Up and out. (APRIL 18, 2010)
All is quiet on Tuscany Drive as I finish packing the car with my instruments, gather up my food and drink and taxi down the street for take-off and the drive to Columbus, Ohio along I-70 and I-68 through Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
Highlights of the early Sunday Morning drive:
I pass “Negro Mountain” Elevation 2740 feet. I've never heard of this mountain but know there must be a story there.
My friend and colleague, Eve Goldberg has written and sings a great tune: “Leaving Nova Scotia Blues” that I am working up on Mountain Dulcimer. It comes up on my iPod and I play and replay it, singing it out loud as I drive along. The higher elevations are still awaiting the full arrival of Spring. I listen off and on throughout the 6.5 hour drive and, at one point, pull into a rest stop just to pull out my dulcimer and play through it as the north wind blows a chill through my hunched back while I sit upon the concert picinic table.
Another amazing accompaniment for this trip is an audio book that I purchased last summer but never had the opportunity to hear. Margaret Cho is a streetwise comedian whose deep reflection and confidence is inspiring in her book “I Choose to Stay and Fight” which she is reading to me.
Time Zone problems. I wanted to communicate with my spouse that I was getting on the road, but because Colorado is 2 hours behind the east coast, I didn't want to call, so I sent a text message. When I called her at a more "godly" hour she beseeched me: “Please don’t send me text messages at 4:30 in the morning anymore.” (I didn't know that she was keeping the phone close by and the sound of the message did exactly what I was trying NOT to do.) I apologize and promise to learn!!!
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Connie's dear Aunt Darline is out on her back deck with her little white poodle, and her eldest son and wife join us after a meeting at church as a cardinal brightly sings its song in the back woods. We have a nice conversation and Bill and Marcia offer their home as a venue for a future house concert.
After a long drive, my sister suggests a brisk walk through Bexley, north of main street. It is great to spend the time with her and excellent to stretch my legs. Both dogwoods and lilacs in bloom at the same time, and gardens are bursting with brilliant tulips, standing tall behind long tresses of green grass.
I rehearse at the seminary with Ray Olson and Sarah (Fiddle and Guitar). She is the first instrumentalist in the Master of Church Music Program at Trinity who is not a keyboard player. Good picker! Tomorrow is going to be fun!
To Mark and Rhonda Peterson’s for delicious dinner (with fresh Dilly Bread) and fun House Concert, their first. An electic gathering of their friends, and my family and dulcimer friends, including a JamPlay student, Daryl and his wife gather for the concert.
I play two sets that are mostly like the night before, they offer and ice cream sundae bar for refreshments during the break. I work the mercantile and, to my delighted surprise, receive more offers for future house concert venues. (Here the new download cards from cdbaby receive more attention than they have thus far.)
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I Change the set list for the second set and finish with Kaitlin singing “We Are An Answer to Prayer” with me; Then I choose “Three Times” (a song I wrote in high school which appears on Holy Mountain) for my sister, Nancy and Rhonda to sing the “Beloved” song from our youth, with Kaitlin chiming in also. It is a fitting finale! Both Rhonda and I forget to get photos from the concert, so I take one of the instruments after they are packed up.
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