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Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Frechette and I am excited to report that we'll be releasing our fifth album as a duo on January 21, 2022. We’ve launched our pre-order period and while supplies last, for orders placed by December 1st we're offering special delivery before the holidays for signed physical CDs, or delivery within 24 hours for digital downloads. Be one of the first to enjoy our new songs!

Pre-order "After the Fire"!

We began recording this album in late July 2020, under California’s Covid–19 stay-at-home order, in Dan’s Bonny Doon home studio, The Shed. We were wrapping up by mid-August, but then a heatwave and extremely unusual lightning storm sparked a fast-moving forest fire. Completed after our evacuation to the safe haven of a friend’s home, After the Fire marks the end of an era and a fresh start; Dan’s little studio burned the morning after he’d rescued the rough tracks, studio equipment, and a range of instruments we play in addition to acoustic guitar and violin (such as viola, cello, bass, drums, piano, etc.), yet rarely have the space to bring with us on the road. Highlighting these additional instruments on this album helped us feel the joy of performing again and to know that despite the setbacks of the past year, our music will thrive in new ways.

Each song portrays a facet of the journey from setback to reclaimed hope - finding faith in the possibility of LOVE in “Make Me Come Alive,” HOME in “Beale Street,” COMMUNITY in “Together Again” and “Money Shouldn’t Talk That Strong,” and one’s own STRENGTH and FORTITUDE in “If A Wave” and “Hey, It’ll Be OK.”

Our new photography, including the photo above, taken in the burn zone a few months after the fire swept through, is care of the fabulously talented Michelle Magdalena who also took the photos for our first two albums, "Dan and Laurel" and "New Disguise." We've been blessed to work with amazing photographers for all our albums and it was wonderful to get the chance to work with Michelle again.

We're planning some special events leading up the the CD release, including some podcast episodes diving into the stories behind the songs and the release of some new music videos. We'll let you know about those details soon. For now, we'll be releasing our first single and music video for the album at 4pm Pacific Time on Friday, December 17, 2021. Tune in at that time for our YouTube watch party of the music video I’ve created here:

We're also officially launching the new Dan and Laurel website today. I’ve has been hard at work recreating the site and scaling the learning curve in a new software program and did a great job! We're particularly pleased about finally having a responsive site that resizes automatically to suit various devices (coming soon, I promise, to this old laurelthomsen.com site as well!), as well as our news section, our new photos page, and the new lyrics page where you can enjoy the poetry of whatever songs from our five albums pop up, or search for specific songs by song title, a word, a lyric, an album, or a songwriter. Poke around and please let us know what you think, and especially if something is not working!

Finally, while we've been staying busy with teaching and playing private weddings and events, we have a few public performances to look forward to, including a return to First Night Monterey on New Year's Eve, a house concert on the California Central Coast on December 18th, and a casual CD launch party at Santa Cruz's Abbott Square on January 21st featuring the addition of the formidable Dan Robbins on Doublebass on January 21, 2022. Check my Calendar for details and in the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Please email me at laurel@laurelthomsen.com if you have a violin, viola, fiddle, music biz, or practice related question you’d like answered in the blog or on a podcast, have a story or insight to share, or if you’d like to inquire about violin, viola, or fiddle lessons with me, in-person or online via Skype, FaceTime, or Zoom.

The Violin Geek Blog is a free resource and always will be. We also don't sell advertising, meaning that everything you read has been a labor of love. If you'd like to support my efforts and help ensure they continue, please consider making a donation. Thanks for your support!


Laurel Thomsen

Violin, Viola, Vocals
Performance, Instruction, Recording

Based in Santa Cruz, California

Site by Laurel Thomsen
Photography by Michelle Magdalena

laurel@laurelthomsen.com
831-224-0913
Skype: laurelthomsen

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