I met Dale and Dan Zola in the fall of 2010. We’ve been working together on Dale's music in various ways since then. Little by Slow is the first official release of our collaboration. In some ways it feels like a culmination, but it also feels like a beginning.  

This collection of four deeply personal songs tells a story of prayer, memory, trauma, and the joy, peace, and fulfillment of simple embodied living. Angel, adorned with the mastery of Gari Hegedus’ oud and mandocello playing, offers a humble, opening blessing. Dale’s longing for an ever-closer relationship to the intimate divinity of nature invites us to open our hearts and our ears. Then, in reverie, An Old Faded Picture takes us on a journey into the unknown past to explore the possible histories of a mysterious photograph. Questions linger, and we are led to consider the ephemerality of all memory. Awash in visions of the past, we are suddenly thrust into the vivid recollection of a very real and specific memory; Boom! plunges us into the story of deep, old wounds and explores their lifelong impact in the faith and hope born from tenacious devotion. Finally, Take A Little Breath returns to the devotional energy of the first song and bookends the record with a light, uplifting, and compassionate breathing meditation.   

Framed in sublimity and serenity, and with a heart cultivated by dedication and humility, Dale's songs are a prayer and a gift for any who would listen.  It has been an honor and pleasure working with her and her beloved, Dan, for these many years, and I thank you, dear listener, for joining us on our journey.

- Eric Oberthaler


When I was in seventh grade someone put a clarinet in my hand and away I went – on to Miami High School Marching Band, playing at the games in the Orange Bowl. After majoring in music at Florida State
University and UC Berkeley I began to feel demoralized by the
perfectionism of the classical approach. What was I thinking, that
I was a musician? After going into Sproul Hall during the Free
Speech Movement, I left school, stopped playing music, studied
with my first spiritual teacher (not counting Billy Graham), and
traveled for three years from Europe to India and back. In Kabul,
Afghanistan, it was the season of Ramadan. In my hotel, at
dinnertime, I listened to the musicians play Qawwalis.
Love and beauty filled the room. I went out the next day, bought a wooden flute, and began to play music again.

We’ve known Eric for nearly a decade. For a number of years he helped me turn my handwritten song manuscripts into printed sheet music. In 2012, he played trumpet and synthesizer in The Great Night of Rumi and His Soul Friends, an evening of poetry that Dan and I produced. Several years ago, when we embarked on the journey of creating this album we were thrilled when he agreed to produce it. If it weren’t for my Danny and our musical genius soul brother Eric, these songs would be sitting in my piano bench… Big thanks to them!

- Dale Zola