One in Eight

One way to support and grow one's creativity is to support the creativity of others!

I have been blessed to play the role of support and cheerleader for my good friend, fellow dulcimer-player and teacher, one-time student and also a member of the cancer-survivor club, Deborah Hamouris.

In response to her cancer diagnosis, she turned to creativity and wrote a musical stage show with her friend and collaborator, Mimi Fox. 

The show is called 1 in 8 which represents the number of women in the USA currently diagnosed with breast cancer.

I was so tickled to see the debut performance of this show at the Monkey House in Berkeley last April with Mimi and the other supporting musicians. 

The show is the weaving together of these musical reflections on themes such as: Worthy, Strong Medicine, No Time to Waste, Glad and Grateful together with poetry and vibrant spoken reflections. 

While not shying away from the grit and fear of a cancer diagnosis, Deborah also gives full-throated laughter to the joy and surprise that comes as gift in the midst of recovery.

A video archive of that performance was captured and I helped by editing it for scenes and selections that were a part of her successful Kickstarter Campaign this fall to fund the recording of the CD of the music.

Deborah reports on Facebook that the recording is finished being mixed and it is GOOD!  It will be released to the public in December!

It is her (and my) hope that as a result of completing this recording, she'll be able to take the program around to wherever people are facing a new diagnosis, or are going through treatment, or are giving thanks for their years of survival, where caregivers are tired, in order show how a creative response brings about its own healing.

If you would like to bring 1 in 8 to your community, contact Deborah through her facebook page above!

Turkish Impressions, hammered dulcimer debut of a new chamber work.

I picked up the telephone in 2015 and Nancie Kester, a composer and teacher from Berkeley, California, was on the other end of the line asking if I, a hammered dulcimer player, would consider playing a piece she was composing (Turkish Impressions) that was inspired by a pilgrimage journey she and her husband took to Turkey recently. 

There, she was inspired by the Whirling Dervish dances, the grand geologic formations towering throughout Cappadocia and the accidental antiphonal effect of several Muezzins' "Calls to Prayer" from one mosque to the next throughout the day.

Cover Photo for Turkish Impressions by Nancie Kester

We had several discussions as I looked at her score to see what adaptations might be necessary to my tuning of my instrument, or what suggestions I could make for being certain that other players would be able to also play the part on their instruments in the future.

Time passed with intermittent connection, and then early in 2017, Nancie called to say that she had contracted with the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra to perform the piece in the Fall concert. 

This is an orchestra, I have learned, that is "composed" of composers who are eager to play each other's music.

I received the final score in September and began work in earnest to be ready for the orchestra rehearsals and performance.

In addition to the score and my dulcimer part, she sent an .mp3 file of the Sibelius file for me to listen and play along with.

In the Phrygian mode and in several different mixed meters, but especially in the traditional feel of 9/8 or 5/4 and 4/4, the piece is definitely outside of the listening framework of most western dulcimer players.

Her piece is written for 3 strings (violin, cello and bass) and 4 winds (clarinet, oboe, flute and piccolo) in addition to hammered dulcimer.

It changes keys several times as it states its various themes and then develops them and brings them all together in a climactic capitulation which the wends down to a more peaceful breath of release.

Last night (Nov 4) was the performance at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, a marvelous performance space with a rich historical character and, under the direction of Mark Alburger, the Turkish Impressions made an impression on all of us!

Do You Believe in Magic?

My friend, Lisa Sniderman (aka Aoede) writes "quirky folk pop" for teens and tweens. 

She has composed award-winning musicals that use classical mythological characters to tell stories with current-day application for secondary school-aged readers.

First she created audio books by composing music and working with a production team to record the music and sound effects that accompany the stories. 

Then she began polishing the scripts so that youth theater groups could rehearse and perform staged readings of the show.

I was able to attend a staged reading of What Are Dreams Made Of?  by the San Carlos Children's Theater in the summer just after we moved to California.

Soon after I began collaborating with Lisa to write the musical score for her musicals so that theater groups have the possibility of rehearsing to live accompaniment and have the written music as another tool for learning the singing parts.

I have spent a good part of 2017 working on the score for her next book, Do You Believe in Magic? which was just completed!

Working with another songwriter is eye-opening, exciting and sometimes confusing as I seek to be true to her vision for her music.  Being neighbors in San Mateo makes this partnership an ongoing one as we establish lines of communication and trust with lots of good humor thrown in.  

One thing that amazes me is how Lisa, who doesn't read musical notation, has such clear pitch memory for the songs she composes, that even when we are listening to the published recording, she can say, "I know they recorded it that way, but here is what I intended!"

And again, when I finished working on this collaboration, I found my own creative juices had been stewing and were all set to stir up and serve and I am delighted with what I've been able to produce just in the past month!

So, I suggest, if you ever feel like your creativity has dried up...go collaborate and support someone else's project and see what happens for yours.

From the back of the file cabinet...

There I was, looking for a manila folder and in the back of my tan file cabinet drawer was a file that listed two of my song titles:  war is sweet, and i said nothing.

It was curious to see this title so I opened the (nearly empty) folder to find this thank-you card:

The sketched artwork is a Lancer from Lincoln Jr. High/IB World School, where both of my children attended for their Junior High School years and freshman year of High School.

While my son, Zach, was a freshman, I was hired to work in the music department of this school working with Band, Choirs and Orchestra.

This note, however, is from when Zach's older sister, Kaitlin, was a freshman, because when I opened the note I found her gratitude wishes amongst those of her classmates:

Even after reading their hand-written words, I was a bit puzzled and then I turned the note over and read the thank-you from their teacher, Colleen Conrad.  

I dimly started to recall this experience...I visited their classroom and shared these two songs in person, which were later recorded in 2007 for my a piece of it all CD.  The memory had completely receded into the dusty stacks of my library-like memory.

Ah, yes!  The amazing 9th grade English teacher whose focus was helping each student find the thing that lit them up with interest, engagement and then encouraged and challenged them to follow that light!

She wrote:

"Steve,

THANK YOU for sharing your message with us!

The songs were both beautiful & powerful, & I
appreciated being able to reinforce the words & ideas behind "I Didn't Speak Up" through music.

That's always a good way for students to understand an important message.

Colleen Conrad  :)"

These kinds of thank-you cards are probably like many that we all have "had to write" to some guest who visited our various school classrooms during our time as students.

I can recall being moved to write these several times, but never again thinking about them once I'd added my words and signature.

I don't remember if I ever thought about if the recipient would read our messages, or if they would really matter in the larger scheme of things.

Well, today, this was just the message I needed to hear!

A thank-you from the past, from students who are now all in their late 20s.  All thanking me for helping them ask questions about what they assume to be true.

I am especially touched by Lianna's words:

"The music was a definite change in the way I'll think"

Lest we think the little that we do matters,  we can (and do) small things, with great love!

-Steve

(a little more hopeful and inspired as I go back to the little things I am doing today....)

Live Performance: His Home is On the Road

KC Turner Presents SHHHongWriter's Open Mic once a month at Doc's Lab in North Beach (San Francisco).

This is a basement club in the location of what used to be the Purple Onion, site of Phyllis Diller's debut performance and the recording of the Smothers Brothers' Live at the Purple Onion recording.

In a standby position I was able to perform my original song, His Home is on the Road this month.

You can hear the recording of that performance here.
(Click on "Open Mic Recordings" Choose 7/5/17 and scroll down to Steve Eulberg)

Enjoy!

His Home is On the Road

photo by: Poppi, Melodies & Musings,
Guntersville, Alabama 2016

His Home Is On The Road

(c)2013 Steve Eulberg (BMI) administered by Owl Mountain Music, Inc.

His hand is on the handle, his hat is on his head
His feet are shod with well-worn traveling shoes...
He pauses to ponder how to bid his fond farewell
Wrestling with the words that he will choose.

It's not that he has to go
Or needs to be free
Sometimes he finds his home is on the road.

//: On the road, on the road,
Sometimes he finds his home is on the road. ://

Like a farmer walking fences, He ties the tattered lines
Binding the broken and alone
Setting new boundaries for friends both old and new
Weaves his web where all can find a home.

The destination beckons, drawing him on
While geese honk high overhead
He casts a single shadow on his solitary path
But he is never alone.

Center stripe is speeding by, as his tires chew up the miles
While echoes of applause line his trail....

His heart is beating quicker as the mountains hove in view
His lips recall their parting kiss
His hand is on the handle, his hat is in his hand
As her smile welcomes him in

It's not that he has to go
Or needs to be free
Sometimes he finds his home 
Sometimes he finds his home
He always finds his home where he is.

On the road.... 

Wading in the Muck of His Anxieties

Hear the buzzing flies
Feel the solar heat
     squint from the harsh brightness of its gaze
Smell the rich, wet, fertile mud
Hear it squishing beneath the soles of boots
Feel the suction as each foot lifts
     for another step
     Resistant impedance to speed

See dragonflies inspecting this
     Intrepid explorer
Frogs leaping sideways
     as he prepares to pass

See swaying reeds
     cattails & sawgrass
An egret taking flight

Yes, there is worry here
     but here also is beauty.

The sometimes breeze ripples
across the tops
of the standing stalks
who sway in response—
     dance in time with the music's pulse
     in a laconic trance
from a firmly rooted stance—

See his wonder dawn:
He envies their home
     in this place as he,
     a supposed mere traveler,
     wanders through

He has had to enter
despite his terror
resisting his fear
to behold these glories

Wondering if
what he thinks is true
is what he now knows:

Must he leave them?
ha...
Can he leave them

when this marsh beholds him?


5.17.17 ©Steven B. Eulberg
#BareNakedBravery2

Co-writing with Charlie King

What Do They Make On Wall Street?

Words by Charlie King, Tune by Steve Eulberg

One of my Local 1000 colleagues (and songwriting heroes) and I agreed to collaborate on a creative project while in the networking sessions of our annual retreat at the Ashokan Center in May 2016.

I offered that I love to set poetry and lyrics to music and Charlie said he was looking for collaboration on a new song.  He sent me his lyrics and I took them with me on tour, mulling over melodic ideas.

This particular set of lyrics posed a challenge:  The chorus suggested a very upbeat sing-a-long style, but the lyrics change each time through.  This can make singing along for an audience difficult.

The verses felt like they were in a different, more reflective tone.

While I was driving in Ohio and West Virginia and Kentucky, the chorus was quite quickly settled, but the verses required some tweaking....  During one off-day, motel stay, in a non-smoking room that had clearly been recently flooded--(so much so that I didn't take my shoes off while walking on parts of the carpet!), AND which reeked of cats!!, I was strumming the chords that became the ultimate framework for the song.

I got home, recorded a demo for Charlie and sent it off to him.  Working with the amazing production skills of our colleague Reggie Harris, the tune acquired a klezmer-like clarinet and feel as the 2nd tune on Charlie's 2017 recording, Life & Love, Tears & Laughter.

Here are the lyrics and chords for the demo (click on the title above or here)

What Do They Make On Wall St
Lyrics©2016 Charlie King/Pied Asp Music 
Tune©2016 Steve Eulberg/Owl Mountain Music, Inc.

(lick) c-b-a-g#-a-f-e-d-c-b-a Am 
           Am                          E7
I was reading the Wall St. Journal
                                     Am
Studying the secret of wealth
            Dm                        Am
How a corporation issues capital stock
                 B7                      E
And then sells it back to itself
                  F                    C
How they buy up other companies
               Dm                        Am
And then run them into the ground
                        F                                D7/F#
So what's the hitch? How do they get rich
                 G                          G7
On this financial merry-go-round

(c b)                C                  F            C
       Tell me what do they make on Wall St.
        F                         G           C
To make the world a little bit better?
         F                   G              C
Vermont makes sweet maple syrup
       Am           D7              G
Wisconsin the very best cheddar
           F                         G
They grow those big potatoes
            C               Am
In the fields of Idaho
           F                 G           Am
But what do they make on Wall St.
    F            G            Am (lick up: c- d-e-g-c)
What is it that they grow?

Am                                          E7
Brockton, Mass, where I was born
                                        Am
A shoe town, tough and gritty
 Dm                                      Am
Gary and Pittsburgh were steel towns then, 
       B7                          E

Detroit was the Motor City

         F                                         C
The beer that made Milwaukee famous
          Dm                  Am
Ain't made there any more
       F                                   D7/F#
Wall St. bought 'em for the bottom line
           G                           G7
And moved them all off shore.

(c b)                 C                 F              C
        Tell me what do they make on Wall St.
        F                         G           C
To make the world a little bit better?
            F           G           C
While Rosie is riveting airplanes 
         Am           D7           G
Mailcarriers deliver de letter 
           F                          G
The people who knead dough
                         C                       Am
Use Kansas wheat beneath the snow
          F                  G            Am
But what do they make on Wall St.
    F            G           Am (lick up: c- d-e-g-c)
What is it that they grow?

           Am                                  E7
Henry Ford invented the Model T
                                            Am
And put Uncle Sam at the wheel
 Dm                                   Am
Carnegie built the rolling mills
                 B7                         E
Because Henry needed the steel
          F                               C
Mr. Peabody hauled the mountain away
           Dm                 Am
Sold Carnegie all the coal
            F                  D7/F#
Now Wall St. Strip-mines it away
            G                      G7
And leaves us this big hole

(c b) C                               F             C

      Tell me what do they make on Wall St.
      F                           G           C
To make the world a little bit better?
F                     G                     C
Teachers can make the kids smarter 
Am                  D7              G
Grandma can knit you a sweater 
           F                          G
They grow those big tomatoes
            C               Am
In the fields of Ohio
          F                  G           Am
But what do they make on Wall St.
F                G            Am
What is it that they grow?
F G C (lick down: c-b-a-g-e-d-c) C 

All the Good Ones

Overheard from a radio conversation:
"All the good ones are married... ."

Did you ever think that
they are "good ones"
as a result of marriage?

Not just that
it's somehow easier
to want the unhave-able
but that the process of marriage
hones and polishes like a gem tumbler
so that even the roughest of raw ore
in the daily grind and rub of relationship
begins to be worn
smooth and shiny
like the
tawny topaz?

3/13/93
©Steven B. Eulberg

Not My Monkey New Recording by Fiddle Whamdiddle

Vi and I have been hard at work and have finally sent our newest recording off to the manufacturer this week!

Not My Monkey features our original tune (by the same name), John Denver's Matthew, Aura Lea (written in 1861 by a relative of Vi's Grandmother, George R. Poulton) and several other old-time favorites.

Recorded over 3 years, by two very gifted engineers (Latin-Grammy-winning Oscar Autie, of El Cerrito Studio, in El Cerrito, California) and Darren Radach, of Stout Studios in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Darren also served as the mixing engineer and the recording was mastered by Randy LeRoy of Airshow Mastering, Tacoma Park, Maryland.

Cover art was photographed and designed by Christina Gressianu, Loveland, Colorado.

We expect delivery by the first of February with a projected release date of March 1, 2017.

Pre-Order today and get your copy as soon as it arrives...with free postage!  (use the code: iwantmymonkey at checkout)