The Mythsinger Legacy Collection:
From Polio Blues to the Medicine of Myth
preserving the music, mythtelling, and spoken word recordings
of Daniel Duane “3D” Deardorff
AUDIO VISUAL DESCRIPTION player will go here.
“If it’s not impossible,
it’s not worth doing!”
—
Daniel
“3D” Deardorff
Daniel Duane “3D” Deardorff (1952-2019) was a “singer” in the old sense of that word: a musician, a storyteller, and a maker of ritual. His work as a composer, performer, recording and touring artist, producer, and later, scholar of myth, beloved teacher, and author, spanned more than five decades. As a survivor of paralytic polio from childhood, which resulted in paraplegia, his life story as a musician and artist is entwined with the social history of his time, including traversing vagaries of the medical system and dissolving, as well as being limited by, barriers in the music industry —in the days before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Daniel always found a way in every way he could, and it was, by necessity, always with those who saw him fully.
So his story is a story of community, too.
This webpage is intended to give a sense of the scope, depth, social context, and ongoing importance of Daniel Deardorff’s recordings and related materials which comprise the Mythsinger Legacy Collection — from his years opening standing room only stadium shows for soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts, to his work with poet Robert Bly, his myth-telling focused on the role of Trickster and his writings and teaching honoring “The Other Within” within each of us, and in society.
As of October 2024, the Collection is being gathered as we seek funding for preservation assistance and archive planning. The Mythsinger Legacy Project, a fiscally-sponsored project of Songwriting Works Educational Foundation (501c3), and its growing team of partners include: ArtsFund, KPTZ radio, Rainshadow Recording, UCLA faculty, Disability Archives Lab, and artists, engineers, and documentarians with whom Deardorff worked over the course of five decades.
All the works featured on this webpage are original compositions and collaborations for which the estate of Daniel Deardorff holds the rights. Notably, there are songs, including signature pieces for Deardorff in his early career—such as his arrangement of “Over the Rainbow,” —and recordings he made solo and in duos—with his first wife Joyce (“Danny and Joyce”), and with Marcus (Marc) Joseph (“Deardorff and Joseph”)—which are not included here. These, and other recordings made when Deardorff was signed to Arista Records, Jasmine, Maiden Voyage, Freckle, and other labels, are not part of the envisioned Mythsinger Legacy Collection, although some of his demo recordings and iterations of songs that ended up on those albums are.
The exception to this is a project Daniel was working on before his passing: blues arrangements of John Lennon songs for which we are seeking publication permission. For context, thumbnails of Deardorff’s published albums of original music, and his productions for others, primarily Northwest U.S., artists can be found at the bottom of this page. Elsewhere, here you will find photos of customized instruments, videos of his playing them, and words from some of the musicians and mythtellers for whom Daniel’s work was and is particularly significant.
As we prepare for Phase One —retrieval, assessment, repair, and initial design of a museum-quality online platform that will “house” the Mythsinger Legacy Collection— we are not only gathering-in Daniel Deardorff’s songs, myths and stories, teachings, and accompanying artwork, interviews, chord voicing videos and ephemera. Relationships long dormant are being retrieved and reignited; webs of re-connection, stretching around the world and across generations, are being re-woven. New friends and collaborators are arriving. If you’d like to add your voice and your sense of Daniel to his greater story, please sign the guestbook or leave a voice note at the bottom of this page.
Lastly, a word about accessibility of this informational site. We’re learning about increasing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines digital access and will soon be working with experts to help us achieve the fullest possible digital accessibility for his work here, as well as on the more complex platform we envision for the Collection. Visual descriptions and audio of the texts of this site will be added soon.
In his last days, Daniel turned to his family and care team in the ICU and commanded us: “Keep the song going!” “What song is that, Dad?” his eldest daughter asked. “The Song I’m In!”
Your support increases the extent to which we can achieve this — for Danny and for all who hear him now and in the future.
Thank you!
With love, gratitude, story, and song,
Judith-Kate Friedman
Curator, Mythsinger Legacy Collection
Preservation of the Collection
Reels, ADATs + other Tape Formats
Retrieve and Rescue.
Digital Files - Music, Myth, Memory
Restore and Re-story.
Memorabelia, Press, and Ephemera
Remember and Renew.
Daniel “3D” Deardorff in his studio soon after writing his song “Polio.”
Five Decades of Music and Myth
1970’s
• Front first band, MAGIC, early 70’s, Bellingham, WA
• Signs w/Dawnbreaker, Seals & Crofts’ management, ‘72, L.A.
• Danny & Joyce, “Ma La Lady”, Louie Shelton, producer (Jasmine Records, 1975)
• Deardorff & Joseph, (Arista Records, 1976), Louie Shelton, producer
• Opens for Seals & Crofts on tour through the 1970’s
• In the archive: 34 reels of song demos, 4 with first L.A. band, a work tape w/ David Batteau, and 3 live concert reels
1980’s
• Raises his family on Vashon Is. WA, concerts w/ Danny O’Keefe, benefits for disability-support civic initiatives, CA.
• First solo album, “Chameleon,” co-produced w/ Joseph Bogan; song arrangements by Louie Shelton, Dennis Yadon and others; guests artist include Seals & Crofts, Penny Nichols. (Maiden Voyage, 1981)
• Film/TV performances including Fern Field’s “It’s a New Day”
• Solo album “ShadowHeart” (Freckle Records, 1986)
• In the archive: Soundtracks for documentaries, adat w/ Eric Tingstad, emphemera incl. news ads for KCET TV special, etc.
1990’s
• “Wolf and Swan” album with Lorraine Bayes, (Independent release, 1992)
• “The Heart Has Three Rivers” solo, (Independent release, 1996)
• Produces albums for Northwest artists Tingstad & Rumbel, Jim Valley, Michael Tomlinson, Richard Warner, Tickle Tune Typhoon, T.R. Ritchie at Seattle’s Triad Studios and his home studio (DDD Prods.) ‘90’s
• Post-polio requires (temporary) retirement from making records.
• Studies mythopoetics with Robert Bly, Michael Meade and others.
• Moves to Port Townsend, WA and begins writing essays on myth.
• In the archive: Song demos, masters of original songs, early stories
2000’s
Composes songs on mythic themes, including for the yet-to-be released album “Mandorla Hearts.”
Publishes his book The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture, and Psyche (White Cloud/Caveat Books, 2004; 2nd edition, North Atlantic Books, 2009).
Begins teaching at the annual Minnesota Men’s Conference, the Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father, and others, with Robert Bly, John Densmore, et. al (2003-2013).
Tour with Martin Shaw in the US; West Country Story Festival UK Caravan w/ Shaw, Bly, Gioia Timpanelli, Judith-Kate Friedman, et.al, (2008)
In the archive: UK tour recordings, radio interviews, 6 years of mythtelling and teachings recorded at conferences and at home.
2010’s
In the archive: 23 full projects of original songs, produced, performed, and ruff mixed, for envisioned albums “Polio: A Blues Album,” “Deep Song,” plus “Blue Lennon” a collection of unusual covers, “Love Dogs” - a 20-song live concert w/ Judith-Kate Friedman, final mixes for “Mandorla Hearts”
Video cards of uke, mando, guitar fingerings and arrangements
Self-portraits and still-lifes with custom instruments
40 interviews audio and video (2018-2019)
People and Productions
Phil Wiggins
“My heart is full of joy from having known this amazing human being. In the little time that we have spent together, he has enriched my life and inspired my music so much. His incredible courage and his unique perspective on life will carry me very far. His beautiful voice and the sound of his harmonica will always be with me and hopefully on good nights will come out with all the other spirits whose shoulders I stand on and that flow through me when I’m making music."
–– Phil Wiggins, National Heritage Fellow
Seals & Crofts, Louie Shelton, Day 5 Management + Artists, circa 1972
“We’d like to introduce a personal friend of our ours, a young man who contracted polio when he was 16 months old. He’s toured with us and done many concerts with us, receiving standing ovations…. One of the most talented singer-songwriters that we know….Ladies and Gentleman, Danny Deardorff.” —Dash Crofts, 1979
Photo: lower l to r: Jimmy Seals with son Joshua, Susan Joseph, Marcus (Marc) Joseph, Maxcia Lizarraga, Danny Deardorff, Joyce Deardorff
Upper l to r: Ruby Seals, Julie Joseph, Rick Joseph, Bill Day, Garnie Heath, Mr. Faizi (Hand of The Cause of God - Baha’i Faith), Lana Bogan, Donnie Shelton, Marcia Day, “England” Dan Seals, Back row: Louie Shelton
Seals & Crofts, Maureen McGovern and Danny Deardorff (1979)
Video: Seals & Crofts introduce Deardorff as a new artist and sing with him backing his song “The Spaceman Song.”
Robert Bly
“Daniel Deardorff is a true inheritor of Joseph Campbell…No one else writing today is able to follow these associative roads to the unconscious.”
— Robert Bly, Poet, Translator and Author of Iron John
Martin Shaw
“Danny Deardorff was the greatest storyteller I ever saw, the most humane of men, the funniest of road companions. A tough guy, but gentle as a lamb. I never saw him complain once. …His beautiful, difficult book The Other Within has a way of digging further and further into your being as the years go by.
As an oral storyteller, things could be different. In that hot seat, his language was simple and his teaching sometimes fierce, always brilliant.
People were crazy about Danny. You would always be playing second or third fiddle if you worked with him, and you wouldn’t care. He just radiated something. There was no one in this whole wide world he couldn’t look in the eye…
I think his influence is only just beginning. "
–– Martin Shaw, PhD, mythologist, author, from his afterward to the 3rd ed. of
Deardorff’s The Other Within: The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture and Psyche
John Densmore
“As I said to fellow wordsmith Michael Ventura just before I went on stage to play drums with Danny, maybe Deardorff should be Jim Morrison's replacement. He won't be wearing leather pants, but his depth of soul is a match.’”
— John Densmore of the Doors, endorsing Deardorff’s book The Other Within
“These two lads — are my teachers. I’m always looking for some new knowledge to feed my creativity, you know - new ideas - only their ideas come from the old. Old stories, which contain, since it’s an Oral Tradition, there’s wisdom there that gets tweaked by each generation that passes it down, adds its ingredients…so direct from Devon, from the old sod, the Celt Martin Shaw, and from Port Townsend, WA, the transcendental Danny Deardorff.”
— John Densmore introducing their concert at Kulak’s Woodshed, L.A., 2010
Jim Valley
“Danny was a giant soul. We did some beautiful, beautiful things. There are people out there that would love to know about him––just his music, his songwriting, his production, his musicianship, his voice. And then there's the people that are differently abled and the people that are totally into mythology. And all the children he influenced through Tickle Toon Typhoon, through me, worldwide, that love all those different songs. And those are all grown people now––the ones who have lived into their 30s and 40s….”
T.R. Ritchie
“You remind me of a white bark pine tree” T.R. said to Danny one night after a show. “How so?” “Well, they’re small and twisted and they make their home above the treeline where nothing else can grow.” “Would you write that song for me?” Danny asked. It took about a year for T.R. to finish, “Whitebark,” which became one of his most performed songs. This is the original version he gifted to Danny.
Nancy Rumbel
“To meet and work with Danny was a life changing event, I would venture to say, for anyone who had that golden opportunity! Despite his immense physical challenges, his spirit and passion for creating music, sharing and teaching were unstoppable and inspiring. He brought clarity and insights into how people can be at their best and worst, and how to utilize those experiences to create musical feelings, lyrics and/or compositions. Danny was a visionary and enthusiast for possibilities. I am hopeful that his archives of performances, teachings and interviews will be supported to inspire countless others.”
from Polio Blues to the Medicine of Myth
Polio Blues
The Blessing Kiss
“It’s a rookery of outcasts —
a choir of misfits —
the only cost of entry is everything there is.
There’s nothing else to do
but I promise you this ––
There is such a thing in this world
as the Blessing Kiss.”
— Daniel “3D” Deardorff
Finding Ways ~ Trickster Wisdom
“The singer-of-songs, as preserver of the “old ways,” comes from the woodlands into villages, towns, and cities to deliver the news and to re-member wisdom. The structure-bound welcome them as ‘entertainment,’ and yet structural authority denies them membership; they are encouraged to move on quickly, and take their ‘efficacious’ and trouble-making remembrances with them. The Wanderer—already sentenced into wilderness, as if born wounded—must be resourceful indeed to survive.” — Daniel Deardorff in his book, The Other Within:The Genius of Deformity in Myth, Culture, and Psyche (expanded 3rd ed. Inner Traditions, 2022).
Polio Blues: Song and BackStory
Daniel “3D” Deardorff composed, produced, and performs all instruments on his last mix of “Polio,” the first in what became a full album of songs in which he directly addresses his experience as a paralytic polio and post-polio (poliomyelitis sequelae) survivor, from 17 months old (1953).
The above video, by Deardorff’s life-partner and Mythsinger Legacy Project steward Judith-Kate Friedman, includes photos from his childhood and later life as a performing musician and producer, and historic images including Roy Rogers and band playing for boys on a polio ward, First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Daniel meeting at the first White House Conference on Disability, and the virus itself. The album is yet to be released.
Social History
Polio, one of the last great waves, 1953
Clive Davis with Garnie Heath (back row), Marc Joseph, Danny Deardorff and Louie Shelton (1970’s)
Daniel Deardorff and First Lady Rosalynn Carter shake hands following his performance at the first White House Conference on Disability (then called “Conference on Handicapped Individuals”), Washington, DC, 1979. President Jimmy Carter’s administration called forth this historic gathering of more than 800 delegates and 1,700 others. Following decades of advocacy from grassroots activists, lobbyists, and many legislators, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. Today more than 1 in 4 (28.7%) of Americans live with some form of disability, yet our basic civil rights continue to be under attack.
Minnesota Men's Conference faculty, cf 2012, Top L to R: Martin Shaw, Francis Weller, Doug Von Koss, Seated: Miguel Rivera, Daniel Deardorff, Tom Gambell
Custom Instruments
Harmonica Mic
Guitar Stand for Santa Cruz Firefly
by Joe Breskin
5 string uke with angled bout
by Jay Lichty
3D’s Harmonica Mic and Custom Case
Design and Construction photos
3D’s 5 String Ukelele
Design and Construction photos
Built by Jay Lichty
The Last 15 Years ~ The Digital Collection
Unpublished Songs from Choice Stems to Fully Mixed Compositions
Deep Song
Mandorla Hearts
Blue Lennon
Love Dogs
Polio: A Blues Album
Mythsinging
Stories told hearthside
recorded live include:
• Know-Not
• Birth of Finn
• The Firebird
• Fox Woman
• Maria Morevna
• Little Vasalisa
• Icanchu’s Dream
• Dame Ragnell
• The Half-Child
• Coyote and the Elk Skull
• Hans my Hedgehog
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu
Deardorff mythtelling w/Story Circle participants, film crew, at the MossyRock StoryHut cf. 2016
Stories recorded live
in concert
with
Martin Shaw, Robert Bly,
and others include:
• Ivan and the Grey Wolf
• Valomon the White Bear King
• The LindWürm
(The Woodcutter’s Daughter)
• Lituolone
• No Song
• Iron John
• How Wolverine Survived Winter
In 1997, Daniel Deardorff sold his Seattle house and studio and moved to Port Townsend, WA where he designed and built his home (not pictured) and a dedicated recording studio and myth library (pictured, right). In 2006, with help from master craftsman Birch Gerke and a crew of young men and their mentors with whom he was leading mythopoeic rites of passage work, Daniel and team constructed a StoryHut (pictured above). For ten years, the local Olympic Peninsula, WA community gathered monthly to hear Deardorff tell one of the old stories (myths) in the Oral Tradition around the hearth.
The myth recordings in the Collection come from these tellings as well as more than a decade of teaching internationally, giving talks with music. Since his passing, the Mythsinger Legacy Project has been hosting online StoryNights around the “virtual hearth” (on Zoom) using video of Daniel calling fire, and following in his manner of holding space, drinking in the wisdom of old tales and “feeding the stories” that so generously feed us.
It is the success of these events and their impact for participants that have shown us the viability of this Collection and our vision for it.
In the 2010’s, as technology grew more compact, and post-polio required more time resting, Daniel sold off his bulky studio gear, downsized to an iPad studio and started composing and producing new songs from his bed.
It is from this time, when his music resurged, informed by myth, that he began to commission the custom instruments (pictured above) and amass more than three albums worth of as yet unreleased original music.
Pictured: the deck and studio at MossyRock, home of the Mythsinger Legacy Collection.
Opening and closing photo montage of Daniel “3D” Deardorff: Judith-Kate Friedman, inset photo w/ Robert Bly by Ann Arbor;
Blue background images of the Olympic Mountains, WA state, US: Daniel Deardorff
Preservation of the Collection background images of Collection reels and adats: JK Friedman; Portraits of Daniel (L): Jeff Eichen, (C) Daniel Deardorff, (R) photographer unknown; Polio Studio Tour video: Judith-Kate Friedman
Five Decades of Music and Myth: 1970’s: unknown, 1980’s: Mark Hoover, 1990’s: Matthew (Harry) Burton, 2000’s: Michael Townsend, 2010’s: Deardorff
People and Productions: Wiggins and Deardorff at Centrum Acoustic Blues Fest: JK Friedman; Day 5 Management artists photo, photographer unknown; Bly: Ann Arbor; Seals, Crofts, McGovern, and Deardorff and Video of Deardorff: MDA telethon 1979; Shaw and Deardorff at Frank Lloyd Wright ranch, 2012: JK Friedman; John Densmore w/ Shaw and Deardorff, Kulak’s Woodshed, L.A., 2012, video: Kulak’s Woodshed; Jim Valley and Nancy Rumbel from “Songs & Stories in 3D: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Daniel ‘3D’ Deardorff”, 2020: Jessica Plumb; Deardorff and Ritchie at Tribute to Ritchie, 2014: Dennis Dougherty; “White Bark” by T.R. Ritchie, Deardorff vocals, w/Nick Moore, piano
From Polio Blues to the Medicine of Myth: All photos: “3D” Deardorff, Video: Judith-Kate Friedman;
“The Blessing Kiss” composed, produced, and all instruments performed by Daniel “3D” Deardorff
Social History: Polio survivor boys at pool, internet photo: credit unknown; Clive Davis et.al from Day 5 Management Billboard magazine insert (2/26/77); press photo of Deardorff and First Lady Carter; Minnesota Men’s Conference Faculty, photographer unknown.
Custom Instruments: Top line photos: Deardorff; “3D” with SCGC firefly on Breskin’s stand: Jeff Eichen; Mic Test Video, photos: Deardorff.
The Digital Collection: “Deep Song”: JKFriedman; “Blue Lennon” concert photo pictured Chuck Deardorf, Daniel “3D” Deardorff, Joe Breskin, David Lanz, Judith-Kate Friedman, and Gary Stroutsos at the Upstage, Port Townsend, 2012: Jeff Eichen; “Love Dogs”, Deardorff and Friedman at Key City Public Theatre, 2015: Al Bergstein; “Mandorla Hearts”: Huichol mask montage and “Polio” 3D Self Portrait by Deardorff.
Mythsinging: Deardorff mythtelling at the MossyRock StoryHut cf. 2016: Frederic Matteson
The Studio Deck and Library at Mossy Rock: JK Friedman
THUMBNAILS of ALBUMS, PARTNER LOGOS and Such! (coming soon)!
5+ of Daniel’s , 5+ of his productions, related ephemera
Funding, Advisory, and Dissemination Partners
Guest book sign in will be added here.