07.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 9:55 pm by Dick
Deb and I listened to the rough cut CD again this evening in the car. This is the first time I am feeling excited about what I heard. It’s hard hearing yourself recorded. I think we just about have it put together…the order of the recordings. We still have to record three more cuts, but that shouldn’t be too hard. We’re looking for a woman poet to read Paula’s Lament, and I think we may have found someone…to be announced. I hope to overdub a bodhran (Irish hand held drum) in Young Timothy.
I think the tune will light up with the bass drum. Now all I have to do is to relearn the bodhran. I am thinking of buying a new one, but they are so expensive. Old Songs has one, and they said they will have it at the office for me to play tomorrow. It’s like $400.00. I think it will be a great instrument to have in our collection. I’ve always wanted to play one anyway. Keepin’ on truckin’.
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Posted in Uncategorized, personal at 8:40 am by Dick
Our good friend Andy came over last night to take me on a tour with the scooter. He rides a big BMW touring bike. It’s kind of awesome. I haven’t had a chance to ride the scooter since I got it home. It’s tough seeing it sit there in the yard not being able to be ridden because of a lack of a license. But now, out we went. It was dark now, so the riding was different. Not being able to see the road too far ahead is nerve racking. The thought of an animal coming out of the side of the road and into my path was unsettling at least. We road the back roads for about 45 minutes, and then we went to the high school to do practice maneuvers . That was fun, as Andy is a good instructor. Doing figure eights and u-turns was fun. Quick stops were fun too. Fifty to zero in seconds is hair raising. We had a great time, and then it was time to return home. All went well. Andy said I did great. Now I get to see my scooter sitting just waiting and wondering when I will take her out for another ride. Soon my dear…soon.
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07.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized, personal at 7:59 am by Dick
Yesterday was a new and good for me. I picked up my new scooter.
| Piaggio BV 250 |
| 244cc liquid-cooled, 4 stroke, single cylinder engine |
| Before you get in your car on Monday morning, ask yourself this: Are you looking forward to your commute? Get yourself a BV and you will. Front and rear disc brakes mean braking couldn’t be easier, while the BV’s 16″ wheels and dual shock absorbers make for the smoothest ride in scootering. The BV carries you and a passenger with comfort and style. Add on an optional top case and side compartments and you’ll have more than enough storage for urban errand-running or long distance travels.Am I crazy or what? Well, never ever had I been on any kind of motorcycle before, not even for ride, I drove my Piaggio BV 250 114 miles from Utica to Albany without a hitch. It’s a blast. But, I must say, I was exhausted when I got home. My good pal Rick, who was my licensed driver, followed me in my car as I only have a permit to drive a motorcycle. My average speed was about 60 mph. The scooter’s top speed is about 80mph. I never had the guts to try that speed…good thinking, huh. It got around 80mpg on the trip…nice huh. Anyway, I took route 5S home, as I was afraid to travel on the “BIG” road, and actually against my friend Andy’s advice. Too many big trucks on the big road. I loved the back roads anyway. It was a beautiful day, and it was a beautiful ride. Once in Schenectady, I got into rush hour traffic on 890…HELP! Actually, it was okay. Then a stop at my daughter’s house to show her the machine. Then off to my son’s house in Guilderland to show him. And low and behold, as I beamingly entered his driveway, which is on a good slope, I stopped and started to jump off the scooter. Well, my first test of will. It started to fall over. The darn thing is heavy. It toppled onto the pavement, and I leaped and rolled out of the way. Mike came around the corner just as I was rolling down the hill in my flight jacket and helmet. What a sight I must have been. Anyway, no damage at all. They told me I could drop the scooter without too much worry. They were right…no damage at all! I needed help picking it up though, it’s heavy!! Actually, only 328 pounds, but that’s no small feat getting the thing upright again. Then after the ego damage healed, I headed for home. It’s parked in the back yard now . I can’t drive it, as I don’t have my motorcycle license yet. That’s the hardest part, just seeing it sitting there, but what can I do. Yea, get my license. It was a great day. |
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Posted in Uncategorized, personal at 7:30 am by Dick
Today is Sunday and Patty and Mike will be visiting today. We saw them on Friday for a few hours but that of course is not enough. No schedule as of yet and no phone call. I guess I will call them. It’s not too early. We played hard on Friday which was nice. I hope it doesn’t rain today. Doesn’t look too good.
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06.08.08
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 12:07 am by Deb
Well, we’re more than halfway there. Hopefully, by the end of summer or sometime in early fall, we will have a full-length CD. We’ve got 7 out of 12 songs/tunes recorded and go back for the final time next Saturday. Most, if not all of them are at least 5 minutes long, so it will be a good amount of music. It has been exhausting but fruitful and incredibly rewarding. Obviously, between this, the new business, parenting and just living, I have even less time than before. But…I am happy and expectant. 
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05.06.08
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 7:10 am by Deb
Here it is March. My last post was back in November. Since then, I bought a franchise for Music Together and have my own business now called Heldeberg Music Together. I am in my second semester of running it myself. It is thriving! I’m still struggling with figuring out how to market it well, but I’m holding my own anyway. I write a newsletter for the band at least once a month and am preparing to go into the studio at the end of the month. I also took a trip to Austin, Texas. Whew! As usual, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I guess we’ll soon see. Well, I’m rushing off to work…
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11.10.07
Posted in music news at 11:27 am by Deb
Wow! We just got almost a full page profile in one of the local newspapers. What a gift for us! It was fun being interviewed and having a photographer come to one of our gigs. The interviewer asked some really good questions that made us think about our music in ways that I never had before. Everyone loves the quote at the end of the article and my quote that was used as a headline. There were also two photos that I can’t access yet. I’ll have to buy them online, and they’re not available yet. The article is pasted below. We had 5 new people come to last night’s show because of it. And… we get to use quotes from it in our promo and copy the whole article into our press/promo page. It was a nice break for us. Also, Dick read an article the night before last that made him understand his worth as a performer. I’ve been trying to explain to him that he doesn’t have to be a technically outstanding musician in order to be a good entertainer. He has a unique style and a wonderful compassionate way of relating to people that is a big part of our shows. He is the one who finally taught me how to be a performer rather than just a musician. People who enjoy our shows like us together and the way we relate to each other and to them. I hear that all the time. I’m so glad he finally got it!
From The Daily Gazette, 11-7-07, Page D8
LIVE IN THE CLUBS
Folk duo Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh blend genre’s past with its present
Partners in life and music doing their part to keep traditions alive
BY PHILIP SCHWARTZ Gazette ReporterReach Gazette reporter Philip Schwartz at 395-3111 or pschwartz@dailygazette.net.
Deb Cavanaugh and Dick Kavanaugh get passionate when the subject of traditional music arises. And in a conversation with the folk duo — billed as Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh — that subject will inevitably come up.
Over coffee and tea at a cafe near their Albany home, the couple, both life and musical partners, get into the importance of folk music, the need to keep traditions alive and how it’s all tied to our understanding of American culture and history.
“It’s important for us to know and remember our culture,” Cavanaugh says, “and it’s getting lost and increasingly becoming a corporate culture.”
Managing to avoid a self-righteous tone, both Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh talk about their mission (though they don’t expressly use that word) to help pass along the traditions of folk through their workshops and performances. And by singing old songs alongside their originals, they seem to relish being part of a kind of folksong dialogue that stretches back through history, but still touches the present.
ORGANIC GROWTH
When they first started playing as a duo, however, there wasn’t any sort of overarching commitment to traditions or preservation, Cavanaugh said. “It’s become more of a focus over the years,” she noted. “I started with just saying ‘I’d like to do some traditional stuff.’ Then as time went on, it became more deliberate.”
Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh have been life partners for 14 years, their coupling somewhat fortuitous considering the similar last names. Cavanaugh, a full-time musician who teaches and gives workshops, has been playing all her life.
“I grew up in a family where there was always singing,” the Stamford, Conn., native said. “We were always playing music. We would often, after dinner, clear the table, sit and sing. . . . I was singing harmonies when I was 3. The first time I got a paying gig, I was 15.”
By contrast, Kavanaugh, an electrician by trade, grew up in Delmar with a purist’s love of folk and acoustic blues, but didn’t start playing until his mid-30s. Similarly, his partner, though she spent her younger days concentrating on the piano and vocals, waited until age 40 to take up the stringed instruments that are so much a part of the Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh sound: mandolin, dulcimer, guitar. The stringed instruments he plays are guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo. Live performances can include any combination of those, in addition to Cavanaugh’s limber jack or Kavanaugh’s pennywhistle.
TIMELESS SONGS
The traditional songs they play, meanwhile, center on the old-time Irish and Southern U.S. traditions. Anti-war and labor songs such as “Green Fields of France,” “Mrs. McGrath,” “Masters of War,” “Granite Mills” and “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” are all part of the repertoire. But underneath it all is a slight, if mild, tension between Cavanaugh’s want to infuse new influences and Kavanaugh’s more purist nature. This can be a strength, however, Cavanaugh said. “That’s what makes us interesting,” she said. “Dick has that traditional focus and I want to be wild and do whatever.”
Playing traditional music, however, can be somewhat of an occupational hazard in a culture obsessed with youth and the taste of now. Even among an evolving roots-music community where younger generations of artists are bending what folk means, Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh still have the earnest, sweet sound that’s typical of their baby boomer generation and the time that generation ushered in the first folk boom. Nevertheless, Kavanaugh maintains that this music is just as relevant today, and will continue to be for the next generation.
“There’s a string of commonality to folk music where it touches everyone,” he said. “I feel like most of these traditional songs are timeless. Sing a song like ‘Green Fields of France’ and that was written about World War I. It still moves people. Not much has changed, you know. We’re still fighting wars.”
“That’s what makes us interesting. Dick has that traditional focus, and I want to be wild and do whatever.”
DEB CAVANAUGH
Folk singer and musician
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10.21.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news, life at 10:50 am by Deb
Whew! Somehow, I can’t seem to continue to keep this up. Between working, taking care of a 3 1/2 year old, gigging and life, why can’t I find the time to do one more thing? I love the idea of blogging, it’s just time consuming. I do continue to journal every morning. Once in a while I skip a day, but mostly I manage to keep up. Dick asked me last night if I thought anyone would ever actually read it someday. I never really thought about it before. I suppose my grandchildren or maybe my great-grandchildren will be interested somewhat. If I write with that in mind though, I may not feel as free to write what I am really inspired to write at the time. I don’t want to censor my journal any more than I already do. When my grandfather died, we found a couple of his journals. It was fascinating to read through them. He had just left home for the first time and was in pharmacy school. It was very cool to get to know my grandfather - the real person that I never knew - through his writings. I actually made a decision last month that I want to focus more on my music and less on extras. As a result, I have started taking a dulcimer class once a week for 6 weeks. When that is over, I’m going to take something else. It forces me to put in my own practice time in each week. I would like to do even more than I have, but at least I’m doing some, and it’s more than I was doing. Unfortunately, I am a fast learner, so it doesn’t take a lot of practice to get ahead. Imagine what I could do if I put more time into it. I am working more this year than I have before. I have another student and started another music class, “Fun With Music”, for 4 - 7 year-olds. I’m also teaching more Music Together classes and should be buying the Albany site soon. OMG, then I’ll be running a growing business in addition to everything else! We also will probably be running the Open Stage at the new Eighth Step site in Schenectady. Thankfully, we will be rotating it with other hosts, so it will end up being only once a month. So…just how full can my life be with music anyway?
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09.16.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 8:11 am by Deb
Well, we finally did it. Last night was our long awaited show at Caffe Lena. We had a great crowd and played very well. I think it was a combination of excitement at finally headlining in a nice listening room, especially on that means so much to us, having such a warm and supportive audience, and having another person providing a different instrumentation. Whatever it was, last night was probably the best performance we’ve ever given. My grandson, T, videotaped most of the first set. Thank-you, T. I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully we can put a bit of it up on our site soon. Now the goal is to make a demo DVD so that the essence of our shows can, hopefully, get put across. We realized the other day that our music alone is not the heart of our performances, and how do you transmit that to someone who is just listening to a CD? This may be the answer. I think T is probably very good at this, so I’m excited to see the result. There were family members, old friends, new friends, and strangers there last night. Everyone were as wowed by our performance as we were. Thanks also to Dave Danks who played very well and added a new dimension and depth to our music. We just all had a blast, and it showed. I think we’ll keep playing with him occasionally and hopefully will get more gigs that warrant a third person. Maybe we’ll be The 3Ds.
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08.26.07
Posted in Uncategorized, music news at 12:12 pm by Deb
We had a very fun gig last night in a new venue. We shared the show with two other musicians, Steve Grogan and Molly Durnin. We all did two alternating short sets. Although it was a minor annoyance having to bring our equipment and do all the set-up and break-down by ourselves, we still had a good time. For one thing, it was nice sharing a show with younger people. Also, there were a fair amount of people who came specifically to see us. That was a nice change. We’ve actually had a gradual increase over the last few months of people who return to see us or hear about us from friends. The down side was there was no publicity in the paper. Oh well, it was a chance to break into a new place. Molly was very good. She did two songs that she had written the night before. They were both good, but I was very impressed with the second one. I felt inspired to write and discouraged at the same time. After the show, we chatted with Mr. Math for a while. I mentioned my dilemma about not having a secluded place where I could go to compose my songs. He told me about a famous artist who painted on someone else’s back porch because he didn’t have studio, yet. My reaction to this was to dismiss it and tell him about having too many distractions from Grandsweetie when trying to write or play music. He then told me about some great mathematician who did much of his important work “with his grandchildren on his knee.” At that point, I decided to give up. He just didn’t understand. Later last night, after unwinding at home for a couple of hours, I decided to read before going to sleep. I remembered Molly’s two songs and the things that Mr. Math had told me. At 3:30 am, I had a wonderful new song that I plan to debut at our next show. It’s called “A Brand New Day.” It’s a new style for me and is fun and light. The lesson I have learned from all of this is a lesson I should have learned a long time ago: If I want something, I need to go out and grab it rather than waiting for it to find me. I’m sure I’ve learned it many times. I just get caught up in the struggle and forget. Thanks to Mr. Math for the encouragement and to Molly for the inspiration.
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