Dave Dersham
Introspective Americana
Dave Dersham illuminates our emotional landscape
with the intricate soul of Van Morrison and the harmonic
craft of Paul Simon.
Though the muse has delivered Dave from Alaska to Southern California; central Texas, to northern New Hampshire, he remains rooted in the Pioneer Valley of Western MA. In the early 90s, Dave was transformed after hearing Greg Brown for the first time, recognizing the full range of contemporary folk. He eventually joined the vibrant Northampton folk scene and soon migrated to the Cambridge/Boston area to further develop his craft. Establishing his presence among the circuit, he has since sold-out shows at both the Parlor Room and Club Passim.
His debut album, The Burn of Summer (2003), was more politically assertive than most acoustic artists: The plight of the Right Whale, whimsical, out-of-body eco-transcendence, and the unhealed wounds of nostalgia were a few themes. The CD – particularly “The Dalai Lama” – received consistent airtime at UMASS Boston’s WUMB, perhaps New England’s most venerated folk radio stations.
Gilding the Lilies (2011) expanded into the perpetually fraught topics of materialism, racism, and militarism – what Martin Luther King often referred to as, “the three plagues of contemporary America.” Among the 10 tracks, are sobering tales of Walmart's astonishing indifference toward immigrant employees, the lure of Canada as symbolic refuge, and a nimble argument for the existence of Bigfoot – rather than a belief in non-existent WMDs hiding in Iraq.
Dave’s recent work, Another Interregnum (2024), further expounds upon the perpetual failures of the wealthiest country in history (the United States) and its inability to forge an equitable society. A slew of sobering songs are balanced by less overtly political tunes, such as the self-consciously inflated, “King of the Odd Job,” a reworking of Inuit myth, and an homage to the vast, subtle wonders of southern New Jersey.
Farce, Dersham's 4th CD, is currently in the midst of expressing perpetual contempt for our current Federal admininistration. Power – and fascism in particular – justifies its existence as “natural” moral, patriotic, and inevitable – when the opposite is true.
The CD will be released in 2027.
Press
"Dersham is with unique vision, musically focused but thematically broad.
It's well worth rolling out your blanket for seaward sounds and thought provoking words"
– Northeast Performer
“…exhibits dry wit to the hilt.”
– The Boston Globe
“...folk songs from a whole different direction…it’s as if you’re sitting around in his living room on homemade furniture and he’s trying out his fully formed, way-out ideas on you... The thoughts and the images flit around and land right in the place where you do your thinking. Dersham doesn’t sound like Andrew Bird or Richard Thompson, but he sure sounds like they hang out together. ”
– Marilyn Rea Beyer, The Midnight Special and Folkstage, WFMT, Chicago
“Dave Dersham's songs are rich and earthy. Listen closely – you'll hear quick turns of phrase in one song…honest and dark explorations of the human condition in the next.”
– Matt Smith, Club Passim
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