by aubrey Atwater

Once in a lifetime, if you are lucky, you might encounter an artist of the caliber of Daniel Dutton. It has been an honor to know Dan and to collaborate with him during the years since we met in 1992. There are many words to describe the work of this unique artist: fearless, wide open, remarkably complex, deep, versatile, scholarly, richly personal, virtuosic, synthesized, compassionate. Dan is a one-of-a-kind, vital container for the ongoing tranmission and interpretation of the ancient ballads. He knows these songs are OURS, they belong to all of us, and yet he is unafraid to make them his own. Coming from a traditional Kentucky farming family, Dan unselfconsiously learned many of the ballads he depicits. He is so bonded to the stories and so in tune with the characters, that they are a deep part of him just as he is an essential part of this powerful tradition.   

To know Dan is to glimpse a purity of spirit not often seen in modern American culture--he is his own product from a rich, rural history which includes an utter lack of materialism, a quest for natural beauty, an artistic mission and scholarship so tightly woven together that most people don’t quite know what hit them. Dan combines his intensely thorough and deep study, passionate and prolific artistic drive, brilliant musical understanding and prowess, and an exquisite ability to express all of this in writing.   In his work, the period of history being addressed is so long that it becomes timeless and we understand Dan’s work as simply a powerful portrayal of humanity. Whether you are listening to Dan’s musical interpretations of the old ballads, reading a scholarly cultural essay, gazing at one of his giant paintings, or even perhaps sitting in one of his many three-dimentional creations,  you are entering the world of a rare and fascinating artist.

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Aubrey started playing music at the age of five when she tapped out "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" on the piano. Her only formal musical training was the seven years of classical piano lessons that followed. Near the end of high school, she started to play the guitar and sing popular folk songs of the '60s and '70s. At Brown University, she studied psychology, history, and French, and played often in coffeehouses and campus rallies.

After Aubrey met her husband. Elwood Donnelly, at the Stone Soup Coffeehouse in Providence, her career developed dramatically. They formed a duo, Atwater-Donnelly, in the fall of 1987, which quickly gained regional and national recognition and popularity. Atwater-Donnelly specializes in American and Celtic traditional folk music as well as original songs, and since 1987 Aubrey has learned to play the Irish tin whistle, Appalachian mountain dulcimer, old-time banjo, and a variety of small percussion instruments. The duo performs widely in the United States in coffeehouses and concert series, festivals, radio stations, cable television, colleges, libraries, and other events. Their recordings also receive international air play.

www.atwater-donnelly.com