The Magic Pumpkin

The production of this CD is funded by Musicians for a Cause and we sincerely
appreciate your support. If you're a non-profit organization interested in using this CD
in support of fund-raising please contact me at dave@m4ac.org.

All songs written and performed by Dave Bastien and Susan Van Ham

'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 in Londonderry, NH. 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.

In only our 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. Feel free to send us a note or go to our Myspace page and add a comment to share
your memories!

We hope you enjoy the Halloween songs!