I decided that I'd use the Yahoo Groups format for my occasional mailing list and newsletter. I have friends and acquaintances who use it and they all swear by it. You can subscribe to it here. It's easy to unsubscribe, too, if you decide you don't like my brand of spam. I promise that I'll never share, sell or give away your information, too. You can sign right up by entering your e-mail address in the box below, or look for the "E-mail List" button on other pages on this site.

September 28, 2008
Well, the good folks at National have done it again! I've been so in love with my baritone guitar, not to mention my tricone, that I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two and get myself a baritone tricone. So that's exactly what I did; it's a Style 1.5. It really is an amazing thing and so different from the M-2 bari. I thought it would be hard to justify two baritone guitars, but they're both so amazing and wonderful that I'm not having any problem with that. In fact, I'm wondering if I shouldn't get Charlie Hoffman to make me a flattop baritone, and while I'm at it maybe National can make me a resophonic piccolo guitar...

For the time being I'm using the Yahoo Calendar to let everyone know where I'm playing. The downside is that you have to join Yahoo to view it. The upside is that you can join my group and get my newsletters. Well, I think that's an upside, anyway. Click here and you're there, or look for the "Calendar" button on most other pages on this site.
         

July 31, 2007
I have a new e-mail address: dave@dakotadavehull.com. If you need to reach me, you know what to do.

On Sunday, the 21st at 7 PM I'll be back at the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena. You can call 626-398-7917 for info on that show. I was there a couple of years ago and had a great time so I'm looking forward to the return visit.

From there I head north to Felton, California to DonQuixote's International Music Hall. That's on Tuesday, the 23rd at 8 PM and is also a double bill with Paul Asbell. I'm looking forward to seeing some of my old friends from the Espresso Garden shows here. You can call 831-603-2294 for info.

On Thursday I'll head over to Monterey Live! at 414 Alvarado St. in Monterey, naturally. Showtime is at 7:30 and you can call 831-375-5483 (375-LIVE) for information on that show.

Well, that's it for this year's California swing. I'll be heading home after a bit to finish working on my new CD. With luck it'll be done and out by summer. See you at one of the shows!

I'll head over to Buffalo for a gig with my pal Doug Yoemans at the Stereo Advantage in Williamsville. It's like a house concert, almost. I've done it before and really enjoyed the heck out of it. Showtime there is 7.

I'll be buzzing down to Bethlehem, Pa for a 7:30 show at Godfrey Daniels, one of my favorite places. That's Thursday the 26th. Brooks Williams will be joining me for that show. I just met him for the first time last month and not only is he really good, he's a nice guy, too.

Friday I drive back to Rochester, NY for a show at the Daily Perks coffeehouse at 8 PM. I played there before too, and really enjoyed it. And I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the creative routing on the part of my agent.

Sunday night, the 29th, is a return to the venerable Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY. That's a 7 o'clock show. I first took the stage there in 1972, believe it or not. They're still going strong and still one of the great rooms around.

Johnny D's in Somerville, Mass. is next, on Tuesday, the 31st, Hallowe'en. Scary. That's an 8:30 show. If you're in the Boston area I hope you'll make it.

Wednesday November 1st I'm back in Pomfret, Ct. for a 7 o'clock house concert at the home of my friends Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen. It's a wonderful room and Sally can bake! Howie's a winemaker (as a matter of fact, a world-class winemaker!) so even if you don't like music you might wanna make this one.
Directions can be had by calling 860-974-3089.

Thursday the 2nd I'm up in Portsmouth, NH at the Redhook Brewery at 7 PM. It's a new place to me and I'm looking forward to it.

On Friday, the 3rd I'll be in concert at the Unitarian church in Ellsworth, Maine. It's a 7:30 start and it's a benefit for the local community radio station, WERU. They're a very good bunch of folks who play a lot of roots and folk music. My old pal Jay Peterson has a show there.

On Saturday I'm back at the Yellow Door in Montreal for an 8 o'clock show. Then I get to start driving home.

I have a few things in November on the home front, including some recording work, both for myself and for others.

In December Kari Larson and I will be doing at least one (and hopefully two) Christmas concerts. I'm really excited to be doing this; Kari is my favorite musician on the planet!

I'd also like to mention, because I've gotten some requests, I am available for lessons when I'm in your area, time permitting. Drop me an email if you're interested in setting something up.

I have a little time at home so I'll be doing some recording and then getting ready to head out again for my annual Autumnal tour of the Northeast. At this point it looks like I'll be doing gigs in New York State, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Quebec and, hopefully, Ontario. I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends in these places and making some new ones.

Peter Lang, Charlie Parr and I did a couple of gigs together in Madison and Rockford in between my other two trips. Peter, David Alderson (of Zephyr Acoustic Productions) and I drove down together and met up with Charlie. We had a great time. I'm sure I'll be splitting some more gigs with Charlie as time goes on, and I have one coming up with Peter in Lansing next month, so if you're out that way please check it out. We'll be at the Ten Pound Fiddle.

I spent a few days in Winnipeg and had the chance to hang out with my friends at the Walnut Street Music Company. They've been booking some of my shows and proved to be excellent hosts, to boot. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Mitch, Eva, Nolan and Tim. We had a great time and the stay ended too soon. I hope I can get back up that way often.

Charlie Hoffman finished the second piccolo guitar just before I left on the first leg of the trip so I got to break in a new guitar. By the time I got home I was in love. I thought it might be a tough choice because I can only keep one, but the new one wins. It's simply great and a joy to play. Charlie just keeps getting better. Older, too.

Speaking of guitars, the baritone National just keeps getting better and better. I've finally figured out the best way to string it (these things take time and experimentation) and what it's best at. I suspect that the live album (if I ever finish it) will have some tunes I've recorded before redone on the baritone. It sounds like a pipe organ. I'm a lucky guy.

I'll be recording most of these gigs for possible inclusion in a live CD I'm working on. There are a couple of live tunes on my website. Speaking of my website, it's getting fairly regular updates so feel free to check out what's new here.

If you need more information you can email my agents: David at david@zapmusic.org or Nolan at nolan@simplyfolk.com. Or you can email me at dave@dakotadavehull.com. Between the three of us we can probably answer most of your questions. Sometimes I don't get email as regularly on the road, but I try.

My friend Jerry Clark was in town to help me record some radio shows (Thursday mornings on kfai.org; also archived for two weeks there). We did four shows and for the first time we did them here at Arabica Studio. I think we're pretty well getting the kinks worked out so the next batch should be great. These worked out pretty well, too.

Well, that's all for now. I hope to see you on the road.

This has been quite a year. I hardly know where to begin. I'm just home from a lovely trip to the Northeast where I had some gigs. I got to spend some time with some great friends, too, Sally Rogers and
Howie Bursen, Martin Grosswendt (and his charming twin daughters), Steve Moscov, Mary Faith Rhodes (of John Pearse Strings), Jackson Buck and a few others. I played gigs with Paul Geremia (Johnny D's in
Boston), Peter Lang (Godfrey Daniel's in Bethlehem, Pa.) , and Doug Yeomans (The Sportsman's Bar in Buffalo) on this tour in addition to some solo concerts. One highlight is always the Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs. I was on that stage for the first time some 33 years ago, and they're still going strong! Did a couple of house concerts, too, one at Sally and Howie's in Connecticut and the other at Jimmy Nikora's place in Madison, on the way home. I love doing house concerts. No PA, no fuss, no muss. The drive was great, too, thanks in no small measure to my trusty iPod. I got to spend a few hours with my friend Fred Oster at Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia. I'm afraid I drooled all over his collection. Man, the guitars that guy has! It's not nice to covet, but I did get a good case of the guitar lust while I was there. While I was on tour the Winter 2006 issue of SingOut! came out. There's a very nice article about me in there written by Jerry Clark, one of my oldest and closest friends. Pick up a copy if you can. The article is full of all kinds of useless information. Seriously, it's great to be featured in this venerable publication and I'm really honored.

A bit earlier this year I reconnected with my old friend Lonnie Knight and recorded his latest CD in my studio. Lonnie is doing my website now and he's doing a great job. Lots of updates, more to come. Check out his album, too. Speaking of the studio, Pop Wagner has been in finishing up his latest album, and I've been recording a few folks (Joe Price, the Ditch Lillies, Charlie Parr, myself) for the new National Resophonic audio catalog. I'll be mastering that project next week. Speaking of National, I've got a new National Baritone guitar. This one is a single-cone wood-bodied thing that is simply blowing me out of the water. Holy moly! Those guys just keep getting better and better. You can check out their website at www.nationalguitars.com. Speaking of nice new guitars, the Martin company sponsored my gig at Godfrey Daniel's in Bethlehem, Pa. last month. They asked me to play one of their instruments for part of the show and brought over a lovely OM-18GE for me to play. A fabulous new guitar. A big thank you to the folks at Martin for that. I was sorry to give it back.

In January I had my annual winter trip to California where I got to hang out for three weeks or so. I did several gigs including one with Steve James, and that's always fun. I got to hang out in Seal Beach with David Quinn (the fabulous furniture maker—www.quinndesigns.com), saw all my friends from National Reso-Phonic, and then went up North to Santa Cruz and the Bay area. Steve Palazzo is holding down the fort in Santa Cruz, teaching guitar, putting on house concerts, putting up wayward musicians and generally being one of the world's great guys. My old friend Barb Montoro (she played bass on Hull's Victory) lives out there so I got to see her, too. I did a show at Eric Schoenberg's shop in Tiburon, too, and, as is my habit, drooled all over his collection. Man, the guitars that guy has!

This last spring I got to go back to England for the first time in over 30 years for a couple of gigs in Oxford. I also did a concert in Sligo, Ireland. It was a wonderful trip to both countries except it was entirely too short. Hopefully I'll get to return before too long; I had a blast. The people were wonderful and the gigs were great. Big thanks to Duck Baker for the digs in London, Bernd Wannenwetsch in Oxford, the Richardsons of Dublin and Aoife Flynn in Sligo. Couldn't have done it without you all.

It's been a tough year, too. In early June Steve Alarik passed away of an apparent heart attack. Steve managed the old Coffeehouse Extempore here in Minneapolis for many years in the 1970s and was a big part of our scene. A couple weeks later Dean Carr passed away. Dean was the first musician I met when I came here from Fargo in late 1969. He was a big fish around here in those days, one of the established guitarists. I was green, very green, and Dean's generosity of spirit and friendship were really appreciated. He left the music business, but never the guitar. As shocking as these losses were nothing could have prepared me for the loss of my old partner Sean Blackburn. Sean and I traveled together for 10 years and made three records. Over the last dozen years or so I'd seen quite a bit of Sean and he was really doing well—singing better than ever, content, happy and together. I miss him more than I can say. He really was my brother. We did a couple of memorial concerts for him, one in Denver and one here in Minneapolis and we set up a memorial for him, as well. There's information about this here on my website so if you have a mind, please check it out.

My radio show on KFAI continues, much to my amazement. Community radio is really important and this is my volunteer gig. My show did really well during the pledge drives this year (over 16k between the two drives) and that's particularly amazing for a show on a weekday morning. You can listen to it anytime online; the individual shows are archived for two weeks.

My friend David Alderson continues to handle my bookings (www.zapmusic.org) both on solo shows and with the Minnesota Guitar Wizards (with Peter Lang, Tim Sparks, Phil Heywood and sometimes Dean Magraw). I'm planning a short trip to southern California in January, some work in the Midwest in the spring, another trip out west later in the spring and hopefully another trip across the water this summer. I expect to be spending some time in the studio, too, and with luck I'll have a new album before too long.

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff and not mentioning a lot of people but at my age that's what happens. Please stop by and say hi at one of the gigs over the next year. And thanks a ton for the support.