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!

Back for Baccalaureate

Capital Alumni beneath the gate

Capital University, Mees Hall Auditorium, was the site of the Baccalaureate Service for my daughter, Kaitlin's, Graduation in early May.

The "new" permanent thrust in front
of the stage in Mees Hall.

I was honored when Pastor Amy Oehlschlager invited me to play music for the prelude of the service.

I played both mountain and hammered dulcimers on the stage where I used to work when I was a student back in the 1980s.

"First Snow"

In those days, I was part of the Theater Production Staff and the Mees Hall Stage Crew.  I told those stories to Joe, the sophomore who is currently a member of the stage crew, commenting on all the improvements in the facility.

As one might expect, walking through campus several times brought several treasured memories to the surface.



These are now overlaid with Kaitlin's freshly minted memories as this place has become an important part of her growth.  When I attended, I never imagined having a child follow me in the places I walked, worried, studied, grew and played.

This wasn't my first visit since my commencement in 1981, but it was significant for marking a point in our family's history.

...And because I was without a pick to play my mountain dulcimer.

Throughout the tour I'd been wearing pants that have a "pick" pocket, in which I carry my flatpicks, in order to be ready to play at a moment's notice.

This day, however, I was dressed up and the picks with were still in my jeans!

What to do?  (They were actually only just a couple of blocks away at my sisters's house, but...)

Joe with the Joe Walsh Pick

Stagehand Joe had an excellent solution:

Pulling out his wallet, he produced a pick,
given to his Columbus radio DJ father by Joe Walsh.

That's the one I played the tunes with.  And then got him to hold for this photo.

Lesson:  Always remember to thank your stage crew, because they can help save your bacon at any time!

None of us gets through any challenges in our life alone.  We don't get here by our own effort, we can't survive our vulnerability by ourselves, we're always standing on the shoulders of those who went before, those who point the way, pave the path and give us nudges and fervent pushes along the road.  Sometimes they are calling to us from the future as well as pushing from the past.

We are all an Answer to Prayer.  (Kaitlin sang on this recording with me in 2005.)

Full Moon Special!

Did you know?

Tonight's will be a special Perigree full moon.

The moon will be the closest it ever is to the earth in its elliptical orbit and will appear 14% larger to viewers on earth.  The last time this happened was 1983 and it will be that long into the future until it happens again!  It will appear largest in the east around sunset.

Several years ago, a beautiful full moon coaxed me out to the back yard to gaze upwards with my children.  A treasured time then, with them both off to college, even a more treasured memory now.

That night's observation gave birth to a mountain dulcimer solo I named simply, Full Moon.  (click the link to listen)

I recorded it and later included it as part of the soundtrack commission for a marvelous video project, Serenade to the Canada Goose.

The tune was also included in the first compilation CD released by Dulcimer Players News later that year.

So, I'm getting ready:
I'm gonna heat some water, drink some hot chocolate.

I can't wait to see what tonight's full moon special will bring!!

Kitty Puss

A few years ago I learned the tune Kitty Puss from my friend, Don Pedi and I love to play it on my Clemmer Dulcimer.

Mike builds his instruments with 5 strings, and I've adapted the tuning so the lowest bass string is an octave lower D.  The tuning (from bass to melody string) is D D' A d d.

This video is from Brian Bianchi, a fellow I met at the Ozark Folk Center in MountainView, Arkansas  when I taught there for mountain dulcimer week in August of 2009.  We met up again at a Celtic session in downtown Memphis this past summer and had a grand time swapping tunes.

(Brian also sent me the video of "Tie Me Kangaroo, Down, Sport" in which I play didjeridoo which is included in another post in this blog).

A Sample of a Dulcimer Festival

Mark Webb just posted this finely-edited video which portrays the spirit of a dulcimer festival wonderfully!



Enjoy!  Sign up for next year:  July 17-22, 2011!

(Addendum, please note that Gary Sager was unintentionally left off of the list of instructors.)

Swapping Tunes with Don Pedi on Grapevine Road

After such a grand visit with Don and Jean Pedi a couple of years ago, when I dog-sat their 13-week-old pups for a couple of days and tasted Jean's delicious lavender custard with the freshly-picked blackberries that I plucked from the end of the seasonal run, I've been waiting for my chance to bring my wife, Connie, back to visit with them.  (I think she and Jean are cut from the same cloth.)

This year, with Connie's sabbatical from the Lutheran Campus Ministry, she was able to join me for the verdant drive from Nashville to Marshall, NC.  We surprised a big black bear who lumbered across the hillside highway climbing up from the French Broad River to a higher elevation in front of us.  Neither of us had seen a black bear, "in bearson" before!  

(We both agree the other is a lucky charm for us to see such a sight.)

Don and Jean are such gracious hosts and Cindy and Zolly, the 2-year old pups, are just as insistent on the need to play and be scratched behind the ears, but have more weight and height now to get their desires met!  

A run into Asheville to do errands confirms that Connie and Jean could be sisters--we HAVE to stop and shop at the Goodwill store.

Back at the house, we help welcome the new refrigerator and taste the first meal from their now-remodeled kitchen.  Anyone who has done or survived projects like these knows how LONG it can take until things are back to "close to normal" after living out of boxes stashes in strange places for so long.  

Don and I go down to visit Junior, whose house rests at the foot of the mountain.  The sweet smell of newly mown hay is powerful in the air and new crops are in the neighbors' fields as the end of the tobacco subsidies causes shifts and adjustments in their planting plans.

After the sun goes down, Don and I have a nice time swapping tunes, one of which is "Kitty Puss" which he taught me on my last visit, and which we played together to finish my set at the Colorado Dulcimer Festival this past February in Fort Collins.

He mentions another "crooked tune" the kind which we both enjoy, but then says, "let's not do that one, its a mess!"

He joins me on "Black Tail Weasel and the Ground Squirrel Clan" before we pronounce it a good night.

(You can see me demonstrate this tune here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hacAGwyuck)

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.