When you call New York City, you don't expect to hear a Southern accent. So when David got in touch with us, spurred on by Christine Lavin, it was surprising to hear that beautiful story-teller's drawl. In truth, we shouldn't have been surprised, because we had been familiar with David's music, having played it on the WKSU folk shows for some time. Finding out he was becoming very involved in storytelling was a pleasant surprise.

He told us he's used to working in a more extended format. Perhaps ten to twenty minutes. Five or six? He didn't waiver a bit when constrained into such a limited time. In fact, he worked up four stories, and gave us our pick!

He has been going to storytelling conferences and working very steadily at the art of putting one across. When he tells a story, he doesn't believe in having it written and reading it from a page, because it can make it sound less engaging. David is considering a CD release entirely of stories, rather than songs. We hope he doesn't put the music too far aside, though, because we like both.

David Schmoll tickled the ivories underneath this story. (pictured bottom right)