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.]

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)