Sometimes the Road Leads Home!

Sometimes the Road does lead home!  I was booked to play in Old Town Fort Collins for Streetmosphere to kick-off the Memorial Day weekend on Friday Night, but there was double-booking for a motorcycle rally.  The smart call was to recognize that the dulcet tones of the dulcimer would rarely be heard if in competition with revving Harleys.  So, I decided to change the venue and play a home game!



FiddleWhamdiddle scheduled a House Party instead at my home in Fort Collins.

Vi Wickam and I recorded this tune that I learned from Ken Bloom at the Western Carolina Dulcimer Week, in Cullowhee, NC several years ago.  Enjoy!

(This is part of Vi's year-long commitment to play and record a new fiddle tune each day throughout 2012.  You can sign-up and get them delivered to your email box every day!)

Views from "Duci-topia"--The Nikwasi Dulcimer Club

My friend, Bonnie Carol, always celebrates my travels throughout dulci-topia* and inquires about the state of the dulcimer world as she remembers her dulcimer touring across the USA and beyond.


Following lunch with Phil Myers at the Open Air Cafe, along the creek in Franklin, North Carolina,

This tour began with an afternoon of workshops for the Nikwasi Dulcimer Club which meets every Thursday afternoon at 1:30 pm at the First United Methodist Church.

This was the beginning of the "homecoming" season when many of the migrating dulcimer players who live further north or south are returning for their season to live and play in the lush green hills of western North Carolina.

Following the workshops, I was able to capture this snippet of members of the group playing "The Boatmen", a tune from the canal days.  I celebrate this circle of friends sharing music they enjoy, as they prepare to share it with the wider community for the Airing of the Quilts celebration in the town square to be held the following Saturday.

From Left to right:  Kathy, Phil, Sally, David and Ben.  

Special thanks to Phil Myers for putting this afternoon together.

*[For non-Latin scholars: "dulci-topia" is Bonnie's term for the dulcimer places or dulcimer world.]