You're Invited to My Birthday Show! Buy Tickets Right Now   •   Learn More About the Show   • View This OnLine    Hey there! I'm writing this from the van, at 5:30 AM, so pardon any slap-dash. I'm having a GREAT time on tour (see photos below), and I'm realllly excited about my BIRTHDAY SHOW Fri. Nov. 11 at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA! I want you to be there!!!! Read about it. Buy tickets right now. There's info about discount tix, chances to be in the show and how to sing to me on YouTube at the event page. p.s. I'm posting the tour daily on Twitter and Facebook - follow the tour and see my Tourpage for upcoming dates including a VERY cool show Sat. Nov. 5th in Newtown, CT at the Flagpole Radio Theater!   Right now I'm on tour, driving up and down the eastern United States with harpist and road warrior Trista Hill, who's my road manager, support staff and corner man. Here's where Trista and I have been in the last week or so: Ohio Valley Symphony Show My favorite moment of all was in rehearsal. An empty hall. The full orchestra listening, playing, listening as we rehearsed "The Nightingale" - such focus, such tenderness, and no audience but ourselves - every part of us. Photos thanks to Jessica Sisson. Lake City, FL - Community Concert & Kids Educational Show   This was a whirlwind trip to Florida! Trista (my intrepid road manager, tour Power-Booster and Sancho Panza) drove from North Carolina down to Florida one day, did a student outreach and concert the next, and then drove back. See the students impersonating the 12-Bar Blues at the educational outreach program. We stayed at an authentic old Boarding House near the Suwannee River, I sang a Stephen Foster medley at the concert and the audience bursts into spontaneous applause - I even sang the extra verses I wrote when I was a kid... the ones only my best friends have ever heard. The morning we left, we stopped by the Suwannee River to get some video for my "Street Harp" project, and bought 3 pints of ochra from a park-side stand and gor the world's best Ochra recipe from a man who knows ... plus a bottle of his homemade hotsauce. I have cool video of the Ochra guy, the homemade hotsauce and me me singing "Swannee River" - I'll try to get that on line soon, but for now, enjoy the kids above -- I sure did!   EFLAND, NC - "House Concert" in an Architect's Dream-Barn A perfect day. A perfect space. A perfect respite. My Jr. High School friend Fred, and I have been corresponding for years. We wrote to each other while I was creating my dream-project, "Invention & Alchemy" and he was creating his 'dream-barn' - the live-work-dream space he built on his 60-acres in Efland, NC. When he invited me to perform a concert at the Barn during my tour, I jumped at the chance ... but I had no idea how gorgeous the space would be ... or that I'd enter the show on a tractor, or get to perform a spontaneous clog-harp dance with Fred's partner Jimmy. I have a great video of me on the tractor, but it's on my firewire drive and I can't get to it because I'm in the van, so these tiny pictures are the best I can do right now. "FIREWORKS" in North Carolina A dozen musicians met with me in a huge livingroom in Greensboro for an evening's romp through my mind. This was part of a series of workshops that harpist Trista Hill and I have developed to bring my "Inside the Music - Outside the Box" work from my summer camp into communities when I'm on tour. This one included a 3-hour concert-workshop-colloquium based on my booklet "Strings of Passion" -- plus a rollicking Test-Drive of my new "DHC Light" harps. Photos are ... sadly, yet again ... on that firewire drive that I don't have access to. So I'll try to get those on line next time! Check out my tour calendar for a list of all shows. UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: OCT. 20 - Waynesboro, PA FRI, Oct. 21 - Westminster, MD SUN, Oct. 23 - Clearfield, PA COMING SOON ... Sat. Nov. 5 Newtown, Connecticut Flagpole Radio Theater!   There are too many people to thank every one, but after 2 hours of sleep (between 3 AM & 5AM) at a Motel 6 in Burlington, N.C. we wrote this brief list in the van and I decided not to edit it even after I got some sleep: To the ochra guy near the banks of the Suwannee: Thank you for the fabulous ochra (we ate it fried the next morning for breakfast), your generosity in giving us your recipe, and the beautiful hotsauce! I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, but the jewel-like peppers in the glass bottle are like a work of art themselves! To the audience members in Lake City who spontaneously founded the "Give Deborah your Jewlry to Wear on Stage 'Donor / Loaner' Program: I don't know what made you guys think of doing that, but it was really fun! My Emergency Dentist in N.C.: Thank you for treating me and teaching me on such short notice. I only wish I lived in N.C. so you could be my dentist all the time. Fred & Jimmy's Washer: Thank you the surprise bonus wash cycles. We really appreciate your zeal, and honestly, didn't mind drying the clothes in the back of the van. The underwear, especially, made for a good conversation piece when the folks at New Bern came to help us unload the van. We'll use less soap next time, we promise (I know that's what we said last time, but this time we mean it) To Ethelyne, our Van: Thank you so much for chugging away, even though we brought WAAAAY too much stuff. You are the Van-Supreme! So sorry about those hills near Asheville. Thanks for hanging in there! To the guys in the convenience store who gave us directions in New Bern, NC: Without you, we'd still be toodling around looking for Route 17. Thanks for the history lesson, too. It was great knowing where the old Piggly Wiggly used to be. Our B&B Hostess in Florida - Thanks for the wonderful beds, and the delicious breakfasts, positive words of inspiration and the perfect avocados. Thanks for throwing away the moldy half of our bread (but, I kinda missed eating the other half). The International Citrus Center - Thank you for providing a wide variety of gift ideas. While I tried to restrain myself, the personalized shot-glasses (a great buy at $12.95 for 3) were a BIG hit with our friends in N.C. who would never ever have purchased these items for themselves, and yet appeared grateful to have recieved what they said were their "first personalized homewares." who said, "Wow. These are the first personalized shot glasses we ever got. (Thanks, Fred & Jimmy, for displaying these works of art next to your handcrafted, artisan-made pottery. We noticed them right away. Thanks to the phantom spider of Efland, N.C. I know I saw you. I know you were gigantic (despite what our hosts said about my night vision). I hope you enjoyed the bed, which I left to you after you scuttled under the pillow ... and then disappeared. N.C. Harp Ensemble: to Grace, Jacquelyn for hosting this event, including the pizza, cookies and refreshments for the participants, the vegetarian meals for Trista and me (yum!!) and to Barbara for providing such a wonderful space for the event! And thanks to the participants for your incredible focus and creative courage. And thank you to Craven Concerts in New Bern, the Future Efland Artist Colony, Ohio Valley Symphony, Lake City Commnity Concerts and for the many people we've met and haven't thanked by name ... THANK YOU!         When I was 19 ... decades ago, To displace the anxiety of my own birthday, Instead of a party, I planned a concert, Plastered posters all over town, And sang my way into the next year. Now it's a yearly tradition. BIRTHDAY WEEK UPDATES .... My birthday concert is just 3 weeks away and YOU are invited! My event page has loads of info about the show, but here are a few tidbits of info and you can use the ticket link at the right to purchase both regular tickets and VIP tix! NEW! "CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN TIX" for a PARTY within a PARTY! A week or so ago I found out someone bought 40 TICKETS to my birthday show, so they can bring their OWN birthday party to mine! I loved that idea so much, I talked to the Regent Theatre and they agreed to give anyone who buys 12 or more tickets the same Birthday Discount of $5 off each ticket (so you pay $17.00 per ticket versus $22). Here's how: "For Groups of 12 or more call Regent Theatre's Box Office at 781-646-4849 and ask for the "Cheaper by the Dozen Discount" of $17.00 per ticket! FLASHMOB & CAMEOS! I'll be in residence at the theater the week before the show, rehearsing with the "HarpBreakers" and other special guests. If your show experience just isn't complete without your own moment on stage, email about onstage cameos, production numbers and Flashmob moments and I'll respond as soon as I can (and for the folks who've already emailed - I haven't forgotten you, I'm just in the van with limited time and I want to get back to you personally! SING TO ME ONLY WITH THINE YOU-TUBE! Last week I stumbled online to someone singing my birthday song "Congratulations, You Made it this Far" to a friend of hers. I loved the idea, and I'd LOVE to see videos of people singing that song! So from now 'til my birthday on 11-11-11, you can download the sheet music for FREE, so you can make your own version, put it on YouTube and I can enjoy the heck out of it on my birthday! (Actually I'll probably watch them the day after my birthday, while recuperating from Birthdayness). Sing me my own birthday song: "Congratulations, You Made it This Far"! Download the sheet music for FREE with the code "BIRTHDAY" thru my birthday 11-11-11. Videotape your version, put it on YouTube & send me the link. I'll compile all the versions on a web page and gluttonously watch them on my birthday (or ... well, probably the day after)   Guitar legend Steve Vai calls her the "Jimi Hendrix of the harp." The New York Times credits her with shaping the serenely Olympian harp into a jazz instrument by warping it closer to the Blues." Deborah Henson-Conant's music ranges from Blues to Flamenco, in a relentless exploration of the instrument that was invented specifically for her by the CAMAC company in France: a 32-string, 11-pound electric harp she slings on like an electric guitar. She combines music, theater and humor - with a voice, which has been compared to Carly Simon and an onstage energy that's been compared to Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. "The instrument forced me to rip apart any preconceptions. Nobody had ever tried to get these sounds out of a harp, so I simply had to stop thinking of it as a harp, and open my mind to everything else it could be," says the composing performer. That led to the development of music that's won her a GRAMMY nomination, PBS television music special, first prize in the International Songwriting Competition, and invitations to perform worldwide as a solo performer and with orchestras.