Dave Bastien is a singer/songwriter from Londonderry, NH. He has a passion for causes and has written and performed for various non-profit organizations. He's constantly working toward his dream of using music to work with organizations in support of a worthy cause to help bring awareness and support to their efforts.
He is also the founder of Musicians for a Cause and the New Hampshire Songwriters Association.
'The Magic Pumpkin' CD is a collection of songs written at Halloween over the last several years. How’d it all happen? Well... every year we create a Halloween setting at the edge of the woods in front of our house where the kids come to Trick-or-Treat. One Halloween day, as Sue was carving a pumpkin for the setting, I felt the inspiration to write a song. The first one was done in about an hour, so we started another one. Both were somewhat finished before anyone showed up so we decided to play live music to entertain the Trick-or-Treaters.
I have to say that although it was fun, it was difficult to play the same two songs all night. Thank God the faces kept changing! So... each year we added another song or two and finally decided to call the collection 'The Magic Pumpkin'. The song 'The Magic Pumpkin' was inspired by watching kids pick their pumpkins in the patch at Mack's Apples farm, just down the street form our house. It started out as a poem, and may even be a children's book one day!
The first year we played music the kids would come into our Halloween setting and just listen and stare as they heard the songs. Then they would turn to leave, forgetting to take some candy! Some would return again with a neighborhood friend and ask us to play a particular song again for them.
The second year we realized just how it created lasting memories... as two boys walked down the driveway and we heard one say to the other, "No, this isn't the way - they always do it over there!".
After that we realized that everyone has that one special house - for whatever reason - that they remember from their childhood at Halloween. We feel honored to have created that memory for the kids in our neighborhood.
It would be fun to hear about everyone's childhood Halloween memory, so please feel free to add a comment and share yours!
