Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in,
Ring the bells.

After nine years together, we are finally making a Documentary DVD. With this DVD, we will be able to capture the profound experience of 30 men united in song to deliver the poetry of Leonard Cohen, and beyond that, the transcendence possible when men put their voices together out of love. We’re hoping a DVD might capture some of that.

To raise money to cover the cost of making this DVD, we are running a Kickstarter campaign:

We would be extremely grateful if you would contribute to this effort. There’s a range of great rewards if you do. For example, $25 gets you the DVD (when we finish it this summer). For $1,500, we’ll come to your house (if it’s in the Bay Area), cook you dinner, and serenade you with a concert. Any contribution is welcome, as it will help us document our work for posterity, and to share the power of our music with wider audiences.

Just click here. And ring the bells!

As many of you know, I’ve been singing with the Conspiracy of Beards, that 30-man midnight choir performing original arrangements of the immortal songs of Leonard Cohen. We have two exciting concerts coming up in the next week.

O Zone @ OMCA

Friday, Sept. 30th at 8pm. We’ll be celebrating the spirit of John Muir with a special gallery performance at the Oakland Museum of California. You won’t want to miss this night, which also features hip-hop legends The Coup and Oakland up-and-comers Whiskerman. You’ll also have a chance to compete in the ”Best John Muir Beard in the Bay” contest!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Sunday, Oct. 2 at 11am. We are thrilled to be making our first appearance at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. This free festival, which features luminaries like Thurston Moore, Buddy Guy, Ralph Stanley, Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Emmylou Harris, and Robert Plant, is always one of the highlights of the year. We’ll be singing at 11 a.m. on the Porch Stage. It would be wonderful to see you there.

By the way, we rely on word-of-mouth for a lot of our publicity, so check out our website, sign up for Beard News, and invite your friends to a show!

First, you must know:

We only sing the songs of Leonard Cohen.

If you’re like me, you can love a tune and then have the words ruin it for you. Not the case here. I had no idea how great the man’s poetry is until I was forced to sing his lyrics 30.. 40… 100 times, and then again. And while his songs are often superb, the a cappella arrangements transform them into something uniquely transcendent and sometimes wild, especially from the middle of it all.

(That’s right, a cappella. We may go flat sometimes, but you’ll never know because nobody’s playing the piano to make it obvious.)

So, come see us
Thursday, June 16
at the a.Muse Gallery
614 Alabama Street at 18th in the Mission.

We start singing at 8pm.

I joined a men’s choir last fall. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. This group of men is like no other I’ve ever experienced. Stern and defiant, at the same time brotherly and loving, they immediately welcomed me into the clan. With 20 songs on their roster, I had a lot to learn. My first gig was three weeks later. I’m so happy I did this.

We sing only the songs of Leonard Cohen

I know it sounds odd, but after about ten minutes you will be convinced that The Conspiracy of Beards is a brilliant concept. There’s more to say, but for now, I urge you, come hear us at the first chance you get. You won’t be dissappointed.

© 2008 Robert Hatch Photography

I’m looking for a few core people to fill out a small troupe of performers, musicians who can sing and would also like to do a little acting.

The show I’ve written incorporates storytelling, theater, songs, and if ambition meets opportunity, film. We’ll call it a musical for now. The main plot line is a tragic comedy about a boy who learns how to stop time. The texture is something like Laurie Anderson meets Paul Simon meets Ira Glass’s This American Life.

Listen to the trailer for the show here:

I’m a visual artist and I play guitar and sing and tell stories. I’ve been playing some of the local venues to try out the material and get my performance chops together. I’m ready to start working with other performers to take this project to the next stage, first with regular practice sessions (a couple times a week at first), then a few gigs at local music venues, followed by a run of the full show at a small theater.

And You? Are you a skilled and adventurous musician, along with being a pretty darn good singer who is willing to act or a pretty darn good actor who can sing? The more unusual the instrument, the better, as long as you can read charts and improvise where appropriate. I’m looking for serious performers who love to play, play, play with ideas, with sound, and with moving audiences by the heart.

And do you do any of the following?

• Sprinkle in tasty leads and fills (on your accordion, violin, oboe, harp, tiny little synth, etc.)
• Hold a steady backbeat or lay back and feed in a few sparse rhythms and percussive textures
• Fill out the bottom end with either a bass or something bassy
• Hook crowds with your provocative reading voice
• Sing backup harmonies with some soulful solos
• Have theater experience

If so, please check out some of my songs.

The stories are well into development. If your interest persists please write me a note as to why your interest persists, and send samples of your music. I’ll be setting up meetings in my home in the Mission. We can get together and try some of the songs and see where it takes us.

-David

I recorded a demo CD so people can hear my songs and know what to expect when they come to hear me live. I had a great time producing it with John Hoy in is fabulous Mill Valley studio. John is a pro beyond description, at least this description.

A latin fable, a game of frisbee, an estranged granddaughter, and a few dead people all find their places in the stories of these songs. The production is purposefully stark, dry, and intimate. Recorded primarily as a demo, the CD contains 6 tracks, featuring David Delp playing acoustic and electric guitars and singing; John Hoy on bass, electric guitar and synthesizer; and Briana Rose and Andrea Satin singing. Marvin McFadden plays trumpet on the track Do You Remember? David Delp and John Hoy in produced the CD. All songs by David Delp @2004. All rights reserved.

Listen to the Tracks

Please let me know what you think of these songs in the comments below. I’d love your honest feedback. I had a lot of fun making them, and I worked with musicians that are way beyond my own skills. Check out John Hoy’s solo at the end of Fuentecitos.

If you like it, please let me know

CD baby has the CD and if you really like it, please go ahead and write a nice review. If you really like it a lot, get yourself the CD!

Thanks,
David