Interviews By Dan & Uma: Dan and Faith Senie, P1
The First Part Of A Talk With New England's Legendary Folk Duo
Folk Power Couple Dan and Faith Senie on the Role of Traditional Folk Music in Contemporary Society
The NH-based musicians talk about the importance of addressing injustice through story-telling and performing old-fashioned protest music in today’s volatile landscape
A few years ago, Dan and Faith Senie attended one of my book events up in Charlestown, NH and we chatted after about the regional music scene. In a music landscape that favored cover and tribute bands and pop music, the multi-instrumental musicians were bucking the trend. What’s old is new, and even now more so than ever.
Dan and Faith were taking their old school folk message straight to the people in small town libraries, bookstores, potlucks and churches; to open mics and living room concerts. Just like their heroes with last names like Guthrie and Seeger did before them.
Their work paid off and they began touring far and wide to festivals and acoustic music clubs in the Mid-and-South West. They recently returned from a mini-tour in Florida. In other words, just like their folk heroes of the past, Dan and Faith have been bravely taking their music, which addresses trans rights, mental health, 9/11, environmental justice and of course opposition to war, to the people and places that most need to hear their messages of love and peace.
In the interview that we’ll present to you in two parts – today and tomorrow – Dan and Faith talk about how their music has been received and what they feel is the critical role folk music still plays in addressing the societal issues of today.
While the majority of the interview was conducted by Dan, Uma did jump in with a few questions of her own.
The duo’s newest album, their fifth, Who We Are, is a flavorful mix of powerful social justice anthems mixed with lively jigs and whimsical story-telling that will get audiences bouncing in their seats.
Starting on March 2, the duo will set off on a mini-tour of New Hampshire and Vermont and we’ll post those tour dates below. But you can stop by their website anytime to hear their music, read up on their latest blog or get more information on tour stops. Check them out here: Dan and Faith Senie’s Website
More links are available at the end of Part One of this interview below. We hope you enjoy this two-part series with Dan and Faith Senie.
Interviews By Dan (& Uma): Dan & Faith Senie
Dan Szczesny (DS): Fill me in a little on your backgrounds and how you came to form your folk duo? Where/when did you each learn to play? How long have you been a duo?
Dan & Faith Senie (D&F): Faith was in chorus (alto) throughout grade school, and started playing piano in fourth grade. She was the piano accompanist for the senior high school choir in her junior and senior year. Singing harmony is something she’s been doing all her life.
Dan has been singing as long as he can remember. From early childhood in the Berkshires, to the Manhattan Borough-wide chorus in Junior High, to the All City Chorus and Concert Choir in high school, choral singing was an important part of his childhood.
We met in college, where studies kept us from performing music, though we did get out to listen to music when we could. Our first date was in a small pub in Troy, NY listening to folk singer Kevin McKrell. Careers then took over, along with a variety of other interests.
We found our way back to the folk community thanks to satellite radio, discovered some artists whose music inspired us, and led to songwriting workshops where we wrote our first songs back in 2006. With the songs flowing, we picked up our first stringed instruments, guitar for Dan, mandolin for Faith. We’ve worked at songwriting ever since, and added many instruments to our repertoire, including banjo and harmonica for Dan, acoustic bass guitar, ukulele, and mountain dulcimer for Faith. We’ve been out touring regularly since 2015.
DS: Why folk?
D&F: A lot of it has to do with who our songwriting mentors were, but it’s also rooted in the music we both grew up with. Dan’s time with Toshi and Pete Seeger when he was in college certainly helped with that. The song ‘Thanks For The Memories’ on the new album is a thank you note to the two of them for giving him a loving place to go to when his home wasn’t a good place to be.
DS: How does your songwriting and producing process work? Do you collaborate on ideas, lyrics and song construction? Do one of you bring something to the table and together you flesh it out. I'm very interested in the infrastructure of song writing and recording an album.
D&F: We each write songs separately. In the years we’ve been doing this, we have only one or two “Dan and Faith” co-writes; everything else is either a Dan song or a Faith song. We both tend to write lyrics first, and then fit music to the lyrics. Once we have a first draft of a song and we agree it’s worth consideration, we start working on how we will present it as a duo. Are the lyrics in a final form, or do they need tweaking? What is the primary instrument? What secondary instrument (if any) will get played on it? Is it one person singing, or both? If both, is it a duet or a primary vocal with harmonies? Every song is going to be different.
We’ll work on a song at home for a while, and then either start adding it to our set lists or bring it out to a few open mics if we can. Once we’ve played it live in front of an audience a few times, it will sometimes need additional tweaks.
Recording a song is very different from performing it live. For recording, we record each instrument and each voice separately, and then piece it all together. We may or may not play it the same way in the recording as we do live; sometimes we add additional harmonies, sometimes different instruments or playing styles. Once we have our tracks recorded, we then have to decide what other instruments or voices, if any, we want on the recording, and contact other musicians to supply those tracks. We send all the tracks off to a recording engineer who mixes the pieces together.
From there, we work out which songs might combine to make an album. It takes quite a while to turn a new collection of songs into a finished project.
DS: Does living and working in New England make a difference to your creative output or energy? Is there something about being here that's more or less conducive to your craft?
D&F: We’ve lived in New England since shortly after college. As we travel around the country, there are plenty of other nice places and great folk communities, but we’re rooted here in New England. We were surprised when we first started songwriting to find out that where we were in Massachusetts had more folk music venues and open mics than any other part of the country at the time. After starting songwriting, we were welcomed into the local folk scene by friends we met at music camp, and performers we met along the way. The vibrant open mic community where we lived in central Massachusetts got us started on our way.
We’ve found a truly great and supportive community of artists in the Connecticut River Valley, as well as in other parts of Vermont and New Hampshire.
New England has provided us with topics for some of our songs. Dan has written several songs about people and places along the Connecticut River. Faith has found inspiration in stories about Mount Washington, thanks to your book The White Mountain.
DS: Would you like to shout out anyone or people, producers, etc. who helped with this album or who, in general, helped out.
D&F: The biggest shout out for this album definitely goes to our producer, Joe Jencks. We first asked Joe if he would be willing to produce it back in early 2023, when he was just getting back out touring post-Covid. Joe has been a friend for years, and was honored to be asked.
We started our collaboration with him coming to visit us for eight days in April, 2023, during which we spent 10 hours each day work-shopping possible songs for the album. By the end of that week, we had narrowed our focus down to 17 songs, and we went off and started doing our recording. Once we had our tracks done, he had interesting (and sometimes unexpected!) suggestions on possible backing musicians.
Joe had great feedback for us throughout the process, and was absolutely invaluable in the mixing studio when we blended all the pieces together. Our most important goal in the process was to still be friends at the end, and all three of us agree that the process of bringing out this album has made us all better friends.
We had some amazing musician friends contribute to the album. each added so much. We’d be remiss if we didn’t give them a nod. Mark Dann, who did the mixing, and worked with us on our previous album, is an absolute wizard. And Charlie Pilzer, the mastering engineer, added the fine touches that are that black art called mastering. Charlie has multiple Grammy awards for this kind of work with acoustic music, and we are thrilled he agreed to be on the team.
(Uma joins the Interview) DS and Uma Szczesny: Uma wants to know what's your favorite animals and if you have any pets?
D&F: Lovely! We were hoping Uma would throw in a question or two.
We both grew up with dogs, but haven’t had any pets since we got married. Our work schedule before we started doing music and our touring schedule now are just not conducive to having pets. But we’re probably the only non-dog owners in town who keep a box of dog biscuits around, just in case!
Favorite animals... that’s actually a tough question. There are so many to choose from! We have a delightful menagerie of critters around our house throughout the year, including red foxes, black bears, bobcats, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turkeys, deer, porcupines and squirrels. We’ve had a fox family living in the culvert under our driveway that has raised a family of three kits each year for the past three years. The young kits are a treat to watch! They play like puppies.
Faith is willing to declare the porcupines as her favorites, just because their little waddle when they walk is so adorable and because it’s fun to listen to them chortle to themselves. We had a mama and baby porcupine (a “porcupette”) in our yard one afternoon, and the baby has the same waddle as his mama, only sped up!
Dan says, this is indeed a tough question. Sure, we like dogs, but there are so many cool animals out there, and we have so many on our property. The baby fox kits that are raised on our property are incredibly cute. But let’s go with the barred owl. The barred owl is on the one hand silent and observant, then hoots out its many different calls that echo across our hay fields.
DS & US: Do you have any advice for kids or for adults who might just be starting out in music?
D&F: Have fun with it! And never, ever let anyone tell you that you can’t sing, or you can’t play. Everything worth doing in life takes a bit of practice and often some good guidance. You don’t have to be the world’s best singer or the world’s best player to enjoy doing it. Sing or play because it brings you joy.
For adults, you can start out in music at any age. We were both in our forties when we started playing stringed instruments and songwriting. One of our favorite songwriters didn’t write her first song until she turned seventy! She’s now in her late eighties and has four albums to her name.
While there are many songs out there to learn and play, there is a special joy in the creation of songs of your own. Taking an idea, working through the synergy of words, chords and melody is a meditation of sorts. Looking up from a just-finished first draft, one sometimes finds that hours have passed without realizing. Those are precious moments. There’s a verse in a song that was sung at the summer camp Dan went to, that inspires his songwriting: "Follow every light, follow every star, and maybe write a song tonight, and find out who you are."
~Join us tomorrow for Part 2 when Dan and Faith talk about their new album and writing and playing potentially controversial music!
In the meantime, here’s Dan and Faith’s upcoming March schedule:
March 2: Brunch time show at The Press Room, Portsmouth, NH.
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.
A delightful interview with great questions from both interviewers!
Dan, we so appreciate you and Uma putting such a great spotlight on music in general, as well as our own specifically!