How Things Should Be

Over the past holiday weekend I played several nights at Rock City with my buddy Kofi Mawuko. Kofi is a native of Ghana who has lived in the Chattanooga area about 7 years now. Our impromptu Christmas music is very similar to the music on the Winter Mix CD with lots of percussion and rhythmic variety.

Listen to a two minute demo by clicking here.


At one point we had drummed up (pun intended) a pretty good crowd in the performance tent when an elderly group of mostly Spanish speaking folks came in. Their dancing and singing steered our playing into a decidedly Latin feel and before long it morphed into an impromptu and quite rousing version of Feliz Navidad. I had a few extra percussion toys with me on the stage and distributed them among the crowd. Everyone joined in and we were all having a great time when I noticed the faces in the crowd.

The scene was almost like one of those contrived pictures of heaven that include someone from every ethnic background. It hit me that I was here on stage with my friend from Africa singing and playing Spanish music with Asians alongside caucasians alongside . . . well you get the picture. It was one of those moments that is hard to describe but hard to miss. It is how things should be.

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Winter Mix just click on the Store link at the top of this page. If you're uncomfortable using a credit card over the internet just email me and we can make other arrangements. ¶ 10:49 PM 3 comments

Making it happen

The packing, burning, cutting, scoring, folding, stacking, printing, packaging and boxing continues in out little basement factory as Angie, Missy and I are working hard to get all the Winter Mix orders fulfilled. In the midst of all this we're also producing Mark Wade's new Serenade CD. I burned his master disc tonight and will begin burning the duplicates tomorrow. We're already about half way finished with the printing for his CD. We began the day about two days behind schedule but if all goes well we should be completely caught up by the end of the day Tuesday.

This initial rush has kept us very busy but it is a thankful kind of busy. ¶ 10:28 PM 1 comments

Winter Mix Now Shipping!

After a month of nearly nonstop work, Winter Mix is ready to roll out the door. We are now packing and shipping online orders and I had the CD available at my Rock City gigs over the past couple of nights. I had to warn customers that the ink wasn't even quite dry yet on the CD face.


Listen to a two minute demo by clicking here.



Angie and I are embarking on a new venture with Winter Mix. We recently invested in all the necessary equipment to print, burn, and package our own products. This is my fifth CD and I'm in the process of producing two more CDs for other people and have plans for more of my own music. Jumping into production just seemed like the logical next step and while the up- front costs for high quality printers and duplicators was a little scary, we think it will pay off in the long run as the number of CDs in the pipeline continues to grow.

The bedroom-sized office outside my studio is slowly being transformed into a mini-factory and we're pleased with the quality we're getting from our gear. We are using Taeyo Yuden CDs as our blanks. These are widely accepted as the best in the business and our duplicator tower verifies every CD it burns. So far, we haven't had a single failure.

Aside from the normal hassles with getting Photoshop to actually print what we see on the screen, it looks like the jacket printing is going to be a breeze. The most time consuming part of the process is cutting the paper and assembling all the jewel box parts. We're still too early in the process to have developed a smooth assembly system.

The CD face is being printed on a photo quality printer that blends 8 different inks. The per CD printing costs are a little high but the quality is better, in my opinion, than you get with silk screened CDs. The down side is that you have to wait 24 hours to make sure the ink is completely dry or you risk smudging.

We should be completely caught up on orders by Monday or Tuesday so those of you who pre-ordered should all get your CDs next week. I'm anxious to get your comments so be sure and use the comments section attached to this or any other entry in my journal. All you have to do is click on the comments number and you'll be taken to the next page where you can leave your own thoughts. Think of it as a guest book but in a conversational form. The reason my guest book link is still not working is simply a matter of avoiding spam. Spammers have found easy ways to post their junk in standardized guest books so they are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Too bad.

Winter Mix, as with all of my music, is a bit hard to pin down in terms of style. If you went to a music store looking for hammer dulcimer music with a distinctive percussive flair where would you begin? Judy commented that the demo has a definite Old World Christmas feel. I like that description and think it is the multiple layers of hand percussion and acoustic instruments that give that impression. Someone else said it reminds them of the group Manheim Steamroller except with real instruments rather than synthesizers.

Among the 16 tracks and over 50 minutes of music are familiar Christmas tunes like" Drummer Boy", "Silent Night", "Carol of the Bells", "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Sleigh Ride". Winter Mix also has a few not so well known titles such as the Celtic tune "Christmas Eve Reel" and the Huron Indian Carol "Twas in the Moon of Winter Time."

Instrumentation includes hammer dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, guitar, bouzouki, bass guitar, oboe, recorder and a host of hand percussion instruments including multiple djembes, bongos, congas, pandeiro, tamborine, finger cymbals, sambago bells, sleigh bells, agago, wood block, kpalogo drums, guiro, shakers, bohdran and snare drum. I know I've left something out. If it is a percussion instrument and you play it with your hand rather than a stick, it is probably on here.

One day while sitting at the editing console tweaking a hammer dulcimer part that my friend Christy Burns had just recorded for the cut "Christmas Eve Reel" I had Hershey, my standard poodle, stretched out in my lap. As I was listening to the take, my hands were half petting, half drumming on Hershey's rib cage (don't worry, she seemed to be enjoying it). It was a pretty cool sound and we came close to recording it but decided that it might be a little hard to explain that one of the percussion instruments was a poodle.

Other Musicians on Winter Mix include (alphabetical order):

Matt Broom, percussion
Christy Burns, hammer dulcimer
Randy Clepper, guitar and bouzouki
Marc Func, acoustic bass
Hussain Jiffry, electric bass
Kofi Mawuko, percussion
Carey Shinbaum, oboe and recorder
Jay Stanfil, electic and acoustic bass
Trey Wheeler, guitar
Members of the Signal Mountain Presbyterian Choir under the direction of Steve Phillips

The CD Face, and packaging design is by Steven Wade Brown. You can see more of Steven's work at http://www.reddirtdesign.com

I've been planning on producing this CD for several years now and even recorded quite a few cuts for it in years past but none of those songs actually made it on Winter Mix. I know some of you have been waiting for a CD that Alfreda Gerald and I have been working on, but don't worry, it is still in the works and hopefully we can complete it next year.

It is hard to let go of a project like this, to know when to call it done. I suspect every artist, no matter what the genre has the same experience. The hundreds of hours of time invested are worth it though when I'm finally able to confidently put the CD in someone's hand and say listen to this, I think you'll like it.

The CD's are available at the Brow Gallery, Tennessee Aquarium Gift Shop, Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church, through my web site or anywhere I'm performing. As always, if you are uncomfortable purchasing anything online with a credit card, just drop me a note and we'll make arrangements for you to pay by check.

Dan ¶ 5:29 AM 2 comments

Winter Mix

My new Christmas CD, "Winter Mix," is now available for purchase and will ship next Friday, November 25. It is only one week behind schedule so I count that as a huge success!

Listen to a two minute demo by clicking here. I'd love to hear what you think about it so please leave your comments below.

I have to finish my liner notes now and get everything ready for printing so I'll save all the acknowledgements until next week. I hope you enjoy the demo. You can order your signed copy by clicking the Store link at the top of the page.

If you are ordering Winter Mix as a Christmas present please indicate to whom you'd like me to sign the CD. You can do so in the "note" field when checking out.

As always, if you are uncomfortable using your credit card over the internet just email me and we'll work out other arrangements.

Finally, if you would like to purchase multiple copies (10 or more) drop me an email rather than ordering through the store and I'll save you a few bucks.




- Dan ¶ 12:17 PM 16 comments

Christmas Concert in Ohio

DECEMBER 4, in Columbus, Ohio the 'Hammer On!' guys will be performing at the Liberty Presbyterian Church. Go to Mark's website for more details. http://www.markalanwade.com

You can look forward to a wonderful night of Christmas, Celtic, Classical, and Traditional music that everyone will enjoy! Dan will have his new Christmas CD and Mark will have his new Classical CD available, along with all their previous recordings. So plan to do some serious Christmas shopping!

Angie ¶ 6:02 PM 1 comments

Christmas is coming!

For those of you who've been wondering what's happened to Dan, I'll tell you. He's been confined to his studio about 15 hours a day working on his new Christmas CD.

I think all the hard work will really be worth it. What I've heard so far is amazing. Dan is using a variety of other musicians to enhance what he's doing on the hammer dulcimer and drums. Randy Clepper's bouzouki playing is just awesome. The final mix is going to be great.

Dan hopes to put up a sample in a couple days to give you a taste of what's happening. So, keep checking back!

Angie ¶ 11:41 AM 1 comments