Well at the end of May I'm am flying off to my ancestral homeland, Ireland.

My good friend Glen Hansard arranged for me to appear with him at the Writer's Festival in Listowel, Co. Kerry. Glen got me my first gig reading my short stories in public. That first show was back in about 1999 and it was a Glen Hansard solo show at Whelans. I wasn't prepared at all because I had never intended to read the stuff in public.

The show went better than I could have expected. Dozens of people lined up after the show to shake my hand and tell me how much they liked my accent. None of them talked about the work but thats ok, as long as they liked something.

I went back to Dublin twice more to do some shows with the Frames, including a 4 show run. Glen has always supported my work and has called me onstage to read for his audience whenever he could. I got to read at the recently departed Tonic because of Glen. All the readings I've done with Glen and the Frames or Glen solo or Glen and the swell Season were great fun and have won me more "fans". So on June 1st I will be in Listowel with Glen. I go on at about 10:30 I was told. I am so looking forward to reading to an audience of people there to hear authors read thei work.

After Listowel is back to Dublin, my old friend. I love Dublin, but find myself getting lost just about everytime I'm out on my own. In Dublin I will be doing at least one show at a pub called Anseo. My friend Alastair , from Whelans (and movie fame after his appearance in the new film Once) has helped me get a venue and I am going to either have my friends, the Odlum Brothers providing musical backing or maybe members of the Frames, or maybe just a CD of the music used to back my stories on my recent CD, Inwood Stories.

Either way I intend to entertain my friends in Dublin.

Also Monday June 4th is my 54th birthday and anyone in Dublin reading this is invited to go out with me and help me celebrate. Ireland, I'm so ready to come back to your shores!

PS If you have the chance do yourself a favor and check out the film that Glen Hansard stars in called Once. I was lucky enough to get invited to a screening and I really liked it. If you like Glen Hansard's music or just good music in general I think you'll like this film. It opens in the USA next week, well at least in LA and NYC.

I am doing an interview with Tom Schulte who has a show on the net that originates in Detroit. Tom interviewed me once before after a friend of mine turned Tom onto one of my spoken word tracks on a demo I was giving out. That interviewed is still archived and I'll post the link if anyone is interested. The link for this Sundays show is: www.radio-freedom.com . Tom played my stuff on his show and has been supportive. Looking forward to talking to Tom and to all the people that tune in. Thanks.

I finally have a release date for my CD, Inwood Stories. October 8th I am hosting a CD release party at the Old Devil Moon in NYC.

I am kind of ambivilent about the closing of CBs. I am glad I was there back in the late 70's and early 80s, though I did miss the mid 70s there which were probably the clubs hey day. But to be honest I hadn't played a show at CBGBs since about 1982 or 83 when I was in a band called the Lowriders. CBGBs lost any charm it had for me when they started booking 8 bands a night. I liked it a lot more when a headliner did 2 sets and there was either 1 opener doing 2 sets or 2 opening bands doing one set each. I was more interested when there was less bands playing and the booking was a little more discriminating.

Back to me, I am looking forward to finally getting my CD out and working on new stories. I do hope to do some sort of touring and try to get a small following in different pockets of the country, or big followings would be ok too. I also dream of going back to Ireland and playing in spots outside Dublin. Hopefully my "band", the wonderfully talented Mark Suall will be up for going with me, if not I'll just tour with CDs containing the musical background for each track.

This website has been set up to make it easier for people interested in the CD to be able to purchase it. The name I've chosen for my label is Upstate Manhattan Recordings.

The cover art is in the gallery section. The photo on the cover was taken on an Easter Sunday ( I can tell by the suits ) in either 1963 or maybe 1964 don't know for sure. I really like this picture and hope to get more old photos on my site.

Talk to you all when I have more info.

Yours,

Dennis D