Without music, life would be a mistake ...

Saturday night guitar party, 28/03/2020 (I'm top, 2nd left)
10 guitars, 15 friends, including a friend from Tokyo

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele at age 9 (which I still play), and graduated to a 6-string acoustic guitar at age 12. I've written quite a bit about my guitar life on this blog.

Read my guitar and music posts here.

Music has lifted me up my whole life. I've made lifelong friends, even met my husband one night almost 40 years ago, because of my love of the guitar.

Author at 17, playing at a
high school coffee house

This spring as humanity finds itself in the grip of a pandemic, each of us must find solace where we can. So last night I ventured boldly with my musical friends onto the internet!

I was skeptical when a friend suggested we try it but in the end, I found joy in the deep connection I have to my friends, and to the music we have played together for decades.

That's me with my husband, top row, third from left

It was so beautiful to see everyone, all together in one place. One of us joined the party while sitting in his basement in Tokyo. One of us held his newborn son, so in one family three generations were present on the screen. Some of us were in isolation alone, some of us had our partners or children with us.

But in the end, we were all together.

It wasn't perfect. The internet was slow. Sound was intermittent. Sometimes people dropped out and had to reconnect.

Click to hear BIRCHES
With Allister Thompson

But we sang. We played. We listened. We chatted. We kicked at the darkness, as our guitar hero Bruce Cockburn once sang. We found solace in each other, and in the music we've always shared. It reminded us of warm summer nights around a campfire, of beautiful harmonies, of the passage of time and the impermanence of everything except music and friendship.

I played 3 original tunes, including The Gargoyle Shuffle. 

So find solace where you can, everyone. For me right now, it's in friends, music and a wonky internet connection.

With love to you all.

PD

Sequined Mountain Ladies

Birches in Summer, by Baye Hunter www.bayehunter.com

I do two things reasonably well in life. One is write books, the other is play guitar.

Listen to: Sequined Mountain Ladies

In case you missed a blog post from last month, I have a new guitar album out, with my long-time editor and musical collaborator, Allister Thompson. This is our second album, the first was Fifth Season (Nov, 2015).

The new album is called Birches, and is graced with cover art by local Toronto artist, Baye Hunter.

Sequined Mountain Ladies is my (current) favourite piece. Enjoy!

When authors and editors write music together, Part 2

Birches in Summer, paper collage, by Baye Hunter

It's been two years since my first album release with my long-time editor and wonderful musician, Allister Thompson, but today is the release of album number two! I'm so honoured to share it with you.

Please enjoy Birches at Bandcamp
It's also available free here: Birches, FMA 

You'll find eight instrumental guitar pieces, in the style of Bruce Cockburn or Samuel Beam, inspired by the Canadian forest of Algonquin Park and the Haliburton Highlands.

Here's the title song: Birches 

There's a song for my sailing life, Outer Harbour, and the companion piece, Algonquin. I play both songs with Travis picking, a distinctive style I love. There are a few songs celebrating family life, including Sarah Tiptoes, written for my daughter. And there's even a tip of the hat to Lovecraft, Mountains of Madness, where Allister does some very scary stuff with his voice.

This release also includes my first vocal recording, Moonlight. I have to thank Allister for convincing me to record it, but it's a lovely song about sorrow which is also bound with love and joy. I wrote it for my sister-in-law, who had the most beautiful voice of all.

Many thanks also to Baye Hunter, another musical friend and a terrific artist, whose paper collage work, Birches in Summer, adorns the cover. You'll find more of Baye's collage and watercolour here: www.bayehunter.com

Our first release, Fifth Season (Nov/2015), has had over five thousand listens, and one song, Summer, was the Free Music Archive Song of the Day in May, 2016. Plus, many tunes have been adapted by various folks in artistic videos, you can see them on my Youtube channel (I love the one from the Netherlands the most, I think, it's the windmill).

It's always a joy to create music with my friends. Please enjoy Birches, with our gratitude.