Stevens County Library Hugoton, KS

After driving through parts of Southwestern Colorado for the first time as I began my May-June 2012 tour,  I arrived in the Natural Gas Capital of the world on Tuesday and was delighted to find that my housing was booked into a Bed and Breakfast with a hammered dulcimer shape carved in its stone sign!

The Stevens County Library was the venue for the concert, booked by Unbound Booking.

Because I arrived early, I was able to visit the very impressive local museum, where I was informed that I was visiting the two best features of the town today!

Hugoton, county seat of Stevens County, (a story which is interesting in its own right!)  had a massive natural gas boom in the 1920s, which paralled a similar boom in my hometown of Pemberville, Ohio.  The comparisons between this town and the one of my birth and rearing were very uncanny, even though my hometown is about a 1/3 the size of this one.

This was my first gig booked by Unbound Booking and was great fun.

Even MORE fun was when Eunice, the librarian, brought out her dulcimers made by a builder in Liberal, Kansas in the 1990s!

Visiting the new Dusty Strings Dulcimer Factory

When I left my parish ministry position in 1997 and we moved to Fort Collins, Jim Brandt gave a parting blessing to me:  

"I hope you can find a way to focus on your music in the next chapter of your life."

Music had been a key organizing tool throughout my call as a parish pastor in a multi-cultural, innercity setting in Kansas City.  But it kept nagging at me, pulling my pants-leg and whispering to get more of my attention.

When we came to Fort Collins, my spouse and traded roles and I became the primary parent for our elementary and pre-school children.  Because I needed to make some income in a flexible occupation, and because I was finally free to focus on music, I dedicated my time to throwing every musical line (no pun intended) into the water and then reeling in whatever bit.  Among other things, I began teaching private lessons on guitar and the "weird" instruments.

Dusty Strings D-260 B (in back)

In Feb 1984 I built my first hammered dulcimer from a Hughes Dulcimer kit, and in the following years I rebuilt it 6 times.  I'm grateful for the kit because without it, I might never have starting playing, thinking that I was not worth having a nice insrument.   But I had such a hard time trying to advance in my playing because I could hardly keep the thing in playing condition!  

Thanks to farewell gifts from colleagues and friends in Kansas City, I was able to order my first "built-by-somebody-else" dulcimer the day we moved into our house in Fort Collins.  

My dulci-mentor, Esther Kreek, had provided both the spark and the avenue of acquiring the instrument.  

I was helping her to set up for what she told me was her 4th gig of the day and she said, "well, I guess I better tune this one string that always goes out of tune when I move the instrument."  I was dumb-founded...tune, yes, but ONE string?  Mine always went completely out of tune if I looked at it, turned away...or tuned it!

I had to know about this instrument!  She was a Dusty Strings dealer and told me she could help me by ordering an instrument for me.

When I did some examination into this tuning-stable instrument, I discovered that the vertical treble bridge construction also appealed to me, so I called her and placed my order.

It took a few months for it to arrive and I was surprised to know that they were building it...just for ME.  I'd never had anything made for me that I hadn't built myself!

The daily and weekly waiting and watching for the brown truck to bring me the instrument (one of their finishers had broken her hand and that slowed the completion process down) turned up in the song I wrote with Jim Pierce:  (6-String) Mail Order Bride.  Listen Here.

It finally arrived on the big brown truck....and it was IN TUNE!

Ray & Sue Mooers in the entry to the new office

I've had wonderful adventures with this instrument and eventually became a dealer to help provide others with the joy I've had in making music with these skillfully and reliably produced instruments.

I had visited their store on Fremont St. in Seattle back in 2000 while on tour with Russ Hopkins as Blind Monks.  Sue and Ray Mooers gave me a great tour.  

The door of the retail store & music school

This time, so much had changed!  

Connie and I started at the old store, which has MORE space for instruments, and is also home to the music school that the Mooers had envisioned for so many years. 

They've purchased a new warehouse, construction/office facility south of the river and a few minutes away which is serving them wonderfully.

Sue and Ray gave us an in-depth tour of the harp and hammered dulcimer production facility: we saw the cache of beautiful woods, the milling room, computer-aided machine that keeps production humming, the assembly and sanding rooms, the paint booths and as we turned the corner from the stringing room into the tune-up room there stands Mike, an employee who is also a local sculptor, who is hammering away on a new instrument, stopping to tweak tuning every now and then, but just caressing these new instruments to find their voices.  That's not all he does, Sue assures me, but playing dulcimers all day might not be a bad job, huh?

Ray and I compared notes from building our first instruments and there, in the showroom is #1..."You win the crude-est instrument contest!" I conceded as we all laughed. 

Also on display is this historical "piano harp" which reminds me of the square grand piano that I grew up taking piano lessons on in my home in Pemberville, Ohio. 

Piano Harp by A&W H. Kenzies, Nov 11, 1890

If you are in the area, be sure to stop in and see the place where all these beautiful, sweet-sounding instruments are made.  

They'll be glad to see you, and you'll be glad you came.

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!