Dana is a singer/songwriter from Bellingham WA. His music emphasizes environmental and social justice themes. He performs all over the US and overseas, and has produced eleven albums since the 1980s.
Artist statement: I love to take time and space to write songs. I generally do the best at writing songs when I have a large hunk of time and can go hang out somewhere in the wilderness. The less access to cars and phones and computers, the better. I believe that the land has something to tell us, if we listen. And I believe I heard a lot from the land in Cave Creek Canyon.
For me, the music part of song writing is rarely constructed in an intellectual or logical way. I can’t take credit for most of the music in my songs. The tunes just flow out. I don’t know where they come from. Perhaps it’s a mixture of my mood at the moment, the feeling or message from the place where I’m hanging out, the “muse,” or indigestion. That last part was a joke. Probably.
Once in a rare while I’ll choose music that is a caricature of a type of song. I’ll do that with comedy songs, or when I’m purposely constructing a song to achieve a goal, perhaps to further some environmental or social justice cause.
Lyrics often just flow right out, too, and initially are not intentionally constructed. Those are often some of the best lyrics that come out of me.
Once the melody and rhythm and general topic of the song are settled, then I might tinker with the lyrics. Those improvements I feel I can take credit for.
I write songs and perform them hoping to remind us that it’s good to be alive, that we live on a beautiful and magical planet despite what our culture is doing to it, and that beauty, life, joy, and nature are worth fighting for.
Dana wrote three new songs during his guest artist residency in Cave Creek Canyon in May 2024.
Chiricahua Regional Art and Nature Education Fund 