A Most Wonderful Season! Thank you to our Audience and Sponsors!

Thanks to the lovely crowd who time traveled with us through 300 years of American Christmastide music and history last night...our concert was very well attended and went beautifully! We are so happy to make music with you all!

Cuba is opening up, finally

 Cuba ...

I sang in Cuba for two weeks several years ago. It was a very weird trip (it didn't help that I became quite ill the second week). Jim tried to call me from the USA at one point during my tour, and was told that the country "didn't exist."
We may go back together someday and revisit.

Photos copyright 2002 Maggi Smith-Dalton

300 years of Christmastide in America concert program Thursday, Dec. 18, 7 pm, Framingham Public Library (MA)

Come join us this Thursday Evening, 7 pm at the Framingham Public Library (MA) for a journey through 300 years of American music and History celebrating the Season of Light and Love, aka Christmastide!

Free and Open to the Public
This is a program we have performed live all across the United States for many years, and is one of our all-time favorites to offer!


http://www.framinghamlibrary.org/images/1214Main%20Events-Holiday_poster_WEB.jpg

Farewell and blessings, my friend

I just heard of the death of a dear friend. No matter how you age (chronologically) there is never a time you are prepared for the death of a friend. When that friend is part of a couple you've known and loved since early adulthood, therefore part of your youth, your beginnings in the world, it hurts in additional ways--ways you simply didn't expect, however much you knew you would grieve. And the cruel disease that took my friend was cancer, cancer directly related to the fact he smoked cigarettes. I think that my heart will break if I go on much further but suffice to say...I want all those filthy things thrown into some kind of eco-friendly disposal unit immediately. Worldwide.  11/19/2014

A Jim and Maggi Cloud

Join us this weekend for a special musical trip....through Victorian America, with Charles Dickens...music, and illustrated historical commentary, by Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton

Join us this weekend for a special musical trip....through America, with Charles Dickens...music, and illustrated historical commentary, 

by Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton

Song, Story, Music, Laughter, and Sights to See...

TICKETS: 

 https://prod.mkat.com/mktixrun/shared/mknporun?dir=mktix.MKT-971.DFB-E33162&Event=DFB-E33162&page=mk2eventregisterfrm.jsp
Tickets are also available at the door

For more information on the conference:  PICKWICKIAN ENDEAVORS (Dickens Fellowship North of Boston branch)


http://www.dickensnorthofboston.com/dickens_002.htm

Join us for "A Musical Journey With Dickens" Illustrated Concert-Lecture program

 We'll be doing a cool illustrated concert-lecture program at this next month..."A Musical Journey With Dickens."

Join Us! Registration is open now...our program, at the Hawthorne Hotel, is open to the public.

http://www.dickensnorthofboston.com/dickens_002.htm

Ah! No matter how many times...It is always such a kick to see your book in the window of a bookstore! Thank you, Salem's own very new, very welcome, very cool Bookstore..Wicked Good Books!

 PS the book is A history of spiritualism and the occult in Salem : the rise of witch city by yours truly!

Pix from Recent Performances

Pix from some recent gigs...Jim and Maggi at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, on May 4, performing for the Massachusetts Poetry Festival ("CelticSpringSongs"); our yearly concert, in April this year... at The Boston Conservatory ("A Celebration of American Music 5")...and Maggi on an author's panel at Mohegan Sun for The Big Book Club Festival!

Come one, and come all! Here's our session at the Mass Poetry Fest!

Come one, and come all! Here's our session at the Mass Poetry Fest!
http://masspoetry2014.pathable.com/#meetings/189781

CelticPoets: A SpringSong Session
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM, May 4 2014
Peabody Essex Museum, Morse Auditorium

Celtic Poets: A SpringSong Session with Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton Poetry with Music "Come all ye!" and take your place in the long and honorable bardic tradition of Celtic poetry and music. Bring your own favorite Celtic poetry to read aloud. You'll take the stage (or you can read from your place in the audience, if you prefer) between Celtic songs and musical numbers to be performed by the husband and wife team of Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton.

The Daltons' performance will also accompanied by an informative slideshow. We'll have some poetry on hand, but you are really encouraged to dig deeply to find your own favorites from the rich traditions, ancient or modern, of the Celtic soul.


ALL ages are invited to participate in the reading of poetry, and poetry may be drawn from any era, and any of the Celtic nations (Ireland, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany, Scotland, and Wales)*. *There are also ancient Celtic connections to Britain, France, Belgium (the Gaulic tribes), and to Spain (Galicia).
track: Poetry with Music

 COMING UP ON APRIL 10, 2014

Faculty Recital: A Celebration of American Music 5 with Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton

 JOIN US!

Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 8:00pm

Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Take a sometimes haunting, sometimes amusing, musical journey through America's past with A Celebration of American Music 5, featuring a performance on voice, guitar, mandolin and banjo. Enjoy the Daltons' trademark varied palette of styles as they carve a broad path through the American past, from 18th-century ballads to 20th-century blues.

This year's concert features special segments commemorating the beginning of World War I, the legacies of Stephen Foster and Charles Ives, the arrival of the Beatles in America and much more.

Info and directions: http://www.bostonconservatory.edu/event/faculty-recital-celebration-american-music-5-jim-dalton-and-maggi-smith-dalton






http://www.bostonconservatory.edu/event/faculty-recital-celebration-american-music-5-jim-dalton-and-maggi-smith-dalton

You are invited to enjoy "A Bouquet of Celtic Spring-Songs" with Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton

 

Join us, folks! Spring is here! (almost)

"Come All Ye!" to welcome springtime with Celtic music, song, and story! You are invited to enjoy "A Bouquet of Celtic Spring-Songs"
 6 pm
March 2, 2014
at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, 18 Springdale Avenue, Dover, MA.

Our special, family-friendly musical/historical program will follow a dinner at the church, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

Our program will feature storytelling and musical numbers drawn from several Celtic sources, styles and eras, and played on a variety of instruments. The Church is handicapped accessible. The program is free and open to the public, but a free-will offering is very welcome.

Directions and more info: http://www.saintdunstansma.org
 Email: office@saintdunstansma.org
Phone: 508-785-0879)

THIS WEEKEND! Feb. 22 I'm on an author's panel at the Big Book Getaway, sponsored by the Mark Twain House and Museum, and by the History Press

THIS WEEKEND! Feb. 22

I'm on an author's panel at the Big Book Getaway conference at Mohegan Sun....should be fun! Sharing the panel with
fellow authors Marybeth Reilly McGreen, Brunonia Barry, and the panel is moderated by RI Deputy Secretary of State (and author) Paul F. Caranci

 

Saturday, February 22 at 4:00 p.m.

 

Info:

http://www.thebigbookclub.org/toil-trouble-witches-occult/

You can register on the website! Please come!

Maggi Smith-Dalton, a historian and writer, writes about the history of spiritualism and the occult in Salem, Massachusetts. She describes occult aspects earlier in the region’s history, such as mesmerism, religious sects, and Mormonism, then Salem just before the Civil War through the end of the nineteenth century. She provides the historical and social context for the city, including its link to witchcraft, and tells of key individuals, such as Emanuel Swedenborg, Franz Anton Mesmer, Andrew Jackson Davis, Charles Wentworth Upham, Charles Henry Foster, Allen Putnam, Joseph Gilbert Waters, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other psychics, healers, and clairvoyants. (Annotation ©2013 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

You are invited to enjoy "A Bouquet of Celtic Spring-Songs" with Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton 6 pm March 2, 2014, at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, Dover, MA

 "Come All Ye!" to welcome springtime with Celtic music, song, and story! You are invited to enjoy "A Bouquet of Celtic Spring-Songs"   6 pm March 2, 2014, at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, 18 Springdale Avenue, Dover, MA. The special, family-friendly musical/historical program, presented by musicians and historians Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton, will follow a dinner at the church, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

The program by the Daltons will feature storytelling and musical numbers drawn from several Celtic sources, styles and eras, and played on a variety of instruments. The Church is handicapped accessible. The program is free and open to the public, but a free-will offering is very welcome.

Directions and more info: http://www.saintdunstansma.org  Email: office@saintdunstansma.org
Phone: 508-785-0879)

BHCC Community Education Spring 2014 Workshops with Maggi Smith-Dalton

BHCC Community Education Spring 2014 Workshops
with Maggi Smith-Dalton
Bunker Hill Community College (Charlestown Campus)
http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/ce/spring2014workshopseries/

Registration Open NOW!

Celtic Roots and Branches 
WCE-233 $15
Saturday, March 1, 2014

Celtic Music as the Wheel of the Year
WCE-231 $15
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Registration button on the website

Celtic Roots and Branches 
WCE-233 $15
Saturday, March 1, 2014

Understanding the influence of immigrant cultural contributions is vital to understanding the development of U.S. history. Throughout that history, the musical contributions of the Celtic people have been extremely important. This workshop will provide an overview of how Celtic music influenced U.S. history and culture, focusing mostly on the 18th and 19th centuries. We'll explore this story together through performed and recorded music, illustrated lecture, and conversation.

Celtic Music as the Wheel of the Year
WCE-231 $15
Saturday, March 15, 2014

In every culture, music has provided much more than entertainment to human life. The traditional music of the Celts celebrated the natural world, giving each community a sense of connection to each other and to the mysteries of life and death. Musical rituals gave structure and shape to everyday life, celebrated heroic events and people, commemorated important folk figures such as St. Patrick and St. David and strengthened a shared sense of values. This workshop will introduce participants to music of the Celts and how it functioned in the folklore and history of Celtic peoples through performed and recorded music, illustrated lecture, and conversation. Come celebrate the St. Patrick’s Day weekend with us.



Charlestown Campus
H-Building, Room H109
Phone: 617-228-2462
Fax: 617-228-2080

Office Hours:
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
 Wayne K. Johnson 
Director of Community Education
Email: wkjohnso@bhcc.mass.edu

Friday, Jan 31, Sat, Feb. 1 Bards, Gazelles, Squirrels & Sonatas (II) A program of music performed by the composers (and friends)

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  Bards, Gazelles, Squirrels & Sonatas (II)

• • A program of music performed by the composers (and friends) The Ninth Ear Jim Dalton Karl Henning Nancy Rexford Charles Turner Program: Unarmed Man (première) | Chas Turner Peter H. Bloom, piccolo Karl Henning, clarinet Chas Turner, contrabass Gifts of the Bard | Jim Dalton Jim Dalton, mandolin Après-mystère Zen on the Wing Swivels & Bops | Karl Henning Peter H. Bloom, piccolo & flute Karl Henning, clarinet Sweet Gazelle (première) | Turner Chas Turner, shakuhachi Jim Dalton, guitar Violin Sonata (two movements, première) | Nancy Rexford Rachael Wimmer, violin Nancy Rexford, piano [ intermission ] Clear Full Moon | Jim Dalton Maggi Smith-Dalton, voice Jim Dalton, guitar Spinning (première) | Turner Karl Henning, clarinet Jim Dalton, guitar Untempered Guitar | Dalton Jim Dalton, guitar Send Me an Angel (première) Dance With an Angel (première) | Turner Karl Henning, clarinet Chas Turner, contrabass Suma Beach (première) | Turner Naomi Gurt Lind, voice Chas Turner, shakuhachi Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels (première) | Henning Peter H. Bloom, flute Karl Henning, clarinet Jim Dalton, guitar Chas Turner, contrabass ================= Suggested $10 - $15 Voluntary Donation Nave Music Series 155 Powderhouse Blvd., Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 View Map · Get Directions

  

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