Dear Family, Friends and Folk Fans:

Greetings!  I don’t know how it got to be June already, but I wanted to send you a little news from Esperance before the summer crazies set in.  As most of you know, Dan went through treatment last year for cancer at the base of his tongue.  He had a second clear PT scan last month so we are very celebratory and grateful.  Several new songs and tunes have come out of that experience, some of which we are recording on our new Christmas CD, due out this fall.  In two weeks, we’ll be releasing Grand Songs, an album of sing-alongs we’ve been sharing with grandparents and grandchildren in Elderhostel programs at Great Camp Sagamore.  These songs are great for campfires and long car rides and they’re guaranteed to lessen the amount of “are we there yets!” 

I’ve been developing a couple of new programs of songs and stories about women.  The first is called “Singing for Suffrage” which is songs from the American women’s movement to gain the right to vote.  I dress in 1910s costume for this one and tell the story of the 72 year struggle.  The other program is called “Finally Feminist” and it combines suffrage songs, 1920s women’s blues, and my own uppity lyrics, poems and stories. For the last song I sing a new original called “One Woman” and show Elise and Woody Widlund’s photographs of women from their travels in Europe, Asia, and the US.  If you know of a women’s group or arts center that might be interested, please let me know.

My daughters may be all grown up but I still enjoy braggin’ on em.  Winter married a wonderful guy named Mike Vance last July 17th.  They are living in Gardiner, NY just south of New Paltz.  Winter will begin a masters program at SUNY New Paltz in the fall for Speech Pathology.  Willow finished her masters degree in Biology and is working as an ecologist for an environmental engineering firm in Delmar, NY.  She bought a house in Albany this spring where she lives with her friend Amy Peker, dogs Nev and Guy and a cat named Noodles.  She loves city living and playing rugby.

Dan and I have had some great musical travels this past year.  We were able to spend two weeks in Florida in January, and give a memorable concert thanks to our friends Jack and Joan Osborne.  Then in March we drove down to North Carolina where we played with our friends Trilogy, Dan conducted a dulcimer workshop and we had a duo concert, and then we provided the music for a Unitarian Universalist service in Chapel Hill with Danny Gotham, Brooksie and Richard Edwards.  All the trees were in bloom and the weather was fantastic!

I started a new part-time job back in February.  I now work two days a week mentoring adult learners to get college degrees.  Empire State College, my bachelors degree alma mater, is part of the SUNY system and their methods of mentoring non-traditional students are making it possible for thousands of people to get college degrees.  I am teaching courses such as Women in Song, Introduction to Women’s Studies, Educational Planning, and American Women’s History.

I continue to lead songwriting workshops at Adirondack Arts and Healing Retreats at Great Camp Sagamore for Creative Healing Connections, Inc.  If you know of a veteran or presently serving service woman, or a woman with cancer or chronic illness, please send her to our website at www.creativehealingconnections.org.  Of all the places music has taken me, singing and being with these women has been among the most meaningful.

JAMCRACKERS, our trio with Dan Berggren, has some exciting concerts this summer and fall.  For details see the Concert Schedule page. If you’re still reading, thanks for taking the time to hear my news.  I hope you’ll keep in touch and let me know what you and yours have been cooking up.  We look forward to seeing you at a concert soon!     

Peace - Peggy