Saturday, September 21, 2013

life is good

Beautiful day; setting up a new gig, walk with my honey, cutting up credit card offers, reading, music, great lunch, cooked half by Jim, half by me. Life is good.

Friday, September 13, 2013

We will be singing in the chorus for this concert! Join us!



Sunday, May 26, 2013

May gardening looks good this year! Roses are about to pop, clematis has sprung back, things look fairly healthy...I'm hoping I actually have decent time for gardening this year...the past few have been difficult for me that way (two books, two recordings, and a thesis...lots of INDOOR archival and studio and office time alas)....friends who visited in the past few years saw only a shadow of former years
 
 
 





 

Saturday, May 11, 2013





Illustrated Author Talk & Signing
A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City by Maggi Smith-Dalton

When: Wednesday, 5/29/13 7 pm Free, Open to the Public
Where: Artemisia Botanicals
3 Hawthorne Blvd Salem, Massachusetts 01970
(978)745-0065
info@artemisiabotanicals.com
Orders: orders@artemisiabotanicals.com


SALEM, Mass.–Did you ever wonder how it happened?

For centuries, Salem hid its shame … no one dared speak of its terrible legacy. Witches were spoken of, if at all, with "bated breath"; family documents had mysteriously gone missing, and descendants of both accused and accusers evidenced a kind of amnesia about the past.

Present day Salem, by contrast, openly celebrates its acceptance of pagans, witches, and alternative spiritual paths.

The story told by Maggi Smith-Dalton in "A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City,"  newly published by The History Press, will help you understand the changes.

Smith-Dalton will give an illustrated book talk and signing on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 7 pm at Artemisia Botanicals, 3 Hawthorne Blvd Salem, Massachusetts 01970 (978)745-0065 (the store is close to  the Hawthorne Hotel). 

Spiritualism was an important element in 19th-century culture, in America and indeed worldwide. Salem provided fertile ground for the growth of this and other religions, yet, because of its link to witchcraft in the infamous trials of 1692 -- a serious and persistent black mark on the town's reputation -- struggled with anything which might give more fuel to the fire of being linked to occult practices.

Smith-Dalton's book examines this struggle and the elements that went into the gradual evolution of Salem towards what we would recognize as the Salem of today. The popularity of Spiritualism and renewed interest in the occult blossomed out of an attempt to find an intellectual and emotional balance between science and religion. Smith-Dalton's book explores the influence of the historical memory of the Salem witch trials on the development of alternative religions in 19th century New England culture.

It also tells a larger story about the way alternative religions such as Spiritualism grew in 19th century America, using Salem, a town that prided itself on its arts, culture, professional class, and love of science, as the connecting thread. In her second book for The History Press, historian Maggi Smith-Dalton delves into Salem’s exotic history, unraveling the beginnings of Spiritualism and the rise of The Witch City.

About the author:

Maggi Smith-Dalton began her singing career in cabarets and nightclubs and has maintained a parallel career as a historian most of her life. With her husband, Jim, she tours nationwide as a concert artist. They are specialists in "19th- & Early 20th-Century Music, History, and Culture From Parlor and Stage" on period & period-appropriate instruments, performed in historically-informed style.
Maggi is also a prizewinning short story writer and has a long history of writing feature articles and columns for magazines and newspapers. Most recently, she wrote a weekly history column for the Boston Globe (boston.com) (2010-12), and continues to freelance for print and online publications.
Maggi holds a master's degree in American Studies, and her current scholarly work focuses on historic civic rituals that incorporate music as a primary element, a subject on which she has presented domestically and abroad.
Maggi is president of the Institute for Music, History and Cultural Traditions, which runs two public programs: the American History and Music Project and the Salem History Society. In 2010, she was elected to the council of the New England American Studies Association.
"A History of Spiritualism" is her second book with The History Press; "Stories and Shadows from Salem's Past" was published in 2010. For more information: http://singingstring.org/JM/The_Store_%28Recordings,_Books,_Media%29.html




A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City
Copyright © 2012 by Maggi Smith-Dalton
ISBN 978.1.60949.551.0
Published by The History Press Charleston, SC 29403 www.historypress.net

https://www.historypress.net/search.php?s=Maggi+Smith-Dalton&submit=Search

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

One of the most joyful concert experiences we've had in recent years!
Thank you, Abington, Massachusetts...our concert at your beautiful library was a blast!
So...going slowly, steadily, no diets, merely paying more attention and thinking about what I eat, keeping the calories counted, and thinking daily how I will exercise that day...down a little over 13 lbs. Taking it off slowly, the way I put it on. NO diets, no extremism. I have an app that helps me keep track of calories, nutrition, and excercise...that helped me a lot.

(Also, I guess, not writing another book just now helps...being chained to the computer does things to your body.)

Am a recovered survivor of diets, and know where it leads. Usually, not to "healthy." But Jim and I are more focused on the healthy than the weight thing...I think that helps.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Okay, fellow Downton Abbey-era addicts! Join Jim & Maggi Dalton In Concert: "'Some of These Days' Roaring Tunefully Through the '20s."

[When]
Saturday, March 16, 2013
[Time]
2:00pm

[Where]

Abington Public Library, 600 Gliniewicz Way, Abington, MA 02351,
[Description]

The password is "music" and the secret knock will be "fun."

Take a musical and historical tour of the American 1920s with musician/historians Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton on Saturday, March 16, 2013, at 2 p.m., when the Abington Public Library, 600 Gliniewicz Way, Abington, MA 02351, 781-982-2139 www.abingtonpl.org will host a special musical/historical program, "'Some of These Days' Roaring Tunefully Through the '20s."

Hearken to the sounds and story of the triumph of the temperance movement with the passing of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act in 1919. This inauguration of the era of Prohibition also spawned speakeasies, gangsters, and flappers.

Don your glad rags, take your sheba or sheik by the hand and travel with the Daltons through the hectic decade of the Jazz Age -- savor the golden musical treasures of Tin Pan Alley; marvel at the movies and radio; celebrate women's suffrage; take a peek at presidential politics; and rev up the Model T as we hurtle through this "Strange Interlude" towards the crash of '29.

The audience is invited to attend with an optional 20s "Look"… accessorized or costumed.


Friday, March 1, 2013

The Boston Musical Intelligencer
"February 26, 2013
Composers Gather for Guitar Premieres
by Janine Wanée

Aaron Larget-Caplan, guitarist, a faculty member of Boston Conservatory, gave a free recital there Friday, which although casual, had the unique distinction of gathering in one place an extraordinary number of published composers for more world and regional compositional premieres than most guitar audiences have ever witnessed.

Seully Hall at first appearance is the right sized venue for a concert featuring an instrument as intimate as the classical guitar, but acoustically it fell short. The sound seemed to somehow get trapped in the rafters for some of the more intimate moments, while competing both with traffic sounds and with a nearby piano practice room. Larget-Caplan played with astounding technical proficiency and artistic delicacy, but wanted at times for more assertiveness in dance-like rhythm and dynamic contrast in voicing, which may be due partly to the space and to the technical demands of a potentially overwhelming amount of new repertoire to prepare and assimilate in one recital. So to treat this performance fairly in review would be to view it not as a pricey and prestigious debut, but more experimentally as a technically rigorous presentation forum; and in that light, it was by all means a very impressive and enjoyable performance.

Larget-Caplan made several adjustments to the first half of the program. Instead of opening with his own arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Fugue in C Minor, BWV 962 (transposed to d minor), he switched a more solidly familiar piece he could play with ease and confidence. Kevin Siegfried’s Tracing a wheel on water (2003), as its name would imply, was composed of a fluid and harmonically accessible, cyclical minimalism that, although meditative, contained subtly delightful, textural and rhythmic surprises.

In the opposite order in which they appeared on the program, Larget-Caplan dove into three lullabies by three separate composers, all of whom were present that evening. Jim Dalton’s A World of Your Own and David Patterson’s Lullaby for Ewe (both composed in 2012), were each introduced to an audience for the first time. Instead of the tuneful, lulling, rhythmic regularity that one conventionally associates with lullabies, both these pieces had a similar ambience through texture that was sonorously metaphoric of a blank canvass being kissed by muted splashes of watercolor. In the program notes, Jim Dalton states,

A lullaby should be seen as an invitation to a world of one’s own making, a dream world. I present examples of my own inner world as an invitation to each to travel to their own place and to create it for themselves. The quarter tones dissolving to unisons at the beginning and end are meant to lull the listener by entrainment-tension to relaxation. The inner world is a place where the magical and surprising are ever present and commonplace. Since it is created by the dreamer, it should be welcoming and peaceful.
...
Dalton’s World was comprised of harmonics, chord suspensions, tritones, and pentatonic allusions to the Orient...."



And Maggi adds:

I believe I see a PhD island in my telescope. A few waves in front of the canoe 'twixt here and there, but I'm starting to paddle that way, shipmates.

New plans for Singing String Music, and the American History and Music Project, too, and for book publications and recordings...kind of an exciting year ahead, if it all goes as planned.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My first footer came in the door at midnite, and hugged me and gave me a kiss....As he's done for 29+ years! Happy New Year to all!

Monday, December 31, 2012


Remember to keep some money in your pocket, to do a little of the work you want more of in the coming year, and Have a handsome man with dark hair be the first-footer on your threshold at midnight. We have all this covered here at chez Dalton.

Joyful, Peaceful, Happy New Year 2013 to all!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Join Jim Dalton & Maggi Smith-Dalton
for our traditional Salem holiday concert !
Saturday, December 15,
Open House 5:30 – 8:30 pm, Concert 7 – 8 pm
Home for the Holidays:
An Open House and Concert

From 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., join Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton for family-friendly holiday carols and parlor games.
Celebrate the holidays at Phillips House. Learn about Christmas traditions in the early twentieth century. Enjoy hot cider in the playroom and take advantage of special sales in the museum shop.

Open house and light refreshments are free. Concert tickets must be purchased in advance. Thank you to the Salem Cultural Council for their support.
Open House: Free.
Concert: $10 adults, $5 children, free to members. Registration required.
Phillips House
34 Chestnut Street
Salem, Massachusetts
For more information or to register,
call 978-744-0440 or visit http://HistoricNewEngland.org

Jim and Maggi's website: http://singingstring.org

Monday, November 26, 2012

So, apparently....it's "CyberMonday"...Ok, ok, then, it's a good day to tell you about this...we are offering a special price on our recordings from now through Dec. 25. If you buy 2 directly from our website, you get the second one 1/2 pri
ce ($15); 3 for $20. We will pay the s&h during this special.


We want to share music with you (and still keep a roof over our heads, grin). PS: If you want to hear samples or download the order form, please go to: http://singingstring.org/JM/The_Store_%28Recordings,_Books,_Media%29.html







Monday, November 5, 2012

Join Maggi this Thursday for illustrated talk and booksigning!

Join me this Thursday at the Boston Public Library's Central Branch!

Author Illustrated Talk/Signing
When: 11/8/2012
Where: Boston Public Library Copley Square, Boston, MA
Never Too Late Group
2:00 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall
http://www.bpl.org/news/ntlg.htm

Sunday, October 14, 2012

OCTOBER EVENTS! What a Weapon is the Ballot...Book talks and signings....Come and share music and books with us!





Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton http://singingstring.org
Join us at these upcoming events
(All events are free and open to the Public unless otherwise noted):

A Celebration of American Music 4 with Jim and Maggi Dalton
WHEN AND WHERE:
Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 8:00 PM
The Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Seully Hall, Boston, MA

What a Weapon is the Ballot! Political Campaign Songs from Washington to Nixon
Take a break from the current election campaign by visiting the sounds, issues, scandals and mayhem of campaigns of the past. This non-partisan (they are ALL equally entertaining) program covers 200 years of American political infighting, including both winners and losers of past elections. Jim and Maggi Dalton will be joined by guest musicians from the Conservatory's faculty.
Books and recordings will be available for sale

http://www.bostonconservatory.edu/event/celebration-american-music-4-jim-and-maggi-dalton




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Just published: A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City
by Maggi Smith-Dalton

Copyright © 2012 by Maggi Smith-Dalton
ISBN 978.1.60949.551.0
Library of Congress CIP data applied for.
Published by The History Press Charleston, SC 29403 www.historypress.net

The story told by Maggi Smith-Dalton in "A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City," just published by The History Press, is not what you might expect in book about 19th-century Salem, Massachusetts.

Spiritualism was an important element in 19th-century culture, in America and indeed worldwide. Salem provided fertile ground for the growth of this and other religions, yet, because of its link to witchcraft in the infamous trials of 1692 -- a serious and persistent black mark on the town's reputation -- struggled with anything which might give more fuel to the fire of being linked to occult practices.

Smith-Dalton's book examines this struggle and the elements that went into the gradual evolution of Salem towards what we would recognize as the Salem of today. The popularity of Spiritualism and renewed interest in the occult blossomed out of an attempt to find an intellectual and emotional balance between science and religion. Smith-Dalton's book explores the influence of the historical memory of the Salem witch trials on the development of alternative religions in 19th century New England culture.

It also tells a larger story about the way alternative religions such as Spiritualism grew in 19th century America, using Salem, a town that prided itself on its arts, culture, professional class, and love of science, as the connecting thread. In her second book for The History Press, historian Maggi Smith-Dalton delves into Salem’s exotic history, unraveling the beginnings of Spiritualism and the rise of The Witch City.

About the author:

Maggi Smith-Dalton began her singing career in cabarets and nightclubs and has maintained a parallel career as a historian most of her life. With her husband, Jim, she tours nationwide as a concert artist. They are specialists in "19th- & Early 20th-Century Music, History, and Culture From Parlor and Stage" on period & period-appropriate instruments, performed in historically-informed style.

Maggi is also a prizewinning short story writer and has a long history of writing feature articles and columns for magazines and newspapers. Most recently, she wrote a weekly history column for the Boston Globe (boston.com) (2010-12), and continues to freelance for print and online publications.

Maggi holds a master's degree in American Studies, and her current scholarly work focuses on historic civic rituals that incorporate music as a primary element, a subject on which she has presented domestically and abroad.

Maggi is president of the Institute for Music, History and Cultural Traditions, which runs two public programs: the American History and Music Project and the Salem History Society. In 2010, she was elected to the council of the New England American Studies Association.

"A History of Spiritualism" is her second book with The History Press; "Stories and Shadows from Salem's Past" was published in 2010. For more information: Go to Our Website

She loves to garden and usually can be found muttering to herself as she happily rakes, plants, feeds and waters various living things, including herself. The squirrels, it is rumored, are used to her soliloquies by now, although one wonders what the neighbors think.

A History of Spiritualism and the Occult in Salem: The Rise of Witch City
ISBN 978.1.60949.551.0


https://www.historypress.net/search.php?s=Maggi+Smith-Dalton&submit=Search


Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/salemspiritualism

BOOK SIGNINGS AND TALKS:
Visit our website http://singingstring.org for updates

Author signing
When: 9/15/12 1 p.m.
Where: The Spirit of ’76-2 Bookstore
450 Paradise Road Swampscott, MA
Tel: 781-581-7676
 http://www.hugobookstores.com/book/9781609495510



Author talk and signing
When: 10/26/12 7 pm
Where: Artemesia Botanicals
Hawthorne Blvd. Salem, MA
http://www.artemisiabotanicals.com/



Author signing at The Boston Book Festival
When: 10/27/12 Noon to 2 p.m.
Where: Copley Square
At The History Press Booth
http://www.bostonbookfest.org/


Author Illustrated Talk/Signing
When: 10/28/12 2 p.m.
Where: Abbott Public Library
235 Pleasant Street  Marblehead, MA (781) 631-1480
http://www.abbotlibrary.org/pages/mainmenu.html


Author Illustrated Talk/Signing
When: 11/8/2012
Where: Boston Public Library Copley Square, Boston, MA
Never Too Late Group
2:00 p.m. in Rabb Lecture Hall
http://www.bpl.org/news/ntlg.htm

Author signing
When: November or December 2012 Date to be Announced
Where: The Trolley Depot (store), Pedestrian Mall, Salem, MA
possibly also at Salemdipity, Pickering Wharf, Salem, MA

Signed by the author...books are available at the AMAZING Trolley Depot store in downtown Salem!






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If you can't make it to Salem or Boston....



Also available from (more TBA)
B&N
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-history-of-spiritualism-and-the-occult-in-salem-maggi-smith-dalton/1112197755?ean=9781609495510

all books
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/maggi-smith-dalton
Amazon


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Maggi+Smith-Dalton
All products
new book
http://www.amazon.com/History-Spiritualism-Occult-Salem-Witch/dp/1609495519/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1347203777&sr=8-5&keywords=Maggi+Smith-Dalton

first book
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Shadows-Salems-Past-Chronicles/dp/1609490177/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347203914&sr=1-1&keywords=Maggi+Smith-Dalton

author page
Maggi Smith-Dalton


Booktopia
http://www.booktopia.com.au/a-history-of-spiritualism-and-the-occult-in-salem/prod9781609495510.html

Monday, September 10, 2012


Please join us in Swampscott at the Spirt of '76 for the first booksigning of Maggi's new book!
http://hugobookstores.com/event/celebrate-year-books-vinnin-square-spirit2



In Salem, the Trolley Depot was the very first to order Maggi's new title...if you're in Salem stop by and say hi to these great folks (they have Maggi's first book there too!)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The book is now released...after two years of saying "I'll do that atbf...(after the book is finished) I can try to catch up on the rest of my life! grin.

What's it about?
Spiritualism was an important element in 19th-century culture, in America and indeed worldwide. Salem provided fertile ground for the growth of this and other religions, yet, because of its link to witchcraft in the infamous trials of 1692--a serious and persistent black mark on the town's reputation-- struggled with anything which might give more fuel to the fire of being linked to occult practices.

My book examines this struggle and the elements that went into the gradual evolution of Salem towards what we would recognize as the Salem of today. And, in so doing, I tell a larger story about the way alternative religions such as Spiritualism grew in 19th century America, using Salem, a town that prided itself on its arts, culture, professional class, and love of science, as the connecting thread.


____________________



I'll be doing some readings, lectures, and booksignings in the Boston area starting in September 2012.

You can obtain the book https://historypress.net/search.php?s=Smith-Dalton&submit=Search

In Salem, the Trolley Depot ordered it right away; you can also get in on Amazon.com and BN.com of course, etc.