Take the Winds of March With Beauty …

Take the Winds of March With Beauty …

"Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty."
-  William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale 

“You are my child. You came like the winds of March with all the love in your eyes,

You are my child. You came like the morning lights.” (Winds of March, Journey)

Dear Friends,

We invited our friend John Roy Zat to join us on a weeklong tour to Southern California. He was free and said yes! We’re calling it the 3-in-1 tour, three songwriters who will back each other up with guitar, piano, fiddle, and autoharp. Please join us in person or streaming online. Pop some corn, put on your pj’s, sit back, and enjoy some great music!

Thursday, March 5th at 6 pm PST: Chappell & Dave Holt with John Roy Zat at Last Stage West BBQ in Atascadero, CA. This show will also be live-streamed at http://www.laststagewest.net/livevideo.html with Dan Mazer aka BanjerDan. Grammy nominee, Dulcie Taylor will join us too.

Friday, March 6th at 8pm PST: Chappell & Dave Holt with John Roy Zat will open the show at Severin Browne's First Friday at Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood, CA. You can also watch the Live ‪‎Webcast‬ at www.kulakswoodshed.com and email us during the show!

Tuesday, March 10th at 7pm - Chappell & Dave Holt and John Roy Zat atJC Hyke's Songwriter Serenade Showcase at Matt Denny's Ale House Restaurant in Arcadia, California. http://www.jchyke.com/songwriter-serenade.html

Please put Saturday, April 18th, on your calendar for a special event, a house concert featuring Chappell & Dave Holt and Carlos Reyes, award-winning Paraguayan harpist/violinist, at Avonova, 417 Avon St., Oakland.

The music of Chappell & Dave Holt is featured on KC Cafe Radio … You can listen to the free sample right away and thanks to KC Cafe radio staff, it is very cool, if I do say so myself! We’ll be doing an interview on the station soon. You may request up to 2 songs per hour, no more than 10 songs per day. If your request has already played within the last two hours, it will not be honored, and will appear in the search results with a  icon. Click the “request” button associated with the selection you would like to hear. Your selection should then play sometime over the course of the next hour. Timeliness may be affected by the number of requests waiting to be played, special programming scheduled to air, or other factors relating to the regular rotation of music playing at the time.

If you’d like to order our new CD, Stone & Fire, directly please send a $17 check (includes $2 shipping) payable to Dave Holt to 1335 Kenwal Rd., #A, Concord, CA 94521. You can also purchase downloads of Stone & Fire at CD Baby. Also our first CD,Wings of the Morning, which includes some of our true jazz tunes along with “the jazzier side of Americana” songs is now fully loaded on their site. Please be sure and preview those old songs, still fresh and lively as they were yesterday.

Many thanks to the internet radio outlets who’ve been playing our Stone and Fire cuts, Dan Herman of Radio Crystal Blue,  Uncle Shag at Longtown Sound, and Mom Hen, Jeanette Lundgren, at Mom Hens Corner. 

February, Sweet and Small, Greatest Month of All

February, Sweet and Small, Greatest Month of All

“Freezing
cold winds,
biting chills, and
white snow fluffed hills
Valentines day, oh how gay!
President’s day is coming our way.
February, sweet and small, greatest month of all.” (28 Word Poem for February, Eric Lies)

“Where has that old friend gone
Lost in a February song?
Tell him it won't be long
Till he opens his eyes.” (February Song, Josh Groban)
 

Dear Friends,
After an upcoming show for Bread & Roses, “hope and healing through music,” in Oakland this month, preparations begin in earnest for our Los Angeles tour in March with John Roy Zat. We still have open dates so please let us know if there’s a stage available in your town, or even a floor. Our schedule is: March 5th at The Last Stage West in Atascadero; March 6th at Kulak's Woodshed in N. Hollywood with Severin Browne; and March 10th at Matt Denny's Ale House in Arcadia. Keep a look out for our concert with Carlos Reyes, Peruvian harp and violin, in April at a cool music spot in Oakland called Avonova. More details later.
 

Chappell’s painting of Betty Carter will be featured in the February Black History month show at Occidental Center for the Arts. Dave is preparing vintage jazz piano pieces he will play to accompany the show. It will consist of two parts: an exhibit of Black memorabilia from pre- and post- civil rights era (1960′s) from the private collection of Raynetta James followed by a juried collection of artwork from local artists reflecting their personal views about Black history. These works of art will be for sale. The exhibit will be open from February 6th to March 1st. Opening reception will be held Friday, Feb. 6th from 5-7 pm.

Due to holidays, a family visit/reunion for Chappell’s Mom’s 90th birthday, and winter colds, we missed publishing the January issue of our newsletter, and we haven’t been able to schedule as many gigs as usual. But we’ve had some fun opportunities right here in Concord to perform and try out material. Monday night January 19th we attended a terrifically groovy new open mic at Cue Productions, one of the best we've ever attended.  Old pals were there plus some great young musicians we look forward to hearing again. Several members of the Hawaiian Ukulele Club performed for the first time; all were wonderful. We also hung out with local musician Bob Loomis and friends. The song circle he hosts at his house has been great fun.

The music of Chappell & Dave Holt is featured on KC Cafe Radio …

You can listen to the free sample right away and thanks to KC Cafe radio staff, it is very cool, if I do say so myself! We’ll be doing an interview on the station soon. You may request up to 2 songs per hour, no more than 10 songs per day. If your request has already played within the last two hours, it will not be honored, and will appear in the search results with a  icon. Click the “request” button associated with the selection you would like to hear. Your selection should then play sometime over the course of the next hour. Timeliness may be affected by the number of requests waiting to be played, special programming scheduled to air, or other factors relating to the regular rotation of music playing at the time.

If you’d like to order our new CD, Stone & Fire, directly please send a $17 check (includes $2 shipping) payable to Dave Holt to 1335 Kenwal Rd., #A, Concord, CA 94521. You can also purchase downloads of Stone & Fire at CD Baby. Also our first CD, Wings of the Morning, which includes some of our true jazz tunes along with “the jazzier side of Americana” songs is now fully loaded on their site. Please be sure and preview those old songs, still fresh and lively as they were yesterday.

Many thanks to the internet radio outlets who’ve been playing our Stone and Fire cuts, Dan Herman of Radio Crystal Blue,  Uncle Shag at Longtown Sound, and Mom Hen, Jeanette Lundgren, at Mom Hens Corner.

We hope to see you at our upcoming gigs!

“Deep in December, it's nice to remember …

“Deep in December, it's nice to remember …

…the fire of September that made us mellow. Deep in December, our hearts should remember and follow, follow.” (Try to Remember, from 1960s musical The Fantastiks)

“Every year at just this time,
In cold and dark December,
Families around the world
All gather to remember,
With presents and with parties,
With feasting and with fun,
Customs and traditions
For people old and young.”  (Helen H. Moore)
 

Aren’t these California rain storms wonderful? I drove up to watch the rain-swollen Walnut Creek flow out to sea with the egrets; first time we’ve had a storm this size in quite a while.

We are doing a couple of house concerts this month including our 5th Annual Holiday House Concert in the Santa Cruz Mountains with special guest musician and dear friend, Cristina Seaborn. Many of you who attended our previous concerts at Bonny Doon know that Cristina is a violinist extraordinaire, and master of several musical genres. Please write back to us if you’d like to attend and I will forward directions to the Santa Cruz (Bonny Doon) location with a phone number.

Our Bread & Roses performances this month will be a Christmas show at the VA Healthcare System in Menlo Park followed by joining up with the Bread & Roses choir at The Redwoods, a community of seniors in Mill Valley. We attended their very successful fundraiser featuring Boz Scaggs at Great American Music Hall.

Chappell and I have started booking a Southern California tour for March of next year and Pacific Northwest music dates for May 2015. If you can host a house concert in either of these areas, or know of one that we could play during those dates, please reply back via this newsletter.

Chappell’s “Wings of the Morning” painting, is the theme image for the Occidental Center for the Arts show Art as Gifts for the Holidays that opened November 7th. Bohemian Hwy Music and Books has a complete catalogue of the more than twenty images available in prints and 5 x 7 cards. The OCA Gallery is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 4 pm and the print show and art sale continues through December 19th.

We have a lot of products available for your holiday gift shopping! If you’d like to order cards and prints or our new CD Stone & Fire directly please send a check ($17 for the CD includes $2 shipping) payable to Dave or Chappell Holt at 1335 Kenwal Rd., #A, Concord, CA 94521. You can also purchase downloads: Wings of the Morning and Stone & Fire

Dave’s book Voyages to Ancestral Islands, Poetry & Prose, is available at Amazon

Or Barnes and Noble if you prefer.

But if you’re like me, you support the Indie bookstores. Instead of giving Amazon your business, please consider buying it at Powell’s (Portland, OR).



Have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year! We hope to see you in 2015 at our upcoming shows or just out and about town.

Chappell & Dave

Wind That Makes Music in November Corn …

Wind That Makes Music in November Corn …

“The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls and the wind hurries on … A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no detaining the wind.” (Aldo Leopold)

“’Cause nothin’ lasts forever and we both know hearts can change,
And it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain.” (Guns N’Roses, November Rain)
 

This month Chappell and Dave are in art and poetry mode. Chappell’s “Wings of the Morning” painting, the cover art for our first CD of the same name, was picked as the theme image for the Occidental Center for the Arts show Art as Gifts for the Holidays. The opening reception for this print show and sale is Friday, November 7th, 5-7 pm. The show continues through December 20th.

Dave will be the featured poet at the “First Wednesdays” Poetry Reading on Nov. 5th at West End Café Deli and Bar, 1131 Fourth St, San Rafael, California 94901. This is a great group of poets, readers, and poetry followers with a lot of energy. People start arriving at 7 pm. You can order coffee, food and drinks. At 7:30 pm, Dave Holt will perform for 20 minutes and his reading will be followed by an open mic.

The 2014 FAR-West Conference of musicians, story-tellers, presenters, producers, etc., October 16 -19, was a phenomenal success. Comments from Facebook show what it was like. “We just took a nap so we can make it through the rest of the evening. Got to bed at 3 AM after hours of music. It starts up again at 10:30 pm.”  And that was if you didn’t have to get up to moderate a workshop at 9 am! It was well worth the effort, Dave found out when he moderated the “Music as Healing” morning workshop with panel presenters, Marian Hubler (Bread & Roses), Patrice Haan (Healing Muses) and Greg Beattie, (also from Bread & Roses).

The PGS rooms (Private Guerilla Showcases) are late night performances, very fun especially if you were able to get some shut-eye. Some are song circles where songs are exchanged which Chappell and I think are the best. Many are solo, duo or group performances. This was the first time we held a storytellers circle in our PGS room featuring expert raconteurs Bill Amatneek, Nick Smith, and Tom Hubbard and it was superb. We’ll do it again in our PGS next year. We were also honored to have many of the same fine musicians this year in Oakland as played in our PGS last year in Irvine.

Chappell organized the “Best of the West” Awards Ceremony luncheon, and was the emcee. Her performance at the podium helped make it a memorable day. Chappell secretly organized a flash-mob to surprise Cassandra Flipper of Bread & Roses as she accepted the 2014 Ambassador Award. The volunteers who were there jumped up on stage to sing the organization theme song, as chosen by founder Mimi Farina, “Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes, Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses.”

We are currently booking our 2015 tours, first to Southern California from March 1st to the 10th, and then to the Pacific Northwest in May. Please contact us if you are interested in having us play a house concert in your area by replying to this newsletter.
‎
Have a wonderful month and we hope to see you soon!

Chappell & Dave

Please forward this blog to anyone you think would be interested. 

"O Hushed October morning mild …”

"O Hushed October morning mild …”

 

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; 
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all. 
The crows above the forest call; 
Tomorrow they may form and go. – (Robert Frost, October)

 

“Let the sun run down right behind the hill,

I know how to stand there still till the moon rise up

Right behind the pine, Oh, Lord, October Road” (James Taylor)
 

Hello and Happy Fall to you all! We got off to a great start with the California rainy season and had a couple of days of rain in September. We’re all praying it continues unabated throughout the coming season.
 

A big thank you goes out to the In The Swing jazz group for recommending us to the Telegraph Ave. Business Corp who hired us for a gig on the street for the “Sundays on Telegraph” series. Sax player and improvisational poet, David Erdreich, showed up and sat in on alto saxophone. He came direct from his hit show at Avonova the night before (where we also played). A great time was had by all! (See photo, “Maybe we should have made a set list.”)

 

Dave attended the Dancing Poetry Festival at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco on September 20th to read his prize-winning poem, “Prayer Through a Dark Passage” and receive his award. The sponsoring organization, Artists Embassy International led by Richard and Natica Angilly does great work promoting the art of poetry and building bridges to poet communities out of state and overseas. There were winning poets from Greece, China, Malaysia, Qatar, as well as many other states in the union, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, Indiana, etc.

 

Our show on Friday, Sept. 26th, at Occidental Center for the Arts with the Mighty Carlos Reyes on violin & Paraguayan harp was visited by a bit of rain and thunder (much more in Santa Rosa), but it didn’t ruin the beautiful fall-like weather or the concert which was a great success. Carlos joined in on our set, playing bass and violin. We had a blast! The appreciative crowd honored us with a standing ovation and an encore.

 

On Sunday, Oct. 5, 5-7 PM at Rancho Nicasio, we will be celebrating our 35th anniversary and playing a guest set with the wonderful Doug Adamz. We will play a 20 minute guest set at his gracious invitation. This show will be in the front bar. Hope to see you there to raise a glass and toast this love!

 

The big week coming up is October 16th -19th, the FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region-West) Music Conference. It is being held at the Oakland Marriott in Old Oakland’s beautiful Downtown. Chappell has been involved with the organizing and she will be our host at the Best of the West Awards Luncheon honoring Barbara Dane and Cassandra Flipper. Cassandra’s tenure as Executive Director for Bread & Roses is drawing to a close. She arrived in 2000 after the organization’s founder Mimi Fariña died in 2001.  Cassandra wrote to the volunteers, “It has been deeply satisfying and an honor to travel this road of hope, healing and joy through live music with all of you for the past 14 years.”

 

You are all invited to come to the various public events during the conference.

Venues Choice Concert on Thursday, Oct 16th at 7pm,  FB event page $15. per person.

Official Showcases on Friday, Oct 17th and Saturday, Oct 18th at 6:30pm. FB event page. $15. per person, per night.

Storytelling Expo on Sunday, Oct 19th at 2pm: FB event page. $10. per person

All four conference events are at this Brown Paper Tickets link.

There are also several pre- and post- conference events (on Wed, Oct 15th and Sunday, Oct 19th) - and all info can be found here.
 

We are playing at The Arlington, a Deli at 269 Arlington in Kensington, Friday November 7th, 6:30-8:45. John Roy Zat will be with us playing fiddle served hot! The food is good so come on by and enjoy dinner and music in a great neighborhood hangout.

If you’d like to order our new CD, Stone & Fire, directly please send a $17 check (includes $2 shipping, $3 from Canada) payable to Dave Holt to 1335 Kenwal Rd., #A, Concord, CA 94521. You can also purchase downloads  of Wings of the Morning at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chappelldaveholt, Stone & Fire at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/ChappellDaveHolt

Please contact us if you are interested in having us play a house concert in your area by replying to this newsletter.‎ Have a wonderful month and we hope to see you at one of our shows.

See you next month,
Chappell & Dave

Please forward this email to anyone who would be interested. 

Oh, Sweet September Morning …

Oh, Sweet September Morning …

“September fattens on vines. Roses flake from the wall. The smoke of harmless fires drifts to my eyes. This is plenty. This is more than enough.” (September Song, poem by Geoffrey Hill)

“Oh, Sweet September morning, when I found him in my life, in my life
And he tells you of his guiding star and then he starts his journey
to the center of your dreaming.” (Sweet September Morning, Buffy Sainte Marie)

Hello Everyone,

Hope you’ve had a great summer like we have. A highlight in August: we had a ball at our first gig at The Arlington, August 22nd when we were joined by our pals John Roy Zat and Randy Rood, making us a complete band. We rocked out more than usual, with Chappell doing Tear it Up, and Dave singing Choo Choo Cha Boogie. We will return to the Arlington in November.

We’ll be performing at the San Gregorio General Store, a really fun place off of Highway One, on Sunday, September 7th, 11 am till 1 pm. It’s located in a beautiful valley on 7615 Stage Rd, San Gregorio, CA 94074. Phone: (650) 726-0565.

On Saturday September 15th, we are booked to perform our jazz classic tune “Travels With Louis” in a review of poetry and music at Avonova house concert at 417 Avon St., Oakland, CA.

In Berkeley, we’ll be a part of Sundays on Telegraph that returns to the avenue every Sunday through September. You’ll find us playing in front of the Berkeley Hat Company, September 14, noon-5 pm. This car-free street party has a mellow vibe, great music and attendees from all walks of life.  The location, Berkeley Hat Company, is at 2510 Telegraph Ave., phone 510-549-2955.

We’re having Chappell & Dave Holt’s CD Release Celebration with Carlos Reyes at Occidental Center for the Arts. Carlos has electrified audiences the world over with his astonishing mastery of the Paraguayan harp and violin.  Party starts Friday, September 26, 2014 at 8 pm. Cabaret seating and fine refreshments. Admission: $15 General/$10 Advance Reservations. Call 707-874-9392 or go to www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org.

Doug Adamz, poet/songwriter/guitarist and “outrageous harmonica player,” has invited us to sit in at his Rancho Nicasio Restaurant and Bar date, October 5, 5-7 pm, 415-662-2219. We’ll do four songs and celebrate our 35th anniversary (which is actually October 7th) that night. Come out and celebrate with us!

Thank you DJ Dan Herman for choosing us for featured airplay on Radio Crystal Blue. Listening link: https://radiocrystalblue.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/rcblive082414.mp3

On KC Café Radio at http://kccaferadio.com/chappell-dave-holt, you may request up to 2 songs per hour, no more than 10 songs per day. If an artist you request has already played within the last two hours, your request will not be honored, and will appear in the search results with a  icon. Click the “request” button associated with the selection you would like to hear. Your selection should then play sometime over the course of the next hour.

If you’d like to order our new CD, Stone & Fire, directly please send a $17 check (includes $2 shipping, $3 from Canada) payable to Dave Holt to 1335 Kenwal Rd., #A, Concord, CA 94521. You can also purchase downloads  of Wings of the Morning at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chappelldaveholt
Stone & Fire at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/ChappellDaveHolt

Have a wonderful month and we’ll be back in October,
Chappell & Dave

Now That It’s Time for August … “I’ve got thirty-one days to glow.”

Now That It’s Time for August … “I’ve got thirty-one days to glow.”

“I belong to the Man-Of-The-Month Club, And here it is the end of July.
It's just about time for August to come hot-footin' it by.
You can guess that I'm twelve times as happy as gals with only one man a year.
And now is the time for August to put my heart in high gear.” (sung by Julie London)

 

Hear Julie sing the whole thing

 

We hope you’ve been having an enjoyable summer. We managed to fit in a day off with friends last weekend for a beautiful afternoon picnic and wine-tasting in Suisun Valley.

We are playing at The Arlington, a Deli on 269 Arlington in Kensington on Friday, August 22, 6:30-8:45. You can enjoy dinner and drinks while listening to the music. The eggplant parmigian was great the night we visited and heard our friend and recording engineer Randy’s group, “Roll with Randy Rood” play. We’re hoping for some surprise musical guests to show up that night.

 

Please join us on Saturday, September 13th, when Chappell & Dave Holt will perform at Avonova at a house concert presenting as headliners the poetry and music of Michael DeWall and David Erdreich. The poet/artists will be assisted by their back-up singers, The Cloudettes. Other guest poets Avotcja, Dan Brady, and Nanette Dietz will read from their work. The show starts at 8 PM; admission is $15.

 

The next afternoon, Sunday, September 14th, we will be playing on the sidewalk at the Berkeley Hat Company, on Telegraph Ave. as part of the Telegraph Avenue Summer Street Fair, from noon to 5 pm.
 

Please set aside Friday September 26th on your calendar for Chappell & Dave Holt’s CD Release Celebration with Special Guest Violinist & Harpist, Carlos Reyes. The “Stone & Fire” music party is coming to Occidental Center for the Arts, featuring cabaret and concert seating in the auditorium on that date, Friday, Sept. 26, 2014, at 8 pm. Admission is $10 General.

 

Check out our remodeled web site. You’ll enjoy seeing what Chappell does when she’s not playing music. Visit the updated sections “Chappell’s Art,” and “Chappell Rose Wearables & Ruby’s Reclaimed.” She used her design skills, devoting quite a few hours to getting the site spiffed up.

 

If you like what you hear of the music samples, will you make it official? You can go to the CD Baby icon at the bottom of the home page to download our newest CD “Stone & Fire,” or a favorite song from the site is $.99. The first CD, “Wings of the Morning” is available under artist name Chappell on the CD Baby site.

Have a wonderful month and we’ll see you at The Arlington in August, or at our September shows.
Chappell & Dave