DAGMAR: BLOG

The Guthrie Center, Great Barrington, MA -- Last night, in our Dagmar travels from "here to where", it was 2 1/2 hours out and 2 1/2 hours back to get to this fabled hootenany in the Berkshires at the site of Arlo Guthrie's "Thanksgiving Day Massacree" and his timeless Viet Nam protest song "Alice's Restaurant". Each hour we had there there was worth many more than the hours spent getting there and back on the "Stockbridge to Boston" road made famous in James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James".  It felt, as one might predict, like a trip down memory lane and into the annals of truly great modern American "folk" music history. There was no red VW microbus, half ton of garbage, shovels, rakes or other implements of destruction, but there was a roomful of gentle and earnest people in a gorgeous building trading songs in a circle with friendly ghosts all around for an audience. Our host George Laye, who runs the center, was weary and drained after a trying day, but welcoming, kind and gracious. [...]

Several years ago, my son Lewis brought his college band, "Johnny Divine and the Nines" from Philadelphia to New York City to "open" for DAGMAR at GALAPAGOS ART SPACE in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  A year later, Lewis' close friend Aziz, who was the keyboard player in "Johnny Divine", an eloquent writer and utterly unique, soulful individual, wrote about that experience on his blog, reflecting back on the occasion when hearing the Dagmar song "Give Me The Rifle" for the first time.  His writing is a joy to read, and his take on "Rifle" still, after several years, puts a lump in my throat.  You'll find it on his blog here:
A NECESSARY REPLY TO THE INDIFFERENCE OF YOUTH
The most satisfying lyrics are those that offer multiple meanings, and allow the listener the opportunity to overlay their own point of view.  Thank you, Aziz . . . beautifully, thoughtfully done.
I dedicate today's blog entry to my mother Kaki, who died three years ago today; to parents trying to do right [...]

VALENTINES DAY, 2010, MARBLEHEAD, MA--You know when you're in love and when you're not, when you belong and when you don't, whether you're a member of a club or not, and whether you've paid your dues (or not).  There's rarely any guesswork involved.  We will never cease to be amazed by the odd protected pockets and weird hidden corners of the world we find in our somewhat random travels from here to where.  Last night, DAGMAR made its first, last and only visit to the KING HOOPER CAFE open mic, the final installment of this 10-year-old monthly event hosted by the wife/husband team of songwriter/music healer ANGELA MASCIALE and sculptor/poet DAN ZAMPINO that has taken place in the third-floor ballroom of a colonial mansion built in 1728 and which now houses THE MARBLEHEAD ARTS ASSOCIATION. The 18th-century home of ROBERT "KING" HOOPER -- a wealthy shipping merchant who learned all about the joys and bounties of unfettered capitalism long before America became The United [...]