In the Yurt Village
by Callie Richards
September 22
The strum of a guitar and a clear-toned hum grabbed my attention. I glanced up from the book I was reading, my interest piqued. I noticed other Arcadians doing the same. The man sitting across from us was an older gentleman with glasses and white beard, and he had a beautiful guitar in his hands. He strummed it and introduced his first song of the night, “You are My Planet,” encouraging us to sing along with him. As he began to sing, captivating our attention, I saw the rest of the room abandoning their previous engagements to listen with intent.
Dan Berggren was Arcadia’s first entertainer of the semester and arrived earlier that day before dinner. Shuffling in the doorway during the height of the village’s nightly pre-dinner bustle, Dan sat in the kitchen quietly and observed, not very talkative. Dinner was soon called with the bell (an Arcadian going absolutely ham with the triangle), and everyone filed in. With a quotation, dinner commenced, and through conversation we were able to get our first glimpse at our guest.
Dan was a kind man who was soft-spoken with a steady voice. His hiking boots and wide-brimmed hat gave the group the hint that he was in his element in our little outdoor yurt village. He seemed to fit in comfortably, despite the fact that he had been thrust into the tight-knit community of Arcadia. As we began dinner, we were painfully unaware of the lore surrounding this unassuming man. Dan gave us some details on his background, which piqued my interest and prompted me to read his website later, giving me more depth to his history.
Dan Berggren was raised in the Adirondacks, grew up around the woods, and still has roots in the area today. Dan worked as an educator at SUNY Fredonia and was a professor of audio and radio studies there for a few years. As a musician, he has performed across the United States and in different parts of the world, ranging from the British Isles and Eastern Europe to Central Africa. In his traditionally-based songs, Dan writes of the planet and its care, home and place, and hard work, and he covers some historical logging songs from the Adirondacks. Some of his originals have been featured nationally on public radio and television, and he has gotten the chance to perform with orchestras across the states. As an educator and musician, Dan is highly awarded throughout the Adirondacks for his songs and efforts, receiving awards from the New York State Outdoor Education Association, Adirondack Mountain Club, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, and more. We Arcadians had no clue we were to lucky to have Dan as an entertainer that night, but we were about to find out in our own way.
After dinner ended, we cleaned up quickly gathering on the kitchen porch, unsure of where to go next. Dan went ahead to the community yurt to set up, where we could hear him tuning his guitar. One by one, we slowly made our way over, settling into couches, slippers, books and (of course) a game of Catan. Within a few minutes, all Arcadians were accounted for, forming a semi-circle around Dan where he began with the first song of the night.
Over the course of the evening, Dan slowly began to pull our attention, captivating us with his voice and guitar, telling us stories between songs. Through amazing versions of old logging folk songs lie “One More A-Lumberin’ Go, “and his own originals, he had the group abandoning their previous engagements to listen, laugh, and sing along. This was good music that we had little opportunity to hear in the weeks before.
Song by song, we got to hear more about our guest’s life as he played us his own songs, giving their context. The group’s favorite song of the night had to be his song called, “Old Green Sweater.” Before beginning, Dan gave the tune some backstory which stuck with quite a few of us. When he was in college at St. Lawrence, Dan was gifted a green hand-knit sweater by his girlfriend. Fifty something years later, Dan still wears it, a token to remember the early days with his now wife.
As the song and the night cane to a close, Dan encouraged us to use our own experiences to write songs, noticing all of the instruments littering the community yurt. Upon hearing this, the group told him about some of the songs that we had already made together and eagerly grabbed instruments to show him. With Arcadian Berit Brecke on the guitar, the group sand “Dead Creek Blues,” which was a long-awaited rewrite of “Deep Elm Blues” by Berit and assistant director Nate Trachte. The song detailed some of the intense struggles that we had endured on the last day of our canoe trip to the yurt village, where we had paddled on a stretch called Dead Creek.
Considering that the group had few chances to listen to music aloud for several weeks (let alone live music), it is no surprise that we had turned to our array of guitars, banjos, voices, and ukuleles for songs. Even though man of us have CD players and CD’s, we all enjoy listening to music aloud and having the chance to sing along with one another. Being such a musical group has played a large part in creating our community this year, bringing us closer together.
When Dan came to play for us, it was natural to join in and sing along, as we were ready for new songs and a new voice. When Nate walked Dan back to his car after the night, Dan stated that in all his many years of visiting Arcadia, our group was by far the most musical. We know and hope that this won’t change during our time here, and we’ll always be creating music wherever we go. Jam sessions on the kitchen porch will continue, and lyrics will be stacked into verses of the “yurt village” song until we move to the next, documenting and living our experiences through music.