Art & Soul, an Undermain Benefit
The Music of The Full Catastrophe in Conversation with the Art of Dan Stone
On February 22, Luigart Studios will host an intimate concert with music by The Full Catastrophe. Undermain contributing writer Delia Gibbs gets the band's origin story, their creative process and the significance of performing at Luigart this month.
"Play On" — Dan Stone, 1995 (Photo by Michael Satterly)
Sitting in on a local band’s weekly rehearsal last month, even I, with my layperson’s ears, picked up on intricacies and layers of music that were brand new to me. Elements I recognized from folk and jazz blended with others I don’t know the names for. In front of the bassist, I saw something that didn’t look like the sheet music I’m familiar with, and I was told that most of what they play resists standard musical notation.
The musicians began a song, then the singer paused, saying, “I think it needs to be a little slower.” Starting again, they fell into their groove, and I closed my eyes. The lyrics attended to the quotidian, refracting fragments of life — relationships, conversations, observations — through a tender lens.
The source of this music is a Lexington band made up of seasoned individual musicians, each with decades of experience: Melissa Rosen (lead vocals and guitar), Mark Deffenbaugh (lap steel guitar), Tom Martin (keyboard) and Jesse Peña (bass). And though they have been playing together for two years, it took nearly that long to find the right name. Somewhat by chance, Melissa, a licensed clinical social worker, mentioned during a rehearsal the Jon Kabat-Zinn book Full Catastrophe Living, which led them to an obscure line of dialogue from the 1964 film, “Zorba the Greek." Presto. All agreed that the name would be fitting “because at this point in our lives," she noted, “we’ve all lived the full catastrophe.”
The Full Catastrophe — L-R: Jesse Pena (bass), Melissa Rosen (vocals, guitar), Mark Deffenbaugh (guitars, vocals), Tom Martin (keys)
How the Band Took Shape
The Full Catastrophe came about through a web of friendships, acquaintances and musical histories:
Years ago, Martin and Peña played together in the Patrick McNeese Band. A passionate music instructor, Jesse is a highly accomplished multi-instrumentalist, fluent in blues, jazz, R&B, country, bluegrass, classical and latin music. He spent over a decade in Nashville, working as a studio musician and arranger. Tom has played keyboards in jazz, blues, soul and R&B bands in Kentucky, D.C. and New York since the 1960s, After Pat’s death in 2021, the two, both bereft, began looking for ways to keep making music together.
That opportunity came along in 2023, when Martin met Mark Deffenbaugh at one of the jam sessions regularly hosted by local writer and musician, David Miller. Tom knew he wanted Mark and his lap steel in his musical orbit. Soon after that Mark introduced him to his wife and musical collaborator, Melissa Rosen.
Rosen and Deffenbaugh were new to Lexington, having moved here from Nashville to be closer to their grandchild. Before that, they’d been part of the New York music scene. Melissa was a member of the “Fast Folk” community, which spanned from the early 1980s through the late 1990s, while Mark was active for many years in the downtown NYC Knitting Factory music scene.
Since the couple started playing with Martin and Peña, The Full Catastrophe has performed just one show: a small “living room concert” in the home Tom shares with his wife, Sheila Kenny.
The decision to play in a larger public space has been motivated, in part, by Rosen who has relied on music and songwriting to process her life and mold her social circle but has never been much drawn to performing. She’s recently been feeling, though, that it’s important her songs get out into the world.
"Hoagy Stardust" - Dan Stone, 2021 (Photo by Michael Satterly)
Music in the Company of Art
When considering where to stage their first public show, The Full Catastrophe was drawn to Luigart Studios for a few reasons. For one, they love the building’s acoustics — how the all-wood interior absorbs and shapes sound — and the creativity they have witnessed from artists past and present.
The building, formerly the Dixieland Gardens music and dance hall, has a riveting history that includes Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald. Lucky for us, Undermain contributing writer Kopana Terry wrote all about it.
The group also likes the idea of performing alongside visual art and feels fortunate that their show coincides with the impressive “Lifework” retrospective of Lexington artist and writer Dan Stone, who died last November. Stone largely kept his artwork to himself, and nearly 500 of his paintings are currently on display and available for purchase for the first time.
The Full Catastrophe doesn’t take lightly the opportunity to play in the company of Stone’s work. For one thing, Dan Stone cared deeply about music — especially folk artists like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. In sifting through images from the exhibition over the last couple weeks while laying out an Undermain story about it, Tom Martin found over a dozen paintings of musicians. “We think there’s a connection in that Dan’s art was largely unseen, and our music has been largely unheard,” Martin, a founding member of Undermain, told me.
They also suspect that the timing of the two events will foster a rewarding overlap, with visitors discovering something beyond what first drew them there (and perhaps going home with a piece of Stone’s artwork).
"The Balladeer" - Dan Stone, 2022 (Photo by Michael Satterly)
The Full Catastrophe’s Sound
Much of what Rosen writes are vignettes with highly visual lyrics. Some are inspired by the lives of her friends as in “I Believe Her,” a song about a couple living in their tiny Lower Manhattan apartment, where Mark and Melissa first met. It begins:
In a small room in a dark apartment, they awake / In the clutter of their lives, they find a quiet space.
For the other members, learning the songs Rosen writes is more of a translation than a transcription. Melissa plays the music as she hears it in her head, and her husband helps refine it. Tom and Jesse listen, writing down a shorthand that allows them to remember how to play it. That can be a lengthy process, but the music gradually comes together for all of them.
Other songs are co-written by Mark and Melissa, and still others, such as Running in Place, are fully the invention of all four musicians. It is music that both soothes and awakens the soul. And for those of you who have lately found yourselves immersed in the disturbing glow of a screen, your hearts whipped around by the news or by an unthinkable volume of content from sources unknown or uncertain, there is comfort to be found at Luigart Studios. A visit to this wooden building in Lexington’s Northside to surround yourself with music, art and community might be just the antidote you crave.
Admission is free, with donations gratefully accepted in support of the work of Undermainarts.org to bring you stories like this one.
Gallery hours for Dan Stone’s “Lifework” exhibition through the end of February: Thursday – Sunday, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Contact Luigart Studios to schedule a visit outside of posted hours.