The final song from my session at Skyfall Recording Studio is now live on YouTube, so of course I had to come here to the blog to talk about it a bit. The song is “Singularity,” another original piece of music and the only song in my repertoire currently that utilizes a glass slide on the guitar. Check it out:
The lyric for “Singularity” is about the idea of oneness; that there’s far more that we have in common with one another than separates us. Spiritually we’re all part of a greater whole, our existences only brief flashes in the grand scheme of time. I’ve always found that idea to be meditative and comforting in a way, and it very naturally matched the trance-like quality of the music for this song.
That brings us to three songs total from Skyfall which are out now, all of which you can watch on my YouTube channel. (Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more!)
These Skyfall videos were a lot of fun to put together, though they did end up taking a lot longer than originally anticipated. The major stop-up there was of course me. While Robbie Lewis of Akimbo did an incredible job filming the performances, I did the video editing myself. This wasn’t just a cost-saving measure; I genuinely enjoy video editing as well and used to do it as a job, many years ago. But then life happened, and time passed with alarming speed, and well, here we are. I’m happy to finally have these three tunes finished, and out in the world for you to enjoy!
Every area has its own type of music scene, and its own type of venues to go with it. For the past decade or so, I’ve been living just south of the Adirondack state park, and here, we’re blessed with a wonderful variety of music spots, from bars to listening rooms to outdoor events in the warm summer months. But one of my favorite places I’ve played in the area is The Depot taproom for Argyle Brewing Company in Cambridge, New York. And alas, as of this month, they’ve unfortunately shuttered the location.
Ask anyone who’s played The Depot stage, and they’ll likely have some story about why it was such an enjoyable experience. The thing about The Depot — and David Van Pelt, the guy who turned it into such a hopping music spot over the years — is that it was a welcome venue not just for local music, but for original local music. One of the few in the area where you were more likely to get eyes glazing over if you played a typical bar cover set than if you played some weird, experimental, interesting music that came straight from the heart.
I don’t know the details for why The Depot closed down. But I do know that I’ll miss it. And, last month, I was lucky enough to play one last show there on the winter solstice, along with two other amazing acts: Northern Borne and Shannon Tehya & the Troupe. And man…it was a blast.
The vibe at that show was amazing — you could just tell that everyone who was there was there to celebrate the venue, the acts, and the wonderful times we’ve all shared at the Depot. I’m extremely grateful that David reached out to me to come back to the stage there one last time before they closed their doors for good.
I have a lot of fond memories of the Depot. I first played there back in early 2019, and have returned many times in almost five years since. On account of it being such a welcoming space for interesting, eclectic music, I’ve debuted several new originals on the stage there. It’s also the first venue where I tried my hand at performing some of the tunes by the late, great Michael Hedges. And beyond the musicians, it was also always wonderful to see some of the regulars who made it a point to come to the shows there — even some who made it a point to come to my shows there, specifically. I treasure getting to meet them and talk with them at the Depot. As I said, lots of fond memories.
So I wanted to take a minute here on the blog to raise a proverbial glass to the Depot and to David. It’s a shame to see a venue which was such a huge part of the local community shutter, and I hope that one day, it finds some way to return.
The show on the solstice was also the first time I’ve performed out live since my vocal injury, which I talked about in last week’s blog post. I had a really great time there, playing some old originals, some new originals, and some covers by the likes of Hedges, Andy McKee, and Amos Lee. If you’re curious what the set was like, the Toolbelt Jedis published a really wonderful review of the show. Here’s a bit about my set to whet the appetite:
“First off, his vocals are spot on. From low to high in a nano-second and with full control chirruping like a bird or growling like a wolf. Flashing impeccable coordination and fretboard mastery, he played several imaginative instrumentals with his hands all over the neck; string tapping, harmonics, slides, sweeps, hammering, glass slide, body banging, plectrum, finger picking, strumming, and he deployed just about every tuning strategy there is – by ear. That might not have been noticeable to everyone but Shows sure got it and appreciated it. You might think he had a looper going, but no, this was all practice and determination. He fits in the category of one man band but with just one instrument.”
Pretty damn nice! And in addition to reviewing local gigs, Shows of the Toolbelt Jedis is also a mean bass player. That night he performed with Northern Borne, and it was a pleasure to listen to him hold down the rhythm and walk the fretboard during the bluegrass band’s set.
The final gig at the Depot was one for the books. I’m glad to have taken part in it, and as we roll into 2025, I’m thinking a lot about the venues I’ve spent time at over the years — and those I’d still like to visit. Here’s to all those good times spent at the Depot, and all those still ahead. See you on the road. — D
One of my resolutions for 2025 is to share a lot more music with you all…so let’s start the year off right with a new song, released today to my YouTube channel:
2024 was an odd year for me, musically. I hit the ground running with a live instrumental video early in the year, and had planned to play a lot of shows in the following months. But then I took a pretty bad vocal injury in late winter, and that totally derailed those plans. The long and short is that going in and out of the cold very early one morning caused something to snap in my throat, which made it feel like I had a ping pong ball stuck in there and was uncomfortably painful whenever I sang or used my voice for anything other than fairly muted talking. Thankfully no surgery was needed, and the ENT doctor told me after scoping my throat that it was the equivalent of a very bad sprain. But it’s been a long road filled with mandatory vocal rest — about 6 months until I was able to sing at all, and then a few more months before I was back in performance shape. Honestly, I’m still not quite back to 100% vocally, but am very grateful to have regained as much as I have. The journey continues!
This song, “Anything, Everything”, was recorded live at Skyfall Recording Studio in Greenwich NY around two months before the injury. It’s one of the more experimental songs I’ve written, using a variety of harmonics, rhythmic hits on the guitar body, and string slaps, as well as a gradually building song structure that’s a little unusual. Overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! Hope you enjoy it!
After this, I’ve got at least one more song from this Skyfall session that I’ll be releasing in the coming weeks. And after that…we’ll see! I’ve been writing some new material, some of which got debuted at my show at The Depot in Cambridge NY last month, and others of which have yet to be played out. I’m very excited to get back to sharing music now that I’m recovered, and hopeful this’ll be a good year on that front. Expect more songs, more blog posts talking about what I’m up to, and more videos ahead!
Here’s to a great 2025 ahead for you and your loved ones! May it be filled with music, and more triumphs than challenges 🤘 – D
Hello, hello! It’s been a minute since I’ve taken to the blog. Thanks for stopping by! After spending most of 2022 on hiatus following some personal stuff, I’ve been getting back into gear. Felt like a good time for an update!
Since the start of the new year I’ve been spending a ton of time working on new material, originals as well as some exciting covers. I’m so psyched about the new songs, and can’t wait to get out and play them live. Practice, practice, practice has been the name of the game. It’s been refreshing as hell to just get back to the basics and work on some challenging, fulfilling new material.
Here’s a snippet of one new song I’ve added to the setlist, Rylynn by Andy McKee:
I’ve also been doing a lot of the glamorous administrative work that comes with a music career: reassessing how I want to use my social medias, ironing out distribution, planning next releases, and scoping out prospective venues. (And updating this website!) It’s always nice to start a new chapter, and it’s very much felt like that’s been the case here. Solid days, spending a lot of time with music and feeling a ton of progress for it. Hyped to share more soon.
Hey there! It’s been a minute since I updated the blog, and the site in general. The truth is that I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus…and I didn’t even realize it. Sometimes you take these kinds of breaks very intentionally; sometimes they sneak up on you. In this particular case, I went through some difficult personal stuff earlier this year (which I’m not going to rehash here — I’ve already talked about it on my writing site if you want to know), and have basically given myself the space I needed to adjust to all the big life changes that have gone along with it.
So, that’s the bad news. I’m on hiatus, and have been for a few months now. The good news is that I’m in a place where I’m beginning to move out of it now. So you’re kind of finding out about the hiatus just as it’s ending. Yay?
Part of that is that this August marks the 10 year anniversary of my Vagrant EP, and I have some things I’d like to do to mark that occasion. I’ve also been writing some new material, so when I do get back in action with music, I’ll almost certainly be recording more music before I start playing shows again.
I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘old art’ lately. And by that, I mean art that I made in the past, be that writing, music, or anything else. I can’t speak for every artist, and I’m sure there are some (lucky ones) that this isn’t relevant to…but for me, I’ve always had kind of a “hide it all away” attitude when it comes to things I made in the past. The mere suggestion of people looking into what I’d done before I was “professional enough to share” is usually enough to make me clam up with anxiety, because, as with any craft or skill, if you stick with it you’re always progressing. Don’t judge me by that old stuff—it’s all garbage compared to what I can do now!
What a toxic mindset! The truth is that I’ve always had kind of a hard time sharing my work. Maybe out of fear that it’s not good enough, maybe out of perfectionism. Partially both, I suppose.
A couple of weeks ago, my father came to visit my wife and I for the first time since he’d gotten vaccinated against COVID. He brought a box of stuff from my old room, since he and my mom are painting it to turn it into a better guest room. I don’t know if your parents do this sort of thing, but it’s a running joke among my siblings and I to groan about it whenever it happens, because 99% of the time the stuff in the boxes is junk that we thought we had thrown out, but our father had somehow saved in a rare fit of sentimentality.
Yet nestled among the inevitable junk that was in this box were also some treasures. Namely, old videos from bands I was in during college, recorded at our student TV station. My bandmates and I had all assumed the recordings were lost, so it was kind of a blast from the past to find them. One of them was from my main late teens/early 20s music project, a hard rock band called Gravia, and I was so pleasantly surprised to find this lost recording that I literally shouted out loud.
I put the disk in my computer, planning to digitally archive the show…which, to my surprise…was actually not bad. This led to me listening to Gravia’s sole release, a 2010 EP called The Battle. And, to my even greater surprise…it was actually pretty good. We were barely into our 20s when we recorded it, and obviously looking back it’s easy for me to spot all the imperfections and things I would have done differently. More than a decade has passed since I helped write those songs, and obviously that’s a lot of time to hone a craft.
But really, it was so long ago that I can’t even nitpick it. It was something I was a part of making when I still pretty much a kid. Despite that fact, it’s aged surprisingly well. Well enough that it still might actually be one of the best and most cohesive releases I’ve ever been a part of.
I guess that’s the funny thing about art of the past. It’s easy to feel like it was crap sometimes, and who knows, maybe some of it actually was. But sometimes, enough time just needs to pass for you to be able to look back on things for what they were. And with that more objective view, can come a more peaceful acceptance. The Battle was the culmination of my music career up to that point—a fact which only makes me prouder looking back on it because we totally produced and recorded the damn thing ourselves.
All this has led me to re-evaluate the bio section of the site, which previously had hardly mentioned Gravia or my other main band project, Sacred Ash. It does mention them now, with links and such, because they were a huge part of my development as a creator. To not include them would be to give you a dishonest picture of how I’ve come to be the musician I am, and what would be the point in that?
So yeah, there are now links in the bio section in case you want to check any of those old projects out!
Hey there you! If you’re reading this, it means you’ve somehow found your way to my new website. It’s a pleasure to meet you (or see you again), and I hope you find some good reasons to stick around!
Oh? What’s that you say? You came here because you heard there was music or something?
Yes, I suppose that’s true. My name is Dan, and I’m an acoustic rock musician. As time goes on, I’ll be filling this space with behind-the-scenes tidbits and journal entries about various creative projects. I hope to share them with you!
But for now, since this is a brand new website, I’ll just leave this here calling card so you can get a feel for what it is I do. Enjoy!
Dan DeVita 