really been more than a year since we sent a newsletter? Well, we're still here, we're doing fine, and we hope this message finds you doing well too! What a crazy time it's been for all of us... Feel free to drop us a note and let us know how things have been going for you.
We're excited to report that we'll be releasing our fifth album as a duo on January 21, 2022. Today we launch our website pre-order period and while supplies last, for orders placed by December 1st we're offering special delivery before the holidays for signed physical CDs, or delivery within 24 hours for digital downloads. Be one of the first to enjoy our new songs!
We began recording this album in late July 2020, under California’s Covid–19 stay-at-home order, in Dan’s Bonny Doon home studio, The Shed. We were wrapping up by mid-August, but then a heatwave and extremely unusual lightning storm sparked a fast-moving forest fire. Completed after our evacuation to the safe haven of a friend’s home, After the Fire marks the end of an era and a fresh start; Dan’s little studio burned the morning after he’d rescued the rough tracks, studio equipment, and a range of instruments we play in addition to acoustic guitar and violin (such as viola, cello, bass, drums, piano, etc.), yet rarely have the space to bring with us on the road. Highlighting these additional instruments on this album helped us feel the joy of performing again and to know that despite the setbacks of the past year, our music will thrive in new ways.
Each song portrays a facet of the journey from setback to reclaimed hope - finding faith in the possibility of LOVE in “Make Me Come Alive,” HOME in “Beale Street,” COMMUNITY in “Together Again” and “Money Shouldn’t Talk That Strong,” and one’s own STRENGTH and FORTITUDE in “If A Wave” and “Hey, It’ll Be OK.”
Our new photography, including the photo above, taken in the burn zone a few months after the fire swept through, is care of the fabulously talented Michelle Magdalena who also took the photos for our first two albums, "Dan and Laurel" and "New Disguise." We've been blessed to work with amazing photographers for all our albums and it was wonderful to get the chance to work with Michelle again.
We're planning some special events leading up the the CD release, including some podcast episodes diving into the stories behind the songs and the release of some new music videos. We'll let you know about those details soon. For now, we'll be releasing our first single and music video for the album at 4pm Pacific Time on December 17, 2021. Tune in at that time for our YouTube watch party of the music video Laurel created here https://youtu.be/jNue8FBwT3s
We're also launching our new website today. Laurel has been hard at work and did a great job! We're particularly pleased about finally having a responsive site that resizes automatically to suit various devices, as well as our new photos page and the new lyrics page where you can enjoy the poetry of whatever songs from our five albums pop up, or search for specific songs by song title, a word, a lyric, an album, or a songwriter. Poke around and please let us know what you think!
Finally, while we've been staying busy with teaching and playing private weddings and events, we have a few public performances to look forward to, including a return to First Night Monterey on New Year's Eve, a house concert on the California Central Coast on December 18th, and a casual CD launch party at Santa Cruz's Abbott Square on January 21st featuring the addition of the formidable Dan Robbins on Doublebass on January 21, 2022.
