Friendly Universe
Andrew Dahl-Bredine releases two new CDs and celebrates with a whole world of friends and family.
Story and photos by Donna Clayton Lawder
Just minutes before the scheduled start of his summer CD release party and community picnic at the Gomez Peak picnic area, Andrew Dahl-Bredine is still stringing huge electrical cords for his outdoor stage off the parking lot. Several friends and relatives are setting up folding chairs and blocking off a gravel "dance floor" with their pickup trucks. The tall, lithe twenty-something blond is wearing loose woven purple-striped pants that look more like pajamas than street wear, no shirt and a lampshade-shaped straw hat he says he picked up in San Francisco.
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Andrew Dahl-Bredine strikes a
pose with his nylon-stringed guitar. |
If the talented and eminently popular Silver City singer-songwriter, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist is the least bit worried that people are already arriving and all's not quite ready yet, he doesn't show it. Ask Andrew Dahl-Bredine that perennial philosophical question, and you'll get a yes—it most definitely is a friendly universe.
Upbeat as always, exuding a typical magnanimous ease, Dahl-Bredine calls out directions to his helpers about the placement of the admission table, the hanging of a sponsor's banner. Having dug through a huge box of equipment and evidently coming up empty, he places a cell phone call to ask if someone back home can hunt around and find a small percussion instrument that didn't get packed for this gig.
"It's not here somehow, so I guess it's gotta be there. . . . Okay, cool. Just bring it along," he says, then goes back to stringing electrical cord.
The event is going to be a potluck affair, with a backbone of about a dozen pizzas, a catered vegetable tray and some other staples provided through the generous donations of a handful of local business sponsors. Homemade enchiladas, casseroles and bunches of wholesome grain salads are already showing up with the early arrivals—technically, the on-time arrivals—who have brought along their kids and dogs, soccer balls, Frisbees and hacky-sacks, as per Dahl-Bredine's suggestion.
"Thanks for showing up. We're a little late in getting started," Dahl-Bredine says to the crowd. "But you're a little late arriving, too, so I guess it all works out."
More than a hundred attendees are now gathered, most having dutifully stopped at the admission table. Admission to the event is on a sliding scale—$3 - $5, "depending on where you find yourself," Dahl-Bredine explains. "If you can pay a little more than $5, you're welcome to do that, and thanks. And if you don't have $3, you're welcome to stay."
It's a decidedly family-friendly event, with a bevy of little blonde girls spinning in circles on the grass, a toddler running around the water pump in nothing but his tiny T-shirt, laughing and chasing the romping cadre of dogs. The grown-ups greet each other warmly, catch up on news, and point out their dishes on the buffet table, now covered with homemade goodies. No one goes hungry tonight.
Dahl-Bredine is releasing not one, but two CDs at this party. He's got enough original music to have produced a third, he says, but that will have to wait. Ah, yes, the cold hard facts of finances and energy. It seems even this creative dynamo—playing locally and further afield with his band Compás, writing songs and small books of poetry, skipping around the globe for fun, inspiration and communion with his Earth Family—has to bend to the limitations enforced by the finite number of hours in a day.
Dahl-Bredine produced the current CDs in his professional home recording studio in Silver City, playing all of the instruments himself—from his main instrument, a nylon-stringed guitar, to the cavaquinho, a tiny wooden Brazilian instrument with four steel strings, resembling a ukulele, but somehow cuter, to all manner of drums, gourds, shakers and percussion instruments from around the world. Tonight he'll be able to stick to his guitar, backed up by his family of local musicians, some of them blood family as well. His brother Peter will join him on lead guitar for a number or two, and his sister, Maria, whose T-shirted toddler is the one running through the crowd, will provide vocals.
His Compás family will be joining him, too. Jerry Boswell will play percussion and Michele Parlee will join in with her signature bass playing, with Debaura James on auxiliary percussion. The boundaries between musical families blend nearly into oblivion with the addition of Sami Padre from Root Skankadelic (see the June 2006 Desert Exposure) and Cody Williams, who plays with the Skankadelic and a locally popular Gila-based band, the Funk Farmers.
Erica Randolph, another close friend in music, will join in on flute for a couple of numbers. And Jesse Seavers, who plays with no other bands but is a musician and long-time personal friend of Dahl-Bredine's, will make his professional debut tonight.
The first CD, "Presente," with 11 original songs and four covers, follows Dahl-Bredine's love for all things Latin American. Having traveled early in his life and extensively, he's been profoundly influenced by the cultures, music and languages of many countries, notably Brazil, and has written mostly in Spanish and Portuguese.
The other album, "All I Know," is a departure for Dahl-Bredine in that it contains songs written in English, "something I just started doing maybe a year ago," he says. The 14 original songs continue his trend of writing in a variety of "world music" styles. The tracks bounce with rhythms of Afro-beat, reggae, samba and world-beat music.
A steal for just $10 at the CD release party, the discs will sell at their normal price of $13 at several Silver City outlets, including Alotta Gelato and Rejuvenations coffeehouse for sure, and Tune Town music store, he hopes, as well as direct sales from Dahl-Bredine's Web site (www.andrewdahlbredine.com). The crowd tonight knows a deal when they see it, and many attendees are buying both albums.
A seasoned performer who knows his audience, Dahl-Bredine starts off with a bouncy rendition of the well-known "Guantanamera." Many in the crowd sing along. The rainbow-colored programs being distributed through the swaying crowd and to those around the shaded picnic tables give the concert's set list with Dahl-Bredine's humorously good-natured disclaimer: "Here's a guess as to the order of the songs for the evening. Song order, like life and the weather, is subject to change, and probably will."
Seated at one of the picnic tables are the owners of Curious Kumquat, Rob and Tyler Connoley. The Kumquat is one of the event's main sponsors, and the Silver City international and gourmet grocery store's colorful banner waves near the picnic pavilion.
"He (Dahl-Bredine) dropped off this letter a few weeks ago," Rob Connoley says. The letter got relegated to a pile of papers in the store's inbox. A couple of weeks later, Connoley tuned into an NPR radio program on KRWG-FM and heard Dahl-Bredine as Emily Guerra's guest on "La Fiesta."
"I thought, 'His music sounds like our store feels,'" Connoley says, "so I called him up and asked what he needed."
Short of picking up the remainder of the CDs' production and mastering costs, which Connoley says Dahl-Bredine (maybe) half-jokingly suggested, the Curious Kumquat's sponsorship paid for the lion's share of the provided feast at the event. Other business sponsors—Alotta Gelato, AmBank and Gila Hike & Bike—helped to cover food, rental of the picnic area space, promotion for the event and those stacks of rainbow-colored programs.
"Be right back," Connoley says hurriedly. "Bruce's pecan pie just showed up." He dashes across the picnic area to a spot where all manner of sweet dishes are displayed. Bruce McKinney's pecan pie, evidently, is one of those well-known grab-it-while-it-lasts favorites at parties, picnics and potlucks.
"Where's my sister, Maria?" Dahl-Bredine calls from the stage. "Maria's going to join me, singing, on this next number."
Maria, nee Dahl-Bredine, now Casler, makes sure her husband has control over their toddler and joins her brother on stage. "Sundown," a bouncy, original tune written about living in Silver City, has the crowd buoyantly bopping along, many with smiles of acknowledgment.
Dahl-Bredine invites a round of applause for his accompanying musicians, filling the space between songs with tidbits of information about his recording process.
"I played all the instruments on the CDs," he says, "so some of this music is new to the other musicians. Some of them were able to get together with me a bit [to prepare for the concert], some just a little, and some not at all. It might be a little rough in parts, so give us some slack."
A light laugh and scattered applause go up from the crowd.
The ensemble gears up for "Mouse Shower," which Dahl-Bredine describes as "a crazy original song about the rain leaking in your house, becoming a shower for your mouse." The foursome of little blonde girls skips through the dance area, up through the musicians on stage. Grown-ups leave their seats and bounce to the upbeat tune. More evidence of the world-music influence on Dahl-Bredine's style, the song is played in an African triplet style called "honso" in Zimbabwe.
Next on the set list is "A Proper Plate," a song Dahl-Bredine says he wrote in a dream.
"Okay, you're all eating, so this is a good time for this one," he jokes. "This is a song about doing what you really want to do, so I want to see you all having a good time, skipping like these little girls."
Dahl-Bredine's brother Peter has joined the ensemble on stage, playing lead guitar. "You don’t need a proper plate," the song goes. "Ain't nobody gonna' ha-a-ate you here." There's certainly no evidence of anybody—in the picnic area, on the gravel dance floor, swaying in the crowd—hating anybody or any thing else.
From "Laughing the Roof off the Sky," a song about letting go of self-importance, to "Estrelas Caindo" ("Stars Falling"), a song he wrote in Portuguese, Dahl-Bredine brings the message that life on the planet is fun—if you can "live in the moment."
That's something Dahl-Bredine seems to have grown up with. The sixth of seven children, he moved from Wisconsin to Silver City with his family in 1979 at the tender age of one year. The Dahl-Bredines first did a stint of camping in the Gila National Forest, then moved to a house in town, then to an adobe that father Phil Dahl-Bredine built just outside city limits. The children grew up running around the high desert hills, Dahl-Bredine says, and music and the arts were always encouraged.
After a brief stint at a junior college, Dahl-Bredine began traveling widely, discovering his passion for learning languages and writing poetry. He learned Spanish and connected deeply with Spanish and Flamenco music while living for five months in Seville, Spain. A year later he received a travel/study award and grant to study Arabic in Cairo. He also researched the nomadic desert lifestyle of the peoples of northern Africa. He spent a few months living homeless in Hawaii, sleeping out on the beaches, then a few months living and teaching in Pusan, South Korea. There, at the age of 22, he began to play the guitar and sing, teaching himself with the help of some tips from his older brother Peter, already a skilled musician.
In addition to trips to South America and the Middle East, Dahl-Bredine most recently returned from a several-month journey in India, an experience that was powerful and taught him many things, he says. He currently is divesting himself of some possessions and responsibilities, preparing for yet another trip. No timetable is set, but he is already dreaming of the road and adventures ahead.
He says he'll be "heading south. . . getting out of the city for a while." He vaguely describes his destination as "maybe South America," and says he'll be living outside—as in under the stars—hoping to learn more about sustainable living and the building systems of ancient peoples.
The sun has set over the party, and the rising moon casts enough light to continue the show. Dahl-Bredine has invited his Compás musical family to join him, and the music has switched full-on to the group's popular reggae style. About 200 people have passed through tonight's concert, some of the early birds already gone. At least a hundred remain, by turns bopping and swaying slowly to the music.
In his song "Evolution," an original reggae tune, Dahl-Bredine sings about his desire to go live in the woods, and of his brothers and sisters around the globe:
"This is how we can go from this to that
I'm packing my bags and leaving them behind
My friend, I'll see you on another side."
South America, Africa, wherever—please tell Andrew Dahl-Bredine that Southwest New Mexico says hello. Remind him to come home when he's ready. We want to hear his new songs.
To learn more about Andrew Dahl-Bredine and his music, go to www.andrewdahlbredine.com.
Donna Clayton Lawder is senior editor of Desert
Exposure.