DAGMAR: NEWS/JOURNAL

We're several months into the process now, and just a few weeks away from completing "Door No. 3".  Guitar, vocals, bass, drums (DOUG FULLER), hand percussion (DAVID ROZENBLATT), melodica, harmonica and accordion are recorded.  STEVE LATT has completed his work on banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro and pedal steel guitar.  Now we're in the process of putting it all together.  We've been saying "a few weeks" now for months, so there's no reason to believe us.  Onward through the fog . . .  

The "Door No. 3" recording project continues, with all the basic tracks now laid down.  Beginning work now on the details, some of which are quite large.  Finishing the album in February may be a little optimistic, but it's still the goal.

We learned today that come summer, MEGHAN will be setting up DAGMAR WEST in San Francisco, so we'll now have three ideal homes:  Boston, NYC and San Fran.  It's good timing.  2010 will be the year of DAGMAR ON THE ROAD, continuing its journey from, as we say, "here to where".  It's all good, and getting gooder.

DAGMAR opened for most excellent friend and supremely talented MICHAEL FARKAS and his band THE WIYOS on January 8th at The Center for the Arts in Natick, MA and January 9th at the St. Lawrence Art Center in bitterly cold Portland, Maine.   It was a privilege and pleasure, a fire to cozy up to on a winter's night.  These guys rock Americana, taking it on a fantastic spin.  If you have a chance to see them, don't miss it.

2010 -- the "Year of The Bug"-- begins, and the DAGMAR open mic juggernaut continues, with dozens of performances over the last couple of months, spreading the word, living the dream, meeting a great collection of great new people ("folks", as they're called in modern political parlance).  Having a great time.  Onward through the fog . . .

Dagmar had its first official recording session for its third album, "Door No. 3".  We'll be digging deeper into free-folk territory with this one, with the wonderful addition of the supremely talented Steve Latt on mandolin, banjo, pedal steel and fiddle.  Welcome, Steve!  We're thrilled to have you join us.

The best-laid plan is to have the album finished by February.

Dagmar performed live on WERS radio, Boston, as part of its annual "Live Music Week".  Thanks, all you nice people at WERS.

Boston, MA -- Continuing the harvest of good results from busking in front of Boston radio station WERS, DAGMAR got a "top pic" album review from the station. Read the review here.  Thank you Micaela Mielniczenko and WERS . . .

Boston, MA -- DAGMAR and its street-busking efforts to grab the attention of WERS radio was profiled in an article by Josh Sackheim in The Berkeley Beacon, the Emerson College newspaper.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE

Boston, MA -- WERS Music Director Nickie Kolb emailed DAGMAR today with an invitation to do an in-studio performance and interview during their "Live Music Week", Oct 26th-Nov 1st. She writes: "We've noticed you guys performing outside our studios and have been very entertained and impressed by your sound!" Thanks, Nickie.  We look forward to being on your side of the glass, reaching out from the inside instead of peering in from the outside.

Boston, MA -- For the third time in three weeks, DAGMAR played on the street out in front of the WERS radio station, and it looks like 3 is the charm. The station operations manager came out to speak with us, as did the program director for WERS OnLine, people from the Emerson College television station, and a writer for the college newspaper. Sounds like DAGMAR is on the radar if not yet on the radio.

Anyone who wants to help can do so by calling the WERS REQUEST LINE (617.482.8890) and nicely asking the DJ to play some DAGMAR. Thanks in advance to those who do.

We also sold a bunch of CD's, made a couple dozen new friends and fans -- from students to old-timers, down-on-their luckers to the smartly-dressed and well-healed -- got an invitation to play in Brattleboro, Vermont, and a joyful, elderly Chinese woman drew smiley faces on the two $5 bills she bought her CD with.

photo by Katherine Breeman

Boston, MA -- DAGMAR spent the afternoon busking in front of Boston radio station WERS, in an aggressive but lawful scheme to get the attention of what is reported to be the top college radio station in the nation.

photo: Yuanying Xu (cnhawk)

Many interested passersby called the station's request line, and the DJ on duty at the time came out on the street to listen. He spoke with us after his shift, took a "Door 2" CD and offered to see what he could do to get it on the air. He tried to explain -- and we tried our best, with limited success, to understand -- that though WERS is a public, not commercial station, its programming is somehow influenced by ARBITRON RATINGS, which are apparently and arbitrarily based only on listeners with land line phones, so essentially everyone under the age of about 30 is not represented. NEVERTHELESS: DAGMAR will go out again on Thursday to continue fighting the good fight. Anyone who wants to help can do so by calling the WERS request line (617.482.8890) and nicely asking the DJ to play some DAGMAR. Thanks in advance to those who do.

New York, NY -- DAGMAR busked in Times Square on a blistering hot day as part of the TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE "Best of the Buskers" series. As we sang, people melted into the pavement.

Cambridge, MA -- DAGMAR did its first Boston-area street busk in "the pit" at Harvard Square on a beautiful summer night. We sold out our CD's and made many new friends. Our good friend MICK CUSIMANO from the SQUAWK COFFEE HOUSE happened by and took some video. We'll be going out every week at various locations in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston until the New England winter chases us indoors.

Boston, MA -- DAGMAR has finished and released its second album, Door No. 2. The album is a duo effort -- recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Bauer and McGeary.

New York, NY -- DAGMAR, along with fellow buskers NEXT TRIBE perform at the 2009 ANDY Awards. BBH, the ad agency that designed the promotion/ad campaign for the OASIS record release (see below) that DAGMAR participated in, won the 2009 "GRANDY", the top award.

NEW YORK, NY -- DAGMAR, along with a number of other NYC subway performers, was selected by the band OASIS and its record label to unveil the new OASIS record, "Dig Out Your Soul" by performing new songs from the record in the subways before its release. DAGMAR made several videos of the event and posted them on YouTube (CLICK HERE to check them out), where eager Oasis fans from around the world were able to hear the songs for the first time. A documentary film (see below) was made of the "Dig Out Your Soul In the Streets" marketing project, which went on to win the top prize for the ad agency and team that developed the concept at the 2009 ANDY Awards. in NYC.

Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets

YOUTUBE, USA -- Episode 6 of The Dagmar Diaries, "The View From the Busk: RealTime HeadCount", is posted. We took a camera to a busk in the Union Square subway station, set it up on a tripod behind us, pointed it out from our perspective to the people passing by, and let it run for an hour. This video counts the number of people who pass into our "sonic space" over the course of one four minute song.

NEW YORK, NY -- Dagmar subway busking duo Bauer & McGeary have been selected for NYC SOUNDTRACKS, a new series on the Madison Square Garden (MSG) cable network (Warner Cable channel 27) profiling subway musicians in a search for "the ultimate subway musican". The six week series airs on Sundays at 8 pm, and is also available in streaming video on theMSG WEBSITE. 16 subway musicians have been selected to compete for the grand prize: the opportunity to be the opening act at one of the MSG venues (MSG, The Beacon, Radio City). It's a friendly competition among our friends and fellow buskers. Viewers determine who goes on to the final rounds and who gets selected as the ultimate winner by voting online at the MSG WEBSITE. You can check out a bit of Episode 3, with Dagmar at the auditions held in Foley Square, below, or the full episodes at msg.com.

NEW YORK, NY -- Bauer and McGeary are rejoined by original DAGMAR band members DAVID ROZENBLATT (drums) and MAT FIELDES (bass) to play new songs in the song cycle at the east village nerve center of anti-folk, THE SIDEWALK CAFE. It's the first time the full (almost - missing PABLO RIEPPI on percussion) NYC band has played together in two years. More of that to come.

NEW YORK, NY -- Dagmar 2 perform at a special concert of MUNY artists at the annual SECOND AVE STREET FAIR, on 2nd Ave. (naturally) between about 65th & 75th streets. The MUNY stage is at 73rd (we think).

NEW YORK, NY -- Dagmar 2 is photographed by art photographer Chris Zedano for a portfolio of photos he's creating with various performers photographed on the same tiny stretch of Staples Street in Tribeca.

NEW YORK, NY -- Dagmar the duo makes its second (or is it third) appearance at this great open mic on Saturday afternoons deep in the east village on Ave C. There are some wonderful musicians who pass through there, and we've made some excellent friends at BANJO JIMS.

NEW YORK, NY -- Boston-based Dagmar drummer SKWERL turns the Dagmar duo into a trio for a few busks over the weekend.

NEW YORK, NY -- DAGMAR the duo has its first official gig at THE SIDEWALK CAFE, getting deeper into the "anti-folk" scene and making many new friends. Shout outs to fellow busker Joe Crow Ryan we met there, and to Ben Krieger, now the Lord of the Anti-Folk Manor, who also writes offbeat song cycles involving non-humans.