Enjoy our stories and updates, from our most recent news to our early beginnings as a duo, or use the search bar to sort posts by category or keyword. If you're enjoying a topic, you can also click the tags or categories listed at the top of a post to organize a new list of posts with the same categories or tags.

Tag: dan and laurel

Posted on: | Category:

We've just released a new music video!

Country Beauty Queen was among the first batch of songs we collaborated on as a duo back in 2013, but it took a while to find its way onto an album and even longer to get its own music video. The timing just had to be right.

In a small town it's always bittersweet when someone finds love. On one ...

Posted on: | Category:

Happy Holidays!!

We hope our last post of 2022 finds you well and enjoying a joyous and restful season. It's been a busy year for us, and we're looking forward to spending some time with family and friends, even if in many cases it's still virtually, in the coming weeks. However, we're really excited to share our latest music ...

Posted on: | Category:

The fire in the Santa Cruz mountains became an imminent threat to us late on Tuesday night and we evacuated to a friend’s house in Santa Cruz. We got all the instruments out and most of the very important stuff. Laurel has been kicking herself for forgetting the book she’s written all her instrumentals in over the past 15 years and her artwork, but ...

Posted on: | Category:

Well, life looks a bit different then we all expected it might right about now! We hope everyone is hanging in there, staying healthy, and finding ways to connect meaningfully with loved ones, even from a distance. We wanted to update you on what's been happening for us.

We're starting the sixth week of our shelter-in-place here on the California ...

Posted on: | Category:

We hope our first newsletter since last summer finds everyone doing well and making time to go out and enjoy live music. We got to see Scarlet Rivera, violinist of Bob Dylan's Desire fame last week. Dan had met her in his early 20s when she recorded on a demo Dan was doing with Columbia Records. It felt like a full circle moment for him to see her ...

Posted on: | Category:

We want to thank you for tagging along with us this year and hope you'll enjoy this wrap-up of some of our favorite photos and experiences. We started 2018 off as we'll do again tomorrow night, performing in Laurel's hometown of Monterey, California at First Night, a family friendly, alcohol free New Years festival for the arts. We stayed off the ...

Posted on:

Happy Memorial Day to our US fans and thanks so much to everyone for your pledges towards our fourth album Kickstarter!

We're 48 hours away from the end our fourth album fundraising campaign and we're VERY happy to report that we managed to hit our funding goal over the weekend with 109 backers (and we've even gotten several more pre-orders ...

Posted on:

We'll be recording our fourth album and have a few days between tours here to announce the launch of our new CD pre-order funding campaign.

We'll have until midnight PDT on May 30th to reach our funding goal, or unfortunately we won't get a penny of the funding our fans have pledged. That's a little scary, but also exciting. This funding will ...

Posted on: | Category:

We just got back from our debut European tour - 18 shows, 6 rental cars, 9 flights, and 6 countries in 4 weeks! Does it sound like we're counting?! Yes, it was a whirlwind, but we had a great time minus a few misadventures. We'll detail some highlights a little later on.

First though, we're looking ahead to concerts and tours coming up soon, ...

Posted on: | Category:

First off, we have a little window between tours here to devote to booking house concerts and venues for 2018 and 2019. Please let us know if you would like to host us or know a venue or festival near you which we should approach! Thank you for your continued support!

We've been off the road for about a month now since our Canadian tour, and ...

Posted on: | Category:

We're excited to be embarking on a new tour of Western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest starting just a few days from now, and we'll be premiering some new material slated for our next album!

But first, a little update... We enjoyed a great tour in February and March, touring southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, followed ...

Posted on: | Category:

Hi everyone!

Well, we shopped around a bit last year in preparation for releasing "Between the Rain" and after receiving quotes of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000+ decided we just couldn't swing a radio campaign for the album. However, we did send to a dozen or so radio stations and DJs we already had relationships with throughout Canada ...

Posted on: | Category:

Just a little update to wrap up a long, but rewarding year. We also want to tell you about a few final dates we have coming up this month in California and Nevada, and to preview the tours we have shaping up for 2017. If you'd like to host us for a house concert next year, we'd love to come play for you! Send us an email and we'll let you know how ...

Posted on: | Category:

Well, we actually don't know how to get to #1 on the radio, without spending about a million dollars, but miraculously, our third album, Between the Rain sat at #1 for three straight weeks in Winnipeg, Canada's music hub, which is quite the honor, as well as ranking within the top five on the national Roots charts for most of this summer. Maybe third ...

Posted on: | Category:

In just a couple weeks none other than Dan Frechette & Laurel Thomsen will be playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival! It's one of the largest music festivals in Canada, and North America for that matter, and a great honor to have been selected to perform along with many great artists, such as the Head and the Heart, Louden Wainwright III, and The ...

Posted on: | Category:

Hi folks! We’re catching up with you from Medicine Hat, Alberta as we continue our new album take-over of North America. In all seriousness though, the road can be tough some days and we've been appreciating the little lights along the way.

For example, the other day we searched through four little towns in central Alberta, all lacking gas ...

Posted on: | Category:

We enjoyed two CD release shows this past week for our latest album “Between the Rain.” We’re very happy with how the recordings turned out, feeling it showcases a further integration of our individual talents and chemistry while presenting hints at many styles of roots music in a polished, yet powerfully raw sound. 

Thematically, we share ...

Posted on: | Category:

Happy Valentine's Day friends and lovers (especially the music types)!

We just returned from a great debut tour of the Southwest and look forward to returning there this time next year.

We've been sharing songs we've composed during our travels together over the past three years, and a few that we were honestly "afraid to perform" ...

Posted on: | Category:

We're wrapping up October with two remaining California concerts before we head out for a three week tour of the New England and the East Coast in November. Then upon our return to California we’ll wrap up shows for 2015 with a "Hootenanny" at Don Quixote's on December 20th filled with music from some of our favorite local friends. We'll ...

Posted on: | Category:

We just flew back from six weeks of touring western Canada and want to extend hugs and thanks to all those who attended our shows, bought CDs, wrote in our guestbook, and made us feel so at home. It was truly our pleasure to play for you! And, a very special thanks to our house concert hosts, venues, and festivals - we quite literally would not be ...

Posted on: | Category:

We’ll be flying up to Winnipeg on Wednesday and will be doing another loop out west through July and into August - not quite as far as last time, but many of the stops we enjoyed this winter. We can’t wait! We’ll be having our official Winnipeg CD release at the West End Cultural Center on Friday, July 3rd with Jess Rae Ayre of Sweet Alibi opening ...

Posted on:

We're excited to be opening for The Wailin’ Jennys in Grass Valley, CA on June 26th, and just learned that the theater is already sold out. We're feeling very honored about this opportunity and can’t wait to hear them and check out their new album!

We'll also be returning to Don Quixote's in Felton, CA on June 29th to share a stage with Neil ...

Posted on: | Category:

We're very excited to announce that we'll be officially releasing our new CD "New Disguise" online for worldwide download tomorrow, June 10th! To celebrate, we'll also be having a streaming live concert via Concert Window. The concert is free, but we’ll be accepting tips and anyone who tips $7 will get a download of the new album (and that’s ...

Posted on: | Category:

Next week we hit the road again for a nice loop tour around the western states. We're especially looking forward to a return to the Pistol River Friendship Hall in Oregon, having a reunion with our friends in Spokane, Washington who we last saw right before the Canadian border so rudely tore us apart, visiting and playing where Laurel lived for a ...

Posted on: | Category:

We’re just back from a wonderful tour of Western Canada and can’t wait to share the new CD with our friends in the US! We have two central coast parties planned, one on April 9th at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall in Felton, CA with the full band, including Tracy Parker, Jimmy Norris, and Patti Maxine, plus soulful songwriter Amy Obenski and ...

Posted on: | Category:

We’re six shows in to our Canadian CD release tour and wow, it feels good to be on a big tour again! We enjoyed an amazing homecoming in Dan’s hometown of Pinawa, Manitoba, with hundreds of people coming out to see us and over 60 CD sales. We just kept signing them... Blown away by the support.

Other highlights have included playing a number ...

Posted on: | Category:

Thanks to the help of 72 Kickstarter supporters who pledged their support in December, the first shipment of our second album arrived in the mail ahead of us as we flew into Winnipeg to begin a 40+ date tour which starts tonight just south of the city. We are very excited about “New Disguise” and can’t wait to share it with you!

While we ...

Posted on: | Category:

Incredible!! We've been floating all day knowing that our new album campaign on Kickstarter literally went from 52% to 100% funded overnight with one extremely generous donation. Our album WILL without a doubt be made now. THANK YOU!!!

We've seen an astounding show of support, and what's crazy is we still have two weeks to keep giving away ...

Posted on:

Sharing some highlights from our debut shows in Los Angeles and send a big thank you to Russ and Julie Paris, Gary and Terri and all the volunteers at The Living Tradition Concert Series, Brad Colerick and the Wine and Song Concert Series, Gary Stockdale, John Zipperer and Friends, Joe Armstrong of the Independent’s Day Podcast, Nic and Natalie Cappelle, ...

Posted on: | Category:

All our time gestating this year has really paid off! Dan received word that his US paperwork has finally been approved this last Monday afternoon and an hour later, coincidentally, we hit the recording studio and were able to knock out four songs for our new album in just three hours, live-off-the-floor, including bass and drums! Now free to get ...

Posted on: | Category:

The life of this duo just got a LOT easier! We’ve just learned that in late June 2014 Canada repealed it’s work permit requirements for foreign musicians playing time-limited engagements in the country. As a Canadian-American musical team, this is some of the best news we’ve heard all year!!!

After a petition through change.org rallied 143,481 ...

Posted on: | Category:

We're excited and honored to have received an official showcase for the FAR-West Conference in Oakland, CA in October 2014. FAR-West is the west coast regional conference for Folk Alliance International, promoting acoustic music and education. We attended last year and had an amazing time playing, jamming, learning, socializing, and supporting an ...

Posted on: | Category:

Our year started out great - relaxing after the long tours of last year in a cabin by a lake in British Columbia, planning a new album and a new show for tours later in the year...

However, just when we were getting used to not traveling, unexpected developments concerning Laurel's work permit for Canada suddenly separated us to our respective ...

Posted on: | Category:

We made it through our big tour in one piece - across the Canadian Prairies, down the West Coast, across the Southwest and South and up the East Coast and through the Great Lakes states! A couple of the routes were repeated, but the the big miles, like through Texas, was driven between October and December.

We’ll be doing a personal songwriting ...

Posted on: | Category:

We're settling into a nice Indian Summer in California and are pleased to announce that our debut CD is now available for download! If you haven't picked up a physical copy at one of our shows yet, please stroll over online and pick up the digital version. We're really excited to share our "best ...

Posted on: | Category:

We are in the midst of a short western Canadian tour on our way down the US west coast and back to California where we'll be touring for several weeks. Thought we’d make this duo official and start an actual blog!

We have been fortunate to have some “back by popular demand” dates from our last tours as well as some new house concerts and ...

Posted on: | Category:

Some of you have been enjoying our overdubs on Facebook, while others are finding us at shows around California. Yes, we’ve finally met and are half way through tour!

Some highlights have included playing Mandolino Waltz, our first overdub, for the first time face to face, our first show 24 hours after meeting and at that show having a couple ...


Site by Laurel Thomsen
Photography by Michelle Magdalena
Additional photography by Jim MacKenzie and Mike Latchislaw
© 2012-2024 Dan & Laurel Email Us