Oh, MY, Oh, MY, BIG exciting week for us. Wednesday, Mill at Anselma Farmers' Market, Chester Springs, 3:30--6pm, Donna solo girlsongs, Just west of the intersection of Routes 401 and 113 on 401, http://anselmamill.org/
Thursday, East Goshen Farmers' Market, West Chester, PA, 3:30--6pm, Donna solo girlsongs, http://www.eastgoshenfarmersmarket.org/ Friday, The Ship Inn, Malvern/Exton, 7:30-10:30pm, DaveLovesDonna, http://www.eastgoshenfarmersmarket.org/ Saturday, The Inn at St. Peters Village, 2-5pm, DaveLovesDonna, theinnatsaintpeters.com/ I am so THANKFUL for farmers' markets! When we sing in clubs, we have a responsibility to play happy songs and help people put aside their cares for a time. We also sort of feel like the songs should be peppy. So many of the songs that I am writing, that keep coming to me out of the ether, are soft or pretty or sad or angry or quirky, and we just don't feel right playing them in a club. BUT, at farmers' markets, I feel like I have a lot of latitude to just be me and play MY music, the full range, and people listen and comment and get it, and it is a wonderful relief. I believe the farmers' market music scene is relatively new, and how totally convenient of it to come along just as I was becoming a song writer. I now take my keyboard with me everywhere Dave and I play, but my girl songs on the piano are soft and pretty, or dark dark blues, so I don't usually get to play them, unless someone requests one. But I can do them all at the farmers market! At Yellow Springs Farm, I got requested to do the piano songs twice! One more incredibly fun farmers' market thing happened last week. My big big love has always been Broadway. At the Anselma Market, I had a group of little girls beg me to learn the song Let It Go, from Frozen. I have never seen Frozen, so the director of the market sent me the youtube link to the song, and my oh my this is a big and beautiful Broadway belting song, and it fills my whole being with joy to sing all two octaves of it. The message parallels my life in so very many ways. I think I have finally learned it (practically driving Dave-the-Saint completely mad in the process). The market has announced that I will be singing it on Wednesday, and I can't wait! Friday, we will be returning to one of our most warm and fuzzy new places to sing--The Ship Inn. We sang there just two weeks ago, and the place filled up with dear friends, old and new, from far and near. Adding to that the regulars who truly love music and come to share and sing along, and it was as joyful as a night can get. Great food and drink, but even better camaraderie. If you can come, be sure to reserve a table near the music. Let us know if you find yourself coming alone and would like some new friends to sit with. And Saturday, Saturday it gets even better, singing on the deck at The Inn at St. Peters, over the rocks and waterfalls, as beautiful as PA and summer in PA can be. We urge you to come and join in the fun, while it lasts! Grab on. Join in. We are out west in and about Yellowstone Park for the next two weekends. Be back for July 4th weekend--July 3rd at Ludwigs and July 4th back at St. Peters! Love&Peace, Donna&Dave
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Summer is heating up, and with it, our performance schedule. Hope you can come and join in the fun!
Saturday, June 6th, The Captain's Inn, 1-5pm, Forked River, NJ. Palm trees, sail boats, tiki hut bar/restaurant on piers out over the water. Heaven. This place is worth the drive! Spend a lovely afternoon with us and hear our many, many new songs. Friday, June 12th, The Ship Inn, 7:30-10:30pm. Great food and drink, lovely people who love sharing music together. Huge gratitude to everyone who came out this past Friday, dear friends, some long time friends, some brand new. What a night! Joy! The Ship Inn is just west of the intersection of Routes 202 and 30, on Route 30, in Exton/Frazer. Saturday, June 13th, The Inn at St. Peters Village, 2-5pm, on the deck high in the air over the rocks and waterfalls. This place is also worth the drive from just about anywhere. The first thing we saw when we arrived last time was a man walking 4 Russian Wolfhounds on 1 leash. And the next thing we saw was a woman walking a cat on a leash. You never know what is going to happen in St. Peters. But you can be pretty sure we will have lots of cool dogs to sing First Dawg In Heaven to. To catch Donna's girl song act, Wednesday, June 10th I will be singing at The Mill at Anselma Farmers' Market, Chester Springs, 3:30-6pm. Great local farmers and crafts of all kinds, good people who could use our support. And Thursday, June 11th, I will be singing at the East Goshen Farmers' Market, 3:30-5:30pm, for folks in a southeasterly direction. This past week, at the Anselma Market, I had 8 little girls beg me to do at least one song from Frozen, so I am learning Let It Go, which gives me chills every time I hear it. It may be even more fun than Pontoon. The last two weekends in June, we will be singing with the wolves in Yellowstone and Grand Teton Parks. We return to two local shows the first weekend in July: Ludwig's Inn on Friday, July 3rd, and The Inn at St. Peters on Saturday, July 4th! Enjoy BIG! Peace&Love, Donna&Dave *love*music*happiness* BIG FUN FUN ALERT! Summer is here, earlier than expected, and our focus has shifted OUTSIDE! This Thursday, we are OUTSIDE singing at the Tiki Bar at The Captain's Inn, Forked River, NJ, 6-10pm. Palm trees, thatched roof, sail boats! Our 5 new cover songs should be ready for prime time, plus I am working like crazy to try to be able to play my new song--The Last First Date--by Thursday on the keyboard. I have yet to play it all the way through without a mistake, but I have 3 more days until Thursday to make it happen. I wrote it for a person I know only through Facebook. About a month ago, she posted that she was celebrating the 24th anniversary of her last first date. She and her husband met on a blind date, and they have never been apart since that night, and they are still madly in love! It is about to be their 24th wedding anniversary (they married 2 months after the date!), and she wants to come and meet us in person and hear her song. Wish me luck!!! http://www.captainsinnnj.com/
Friday, Ludwig's Inn, Glenmoore, PA, our local hub, Rt. 100 just N of the turnpike and S of Rt. 422. We play from around 7:30pm to 11ish. If you are driving by, stop in for a song or two. Or, even better, spend the evening with us! Let us know if you may be coming alone and would like someone to sit with, and we will arrange a table for you with some new music friends. Everyone loves this place! www.ludwigsoysterbar.com/ Sunday afternoon, Donna solo singing her girl songs, at Yellow Springs Farm--one of our favorite places on earth--newborn baby goats, native plants blooming, a beautiful Chester County farm run by two dear people who spend every minute making the world a happier healthier more delicious place. Sunday will be one of their spring open house days, where you can meet the goats who make their award winning cheeses, learn about and purchase native plants, and buy their many goat's milk products, such as cheeses and caramel sauces. A great way to spend a happy spring afternoon! http://www.yellowspringsfarm.com/ Our inside goal is to continue to record our MANY new songs, but we are currently being thwarted by the large group of construction guys and their loud pounding equipment who have been coming to Eden Ranch every morning at 7:30am. We are adding a room on the back of the house. The house was built to be passive solar, and there are very few and only tiny windows on the north side. The north side is where the woods and the birds and the frogs are, and if the weather isn't outside weather, we don't get to see them. So we are building a 3 season room out back, to extend our time spent with the trees. Our quite haven is anything but, at the moment. Hugo Boss, the peacock, is the only one thrilled with the activity. He hangs out with the workmen, and he loves the machines that can make even more noise than he does. Love&Peace, Donna&Dave St. Peters Fun Alert! It must be summer! We are thrilled to be back singing this Saturday on the deck at The Inn At St. Peters Village--over the trees and rocks and waterfalls, with the families strolling by and bikini-clad teenagers diving off of cliffs and every breed of dog and great wine and food and drink! The best part of our summer is back! It is forecast to be a warm, sunny day, so we invite you to come and make some beautiful summer fun with us. This place has a special place in our hearts--we got married here! As always, let us know if you find yourself coming alone and would like someone to sit with. St Peters is worth the drive from just about anywhere--a lovely place. Great hiking trails, if you are so inclined. 2-6pm. theinnatsaintpeters.com
Next week, for our Reading friends, we will debut at the Meadowbrook Country Club (1153 Rick Road, Reading) on Friday night, May 8. Apparently, non-members are not only allowed but encouraged. They have a slightly strange rule that one person in the party must buy a lifetime membership for $12, and then everyone in the group can be served alcohol. Saturday, May 9th, we will be performing from 1:30 to 3pm at West Vincent's Community Day, a lovely Norman Rockwell-esque township event. Everyone comes, lots of kids events, tractors and fire trucks, pie contests, art contests, the local businesses give out free samples, local clubs give out info--in a nutshell--a heartwarming slice of Americana. And next--Thursday, May 14th, The Captain's Inn, Forked River, NJ; Friday, May 15th, we are back at our local hub, Ludwig's Inn; and Sunday, May 17th, me singing my songs solo at the Yellow Springs Farm Native Plants Nursery and Artisanal Goat Cheese Open House--baby goats, flowers that make butterflies and bees happy, great people. We spent the winter concentrating on recording and making videos for our songs, but now the sun is drawing us outside, and we are turning our focus to performing. We are lining up some new cover songs to sing, so let us know if you have any suggestions for a current popular happy fun interesting catchy song! We are planning on learning Little Big Thing's Pontoon first. We started working on it today! And I am hoping that very soon I will be able to play my latest piano song, The Last First Date. The way that the song arrived in my head, it is super hard to play on the keyboard (especially for someone who didn't play the keyboard before December like me). All the chords are unique and made up by my brain, or caught out of the air, and it is taking me forever to learn it, let alone play it without mistakes. But I am getting closer! Wishing You All The Best Of Spring! Love&Peace, Donna&Dave St. Peters Fun Alert! It must be summer! We are thrilled to be back singing this Saturday on the deck at The Inn At St. Peters Village--over the trees and rocks and waterfalls, with the families strolling by and bikini-clad teenagers diving off of cliffs and every breed of dog and great wine and food and drink! The best part of our summer is back! It is forecast to be a warm, sunny day, so we invite you to come and make some beautiful summer fun with us. This place has a special place in our hearts--we got married here! As always, let us know if you find yourself coming alone and would like someone to sit with. St Peters is worth the drive from just about anywhere--a lovely place. Great hiking trails, if you are so inclined. 2-6pm. theinnatsaintpeters.com
Next week, for our Reading friends, we will debut at the Meadowbrook Country Club (1153 Rick Road, Reading) on Friday night, May 8. Apparently, non-members are not only allowed but encouraged. They have a slightly strange rule that one person in the party must buy a lifetime membership for $12, and then everyone in the group can be served alcohol. Saturday, May 9th, we will be performing from 1:30 to 3pm at West Vincent's Community Day, a lovely Norman Rockwell-esque township event. Everyone comes, lots of kids events, tractors and fire trucks, pie contests, art contests, the local businesses give out free samples, local clubs give out info--in a nutshell--a heartwarming slice of Americana. And next--Thursday, May 14th, The Captain's Inn, Forked River, NJ; Friday, May 15th, we are back at our local hub, Ludwig's Inn; and Sunday, May 17th, me singing my songs solo at the Yellow Springs Farm Native Plants Nursery and Artisanal Goat Cheese Open House--baby goats, flowers that make butterflies and bees happy, great people. We spent the winter concentrating on recording and making videos for our songs, but now the sun is drawing us outside, and we are turning our focus to performing. We are lining up some new cover songs to sing, so let us know if you have any suggestions for a current popular happy fun interesting catchy song! We are planning on learning Little Big Thing's Pontoon first. We started working on it today! And I am hoping that very soon I will be able to play my latest piano song, The Last First Date. The way that the song arrived in my head, it is super hard to play on the keyboard (especially for someone who didn't play the keyboard before December like me). All the chords are unique and made up by my brain, or caught out of the air, and it is taking me forever to learn it, let alone play it without mistakes. But I am getting closer! Wishing You All The Best Of Spring! Love&Peace, Donna&Dave We are privileged to be singing Friday night at our local hub, Ludwig's Inn and Oyster Bar, 7ish to 11ish. After one year of being DaveLovesDonna, we have arrived at this lovely place—all of the venues at which we now sing have the same warm, friendly, loving spirit: dear people, old friends and new, all coming together to share the companionship and fun and happiness that music and love can create. I think our shows have become a place where people can step aside from the cares and problems of daily life and celebrate the good, see the possibility of good. What joy!
Our other big news is we have finally finished our One Heart video. Dave did an amazing job, blending absolutely gorgeous video he captured in Jamaica with scenes done here at The Ranch. It will be on YouTube later in the day on Friday. We will announce the release on Facebook, but if you aren't a Facebook fan, just go our website, and the link will be there. The recording will be for sale on our website as soon as the video goes up. This reggae song is based on the Greek myth that Zeus was jealous of humans, because we were so happy all the time, and he sent lightening to split us in two, and then scattered us around the earth, and we spend our lives in longing, looking for our missing parts—we are missing half our heart. Love&Peace, Donna Frazer/Exton Fun Alert
The Ship Inn, Friday night, 7-10pm, Rt. 30 in between Exton and Frazer, near the Rt. 202/30 exit. Sooo looking forward to singing for all those dear people at The Ship Inn. They listen! They request songs faster than we can play them! It is like a nice party there, a lovely party with dear, sweet friends. Please consider joining us--very good food, pretty atmosphere, warm people. Reservations recommended if you would like a table. Be sure and tell them you are coming for the music, or they will put you in a far away room, and you will miss all the fun (this has happened before). As always, please tell us if you are coming alone and would like company, and we will introduce you to some new friends and fellow music lovers. CREATIVE NEWS: DAVE has been hard at work on the One Heart video. He is combining footage he shot in Jamaica with footage we shot here in our studio. We believe the recording to be done, but we may still fuss with it. Dave played at least 10 instruments; he did an amazing job. I played mandolin & created a Jamaican chorus of all Donnas; it sounds pretty cool. DONNA: I am finishing my 4th piano song. Recently, a Facebook friend told the story of her first date with her husband 30 years ago. It was a blind date, and since they met that night, they have never been apart, and they are as much in love as ever. So, I HAD to write a song about that, and it decided it had to be a piano song, and it has taken me forever to create and then write out each note of the piano accompaniment, since I have no experience playing the piano, and I can't just make it up as I go along like some of you. My brain has spent this time bemoaning the fact I don't (didn't) play the piano, while at the same time acknowledging that, BECAUSE I don't play the piano and I don't know any of the piano rules, maybe I can create something fresh and unique and pretty, just because I don't have any experience with the instrument. I have finished writing each note of the accompaniment out, and now the only stumbling block is I have to learn how to play what I wrote. I pretty much have to memorize it, since my sight reading skills are nil. I am now up to the point of working with a metronome, trying to package all the accidentals and triplets my brain told me to write out into something that will someday sound to other people's ears the way it sounds in my head. And another song is in the works. While I was trying to figure out how the above song should sound, how to glue the parts together, a few notes came into my head/fingers that sounded like the passage of time, and instead of using them in the above song, another song popped in my head--The Insomnia Song. We are hoping to make the video and recording of that this weekend! It will be something for people to sing on those long nights when sleep evades. Future Dates: Ludwigs Inn, Glenmoore, PA--Friday--April 17th--our local haunt, YAY! At the intersection of Routes 100 and 401, just north of the Downingtown turnpike exit. The Captains Inn, Forked River, NJ--Friday, April 24th--our return to singing at the shore, after our long, long winter. AND, Saturday, May 2nd, our happy return to The Inn at St. Peters, possibly our favorite place of all, 2-6 on the deck over the rocks and waterfalls. Thank you for coming along with us on this musical journey. Love & Peace, Donna & Dave love☼music☼happiness West Chester Fun Alert
We are very happy to be back singing in West Chester on Friday night, 7-10pm, at Broad Run Golf Club's Bordley House Grille. This is a cozy, comfy, friendly spot: nice people who like listening to music, comfy chairs, clubby atmosphere, good food and drink. A great history, too. When the first owner, Judge Bordley, an innovative experimental farming guy in the 1700's, ran low on foreign beer and wine, he started brewing his own beer and planted a vineyard. A man after our own heart! More of the history is on the website: www.bordleyhousegrille.com. We have Easter weekend off, and then we are singing at The Ship Inn, Exton on Friday, April 10th, Ludwig's Inn on Friday, April 17th, a private party on April 19th, and we are back singing at the shore on Friday, April 24th. Not everyone knows that you can ask us to play at your private party or special occasion. These are my favorite gigs--we get to be a part of people's lives and share in special moments. The love we see expressed at these events is priceless. We get to see all the deepest good. Sad to say, cynical me is always waiting for some big family fight to break out, but it never happens. Just love. Love&Peace, Donna&Dave love*music*happiness Friends,
We have a unique musical adventure for you this Saturday night at The Other Farm Brewing Company in Boyertown. The Other Farm is a nanobrewery recently opened by some super creative young folks who love music. It is a great place to listen and dance and mingle, lots of space to wander around plus cozy tables to nest at. Because it is an innovative listening kind of place, Dave and I are planning to do all originals, and we are working up some new ones to raise the adventure bar. I am sorry to report that NO ONE outside of Jamaica has learned our dance to our One Heart reggae song yet, despite my best efforts, but maybe Saturday will be the day. I actually get to bring my keyboard along, which makes me very excited. Dave remains wary. We are going to be sharing the stage with friends from First Sundays at Hidden Valley Farm--Blue Moon and The Barn Swallows. The Barn Swallows are a country folkie pop bluegrass duo performing home grown songs on guitar, dobro, mandolin and harmonica with tight vocal harmonies. Blue Moon is an acoustic trio playing a fun mix of country, blues, folk, old time and bluegrass. They play original tunes as well as covers of old favorites and traditional tunes. Their sound evokes nostalgic feelings of days gone by. Instrumentation includes guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo & upright bass. I would like to extend our sincere and deep thanks to everyone who came to Ludwigs Inn last Saturday, despite the mounds of snow everywhere. What a warm and fun night, and none of that warmth and happiness can happen without you. It is the kind of fun & companionship & happiness that we can only create together. We have next weekend off from performing to work on finishing our new CD, the recording and video of One Heart, and our screenplay, from which we took a long break. We had asked a screenplay guy to read our script, and he immediately saw this huge hole, that we didn't really know what our message was--we sort of knew and we had a few points, but not one core message. Well, we believe we have it now, so we can get back to writing. Our next performance is Friday, March 27th at Broad Run Golf Club in West Chester. Love & Peace, Donna&Dave *love*music*happiness* Dear Friends, I usually send Fun Alerts on Mondays, but since we are snowed in, I was thinking you might be snowed in, too, and maybe a Fun Alert would help to pass away this long winter's night.
Item#1: The recording of The Love of a Lifetime is now finished! After our fans unanimously voted that our song needed strings, we called up Jonathan Yudkin in Nashville, and he wrote & played & recorded about 10 string parts for the song. It is so nice to know super-geniuses. Handy. The result is pretty spectacular. We hope you like it. You can buy the MP3 on our website, if you are so inclined. Here is the youtube link to Dave's lovely video of the finished song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP37acv9lRo. Item#2: We released another video earlier this week of one of Dave's loveliest songs, Two Different Worlds. He wrote this song about the day he fell in love with me (I was already in love with him). As you may know, three weeks after I fell in love with Dave, he left to sing on a cruise ship for 6 months. I had been alone A LONG TIME, so the prospect of another 6 months alone was pretty horrible. In order to "date" him, I had to take cruises, which to some people doesn't sound like such a bad thing, unless you are a person not fond of water, like me, then it's not so ideal. The first cruise I went on, in order to date Dave, was around the Mediterranean: Rome, Naples, the Greek Islands, Istanbul, Turkey- even non-water-lovers have to admit this is spectacular. Dave had a wonderful boss at the time who was a sucker for romance, and he gave Dave several days off while I was there, very unusual in the cruise industry, and we got to spend one of those days on the Isle of Capri, one of the most romantic places on earth, and we had about the most magical day anyone has ever had on this planet. Dave wrote a song about that day, and it is about as romantic and beautiful as a song can be. The song is on the Togther CD. The footage on the video was shot by Dave on this day, this day in Capri when he fell in love, a day when neither of us ever dreamed we would get married and create this life and music together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUyQN9hX4nQ Item#3: When Are We Singing??? This coming Friday, February 27, we will be singing our little hearts out at one of our favorite new places, The Ship Inn, smack in between Malvern and Exton on Rt. 30. Great folks here, they love music and fun, really great feel. Lovely food, good drinks, great atmosphere. We would love for you to join us. As always, if you are coming alone and would like companionship, let me know, and we will find you friends to sit with. 7-10pm www.shipinn.net GREAT NEWS, we will be back at our neighborhood hub, Ludwig's Inn, on Friday, March 6th. Really looking forward to that. They are still on the fence there, as to whether they should have live music or not, so if we have lots of people and fun that night, we will get to keep playing there and having more fun! www.ludwigsoysterbar.com For our more northerly friends, we are going to be singing at The Other Farm Brewing Company in Boyer town on Saturday, March 14th. This is a fun co-bill with friends: Blue Moon and The Barn Swallows. It will be a night of beautiful, unique, original music, with great homemade beer and cider. We will be doing an all original show that night. www.theotherfarmbrewingcompany.com Hope you are warm enough and dry enough and all tucked in, by blankets or love and preferably both. Love&Peace, Donna&Dave |
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