Wild times in Blue Mountain Lake

There is a gathering of musicians that takes place every summer in the Adirondacks– every summer for the past 28 years.  So it was quite an honor for me to be invited as the hammered dulcimer instructor for the Northeast Dulcimer Symposium this year.  I had wonderful class, very opened minded willing-to-try-anything students!  Two unusual instruments made an appearance at the week: Laurie McCarriar’s hammered mbira and Ken Lovelett’s orthagonal lap drum.  Here they are, one clip from the sound check (with Tom White walking in and out of the frame as he set up the stage), and one clip from the performance, which was done in complete darkness while Laurie played with her light-up hammers.  Oh man, that was cool!

Ken Lovelett and Laurie McCarriar at the Northeast Dulcimer Symposium, June 2009:

Walkin’ in the Parlor

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a good old fashioned recorded-it-in-my-living-room kind of post.  Partly, that’s because I haven’t been in my living room lately for long enough to record a tune.  But the other evening, Matt came by for some tunes (as well as folk school plotting and scheming), and this is what we made.  Exploring the quiet, the slow, the simple, the serene side of old time music… We’re inching towards the place where old time music meets African music, or at least the kind of African music I love to listen to.  [I reference this mbira post.]  Actually, now that I think about it, most of the traditional mbira music from Zimbabwe I’ve heard is fast and busy… And maybe I’m just really into what Forward Kwenda does when he takes those traditional melodies to a mellower place.  Well certainly I appreciate knowing how to reach that mellower place in old time music.  Matt Evans is the conductor on the express train to old time mellowland…the slowest, quietest, most peaceful train you could ever imagine.  Here’s my first official wish to the universe in 2009: I wish for Matt and myself to someday collaborate with Forward Kwenda.    Crazier things have been wished for on blogs, haven’t they?

Walkin’ in the Parlor, recorded by Matt and Christie on 18th St., Chattanooga, Jan 11, 2009.

Blue Skies

I was too busy making mojitos to fuss with the camera (or a fiddle, or a dulcimer) while the big part of the party went on. But when it all died down, I found myself in a fairly odd–but totally fun–jam session with Ken Doyle on Irish flute and Ken Harrison on saw. This is our rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”. A rather soulful ensemble, don’t you think?

18th Street “surprise” party for Rick Davis, July 5th, 2008: