Dan Fogelberg-A Retrospective

Ash — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:29:18 +0000

It was the late 70’s. I was a senior in high school and dating my first husband, who was five years older than myself. One night, I was at his place and he pulled out an album-Dan Fogelberg’s Netherlands. Sure, I had heard of Dan Fogelberg and knew his hits, but I had not heard Netherlands before.
He put the album on. I sat back as the homemade speakers spilled out this amazing song. (Thank you Jeff for building such awesome speakers!)
I heard each nuance and instrument and it was then and there that I was hooked and transfixed by the artistry of Dan Fogelberg.
From that point on, his music wove in and out of the tapestry of my life. I would buy an album and so many of the songs were so similar in topic to what I was going through.
But, for some odd reason, I never heard Dan speak or heard an interview with him even though he became one of my artistic heroes as I embarked on my own creative journey.
I was stunned and so saddened to hear of Dan’s passing due to prostrate cancer and did a post about it in another blog I had at the time.
His music had been a part of my creative projects in so many ways. I’d listen while painting; I’d listen while getting ideas for a fiction piece.

So, when I heard about this blog tour and the 2 CD album that was a retrospective and interview of Dan’s work on the 25th anniversary of his career, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
After listening to the CD, I was even more enamored with how Dan created.
His music and words were always so deep and he knew how to tap into mood, weather, setting and emotions. He was indeed not just a musician, but a storyteller.
In listening to the interviews, I saw that Dan knew how to take the little snippets of his life – even ones that were not all that dramatic -and from them he went deeper, adding in the setting around him. Not only were the words powerful but the musical arrangements took the listener to the place where he was-to the top of the mountain; to the streets of Tucson; to the cabin in Tennessee…and created songs that we all could connect to and songs that gave us hope and made us feel that even when life seemed to suck, we could go on.
Hearing Dan talk about his path of creativity was so inspiring for me as an artist.

Sales of this CD benefits Prostate Cancer Foundation in the amount of $3.00 from each CD
sold.
This 2 CD Collector’s Edition is available for $29.95 at: FM Odyssey Radio
If you are a Dan Fogelberg fan, it is a very worth while purchase to hear him talk about the making of some of his songs.

I didn’t have the time with this post to go further into his insights for this blog tour, but I will be posting more on some of the things he brought up that are great lessons for those of us living the artist/writer/creative life.

I am very grateful to have been able to be a part of this and to have the CD to listen to.

Thank you Fred for such a great interview and for putting this out there for all of us to enjoy, learn from and to remember one of the greats.

Ash Joie-Lee » Prostrate Cancer

Dan Fogelberg-A Retrospective