Changes: A New Nest for the Owl

As the traveler, usually I am telling stories about where I am going and how glad I am to return home.  And, since I enjoy both the leaving and the returning, I love sharing about both movements.  One of my teachers in seminary talked about this as the rhythm of "Access and Retirement".  Going out and coming in; like a contradance.

But today's post is about a change in venue.  But not the ones to which I travel to perform and teach.  This time the venue change is the location of where I'll return.

My spouse is a pastor, and after nearly 17 years of joyful and grateful service to the campus of Colorado State University through Lutheran Campus Ministry, she has resigned her call in order to accept the call to be Pastor of St. Andrews Lutheran Church in San Mateo, California.

This will be a huge change for us since we have grown to love being Coloradoans, but it is time and we are ready for the next adventures that await.  And, since both of our children are in the Bay Area (for the near future, anyway), we'll have the joy of connecting with them more frequently in person!

The timing of the change is certain for Connie, who will begin her service on January 1, 2014, but is less certain for me, since I will remain behind to fix up and prep our house for sale and stay with it until it sells.  So, I am assuming I'll be around for a couple of months, anyway.

I will continue teaching and performing and traveling, while preparing to re-root Owl Mountain Music, Inc. in its third nest since beginning in 1990.  For those of you keeping score:  Kansas City, MO, Fort Collins, CO and now San Mateo, CA.

Dancing at Aunt Darline's 1984

There are some other changes that have been underway this year:

I am also excited that I've been able to let go of responsibility for the Colorado Dulcimer Festival, which I began and ran for 10 years with a dedicated crew of volunteers.  These volunteers have incorporated and are planning to carry it on for several years into the future!

And, I am delighted that Scott Berwick has been elected to the office of Secretary-Treasurer of the Traveling Musicians Union, Local 1000 AFM.  He takes over when my term ends on Dec 31st of this year.

So, now I am in the process of shedding, shredding and packing in preparation!  All activities which make a perfect fit with autumnal rhythms.  Let's dance!

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!

Nothing Like tunes on a sunset sail off of Key West!

Here's the recipe:

Fly to Fort Lauderdale,
Drive until there is no more "where" to go,
Have a dulcimer festival
Finish it off with a sunset cruise with nothing between the land and the sun but Gulf of Mexico
Find a friend and play some music.

Here's Butch Ross on hand (and leg!) percussion, me playing "Da New Rigged Ship" on mountain dulcimer and the wind adding its voice to the mix.



Thanks, Bing, Jae & Sheri for a great January weekend!

Private Lessons in Memphis and tramping through history

Crossing the river from Arkansas on I-55

Coming back to Memphis!

I have been so blessed by recent, regular opportunities to be in Memphis the past few years:  the Memphis Dulcimer Festival, the Folk Alliance, House Concerts and workshops, and this time, hosts Lee Cagle and Betty Dawson (who are a talented musical duo known as Butterfly Gap) decided to offer two days of private mountain and hammered dulcimer and guitar lessons to area students.

The Dawson B&B & Lesson Studio

This was an innovative idea for my touring schedule and one that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Playing a harmonic (In February's House Concert)

After lessons on Monday, we went to  McGuinness Pub and, after enjoying the fish and chips, enjoyed the first set of Planet Reel in a rolicking Irish Session-type listening gig.        

I arose on Tuesday and drove north of Memphis to some historical (at least for my Dad's side of the family) territory.  I've long known that my Dad's mother was born in Roellen, Tennessee and that she lived a portion of her life in Dyersburg, but I had never thought to look on a map to see where these places were.  I just assumed that they were in eastern Tennessee.  

This past February, just before coming to Memphis for the House Concert and workshops, I did what I hadn't done and was tickled to see that, unlike my expectations, these two locations from my ancestry (Maybe that's why I've had this "genetic" kind of connection with western Tennessee.)

In any case, I drove north, through Atoka County, home of Isaac Hayes  (I hear those high voices trill in my memory: “Shaft”) and am nearly bowled over as I cross not just one, but both the South and North forks of the Forked Deer River.  "Forked Deer" is the name of a traditional fiddle tune that my students learned and played for the Spring Recital this past May!

Dyersburg Historical Museum Parking Lot view

The Dyersburg Historical Museum was closed over the lunch hour, so I drove the few miles east until I saw what, to me, is a familiar sight:

Roellen, TN Watertower

The town watertower, painted sky blue, rises up in front of me, directly in front of my car as it travels toward town.  The road then bends northeast and in no time I'm out the other side of the town.

The resemblance to my hometown of Pemberville, Ohio, especially in this green, fertile time of the year, with humidity thickening the hot air, and the air heavy with the rich scents of hydrangeas, mimosa, corn and bean crops, almost causes me to time travel back to my younger days.

I have little time, so I follow the compass point south to Collierville and today's lessons, before Ilace and I go to Celtic Crossing, where the Guiness-based Irish Stew is scrumptious!

We are eating on the patio when Barry Bianchi recognizes me (I wrote about this meeting here).

The ensuing music session was memorable for the fun and the music, but not least because it was populated with (3) three (count'em) hammered dulcimers!

Ilace wrote to let me know weeks later that the evening was still being remembered fondly among the players.

With fondness, appreciation for creative connections and the chance to turn over some personal historical connections is how I remember and treasure this Memphis landing!

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)