Dana Edelman does not have a new album out. “It’s in there,” said the 44 year-old singer-songwriter, pointing at his head, but he’s a little busy right now. A musician, producer and father of two, Mr. Edelman also writes music for an advertising agency in New York city.
Mr. Edelman and his family moved to Martha’s Vineyard six years ago. The story of how he got here will be familiar to many washashores. He was seven or eight years old when he first set foot here on a two-week vacation with his parents. They returned year after year.
“I found myself looking forward to those two weeks and asking, why are we going off for the rest of the year just to look forward to these two weeks?”
His wife Laura Edelman had her own separate yet similar trajectory. They knew each other as kids in White Plains, N.Y., and her family had a house on the Vineyard. But when Dana was a teenager his family moved to Massachusetts. Years later, they found each other again on the Island.
“I had graduated from college and was doing a year here, and she was out of grad school and knew I was here,” he recalled. “She called me up and we kind of reconnected.”
That was 20 years ago. Mr. Edelman was playing mostly covers in bars on the Island and in 1997 decided to make a go of it in the burgeoning Boston folk scene. He gave his new wife the traditional musician’s baptism by fire: he dragged her to gig after gig. He played open mic nights where each person got about 15 minutes to play and everyone was vying to be made the “feature” and get 25 minutes to play. He played the iconic venues, like Passim’s and Johnny D’s. A highlight of this period was opening for Richie Havens at the Somerville Theatre.
In the late 1990s he brought out a self-titled debut record on the independent label Dog on the Moon, and he began touring.
“I traveled out Route 2 and back, down to New York, out to Pennsylvania, Ithaca — I played Cornell a few times — Rochester,” he said.
During the Boston period he and his wife went back and forth between the city and the Vineyard. Then in 2003 they moved to New York city, and he signed to a small record label called Segue. It was a bit of a nightmare. The early 21st century was the end of an era for the record industry; an old model was collapsing and Segue was riding the old model into the ground. Mr. Edelman’s record, which would eventually be called Mile 23, was held up for two years in apparently endless studio sessions, emerging in 2005 just as the record company went out of business.
“I let it all go,” he said. “I could have toiled on and muscled through, but I’m not a businessman, certainly not with my own music. Some people are great at self-promotion, but talking about myself is just not something that I’m interested in doing.”
In the 20 years he has been a professional musician, Mr. Edelman has watched the business change drastically.
“In a way I did take advantage of it, in the sense that technology became more available,” he said. “So when my label blew up, I envisioned a small studio of my own.”
He hated being at the mercy of someone else telling him when, where and how to record his own music. He wasn’t even allowed to touch the equipment in the control room. “It dawned on me that I could do this myself with a small investment. And I did.”
He bought ProTools, a digital production interface, and with the instruments, equipment and electronics that most musicians accumulate, started recording himself.
While Mile 23 was stuck in the Segue production circus, Mr. Edelman got a job as a producer in the Ogilvy advertising agency in New York, scoring music for advertisements, videos and short films. He still does this from his Vineyard studio, but has been doing it much less often since moving here permanently.
On the Island he met Charlie Giordano, the father of one of his son Jaiden’s classmates. Mr. Giordano is a fiddler and mandolin player who was looking for people to play bluegrass, and the PickPocket Bluegrass Band was born.
“I’ve always loved it, but I’d never played it,” Mr. Edelman said. He and Mr. Giordano are often joined by Andy Herr on tenor ukulele and melodica, Tauras Biskis on upright bass and Anthony Esposito on percussion.
“Bluegrass goes well with anything,” Mr. Edelman said. “Weddings, parties, any occasion. We add band members too when we need a little more oomph.”
Mr. Edelman’s most recent pass through the spotlight was for a 2013 novelty song that he wrote with his son, Jaiden. It became an internet hit.
“It was called The Massachusetts Song (You Athol),” he said. “I wrote a whole tune based on the names of towns in Massachusetts. I made my son sing it with me because he has a beautiful voice. We made a video, and it went viral.” People still come up to both him and his son and ask about the song, but he doesn’t have any plans for a follow-up.
The singer-songwriter put out his most recent album, Blue Roses, in 2010. His own compositions recall James Taylor’s blended devotion to both the blues and the Great American Songbook. He also devotes a lot of energy to rounding up musical talent for Vineyard events like last weekend’s Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival and Living Local.
“There is an immense amount of talent out here, considering the physical limitations of the place,” he said. “You can’t get everything, so if I want an African singer, I’m not going to be able to get that. But what is here are great piano players, great guitar players, great blues players and singers, great horn players. If you see any band — like Mike Benjamin puts a great band together — all those guys are top level.”
He has a full schedule but the ebb and flow of the Vineyard seasons keep the pace measured, which suits him just fine.
“I could be a lot busier,” he said, “but I don’t want to have to go to New York and schmooze.”
For more information, visit danaedelman.com.
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