"Greetings friends, and welcome to the first installation of "Dave's Notes From the Road"...here I hope to splatter monthly updates on recent activities, thoughts, projects, field questions (e-mail me), look for answers. Recently I heard a major pop star say the following on MTV: "I wanted to do more writing on this album because I wanted to get my point of view out there, but mostly I just want to make people dance, without all that deep crap..." That was Jennifer Lopez, and thus was born "Dave's Deep Crap Club". Thanks to the inspiration of Virginia friend Suzanne Ives (who quickly created the first DDCC iron on T-shirt transfer of same - after I'd read this quote at a concert she attended - presented to me at Summersongs songwriting camp a couple weeks ago near Woodstock, NY). I've got more iron-ons in the works, and will be bringing these to future shows, free to anyone who buys a disk (think of a CD as a kind of membership card). See next month's chapter for a description of the new S.D.S., your alternative to the DDCC.

     Earlier this year my new "recording studio in a box" came to our front door on Cape Cod for my newest project - 7th and 8th CDs - to be released as a double disk in early 2003. Look forward to working some of this out at home, in lieu of collaborating with my regular and beloved engineer of the last four projects, David Lange out in our former home state of Washington. It'll be good to have new music out in the world.

     Besides all that's going on "over the bridge", there’s a lot going on right here on Cape Cod...one song in the works deal with funding to an organization called Silent Spring, mobilized to zero in on the connection between the environment and high incidence of breast cancer here on the Cape. Our niece Rose swam in a fundraiser for Silent Spring, who got cut from $8.9 million to $3.5 million in the recent state budget, allowing for precious little research to root out and define such preventable causes of cancer. A hundred and eighty degrees away...a new talking blues about the continued assault on the Cape by businesses like Dunkin Donuts and superstores...life is loaded with contrasts...stay tuned, and thanks for your support and interest.

Appreciations of the month:

• Joyce Saltman of Connecticut's Healing, Education, Laughter, and Play (H.E.L.P) Institute... our annual gathering brought 200+ educators (many in special ed) together to study the powerful effects of humor both in the classroom and in life's classroom...

• Penny Nichols, the Diva and founder of the indescribable Summersongs camp, a week of writing, singing, playing, and performing original music...we had over 80 people in our community this fourth year, and it gets better every time...

• J. Barrett Wolf, for getting this new web page up and running...thanks Bear (a fine songwriter himself, who will open for me a the New Driftwood Coffeehouse in Hyannis MA on December 7th)...

• My lovely wife Tricia, who lends me to the world-at-large more often than she'd probably like to...I love my work and am grateful she can put up with the constant comings and goings...