Interviews By Dan & Uma: Dan and Faith Senie, P2

The Second Part Of A Talk With New England's Folk Power Duo

Today, we present part two of our in depth interview with folk duo Dan and Faith Senie.

The couple talks about the power and importance of folk music in modern society

In yesterday’s interview with the Senies, we discussed their background and history, how they came together as a band and as a couple and what their favorite animals are. You can read Part One here: Dan and Faith at Day By Day

Today, we conclude with a candid discussion about some of their songs, lyrics and presenting hot-button cultural issues in folk format, and how well received their work has been on the road.

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Faith and Dan Senie have been touring libraries, festivals and coffee houses for years

Interviews By Dan (& Uma): Dan & Faith Senie

Dan Szczesny (DS): Let’s talk about the most interesting (to me) song on the new album, ‘My Name Is George.’ The song is a back and forth duet about a child coming out to his father as trans and the father’s process of acceptance of his son. Tell me a bit about the idea and writing of the song.

Dan & Faith Senie (D&F): We used to host a songwriter showcase, inviting two guest songwriters to join us each month for an in-the-round show. During the show, we would pass out little slips of paper and ask each audience member to write down a word or a phrase. We would collect them, select three, and have the audience vote on which of the three they would like to have the following month’s songwriters write a song about. Since we hosted, we each got to write a new song every month.

Right after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, the chosen theme was “My Name Is George.” When Faith doesn’t immediately hit on an idea from a theme, she will write down the theme and then brainstorm concepts around it. In this case, she hit on the phrase “no one knows” and it resonated. Why didn’t anyone know that his name was George? And then the whole concept just flowed out.

DS: What surprised me the most was the story has a positive outcome, the father accepts and loves his child. It occurred to me that I was expecting the father to be the bad guy, to be unaccepting. When George sings "He called me George!" I almost cried. Is it just the time we live in that such a simple act - a parent loving their child - can seem so powerful or surprising?

D&F: The original version of the song did not have a happy ending, but this is where the editing process comes in. We decided it needed to model the unconditional love that we wish for all trans folks of any age. We have one trans friend that we know does not have her family’s support, and we know it’s hard on her. This is a message that we want everyone to hear — just love your children, no matter what. The attempted suicide rate among trans youth who do not have family support is unbearably high. And yes, the very existence of trans folks has become horrendously politicized, and it’s expected to get a lot worse in the next four years.

Here’s the live studio recording of “My Name is George.”

DS: You've been touring around the country. Have you been playing this song? Has it been positively received?

D&F: When we perform this song, we see tears in the eyes of audience members. Yes, we play this song in most of our shows as we travel. It is well received overall, and perhaps softens some hearts with its simple message. We frequently have folks come up to us after the show to tell us about their trans child, or a trans friend or relative.

Faith had a conversation with a trans woman in the audience the first time we played it in Florida that likely would never have happened if we hadn’t played that song. A year later, that song got us onto the main stage of the South Florida Folk & Acoustic Music Festival as finalists in their songwriting contest. After we played it, that same trans woman came up to us to give us hugs, as she remembered us from the previous year.

What fascinates and encourages us is that we have never gotten a negative response to it in any show we’ve played it in, regardless of where we are. We play it in just about every show we do in Florida. We’ve played it in Kansas, Indiana, everywhere. There have been places we half expected folks to walk out when we played it, but those are the shows where folks come up to us afterwards to tell us how much the song meant to them.

DS: Do you feel the role of folk music is to address social conventions and morality?

D&F: It is, and has always been. Woody Guthrie wrote ‘Deportees’, a song about migrant workers who were lost in a plane crash, and were reported on the news as "just deportees." He gave voice to their story. Pete Seeger wrote ‘Waist Deep In The Big Muddy’ protesting war.

Woody Guthrie said, “It’s a folk singer’s job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.” To paraphrase a meme we’ve seen online recently, “First they came for the trans people. And I spoke up immediately, even though I’m straight and cis, because I’ve read the rest of the poem.”

DS: What's your favorite track off the new album (to sing, to record) and why?

D&F: Faith’s favorite track to sing is ‘Let’s Go For A Ride’ which is sung from the point of view of the family dog wanting to go somewhere in the car. She doesn’t play an instrument on that one, which means she’s free to ham it up and have fun with it! Dan chiming in: the guitar part that starts the song, and represents the happy dog, is a LOT of fun to play.

Dan’s favorite song on the album is probably ‘Thanks For The Memories.’ It’s a personal story. It’s a long song with a lot of lyrics, but such a delight to sing. Especially the key changing back and forth in the bridge.

DS: Any final thoughts?

D&F: One is that we hope folks support live local music. Church coffeehouses, local pubs, cafes, all these little venues that keep live local music alive can only continue to do so if folks come out to listen. Some of the music you can hear in these places is as good as or better than the acts in the big venues and music halls, and tends to be cheaper. We’ve heard music that would absolutely knock your socks off at little open mics.

As for our mission, we sing songs that folks need to hear. We also sing songs of pure joy. In the end, our message is one of love. Love everyone. No exceptions.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our interview with Dan and Faith Senie. Here’s their March event schedule with some links!

March 2: Brunch time show at The Press Room, Portsmouth.

March 7: High Street Coffeehouse (Open Mic Feature), 7-9pm, 12 High Street, Boscawen, NH

March 16: First Community Church, music during services, 10am. Rindge, NH

March 16: Open Mike American 8pm, an online showcase that features performers from around the country

March 23: Stage 33 Live, 3pm, Bellows Falls, Vermont. A listening space with excellent sound that records performances with multiple cameras in high resolution

Faith and Dan also have a YouTube channel with live performances and travel vlogs. Go drop them a subscription here: https://www.youtube.com/@danandfaith/videos

Faith and Dan also have a Patreon which can be reached here: https://www.patreon.com/danandfaith

Interviews By Uma is a regular question and answer feature developed by ten-year-old Uma Szczesny and formatted and managed by her journalist dad. The column focuses on interviews between Uma and some of her favorite musicians, artists and teachers. Uma has interviewed the Canadian teen band Freeze the Fall, Ashley Suppa of Plush and Kat Leon and Johnny Tuosto of Holy Wars. For more information on Interviews By Uma, to read her archive or to propose or suggest an interview, email interviewsbyuma@gmail.com.