The Lovely Lisa Ferguson

I’m glad this blog is about all kinds of music I encounter on a daily/weekly basis, so I’m free to post a clip of someone else playing the hammered dulcimer. Lisa Ferguson and I got lucky with two last-minute gigs this weekend. The first one, Saturday night, was at CreateHere on Main Street. Then we went to Ken Pritchard’s new building (formerly the OCI warehouse on Main St) and playing for an open house he was having there. We spent two hours playing out on the sidewalk to try to attract some passers by, and then rewarded ourselves by going inside to a big open wooden room, all frosty-lit with big walls o’ windows…

I asked Lisa to play her newly composed tune for me, because I felt myself just falling more and more in love with it (and today, still falling). I recorded it with my iPod, which I still haven’t quite figured out, so the sound is a bit rough. The levels were too low, so I boosted them a bit for the sake of this blog, but it all ends up a bit noisy, sounding like it was recorded on a cassette recorder. The other noise you hear in there is me and Adelle dancing behind Lisa, loving every second of the music. When we finished dancing, I sat down at my dulcimer and joined in with a few notes towards the end of her piece.

The piece is still a work-in-progress for Lisa, but she said I could post it anyway. This is currently the most beautiful piece of music in my world.

Thanks to Philip Luckey for the photo!

Westfork Gals

I just was experimenting with the new recording function of my iPod, and decided to play a bit with one of my favorite old time tunes.  I first heard this tune in Cork at Monday night sessions with Mick Daly and the Lee Valley Boys, and fell in love with it all over again when I heard Dwight Diller’s recording of it.  It’s one of those tunes that sounds nice when it’s played slow.

The dulcimer is in perfect “house tuning,” meaning that it’s been sitting in the house, not being tuned.  It’ll get whipped into shape this weekend, though, for two gigs on Main Street.  Gotta love gigs three blocks from your house!

Concert in Hungary

We just received word that the video of our first concert in Budapest has been posted!  Once you’re on the page, use the small black scrollbar to scroll down, and click on the line that has my name on it… and then wait a while… It took quite a long time for the video to load for me, but it’s some mighty fine video work, so it’s worth it in my opinion.

http://www.kulturalis.tv/zenemuveszet/cibalom-vilagszovetseg-cimbalomkoncertje.html

This was from January 15th, 2008, at the Slovakian Institute in Budapest, Hungary.

Raar

We could call this my St. Paddy’s Day special. And this time I’m reaching even further back in time to Spring, 2002, when five non-Irish people formed an Irish traditional band, and called themselves, “Raar,” meaning “strange” in Dutch… of course.

The band was a palindrome. Same backwards and forwards. Tom Spackman (USA) played mandolin, guitar, and bodhran, and opposite him was Robin Turk (UK) with the same arsenal. Move in one place and you have Stella Rodrigues (Holland) on fiddle, and opposite her was Emma Small (South Africa) also on fiddle. I landed in the middle of the group with my freak instrument. All of us sang, all of us played with all of our heart. We had two phenomenal gigs, and that’s all. By the summer, we all kind of scattered and went back to our other pursuits. I still listen to these recordings and think, “Dang, we were really good.” And we sure did put a ton of time into items like arrangement. What if we’d had more time together? What if Cork really was home to all of us?

The following are all of the sets we performed at the UCC Traditional Music Society student concert at An Spailpin Fanach, Cork, Ireland, May 2002. Introduction by Mel Mercier. Special guest, Elin Skoglund (Sweden), on nyckelharpa.

Sunday afternoon with Fintan

This is another one I had to fetch with my time machine.  I did spend a lovely Sunday afternoon today playing music with my new friend Bryan, but unfortunately, all the tunes I’d recorded came out as duds, because silly me, I haven’t learned how to use the recording function on my iPod yet.  Grrrr.

Anyway, feeling like it’s way past time to post something on the blog, I decided to dig into the magic box o’ minidiscs and pull out something from an equally lovely Sunday afternoon.  As I recall, this was a day when Fintan Lucy and I were hell-bent to play music in public.  We set off from my house at the Red Abbey and headed to—Fintan, what was the name of that place that slammed the door in our faces when we showed them the instrument cases?  Jeepers, I’ve never been less wanted in my life.  Well we ended up at the Phoenix, next to the former musical landmark and all around groovy place, the Lobby.  Man, I had it real good then.  A whole host of pubs within walking distance from my house, days and days full of music, and more than my fair share of friends to share it all with.

I’m glad I happened to bring the minidisc recorder along on this little jaunt.  Fintan is one of the most amazing singers I know; even a casual recording like this, with all the pub background noise, gives me the chills.  The song is “John Barleycorn,” an example of Fintan taking a song that isn’t his own, but owning it like nobody’s business.  I love this image of the two musicians creating their own little atmosphere in the corner of a pub, while the rest of the drinkers and socializers do their thing.  I’ve purposely included the before and after chatter on this track.  Fintan and I were cracking ourselves up, and enjoying every bit of the afternoon we stole for the sake of music.

Me and Fintan Lucy, improvising a few songs at the Phoenix pub, Cork City, Ireland, April 2004:

Snowbird

The first time I heard this tune, Snowbird, I was sitting in the all-purpose room of an elementary school in Gainsborough, England, and the guy playing it was a fiddle/banjo player from Vermont.  I had recorded it then, back in 2004 with just me and him playing it, and have loved the tune ever since.  But I’ve never found anyone else who knows it, so I’ve kept it to myself, just played it maybe a few times on my own, but never in a session… until yesterday.  Fred, Ouida, and I paid a visit to Lucy Long’s cabin at the Breakin’ Up Winter festival in Lebanon, TN.  We brought instruments and the birthday bourbon, sat down and had us a few great tunes.  Luke of Lawrenceburg was also there pulling out all kinds of tricks on the guitar, banjo, and harmonica.  I was so delighted when Lucy started playing Snowbird!

I recorded it on my iPod, experimenting for the first time with the new Belkin recording attachment I just got for it.  I wasn’t using an external mic, although I think it would sound better if I had.  Still, not a bad job for just a little guy.

What do I like so much about this tune?  It’s rather plain… not crooked, not in the key of A, no surprise key changes in the second part… I don’t really get what gets me about it, but I’m got.  It’s a sweet tune.

Jellico Jam

Well it sounded to me like they were all singin’ the blues tonight in Jellico.  These sweet, slow songs (or maybe they just seemed slow because I was expecting bluegrass)… All these guys and a couple o’ gals sitting around in their circle in this medium-sized cream-colored cinderblock room with stacks of folding chairs for decoration.  I’m here trying to discover, and exhibit, Campbell County’s roots music, so I figured I should check out this Monday night pickin’ in Jellico.  It’s the hometown of Grace Moore, the opera singer who mentored Dorothy Kirsten, the opera singer my grandmother continues to work for even beyond Dorothy’s passing.

The album of my year.

Earlier this week I decided to order myself a birthday gift, and with some luck it actually arrived on my birthday!  It’s Malcolm Dalglish’s latest, “Into the Sky.”  It’s under the ensemble’s name, Ooodoo, which is himself, Moira Smiley, Naomi Dalglish, and Joshua Kartes, plus N. Scott Robinson a’tappin’ on all kinds of percussion.  I met these folks (all except Joshua) back in the summer of 2001 when I attended Malcolm’s outdoor singing camp in California.  That remains two of the most musically memorable weeks of my life, so you can imagine what emotions are stirred in me to hear this music again, recorded and produced so beautifully on this cd.   These are Malcolm’s original compositions, mainly for folk choir accompanied by hammered dulcimer. On the first track, “Walking in the Cradle of our Land,” there’s piano and hammered dulcimer playing together– a perfect blend to support the voices.

I thought I’d share at least the link for the site where you can hear samples of the tracks– Have a listen and you’ll know what my world sounds like these days!

http://oooliticmusic.com