"Shaped Wind, Breath, Spirit, the Animating Force..."

...is how I began my multi-cultural educational presentation at the Peninsula Multi-Faith Coalition meeting this past Monday evening.

Starting with Native American flute and then moving to Australian Didjeridoo, I demonstrated this animating force and commented on the connections it has with all of the various faith traditions gathered in the room.

Then moving to djembe, a drum that was designed for healing (like a chalice) in Mali, I recalled that some people believe that our first religion, as humans, was dance, right after we started drumming.

(As a parent of two, and a current preschool music teacher in Peninsula Music Together, I can attest to the truth that we are all percussionists First!)

Another characteristic of African drummers is the awareness or belief that the rhythms are eternal and that what we are seeking to do is to create the conditions for them to come and inhabit us for a time, flowing through us for the good of the community.

After this I demonstrated how the music of Chinese, Arabic and African-American people can be played on the Hammered Dulcimer without retuning, simply by starting in a different place and playing the scales native to each.

Contradicting scholar Stephen Pinker, who once declared that music was "auditory cheesecake," I shared what the rest of the scholarly community knows about the power of music:

It helps us get together to find partners to keep the species going.
It helps us build group identity and cohesion.
It can soothe infants (and perhaps keep them safe in times of danger).  [The brain waves and heart rates of both mother and child have been documented to settle into very calm rhythms with the singing of a lullabye, a condition which lasts for more than 30 minutes after the singing has ended.]

I related a story from my own parenting:  When my son, Zach, had night terrors, the only song that would calm him was the African-American spiritual, Wade in the Water (which we had just gotten done singing as a group.)

I shared Pete Seeger's Preface in the new Rise Again Songbook, which I just received as a gift for Christmas.

"The older I get, the more I am convinced that if there's a human rase in a hundred years, one of the main reasons will be that we found ways we can sing together.  Different religions, different languages—the act of singing together makes us realize we're human beings.  We can't put it in words.  To a certain extent all the arts are important—the dancing arts!  Cooking arts! Humor arts! Sports!

But if we're still here I believe singing will be a main reason why.  Not solo singing, singing together.  Families can sing together.  Strangers can sing together.  People who think they hate each other can sing together.  

And perhaps if we find the right songs, even people who are so filled with hate they are ready to pull the trigger on somebody—we can reach them too.  Who knows?"

I then sang a snippet from a Russian lullabye:  (phonetically spelled here)

Poost veg dah, bood yet solhnsay
Poost veg dah, bood yet nyaybah
Poost veg dah, bood yet mama
Poost veg dah, bood do yah.

May there always be sunshine,
May there always be blue skies,
May there always be Mama,
May there always be me.

It was been said that when the soldiers were called to the Kremlin at the end of the USSR, their mothers and babushkas lined the roads and sang this to them, and they didn't fire upon the crowds.

Music is powerful.  They found a song that kept them from pulling the trigger.

Then my wonderful spouse, Connie, joined me in singing Santa Cruz songwriter, Jon Fromer's amazing song:  Gonna Take Us All

It IS gonna take us all, and we CAN do it.

Playing Didjeridoo!

Here's what I got to do this past July:

I played didjeridoo for the Australasian Choir, which performed twice at the GALA International Choralfest in Denver on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, under the direction of Dr. Kathleen McGuire.

Dr. McGuire was the conductor of the Rainbow Chorus in Fort Collins when I was commissioned to create and arrange a suite of songs (Beginnings).

This work was debuted at their Millenial Concert in 2000 at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins.

It was recorded and we also performed it at the GALA International Choralfest in San Jose, California later that summer.

An interesting requirement of this commission was that it needed to be arranged for SATB Chorus, with accompaniment by didjeridoo and both kinds of dulcimer!

My friend and didjeridoo teacher, Paul Taylor, was the didjeridoo player for those performances and the recording.  After those performances I started on my quest to learn to play this marvelous and mysterious instrument.

This chorus was a gathering of singers from Australia, New Zealand, ex-pats from those countries in the USA, France and Canada.  I accompanied them on an indigenous lullabye, Inanay and on My Island Home.

Concert Slide Show

Jan Hammond set up an afternoon of workshops and an evening concert at her church, Mt. Zwingli UCC in Wadsworth, OH and sent me these photos afterward.  I put them together in this slideshow with a musical track from my 5 song Kids EP (Mr. Steve's Folk Music for Little Folks).


After playing Amazing Grace on my Galax dulcimer as an audience sing-a-long several people noticed a spectacularly-timed sunset rainbow! (Featuring Galax Dulcimer built by Ben Seymour, Dulci-bro by Don Neuhauser, Didjeridoo from Australia, hammered dulcimer by Nicholas Blanton, guitar by Huss & Dalton.)

Pickin' Porch 2011

For 12 years Mike and Connie Clemmer have hosted a weekly concert on their Pickin' Porch, behind their Wood-N-Strings Dulcimer Shop in Townsend, Tennessee.

Located near the entrance to Smoky Mountain National Park, this is one of my favorite places to play--the background is the rushing river behind the stage, the backdrop is the rich green leaves of the trees, sometimes there is cicada accompaniment, and last night some geese honked their appreciation for the duet that Mike and I played with the instruments that he built!  What better setting for traditional music can be found?



So here is a sampling from last night's concert:  hammered dulcimer (part of the Irish set), Soaring (my PBS Roadtrip Nation hit!), a fiddle tune duet with Mike and Boil Them "Eucalyptus" Down The International Mountain Dulcimer National Anthem (a duet for Appalachian dulcimer and "Australian Dulcimer"--> didjeridoo.)

The audience is a responsive and enthusiastic gathering of locals, people camping in the area and folks just passing through.

And there is a new surprise this year--Mike has added a roof over the Pickin' Porch (at this rate, pretty soon this will be a "soft-seater" venue!)  He says, "At least if it rains, YOU and your instruments won't get wet."   (After a week of steady rains and 40-50° days that IS comforting.)

So here are my recommendations:

If you are in the neighborhood, stop on any Saturday night of the season and savor the music in its perfect environment.

If you are not in the neighborhood, ask yourself "Why Not?" and then make plans to be!

Didjeridoo in the Ozarks!

On my 30 Dulcimer-Filled Years Tour this June (2010) in Memphis, Ilace Mears, Carolyn Mason and I head over to Celtic Crossings for dinner and an Irish Session. 

While Ilace and I sit outside chatting, up hurries a man with a familiar face.  We recognize each other but at first don't place the connection.  

Then he puts the pieces together:  "You play didjeridoo, don't you?!"  

(This is not the usual question I am asked, to tell the truth).

"Yes, I do."  

"I saw you play it at the Ozark Folk Center last summer during the Mountain Dulcimer Week,"  he explains. 

"And I have video, too!"

After dinner Ilace and I join the session and have a grand time playing dulcimers with the guitar/mandolin and other hammered dulcimer player, sitting in a tight circle, after the fashion of Irish sessions.

Barry Bianchi promises to forward the video and today it has arrived!  

I've invited Judy Klinkhammer, Margaret and Jerry Wright to join me and because my didj is "tuned" to Eb, Margaret has to re-tune (she is a REAL dulcimer player and can do that!).  Jerry chooses Rolf Harris's "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" to sing and play while I provide accompaniment on what I jokingly call the "Australian Dulcimer".

Special thanks to my tutor, Paul Taylor (http://paultaylor.ws) originally from Australia, who now lives in Laramie, Wyoming.