July has been a crazy month for my music. After returning to our US home, it didn’t take long before I was sharing some solo hammered dulcimer with my mother and her fellow assisted living friends. They are always a very welcoming group and seem to appreciate the soft tones of the dulcimer. My “gigs” there are a mix of many of my original tunes, a few fiddle tunes, and a couple covers that they might recognize. There are always lots of questions about the instrument and my playing that I happily answer. It’s always a nice, intimate setting for about 20 or so people and to top it off, I get to play for my mom. 🙂
Following the relaxing afternoon of relatively quiet dulcimer playing, I got the great pleasure of rocking out with my band, the Michiana String Collective (MSC). We got together to practice and polish off our set list for the upcoming gig at Chris Wilson Pavilion in Potawatomi Park, South Bend, IN. The time always flies by when making music with these guys and I can’t count the number of times the hair on the back of my neck stands up in awe of the sounds we make together. It’s always a nice eclectic mix of originals songs/tunes and rock covers spanning the 60’s to the 90’s. I get to mix in my dulcimer on nearly half of the songs and rock the cajon for the rest.
The big concert day arrived on the 13th with absolutely beautiful weather and a crowd of over 200! Not only that, but I was GREATLY surprised by a number of my musician friends that came to hear us. They came from quite some distances, some driving nearly 4 hours to get there! It’s always a little intimidating when making music in front of so many other musicians that I deeply respect and admire. Fortunately for us, the MSC was hitting on all cylinders and we had a really good concert. Then, to top it off, I got to hang out with a lot of my friends afterwards!
It took a couple of days before the “high” of the concert wore off and it was time to prepare for our annual trek to the mecca of hammered dulcimers, the Evart Funfest Music Festival, sponsored by the Original Dulcimer Players Club. This annual festival, in its 51st year, is largely focused on bringing hammered dulcimer players from around the US and the world together to share their music. It’s also a celebration of all acoustic instruments with nearly 200 workshops over three full days! Each evening is a concert of some of the best musicians in attendance. The festival is always both a rewarding and humbling experience for me. I love sharing my music with the community of players and visitors and stand in awe of the many super talented hammered dulcimer players that also attend. Seven of the previous national champion players were in attendance this year!
I also had the opportunity to meet, in person, Val Cortoni, a hammered dulcimer player from Paris, France. He came all the way to the US just for the festival! I have admired his playing online and connected with him virtually to share our European experiences of playing the dulcimer. He’s a wonderful player and even better person.
We arrived on Wednesday before the festival and left on Sunday. That’s four days of little sleep, LOTS of jams, catching up with dulcimer friends and some of my early influences. Afterwards comes another few days of head spinning as I relive all the wonderful experiences of another festival. I attended my first festival in 1998, the year I started playing and with a few exceptions during the years we owned a resort, attended most festivals since then. I know that I can point to the people and music of this festival as my primary influence on my dulcimer playing.
So, that brings us to today, back at home on a rainy Saturday and the chance to take my dulcimer to the Goshen Farmers Market for their bi-weekly old time jam. It’s a great group of people and a relaxed set of tunes in a nice environment. It has become a little musical anchor for me when we are in the US. Today, I guess my head wasn’t on straight — I forgot my little box with my tuner and all my hammers. Fortunately, I guess, someone had a couple of wooden spoons and I played the two hours with two heavy spoons. It wasn’t super musical, but certainly was funny!
August will be a bit more relaxed for me musically, but certainly filled with the challenges I put on myself after Evart!