Dulcimers at Streetmosphere 2011

This is my 2nd year to play in Beet Street's Streetmosphere Program that puts artists in the midst of the crowds throughout Old Town Fort Collins.  And wow, it has grown!

Link to Fort Collins Life-Times

Dulci-Bro, photo by Tim Van Schmidt

Beth Flowers, Beet Street's director, said the numbers match my experience:  "Our interns are doing counts of people and interactions.  Well over 100,000 people have stopped and interacted with Streetmosphere artists this summer!"

Local artist, Tim Van Schmidt, stopped by last night and snapped this photo, including it in his Fort Collins Life-Times, "more news-less paper" site.  Click my picture and it check-out.

Streetmosphere 2010, photo by Kaitlin Winter-Eulberg

Sandwich Board at each location

Tim is a gifted poet and award-winning visual artist who is drawn to music and landscapes and has posted what has caught his eye in Fort Collins.  He also writes insightful and thoughtful reviews about his experiences in musical venues.

I have one more slot this weekend--1-4 pm Sunday afternoon beside Ingredient (SW corner of Mountain and College Avenue.)  If you're in the neighborhood, come on by.  If not, take a look at the links above and the photos here and you'll get some of the flavor.

2010 Mugs' corner

2010 Austin's Corner, photo by John Drege

Galax Mountain Dulcimer, Cache Bank corner 2010 photo by Kaitlin Winter-Eulberg

DPN Archive now available online!

Dulcimer Players News (a quarterly journal for dulcimer enthusiasts) is now available in a searchable on-line archive!

I was the "coverboy" in the Summer issue of 2002, which also featured an observant and thoughtful interview, written by Fort Collins writer & poet Tim van Schmidt.

In addition, an arrangement of the early American shape-note tune, Wondrous Love in DAG tuning was included, together with a short descriptive article by Gil Waldkoenig.

Even now, almost a decade later, I remember how excited I was when then-editor, Maddie MacNeil, called to ask me to be a featured interview for this issue.  When one is involved with a labor of love, out of the limelight, in what may be thought of as a backwater (or certainly not in the middle of river of dulcimers!) one's existence might be more easily compared to a monk's hermitage.

To be noticed, introduced and recognized for this love is quite gratifying.  As I travel and teach and meet many talented musicians who play dulcimers and guitar (both the aspiring and the retiring folks!) I am excited to have the opportunity to support them by providing the notice that this article gave me.

And now it is searchable so that ANYONE can do the same for all the people named in the interviews, articles, letters-to-the-editor, and more going back to the magazine's beginning in 1975.

Thanks to Dan and Angie Landrum, Stephen Seifert and the many other hands who have labored long and hard to make this available for all of us!

And don't forget to subscribe to the magazine to keep yourself up-to-date, and keep the tradition going!

Western Carolina Mountain Dulcimer Week

Nestled in the Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina, Western Carolina University is the setting for another week-long exploration of musical growth and learning, this one focused on the mountain dulcimer.  I've been blessed to teach and perform at this festival several times in the past, but this one was a very special blend of teachers and students.

Larry & Elaine Conger, Steve, Janita Baker, Sarah Elizabeth,
Jim Miller, Marsha Harris, Dave Haas & Joe Collins

The faculty concert on Thursday night was another highlight of this year's Mountain Dulcimer Week at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. 

Mount Jackson / Just a Sliver

After watching Dave Haas' video from a David Schnaufer 1999 concert in West Virginia the night before, I felt like I was channeling David when playing this uptempo medley in DAC tuning.
A finger-picked Girl from Ipanema was in the 2nd set, accompanied by shaker and vocals from Elaine Conger and vocal percussion from the audience.

Lil Plumer, Dan Grimm, Julie Elman

Of course my Master Class delved deeply into the music behind the performance, the tools and techniques for setting that music on the dulcimer, and the necessary preparation and polishing for performing those songs and tunes.  They graciously and openly received, supported and critiqued their own arrangements and performances (and mine, too!), developing a special bond of trust that inspired them to further growth as musicians.

 I was delighted to play with and be the guest conductor of the Dulcimer Ensemble Class with Larry and Elaine Conger.  

We shared trio arrangements of Holy Manna, Rock-A-My-Soul and the Finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  

They did an excellent job of learning to play independent parts, while not necessarily seated beside people playing the same parts, playing rests, adding and remembering to play dynamically, utilizing staccato skills and had a very strong finish!  After only 3 short days of rehearsal—I am so proud of them!

My soul-tank returns home full from this one!

(Thanks to Larry Conger & Mr. Deadwyler for photos I didn't take.)

Kentucky Music Week Highlights

I was blessed once again to share musical explorations with the fun people that Nancy Barker gathers each year in Bardstown, Kentucky (home of Stephen Foster.)

I taught Blues & Jazz to hammered dulcimer players.  (photo by Ilace Mears)

I led a mixed group of mountain and hammered dulcimer players through some symphonic music in many parts (Christmas Carols, selected variations of Pachelbel's Canon in D, Southern Harmony shape-note tunes, Vivaldi's Spring from the "Four Seasons" and a brand new arrangement of Beethoven's Sonatina in G, for 4 parts:  2 mountain and 2 hammered dulcimer parts).

I also taught hymns and mixolydian tunes for hammered dulcimer, and gave a rollicking didjeridoo demonstration, complete with many people trying out their technique.  We decided that the best way to help people pronounce the name of this Australian aboriginal instrument is to ask:  "did you re-do your house or hair?"

Other highlights included several pickup bands that serenaded the folks in the lunchline.  I led a Brass Band that featured Mark Alan Wade and I on trumpet, Robert Force on trombone and Eric Jarboe on Tuba! (photo by Marsha Harris)  On another day I participated in a fun string band playing my Don Neuhauser Dulci-bro.  (photo by Nancy Seifert)

Of course, concert performances are fun and this year I played Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" my David Myhre Electric Mountain Dulcimer.  (THAT's the chord I was looking for in FAC tuning!)



That was followed by rock on rock, dedicated to the folks rebuilding their church following the tornado (Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin, MO--where I gave a dulcimer concert some years ago.)

The audience did a fine job on construction percussion for this one, too. (photos by Marsha Harris)

Of course a week like this can't go by without recalling the jam sessions like this one that go into the wee hours of the morning, especially when you are playing and learning more old-time tunes in the key of "A" with Ken Kolodner on fiddle and Cathy Barton Para on banjo!

Finally, my ambition was realized:  to be a "Pip" for Gladys Knight!!  Okay, it was just a back-up dancer for Van Morrison's Brown-Eyed Girl, but in my memories we're on the midnight train to Georgia, singing "sha-la-la-la-la-la.....la-dee-dah!.....

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!

Blue Plate Special WDVX, Knoxville!

The Blue Plate Special served up a tasty menu today (a daily LIVE radio broadcast at WDVX, which is hosted in the Knoxville Visitor's Center.)

The Audience is filling the chairs.

I played here a few years ago and was delighted to have the opportunity to do so again!

There is a live studio audience as you can see from these photos: (taken from my vantage point on stage just before the show began to air.)

Daniel (Engineer) and Red Hickey
 (host) check the final details.

I was up first,
(See my set list below)
then Jerry Butler and the Blu-Jays (Bluegrass band) took the stage:



and Tony Furtado rounded out today's delectable selections.

Tony Furtado

The people who came to my workshops in Townsend heard the show and I was able to plug both www.dulcimercrossing.com and my workshop, show and jam in Chattanooga tomorrow!

And even more cool, the Visitors Center sports an umbrella collection (whether these are left behind, or offered for unprotected tourists...it is still surprising and thoughtful!)  

Steve's setlist:

Simple Gifts (hammered dulcimer solo)

Barlow Knife (mountain dulcimer with noter & quill, then noter & pick)

80,000 Cage-Free Chickens (mountain dulcimer & vocal)

Fiddle Tune Set:  Flop-Eared Mule / Liberty / Soldier's Joy (hammered dulcimer solo)

Roots and Wings: Vivid Eco-Art!

I was so filled with joy to complete my Artist-in-Residency with Montrose Elementary students in Songwriting earlier this month.  (See this post for an earlier explanation...and then wait for more details to follow.)

BUT!  I was not the only artist to work with the students this year.

Michelle Stitzlein is a visual artist who designed and helped the students install a mural entitled "Roots and Wings"

Here is the detail of "Roots"

"and Wings"

The brilliance of the colors and the composition are so active and exciting--just like the songs I wrote with the 2nd Graders.

But now look more closely:  The material for this mosaic is all injection-molded bottle tops!  All in the original colors of their original fabrication.

The school has been collecting these bottle tops all year because it is estimated that they don't decompose back to their natural components for 500 years.  With Michelle's help, they have removed them from the refuse stream and assigned them a new, beautifying purpose.

AND, each child in the school was able to add at least one of the tops to the art.  And, they can remember which one they added!  "That's mine!" a student proudly says, pointing to a green one near the bottom.

"What's Your Story?" has been the school theme for the year.

This reminds me of the Felice Holman poem, "who am i" that I set to music, a line of which became the title for my 2007 recording.  (Listen and/or download here)

All of us have a piece of the puzzle and together they magnify and multiply beauty in the world!