Deb Cavanaugh and Dandelion Wine

Deb Cavanaugh has (so far) had a fascinating life exploring music in myriad ways. At age 20 she hitchhiked with her husband from her hometown of Stamford, Connecticut, to San Francisco, to live in what she called a “hippie commune.” She subsequently crisscrossed the country in a Volkswagen bus, paying music on street corners and in cafés, before landing in Albany in 1982. In addition to playing with her band Dandelion Wine, she hosts singing and dancing events for kids under the name Miss Deb. She also has a particular interest in Appalachian folk arts such as the crankie, as she describes in more detail below.

If I were to ask you to describe yourself as an artist, what would you say?

I would say, I’m Deb Cavanaugh, I’m a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, teacher, singer-songwriter and memoirist… I use my creativity to expand our human connection, and bring in awareness of traditional American culture.

That’s a lot to unpack! Tell me more about some of the instruments that you play.

My main instruments are vocals, guitar and mountain dulcimer. In addition to that, I dabble with ukulele, mandolin, banjo and I’ve been playing classical piano since I was a kid.

Up until ’93, I was mostly a singer and percussionist in a rock ‘n‘ roll band (General Eclectic). Then I divorced my former husband who was the guitar player, and decided… rather than looking for people to back me up, it was time to learn to play the guitar. I was 40 at that point.

And then I met a fellow who was totally immersed in the traditional folk scene, and we were driving down the road one day and he wanted me to serenade him. Pulled over and handed me a mandolin, which I had never played before… He was an amateur luthier, so he was always looking for instruments in pawn shops and tag sales. He (later) brought home a mountain dulcimer, and I started playing that. That is my favorite at this point.

Was this a romantic relationship?

It was… I’ve actually had two 20-year relationships now, and they were both (C)avanaughs. The first one I married and I took his name, the second one was Kavanaugh with a “K.” We had a duo, Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh.

What would you say have been some of your influences as an artist?

Both of those long-term partners were huge influences in my music… but I would have to say my dad was the first, and probably the biggest one. His family was all musical.

He always supported my music. I can’t remember ever not singing at home… after dinner, we’d clear the table and we’d all sit around and sing and play spoons and whatever other instruments were around. We sang in the car, on trips… it just was a really integral part of my childhood.

Tell me about your involvement as an artist in the community.

My main gig right now is working with children… Heldeberg Music Together is my franchise. It’s music classes for families with children ages birth through 7. My job is to teach families how to become a musical family.

Are there a number of families taking advantage of it?

Currently, it’s very small… people really want in-person classes.

In addition to the classes, I was teaching in preschools and I was doing libraries and museums. All of that has dried up.

So that’s one of the ways the pandemic has impacted you as an artist. Are there others?

Negatively, it’s reduced my income dramatically. But, creatively, it has given me a lot of time to focus on other things. I just recently finished a crankie roll for the New York Folklore Society.

Tell me about the crankie.

I think it’s really important that everyone living in this country know about American culture, because it’s so much more than the corporate culture we’re exposed to all the time. Included in that is the mountain dulcimer; the limberjack, which I play —

What is that?

Ah! My dad actually used to carve these, but he called them a “Dancing Dan.” It’s a wooden man on a stick, and you have a thin pine board that you’re sitting on. You hold the limberjack so that his feet are resting on the board, and you keep the beat of the song by pounding the board with your hand. His feet hit the board and create the percussion; his arms and legs are all jointed, so he’s also flailing around.

A visual feast to go along with the music.

Absolutely. Similar to the crankie… I’m singing the song as the scroll is moving. I have made them out of paper; I did one for “Big Rock Candy Mountain” that had black silhouettes (with) colored cellophane cutouts… the one that I just finished I made on Tyvek, which is the covering that they put on the outside of homes before they put the siding up. It’s kind of plasticky and more durable. I rubber-cemented felt shapes on top of that.

What are you working on now?

I’ve been doing a lot of songwriting during the pandemic. My partner runs a recording studio here, so he is helping me put a CD together. I am also working on doing some new “Miss Deb” videos that I’m hoping to market to schools and libraries. I’m also going to do a video of this new crankie roll.

You mentioned your partner; is this the same person from earlier?

Nope, this is another one! I guaranteed him at least 20 years… I spent 20 years with each of the others.

You’ve kind of answered it a little bit already, but… if I said to you, “I don’t think the arts are very important,” what might you say to get me to reconsider?

I would ask you to look through history at the ways that music has lightened our loads. People have used music while they were working; when they were building the railroads and they had to hit the spikes at a certain time, they used the beat of the music to coordinate that. During really hard times throughout history, you’ll see the music really keeping people together and bringing up their hopes. I think of World War II and all the songs that were popular then. It was all about keeping peoples’ spirits up, and reminding them that there were better times to come. - The Collaborative

If you think the Grateful Dead have been on a long strange trip, wait until you hear the story of Deb Cavanaugh, who plays Nipperfest in Central Park, Schenectady, Saturday morning, July 22nd, at 11:30.

Today, Deb plays the mountain dulcimer and other stringed instruments and promises to sing originals that run from reggae and folk to blues and rock and roll, but as a youngster, she played piano.

“I always wanted to please my dad and make him proud, and he was a very harsh critic. I was playing piano, and he was constantly berating me about my abilities. So, I decided I was going to learn his favorite classical piano piece. I do not remember specifically what it was, but it was something by Chopin. I went to my teacher, and she said, ‘Oh, that’s a little too hard for you.’ I said, ‘That’s ok. You know I’ll do the best I can.’

“I worked for months on this piece for him. I sat down and played it. Very few mistakes. His response was to get up and put on an album of Van Cliburn playing the same piece. He turned and said, ‘That’s the way it should be played.’”

Besides a controlling father and a bipolar mother, Deb had scoliosis as a teenager and was severely bullied in school. She’s had long-term relationships with two men, both of whom were named Cavanaugh, one with a K and one with a C, both of them angry. When she got into a relationship with her current partner Joel Patterson, she asked him an important question.

“When we first started dating, and he was getting serious about it, he asked me to move in. I said, ‘I gotta know how you do angry,’ and he kinda looked at me like, ‘What?’ He never gets angry. He is just the most even keel.”

I asked her what that does for her muse. “Well, what that did was, for the first time in my life, I’m at peace. It took me two years to settle into that. He runs a recording studio, and he does music videos.”

Deb turns 70 next month. She plays and sings like a woman who’s survived everything life can throw at her because she has.

“I spent 40 years raising kids. I only have three of my own, but I have a large space between the middle one and the youngest, and then I also raised my granddaughter for her first ten years. That’s what kept my music on the back burner for so many years.”

Music has always been her refuge. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

“I grew up surrounded by classical music, big bands, jazz and blues. And I loved it. When I was 14, I worked in a choir in Greenwich, Connecticut, that was directed by Duke Ellington, singing his sacred music. So, that was my beginning, and I took classical piano and voice. I wasn’t intimidated by him. I saw him as just another person, and I had a lot of respect for him. He is a strict taskmaster but not unkind.

“The other thing was, until I was about 40, I was brutally shy and always stayed in the background. I was ok when I was singing. All that just kind of disappeared, but in terms of having to interact with anyone on stage, I was never a frontman. I was the singer, and that was what I did.

“My mother was the most controlling person I’ve ever known. She tried to control my every thought. She kept me from friends when I was younger, and when she died, it was like a switch went off.

“I felt that it really was just a physical sensation of somebody lifting a veil or turning the light switch on, and it was a little frightening, honestly. (Pause) I spent most of that time when my mother was alive, being afraid. I was afraid of people. I was afraid of everyone, Don. My home life was violent. The rules were ever-changing. I think my mother must have been bipolar, but she was never diagnosed.

“My first husband was Cavanaugh with a C. The second one was with a K, and we performed in the area as Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh. So, the second Kavanaugh taught me how to be a performer because, as I said, I was always brutally shy.

“One time at a gig, he turned and asked me a question about one of the songs I had written, and I was shocked. I was like, you’re not supposed to talk to these people, and he just leaned over, took my hand, and very softly said, ‘Just tell me.’ And so I did. I turned to him and just spoke to him. The crowd loved it.

“It was a huge epiphany to me. It was like, ok! They laughed at the funny parts, and it was just totally shocking.”

Does she remember what she said?

“I don’t. I don’t.”

She blocked it out right away.

“Yeah, and I was shaking the whole time. It was brutal, but it was a soulful thing because that opened up a whole other world to me, but unfortunately, he was another very angry man, and we lasted another 20 years.”

Deb has gone from being very shy to doing, saying, singing, and playing exactly what she wants, regardless of genre. “I’m finally doing the thing that I love. I don’t have time to waste, so I’m a real task master with the band, and I don’t put up with people’s bullshit.”

She and her band plan to do all original material at Nipperfest. “It’s gonna be mostly my newer stuff. There’s one piece that’s reggae. Another that’s – oh, I’m trying to pitch it to be more Motown, but I’m not sure the others are feeling it. I’ll probably do at least one blues. Yeah, I play all different styles. So, any sets I’m gonna do are going to run the gamut. I’m especially pleased with the reggae song that I wrote, “Life Raft.” It’s a love lost song.”

She’s been there.

“I have, though I’ve usually done the leaving. I have another song I wrote most recently because I’m really a nice person. I have a lot of patience and put up with a lot of shit, but this song is called “Hard Hearted” because, you know, if I have to be hard-hearted, I can do that, too.”

Getting back to her father: “He was a kind man. We were very close because I think I was more like my father than I was my mother. He was a writer. He loved music. We had so much more in common. As a matter of fact, when I hitchhiked across the country, of course, my mother was horrified.

Years later, my dad came for a visit by himself out to Oregon and took me aside and said, ‘I just want you to know that – don’t tell your mother this –but I was so proud of you when you went off and did that trip because I knew you’d be ok, and I hitchhiked when I was in the Navy.” - Nippertown

Local musician, songwriter and educator Deb Cavanaugh is a “road scholar.”

“After hitchhiking across the U.S. in 1975, landing in an artist commune in San Francisco, then moving on to Santa Cruz and traveling back and forth from coast to coast, having and raising children while busking for extra cash before finally settling in the Capital Region in 1981, I consider myself a ‘road’ scholar,” she explained. “I learned more from those years on the road than I ever learned in school.”


Cavanaugh is releasing her new song “Come On Over” this Friday. You can hear all those years of life experience in the song’s bluesy, Motown sound as well as her seasoned, worldly use of voice. Joined by her band, Dandelion Wine, Cavanaugh expresses the joyfulness of connection through her lyrics and sexy vocalization.


“I often find my song ideas when driving around listening to music. An idea will come, then I turn it off and let my own song come through,” she said.

“Come On Over” reminded me so much of a retro vibe, and when I read that Cavanaugh’s early inspirations were big band and jazz, that made a lot of sense to me.

She admits she sang before she even spoke, and her father was a huge influence on her early experiences with music. While the new song has echoes of Duke Ellington’s energy, Cavanaugh is playing a mountain dulcimer on the song—not exactly an instrument associated with big band music.

“It’s a traditional American instrument and has become my favorite,” she admits. “It was the first one that felt intuitive to me.”

Cavanaugh’s use of traditional instruments and drawing to old-time sounds took an unusual journey, marrying genres that often are considered exclusive of one another. During the 1990s, she explored more Americana and roots sounds. She now plays rock, blues, folk, psychedelic rock, country and even has some classical influences mixed in. When asked how she came to her specific sound, Cavanaugh noted she has always been a musician and collected different influences as she moved through life.


“I studied classical piano from age 9 through high school and voice for five years, then taught myself guitar when I was 40,” she reflected. She now plays mandolin and her beloved dulcimer, too. She’s drawn to new sounds, experimenting with how to expand the sound of American music.

The band recorded the most recent song at a local studio, The Jive Hive, with backup vocals recorded at Mountaintop Studios at Cavanaugh’s home. She has two stages there, a main stage and a family stage by a playground area for children.

“Jive Hive and our home stages are my favorite places to play,” she explained. “One of my songs, ‘Let the Rain Come,’ was written on our stage during a rainstorm.”

Cavanaugh’s property offers a pastoral retreat for songwriting and music education, an idyllic respite for musicians to visit and share ideas. Cavanaugh is a huge supporter of local music and admits she loves going out to see local musicians – especially other songwriters.

“That’s how I met my current partner. I love what’s happening at SongCity in Troy and other places that focus on original music,” Cavanaugh said.


She has played the famed Caffe Lena listening room, as well as our Nipperfest stage under the pines. She’s also a beloved children’s musician, a significant influencer on future musicians by encouraging children to love the process of making and being with music.

“I love playing for and with kids. They are so spontaneous, energetic and honest,” she beamed.

Her children’s videos on YouTube have a large following and draw fans out to attend her live family concerts as well. Cavanaugh has an upcoming family concert at the Delmar Reformed Church on Delaware Avenue on December 9th. Her advice to younger musicians? “Develop a thick skin, and don’t give up.”

Cavanaugh invites us all over to listen to her new single “Come on Over” this Friday, with a fun video a week later on November 17th. Check out her Bandcamp page at debcavanaugh.bandcamp.com. - Nippertown

Love Songs & Lullabies, the latest release from Deb Cavanaugh, is an Americana album through-and-through, steeped in bucolic imagery, and containing a myriad of emotions ranging from longing, reminiscence, appreciation, and more. However, one shouldn’t start thinking that is all this record has to offer. The first track, “Deep Ellum Blues,” is a cover of a traditional song. That being said, it was very interesting to hear the unusual – at least to this listener – way in which Deb employs a reggae feel to the music as a way of delivering this particular tune. Changing direction to a more Americana and folk sound, “It’s Gonna Be Cold Outside” (second track) follows, bringing with it the first instance of Deb’s use of music to reinforce her lyric. Although the chorus in this song doesn’t rhyme, the way in which the chords are accentuated over the part where you’d expect a rhyme, brings attention to a lack thereof, thus causing tension within the song in an effective way.

“Let the Rain Come” (track three), a song that embodies the adage, “don’t bore us, get to the chorus,” features a return to more of a reggae inspired sound. The call-and-response sections of the chorus is a nice addition to this song. It was nice to hear the following track, “We Danced to Black Velvet,” feature more of her Americana sound. By doing so, Deb set up an oscillation between reggae and Americana among her first four songs on the album that bordered on jarring, albeit in a refreshing way. When she sings the lyric, “so, we danced for a while ‘til we started to stumble, both lost our footing, and fell,” the music drops out on the final word, effectively painting a narrative of the song with the instrumentation. After this song, the album roots itself more and more into being an Americana over the course of the next two songs, “Hot Coffee in Bed,” and “In Winter” – the latter of which being my favorite song on the album.

“Finest Man,” (track seven), was somewhat unexpected to this listener as not only does it feature guitar solos, but also incorporates, albeit briefly, a drum solo of all things! One thing is clear: don’t get too comfortable with what you can expect from this artist, as you never know what may be musically waiting around the corner. “The Raindrop Song” (track nine), is another nice change of pace in this album, as it is mainly driven forward by bass, drums, and a saxophone. Not only, but it features another great example of how Deb can utilize a lyric to help influence the music that is played underneath. When the lyric, “and I like to listen to that syncopated beat,” is sung, for example, the drummer plays this type of rhythm. The song ends with cheers and laughter, giving it a nice “live-and-in-the-studio” effect. Her album closes with “Lullaby” and “All is Well,” tracks ten and eleven, respectively. Both of these songs are beautiful in lyric and in music, evoking tender emotions of love, reminiscent, and an endearing look toward the future.

Throughout this album, an overarching sense of Americana and folk sounds are present. Although Deb’s voice may sound tired and mature in some areas of the music, by hearing the way in which this album was crafted in terms of song structure, musical devices, and overall production, one thing is certain: she has a hell of a lot more left to say. - Nippertown

I met Deb when she was performing in the duo Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh at the RPI Community and Cultural Center. It was an eclectic music event, and I was drawn to Deb’s easy-going vibe. We later grew closer when my son participated in her family friendly Music Together classes. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed seeing Deb’s songwriting flourish. She always challenges herself to create new music and take a fresh spin on popular cover songs.

Variety and going with the flow are hallmarks of Deb’s lifestyle. She inspires me with her free spirited, “say yes” approach to life. A 518 musician who has traveled to Germany and China sharing her talents, Deb spends her life exploring musical creativity, expression and education. You can learn about that and much more in her upcoming
memoir “Stories from A Free-Spirited Life”.

RRX: I’m looking forward to your memoir. You have many stories to tell! What can people expect to find in the book?

DC: All of my adventures! I start off with my childhood, which was not an easy childhood. I want people to see what led me to the choices that I made later, and the crazy lifestyle that I had. So, we start in those early days. Then I took off hitchhiking in 1975 with the man who would eventually become my husband. Our goal was to go to
Mardi Gras, but we never made it because the rides kept taking us west. We ended up in a hippie commune in San Francisco, where my mind was totally blown.

RRX: That’s a hallmark of your style, free-spirited hippie. And that’s what I love about you. It keeps you open to new experiences. What are some of your favorite later experiences from the book?

DC: There were so many crazy things! Like having a prophetic dream that got us out of California, which ended up being true later. The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD that is an amazing work of art! Being in Portland, OR when Mt. St. Helen’s was erupting. Sticking my kids in a VW bus with a cat and driving across country and breaking down in every state across the way. My favorite things about my travels were the variety of people I met and the unique things I saw along the way.
My favorite thing about the book is in the face of all these different horrible things that happened, I was able to just kind of go with the flow and look forward to whatever was coming up next. And those things led me down a path that I’m happy with.

RRX: That’s powerful. One of the things I admire about you is that you’ve always invested in your career as a musician, in addition to being a mother, and a person taking care of their family. I suspect this memoir would give some insight to the backdrop of what you were going through while you were building your music career.

DC: Absolutely. I put all the struggles as well as all the wonderful, fun exciting things. Because I think it is important for people to realize that you can get through those struggles and maintain that goal and that focus. And one of my focuses was raising my family, so although I never gave up on my music, it did kind of take a back seat to a certain degree.

RRX: I can understand that! Pivoting to that music career, when I met you, I was always so impressed with the different things you did musically. You have such a great resume! Performer, music educator, singer-songwriter. Experimenting with new instruments. You have great technical ability with pitch. One of the things that blew me
away is you took that trip to China. Tell us a little bit about how you got there and what that experience was like for you.

DC: I really try to stay open to the Universe, I guess. I get gifts all the time, and this was one of those. I join all the different social media sites and I joined Alignable. I never really did anything with it and this woman emailed me and asked if she could observe some of my Music Together and pre-school classes. She came and observed and asked me if she could take me out to lunch. At lunch she explained that she was a co-owner of two pre-schools in China and would I like to go for two weeks to teach. I never say no.

RRX: Laughs

DC: And I think that’s one of the things that helps me along. I’m going to veer off for a minute, but I went to Germany – same thing – I got this random phone call from this woman asking if I wanted to be part of this orchestra. And then a couple years later we took the show to Germany. I never thought I would leave this continent, and I’ve done it twice now.

The hardest thing for me going to China was that I had to teach the adults and I don’t have any degree in teaching, and I felt completely incapable of doing that. But I pulled it off. And they loved it!

RRX: Wow! Your spirit of adventure has served you in life. And helped you get where you are, which is amazing! You’ve been extremely successful lately. You just did a gig at the Jive Hive with your band Dandelion Wine. You’ve got some new material you’re releasing with your take on Electric Avenue.

DC: Jive Hive was amazing and I’m really loving these two guys I’m working with, Jared Carrozza on bass and Ben Heart on drums. I was just talking to Joel about doing some recording this winter. We’re going to use some of the tracks from Jive Hive and we’ll also go in the studio, and hopefully put out a full-length release. Ben, although he started out as a drummer, most recently has been a
singer-songwriter. So, he’ll jump over to guitar for a little while sometimes. It is a very different experience playing with a singer-songwriter that plays drums. Because he understands the songs in
a different way, and he colors them in a different way.

RRX: I can definitely understand that. What’s coming up next that we should look out for?

DC: I have a few gigs coming up in November and December, but mostly I’m working on new material.

RRX: On that topic – you like to pick unusual instrumentation. Are you playing the electrified dulcimer exclusively now? Or are you switching to guitar or other instruments during your performances?

DC: It’s basically dulcimer and guitar. I’m trying to write more songs on the dulcimer, because for a long time I was writing on guitar and piano, and I really want to incorporate more dulcimer. That’s the instrument I feel the most comfortable with and that I get in an intuitive way. Whereas guitar has always just been a tool.

RRX: Thank you so much for sharing a taste of your adventures with us. I encourage readers to check out www.deb-cavanaugh.com and keep an eye out for your memoir and upcoming shows! - RadioRadioX

ALBANY – Spending an entire decade in the music industry can be tough enough. Deb Cavanaugh has impressively been involved with music, making it her career for over 40 years! Showing no signs of slowing down, she is currently in the process of recording a Christmas tune, and will be releasing her latest single, “Electric Avenue,” a cover of Eddy Grant’s song, on Dec. 23.

I sat down with the artist this past week. In our discussion, we went over her influences, her career highlights, and more. What follows is our conversation.



Lucas Garrett: Thank you so much, Deb, for taking the time this evening to sit down and talk with us! How’re you doing

Deb Cavanaugh: I’m good, Lucas! How’re you?

LG: I’m doing well! Staying busy. I see you have a lot of cool stuff going on lately with the Jive Hive Live, and now some new music! Tell us a bit about that.

DC: Yes! “Electric Avenue” was recorded at Jive Hive. Eventually we’re going to make a video as well as the single release.

LG: Let’s talk about the instrumentation of that song and for your music in general for people that may not know you.

DC: I play the mountain dulcimer, but I electrify it and play it through effects pedals. I do originals as well as classic rock, reggae. I like to pick unique covers – unique to dulcimers – that hopefully not everyone is doing.

LG: You don’t see a lot of people playing the mountain dulcimer. How’d that come to be an instrument for you? The last person I saw to be doing that in the mainstream was Joni Mitchell.

DC: For twenty years, I lived with a man who was an amateur luthier. His retirement plan was buying instruments, fixing them up, and then reselling them. He brought home a dulcimer one day. It was unusual to me, and I figured somebody should learn to play it. When I started playing it, suddenly I realized that it was the instrument for me. I feel more comfortable with that instrument than any other I’ve ever played!

LG: Really? That’s cool. I’ve never heard of someone playing an “electric” mountain dulcimer. Where on earth did you get that neat idea?

DC: I went to a dulcimer festival in Latham a few years ago. There’s a wonderful man named Sam Edelson who plays rock and roll on the dulcimer. He kind of became my mentor and inspired me to do that – I’ve always loved rock and roll. When I started playing dulcimer, I was playing in the folk scene; I was doing a lot of old-time music, but I never lost my love for rock and roll.

LG: So, you’re putting out a song “Electric Avenue” that was recorded at the Jive Hive. That’s coming out Dec. 23. What else do you have going on?

DC: I recently wrote a Christmas song. My partner and I are working this Saturday to record it; he runs a recording studio here in the house. We’re also putting a video together for that.

LG: How did you tackle such a thing like that? When you talk about something as ubiquitous as Christmas… when someone asked me to write it, I said “I can’t do that! All the good notes are taken!”

DC: Hahaha.

LG: What inspired you to do that?

DC: I got hired to do the Colonial Stroll in Johnstown, and I decided I needed a new song.

LG: Was it easy to write one?

DC: That’s an interesting question, because it was really easy – which surprised me. I don’t really celebrate Christmas – I prefer to celebrate the Winter Solstice. When I think about Christmas, it’s about people being kind to each other, and enjoying family, friends, and neighbors. That’s what I wrote about, but I also discuss people that struggle during the holidays, as well.

LG: A lot of these songs you hear on the radio are about good times, but as you said, there’s people that have it rough.

DC: Yeah, not everyone enjoys the holidays.

LG: Who are some of your creative influences as a songwriter?

DC: As a songwriter, I’d say all of the Beatles – I grew up with them – and Joni Mitchell. I really love the music of David Crosby.


LG: You’ve been at this for some time now. What made you say, “I want to perform music”

DC: Honestly, I was born a musician. There’s never been any doubt for as long as I could remember that that’s what I was going to do. My parents used to tell me I sang before I spoke; I didn’t start speaking words until I was singing complete sentences

LG: That’s pretty cool! What are some of your favorite highlights over the years?

DC: When I was sixteen, I sang in a church choir that was directed by Duke Ellington, singing his sacred music…

LG: Oh, wow.

DC: The travels I’ve done… I went to Germany in 2009 and China in 2019. I never imagined that I’d ever go anywhere off this continent, so those were big highlights for me.

LG: How was that, traveling abroad? Was that the best thing ever or were there ups and downs?

DC: I did a house concert in Switzerland, and that was amazing beyond belief. China was also really amazing but also incredibly difficult.

LG: Why was that, because of the government?

DC: No, actually. I felt safer in China than I’ve felt anywhere – even though it’s so repressive. I never felt unsafe walking late at night there. The difficulties for me were because I didn’t speak the language, and being a minority for the first time in my life. I constantly had people staring at me; everyone wanted to take photos. It was just an odd feeling, and the culture is very different. That was a tough adjustment as well.

LG: How long were you in Germany and China?

DC: Both times I was there almost two weeks.

LG: Would you go abroad again to a different area?

DC: I would love to go somewhere else; I love to travel. If someone wants to pay me to do my music somewhere else, I’m always ready to do that.

LG: Where would you like to go the most?

DC: I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland!

LG: I feel the mountain dulcimer would fit right in there! You have the new Christmas song being recorded, and “Electric Avenue” releasing on December 23rd. What does 2023 look like for you?

DC: I’m going to be doing a workshop for children at the Troy Music Hall in January…

LG: Nice!

DC: I’m also recording a new CD with my band, Dandelion Wine. Then, I’ve been working on writing my memoir, which hopefully the writing is done, and will come out in 2023, as well.

LG: Awesome! You have a lot of stuff going on, it seems!

DC: I do! I like to keep busy!

LG: Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?

DC: I’m in an interesting phase in my life where the pandemic really cut my work more than half.

LG: Mmm….

DC: I’m going to be 70 in 2023, and I’m going to be downsizing the classes I teach and focusing on my own music more.

LG: It has been wonderful to talk with you this evening! Thanks again for your time!

DC: Thank you, Lucas! Have a good night.

LG: You too. Bye. - Nippertown

Partners in life and music doing their part to keep traditions alive

BY PHILIP SCHWARTZ Gazette Reporter

Reach Gazette reporter Philip Schwartz at 395-3111 or pschwartz@dailygazette.net.

Deb Cavanaugh and Dick Kavanaugh get passionate when the subject of traditional music arises. And in a conversation with the folk duo — billed as Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh — that subject will inevitably come up.
Over coffee and tea at a cafe near their Albany home, the couple, both life and musical partners, get into the importance of folk music, the need to keep traditions alive and how it’s all tied to our understanding of American culture and history.
“It’s important for us to know and remember our culture,” Cavanaugh says, “and it’s getting lost and increasingly becoming a corporate culture.”
Managing to avoid a self-righteous tone, both Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh talk about their mission (though they don’t expressly use that word) to help pass along the traditions of folk through their workshops and performances. And by singing old songs alongside their originals, they seem to relish being part of a kind of folksong dialogue that stretches back through history, but still touches the present.

ORGANIC GROWTH
When they first started playing as a duo, however, there wasn’t any sort of overarching commitment to traditions or preservation, Cavanaugh said. “It’s become more of a focus over the years,” she noted. “I started with just saying ‘I’d like to do some traditional stuff.’ Then as time went on, it became more deliberate.”
Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh have been life partners for 14 years, their coupling somewhat fortuitous considering the similar last names. Cavanaugh, a full-time musician who teaches and gives workshops, has been playing all her life.
“I grew up in a family where there was always singing,” the Stamford, Conn., native said. “We were always playing music. We would often, after dinner, clear the table, sit and sing. . . . I was singing harmonies when I was 3. The first time I got a paying gig, I was 15.”
By contrast, Kavanaugh, an electrician by trade, grew up in Delmar with a purist’s love of folk and acoustic blues, but didn’t start playing until his mid-30s. Similarly, his partner, though she spent her younger days concentrating on the piano and vocals, waited until age 40 to take up the stringed instruments that are so much a part of the Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh sound: mandolin, dulcimer, guitar. The stringed instruments he plays are guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo. Live performances can include any combination of those, in addition to Cavanaugh’s limber jack or Kavanaugh’s penny whistle.

TIMELESS SONGS
The traditional songs they play, meanwhile, center on the old-time Irish and Southern U.S. traditions. Anti-war and labor songs such as “Green Fields of France,” “Mrs. McGrath,” “Masters of War,” “Granite Mills” and “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” are all part of the repertoire. But underneath it all is a slight, if mild, tension between Cavanaugh’s want to infuse new influences and Kavanaugh’s more purist nature. This can be a strength, however, Cavanaugh said. “That’s what makes us interesting,” she said. “Dick has that traditional focus and I want to be wild and do whatever.”
Playing traditional music, however, can be somewhat of an occupational hazard in a culture obsessed with youth and the taste of now. Even among an evolving roots-music community where younger generations of artists are bending what folk means, Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh still have the earnest, sweet sound that’s typical of their baby boomer generation and the time that generation ushered in the first folk boom. Nevertheless, Kavanaugh maintains that this music is just as relevant today, and will continue to be for the next generation.
“There’s a string of commonality to folk music where it touches everyone,” he said. “I feel like most of these traditional songs are timeless. Sing a song like ‘Green Fields of France’ and that was written about World War I. It still moves people. Not much has changed, you know. We’re still fighting wars.”
- Schnectady Daily Gazette

Local musicians celebrate new CDs
By GREG HAYMES, Staff writer

First published in print: Thursday, November 27, 2008

The long-running folk duo of Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh head up to the legendary Caffe Lena coffeehouse in Saratoga Springs on Saturday night to celebrate the release of their new disc, "Returning." Not only are Deb Cavanaugh and Dick Kavanaugh are both multitalented instrumentalists, but they both sing and contribute some heartfelt original songs to the album, which was recorded and mixed at MoonDog East in Poestenkill and the Red Sun Soundroom in Niskayuna.

After kicking off with the rousing "Barn Dance" — sure to set toes to tapping — the album features a version of the traditional "Deep Elem Blues" (which has been recorded by such diverse artists as Johnny Cash and the Grateful Dead) and 10 more original tunes in the folk and country tradition. The best of the bunch are a pair of Kavanaugh-penned instrumentals, the Celtic flavored "Young Timothy" and the uptempo banjo number "Gypsy Dog Dance."

Joining the duo at Lena's will be Dave Danks (on bass, guitar and mandolin), fiddler Ed Lowman and poet Alifair Skebe, all of whom also contributed their musical talents to the recording of "Returning."
- Times Union