Got a Bose Stick Today

Weee! I just got my brand new Bose stick sound system (L1 model II), set it all up, plugged in my dulcimer (the Masterworks) and took off on some kind of improvisation using the delay effect. Ain’t ya proud, Dan? Ok, so this is like way a lot of fun… I’ll keep this post short and go back to playing with my new toy! Good times to come! And sweet sounding music.

“Stick Today”, recorded by Christie Burns on 18th Street, May 18, 2008:

Ni:d!

Just ran across this video on Youtube…. Gotta love the way these Swedes interpret Poor Man’s Troubles, an American fiddle tune. Also, I think I recognize that percussionist from the Swedish band who crashed the festival in Gooik, Belgium, last summer. Incredible music.

More fun with old tunes

Another record we listened to at my Victrola party was Arkansas Traveler (as a fox trot)! It’s been one of my favorite old time tunes ever since I heard Rayna Gellert’s rendition. Most people think of Looney Toons or “Picking up my baby bumble bee” when they hear this tune, but I think it can be pretty edgy if you do it right, or just pretty.
So here’s the version recorded from the Victrola machine:

Rayna Gellert’s version:

And my version on solo dulcimer, just quickly recorded in my living room for the heck of it:

Victrola party

It’s something I’ve only heard about in oral history interviews about the 1930s. But golly, with luck like mine, I landed myself at my very own Victrola party tonight, where I got to pick out all the records and listen to them on an authentic RCA Victrola. I spent an hour or more going through stacks and stacks of 78s, looking at song titles, recognizing a few of the recording artists, but mostly just feeling like I’d encountered music from another planet. And really, it basically is music from another planet. A completely different time and place from where we currently live… This machine with no plug and no lights, you wind it up, set the record in motion, place the needle down in the outer groove, and then you get to hear one song. One. And it’s louder than a bomb. That is, if the cabinet doors are open. Want less volume? Close the cabinet doors. Wild.

It’s kinda similar to how I listen to music in my own house, with the iTunes going from the laptop in the bedroom, and if it’s too loud, I shut the door a little. Only, instead of having to get up and change the record after each song, I can listen to 2019 songs, and wouldn’t have to get up off my chair for approximately 5.4 days.

Anyway, I chose this record tonight because I recognized the title from a funny song my friend Tom has been known to sing. “Huggin’ and A’Chalkin,” written by Clancy Hayes and Kermit Goell, performed by Herbie Fields and his orchestra, 1946.

No Strings Attached

Going a bit out of chronological order here, and stepping back to Saturday night, 2/9/2008. This was one of the hot numbers in the No Strings Attached set, where they invited up Guy George, Karen Mueller, and Butch Ross for a little “Lady Be Good.” That’s Wes Chappell on mandolin, Randy Marchany on hammered dulcimer, and Bob Thomas on bass. These guys have been rockin’ the dulcimer world since before I was born.

Red

This is a piece I wrote and recorded on Christmas Eve. I like it because it reminds me of an artist in Pasadena, Terry Payne, whose work is shown above. Mostly, it reminds me of the music on his website, but then I can easily remember meeting him and his big fluffy dog on the streets of Pasadena while I played my dulcimer there. He was quite a lot older than me, and I’m pretty sure we had little, if anything, in common… But it’s probably the mystery that I liked about him the most. I remember a certain gentle intensity about him. Before I had a chance to get to know him at all, I left for Ireland. While I was in Ireland, Terry sent me a very cool postcard– an illustration of his in the style Polish circus poster that originally had the word “Cyrk” on it, that Terry had cleverly changed to “Cork”. All these years I’ve kept him in mind as the artist I’d like to have design my cd cover. You out there, Terry? You with me on this? Remember your dulcimer girl?

Never What You Expect.

People assume that you go to Ireland to study Irish music. But what I found there was so much more diverse. Unfortunately, I can’t remember this guy’s name or how we met, but he plays the Indian vina. You’re hear it and think “sitar,” and it’s in the same family, but it’s a vina. I really do wish I could remember his name. The minidisc is labeled “vina” and that’s it, although I do know it was 2003, because I remember him coming to practice in my room at the Leeside apartments– the room on the top floor that had the slanted ceiling window thing. I’d wake up in the mornings and watch the scrolling slideshow of clouds, rain, seagulls, patches of blue, clouds, rain, seagulls…

Anyway, this was me and the Irishman with the vina practicing for a rare gig (completely unique for me, actually) at an Indian restaurant in Cork City, 2003. All completely improvised.

I guess I really like that song.

This is another recording made at my home at the Red Abbey in Cork City. I think it was recorded on the R.L. Tack dulcimer I brought home from Winfield in 2003. Such a beautiful sound, and I loved it a lot, but I regrettably sold it for rent money… Someday I hope to find that dulcimer again.

Yet another meditation on Amazing Grace:

Christmas.