Edmonds’ Gothard Sisters return to stage with new original music

A song on the Gothard Sisters latest album was inspired by the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.

“Meet Me at Dawn” is about the infamous Arizona gold mine believed to be hidden in the Superstition Mountains near Apache Junction, east of Phoenix.

You can hear “Meet Me at Dawn” on Sept. 19: Sisters Greta, 34, Willow, 32, and Solana, 26, are performing a show at the Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater in Snohomish.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Greta Gothard said of the Sept. 19 show. “We’ve had to cancel this show twice already. We’re excited to do a lot of our old favorites and songs from the new album.”

“Meet Me at Dawn” is just one of a dozen all-original songs on their album “Dragonfly,” released this year. The new recording also features “Wise One,” “Shadow and Sun,” “Long Road,” “Hurricane Ridge” and “Wildflower Jigs.”

The sisters have put out nine albums in all — including three Christmas recordings — in their 11 years touring and performing as a Celtic-folk trio. Their first all-original album, “Midnight Sun,” reached No. 6 on Billboard’s world music chart in 2018.

The trio from Edmonds say their latest album was influenced by “The Thistle & Shamrock” on NPR.

The popular Sunday radio program, named after the national emblems of Scotland and Ireland, specializes in Celtic music. Fiona Ritchie, who is Scottish, has hosted the show since it was established in 1981.

The sisters say their album “Dragonfly” is most like “The Thistle and Shamrock” songs they love to listen to on the radio. A few Gothard Sisters songs have even been featured on the NPR program.

“We’ve been blown away by the response to the new music,” Greta Gothard said. “Usually, when we’re making an album, we can play new songs for fans at shows and see which ones they like. This time, since COVID, pretty much the whole album we wrote without getting to play the songs before releasing it.”

Their mother recently told them her own story of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.

In the 1960s, while on a father-daughter road trip to Arizona to see the Superstition Mountains, their mother befriended a prospector who told her he was searching for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.

Their mother, Lark, and the prospector, Jack, became pen pals after that meeting in the mountains. She was then 6 years old. She still has those letters.

Here is the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine:

In the 1840s, Mexico’s Don Miguel Peralta developed rich gold mines in the Arizona territory. His last expedition was in 1848.

According to legend, the Peralta party was ambushed by Apaches, and all were killed except for one of Don Miguel’s sons, Gonzales Peralta, who escaped into Mexico.

Gonzales’ son, Miguel Peralta, later shared maps to the last gold mine with a German emigrant who saved him during a fight.

In the 1870s, Jacob Waltz — “The Dutchman,” even though he is German — worked the mine and hid one or more caches of gold in the Superstition Mountains. In failing health, Waltz then moved to Phoenix and died some 20 years later in 1891.

He supposedly described the mine’s whereabouts to Julia Thomas, who cared for him prior to his death. Many have searched for the most lost-and-found-again gold mine in the West, but no one has been able to find it since.

With a legend like that, “Meet Me at Dawn” nearly wrote itself.

“Meet Me at Dawn” is what you’d call a “wildcard” — the song technically isn’t Celtic, but the sisters added it to their “Dragonfly” album anyway.

“It sounds Celtic, but it’s really more American West,” Greta Gothard said. “It’s the story of a group of friends who are roped into trying to find a long-lost gold mine with this old prospector who has been looking for it for 10 years.”

Now, it’s one of the Gothard Sisters’ fans most-loved songs.

“Everyone loves the new material more than our other albums — which is great,” Greta Gothard said. “No offense to the other ones.”

Sara Bruestle: 425-339-3046; sbruestle@heraldnet.com; @sarabruestle.

If you go

The Gothard Sisters will play 4 p.m. Sept. 19 at Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater, 1211 Fourth St., Snohomish. The trio of sisters from Edmonds perform traditional Celtic music with violin, guitar and the mandolin. Tickets are $25. Call 360-568-9412. More at www.thumbnailtheater.org.