Songwriters collaborate on new songs and record them in the Motel...

Like the immortal Johnny Cash, Edgar Allan Poe was known to dress in black.  Like the legendary rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, he married his 13-year old cousin.  Like many of history’s mad geniuses, he died penniless. And, befitting the great mystery writer, his death arose from mysterious causes under even more mysterious circumstances.  He barely made it through his 40th birthday, so one might imagine he liked to party.  At the very least, he loved to entertain. To this day, classic masterpieces like “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” still provide gloomy reverie for some, gleeful revelry for those of us who enjoy a good dance on the dark side.  And so, in the year 2009, the recently-renovated Holiday Motel invited musicians and music enthusiasts from across the globe to gather in Sturgeon Bay to do The EDGAR ALLAN POLKA on the weekend of what would have been Poe's 200th Halloween. 


During the last week in October, local songwriters (including Dorothy Scott, Rick Younglove, Jeanne Kuhns, pat mAcdonald) and imports (such as Kim Manning, Geri X, Eric McFadden, Delaney Davidson, and Wally Ingram) packed the motel.  Each evening, the artists worked in groups to collaboratively write songs inspired by the "Dark Songs" theme, which were then recorded in the Holiday's in-house studio by Grammy-nominated engineer Billy Triplett.  The week culminated in three performances over the Halloween weekend.  The first show, The Edgar Allan Polka and Other Dark Delights, took place on the evening of Friday, October 30th, at Sturgeon Bay's Cherry Lanes.  The next day, Halloween, saw the Holiday Motel's grand re-opening, an open house featuring food, live music, puppet shows, and tours of the motel throughout the afternoon, followed by the finale show, Ghost Writers in Disguise, a costume party held at The Ladder House featuring live music, visual art, film, puppetry, poetry, and more. 

Visit edgarallanpolka.com for a complete list of participating artists, press coverage, and music recorded during Dark Songs 2009.  Below you'll find photos and video from the event.