About Snowflake Circus: The first line of "Snowflake Circus" includes the phrase "quiet desperation" in reference to Thoreau's Walden: "The mass of men live their lives in quiet desperation," which is often followed by the line, "and go to the grave with the song still in them." I find this to be a powerful existential concern, though the second part of the quote is a mis-attribution and most probably comes from Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote in "The Voiceless": Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them! This is one central theme of the album, or perhaps simply the main motivation of making it: to sing the song of our lives before we "disappear as we hit the ground." The second motivation for making music for me was to feel connected to others through our common experiences. Many of these songs were written about a time of intense change in my life between the years of 2002-2003. In the span of one year, I published a novel, had a daughter, and lost my mother to ovarian cancer. Each song of mine directly addresses the joy and despair of those experiences. The only song that addresses this more indirectly is the song "All Too Much," which was written after hearing an interview with the singer Susannah McCorkle's husband after she jumped from the balcony of her 16th-floor apartment in Manhattan. He talked about her battle with depression and it mirrored some of my own feelings after the death of my mother. The song resonated for me once again when I heard of the suicide of Robin Williams, so I rededicate the song to him and to everyone who has reached the end of the road and not known which way to go. Dakota wrote the song "Circle Around" when she was ten. She wrote all of the lyrics. It's an incredibly deep song for someone her age, but I think it reflects her understanding of the brevity and preciousness of life. As she faced new challenges, she recognized the difficulty of making decisions with unknown outcomes, like choosing a new school for junior high. These concerns manifested themselves in her song, "Butterfly," for which she wrote the lyrics and music. I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able make this album with my daughter, an amazingly talented and hard working girl, who, in fact, is responsible for making this album happen before going on tour through California. About Richard and Dakota Dry: Richard and Dakota Dry are an award-winning father and daughter folk duo from Northern California. They have been singing together since before Dakota was old enough to chew solid food. In 2013, when Dakota was 10, they began playing open mics. They have won the San Francisco and Berkeley West Coast Song Writers competitions for best performance. In the summer of 2014, they toured the American Southwest, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. In 2015, they toured the California coast, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Ventura, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Dakota is a singer-songwriter and plays the ukelele. She began performing in her first grade talent show "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and cafes with a version of Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City." She went on to perform numerous roles in professional plays at the Berkeley Playhouse, starting at the age of 7. She has shared the stage with the blues powerhouse Rhonda Benin, the legendary Lady Bianca, and Tony Award Winner Wilson Heredea, from Rent.​ She loves the songs of the Indigo Girls, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon, to name a few. She loves math and wants to be a teacher. Dakota attends Oakland School for the Arts. Richard's song writing is most directly influenced by artists like Cat Stevens, CSNY, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Gilian Welch, Nick Drake, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Carol King, Neil Young, The Indigo Girls, and Paul Simon. More recent influences include Ray Lamontange, David Gray, Mana, Marc Cohn, and Nora Jones. Richard was born in Philadelphia and raised for the most part in Venice, CA, although he's also lived in Boulder, New York, Chevy Chase, and Boston. He attended Oakwood Elementary, BCC, Palisades High, Boston University, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State, where he received his MA in Creative Writing. He is a published novelist (Leaving, St. Martin's 2002) and a community college English instructor at Las Positas College. The first song Richard ever recorded was one he wrote in the 5th grade with Jackson Browne, who was teaching a song-writing elective at his elementary school. Richard began his musical career as a drummer, which he credits to Stephen Bladd of the J Geils Band. Richard lived with his friend Josh Hadler, whose father, David, did the concert mixing for the J Geils Band, Traffic, and The Doobie Brothers. At the age of 5, Richard was back stage at a J Geils Band concert and Stephen Bladd came out in an all purple body suit and handed him a pair of 5B drum sticks. The rest was history. Richard later performed as a drummer, singer, and songwriter in bands in the SF Bay Area, such as Esme's Dream and Personal Demons, and the L.A. Band, Which is What. He also presently plays with Lee Haddad and David Brooks in a rock trio and in the English Department band at Las Positas College, The Rawk Hawks. Both Richard and Dakota love to hear from fans and try to respond to everyone who emails them.