Day 33: Crushing Your Adversaries at the Cranberry Gathering. (This is a combination of two long, fulfilling days.)

I slept through the night! I don't know when the last time I did that. I was in bed and done reading around midnight, and I didn't get up until just before six! I'm sure that the sleepless night before and the almost seven mile run had something to do with it. Plus, Noel made a great spicy tuna casserole last night, and I had thirds!

I was already packed for our trip to Latham, NY, which is just north of Albany. The drive took about four hours because we made a couple of stops. But traffic was just fine until we got near Albany on a Friday afternoon at 4:13pm. Then there was some traffic.

We got to the  church where the gathering is being held, and Dwain was welcomed as an old friend by many. There are six builders here, which is pretty incredible to me. They welcomed me and were friendly. I got to tell my "how'd you get into dulcimers" story to two great musicians on very different paths. Carol Walker, a.k.a. Music Lady Carol, and Norm Williams, whose motto seems to be "just sit down and play already!".

This is my story: Three years ago I was doing a workshop at Arrowmont, which is a craft school. I was learning to work with ceramics. Val was doing Kaufman Kamp. Both are in TN, but an hour of geography separated us. My workshop was two weeks and hers one. So I went over to pick her up and bring her back with me. On our way we saw a craft market on the side of the road--it was fancy because we had to pay a couple of dollars to get in. Val saw this guy who was teaching at Kaufman Kamp, and he was selling the mountain dulcimers that he makes. So she says hello and Mike Clemmer, the builder, shows val how to play. I really liked the sound, but I know my sausage fingers are not meant for any stringed instrument.
So Val brings it home and cannot stand it. We've come to think that it is because it is diotonic and not chromatic, but who knows. So Val hangs the thing on the wall, where it lives for a year. I was in the room where it hung, and I was moving something. I hit the dulcimer and it sung to me, sweetly. I pulled it down and played with it. Then I started looking online for how-tos, and I found Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer, which is a fantastic community and resource. Well, I'm an artist, so of course I wanted to build my own dulcimer. And I started looking around for plans and kits. During my research I found the Bear Meadow web site, which tells you how to build a dulcimer!

After corresponding through email with Dwain for some time and a few phone calls and a lot of internet stalking, I decided that I wanted Dwain to teach me how to build dulcimers. The plan turned into Dwain teaching me how to make the materials to make dulcimers which then turned into I get to carry on the Sunhearth/Bear Meadow dulcimer building tradition! Who could know we'd be at this point today?

There was even a concert that I got to hear and see. It was really nice to see such talented musicians at work and to think that some of them may want my machines at some point. But I didn't stay long because Dwain was working on a Sunhearth that a guy here is selling. There were some repairs done to it by someone who has no idea about dulcimer action because the settings were just bad.
But Dwain got that done and earned a little cash besides restoring to a much better condition one of Walt's machines.

We didn't have a place to stay, so the Assistant Pastor said we could stay with

him. He is a really nice man who just recently lost his wife--she died, she's not missing. He talks about her with such love that I had to smile as he told stories of their collaborations, where he cut wooden stuff and she painted it. He has a great wood shop in the basement where I'm staying. He does a lot of scroll saw stuff, too; he does the really intricate stuff that'd drive me crazy! So I get the whole entire basement for my own! And it has a fireplace, as you can see in the photo.

Today has been a great adventure, and if it wasn't 12:06am I'd write more. But I have to get up and get ready for another day of dulcimer gathering!

Day two was a great day. I must admit that I was worn really thin in the midday when others were in their workshops and we were alone. But I do enjoy interacting with the dulcimer people here. They are warm and wonderful and welcoming.

We started off with a breakfast in a diner, which looked like it'd be a greasy-spoon diner. But the food was mostly really good. At least the omelet and rye toast were. The "home fries" were not so good, and it is not often that I won't eat a fried potato!

We got to the church just before nine and expected to get to the opening meeting, but the opening meeting had already happened. The sessions had already begun. I didn't know when mine was, so that was a bit of a problem. But it turns out that it is tomorrow, and that is wonderful! It is at 8:45am. The session is Songs and Dance Tunes From the Jewish Tradition, and I'm really excited. I met the teacher, Lucy Joan Sollagub, today, and she is really nice. Plus, I did some research on her, and she is a wonderful and very active teacher and musician. And she wrote a great book: Shiron L'Shalom: A Sourcebook of Jewish Songs for Peace Education.(I ended up missing the session because we got a late start, but I did get to have dinner with Lucy, and she was as great as all of the others here!)


Okay, I cannot think. I want to list the builders that I've met and that have been so kind to me along with their web information. But I'm too tired. There is also a days worth of really important stuff, like concerts and peg heads and why this group of builder is not adversarial. And ask me about the woman who asked 5 luthiers how to put a strap on her octave instrument. But tomorrow, I hope. I'm done for today. I'm exhausted from all of the great stuff that happened.

The builders that I met are these: George Haggerty. George wants to be a crotchety old man, but he is really a kind soul who teaches kids how to build and play the dulcimer. I will be contacting him, for sure, because he is already doing what I want--which is to teach kids to build and play the dulcimer.

Bernd Krause. Bernd is a wonderful person who was trained the old-school way in guitar building, even though he built dulcimers before that. He has an awesome resonator dulcimer, and he has a bunch of other really nice ones.

George Handy: George, pictured left with his wife, has a story that cannot be made up. He has worked with wood forever, and his love for the dulcimer started over a year ago. George was working for a company and he had a heart attack. As the helicopter was taking him over his factory the employees were being given their pink slips. George took it on the chin and kept on fighting when he decided that he'd make dulcimers to sell. His inlay work is amazingly wonderful, and I mistook some of it for ink drawings because it was that subtle. He does beautiful work!

Jeremy Seeger, his dulcimers pictured right, is a kind, warm, and gentle human being. I knew from the moment that I started talking to him that he was a hugger. Jeremy and I were talking about how we got started into music. He just smiled when I asked him if his family was musical. Of course I already knew who his family was, but I didn't want to presume anything. Jeremy told me about his family's beginnings in music, and he had a loving smile on his face the whole time.

These four men, all accomplished luthiers and dulcimer builders, were tough to woo over. In fact, I don't think that I was accepted until the final day, and even then I'm not acknowledged as their equals--which I'm not. But they understand from where I am coming and to where I am going. They see that building dulcimers is going to be the form my art-making takes, and they see how I am bound by traditions--Sunhearth and Bear Meadow. They each told Dwain that I am a good heir for Bear Meadows. I am awed and humbled that such men would think so. I could not have asked for a better introduction to the dulcimer building world, and I am grateful for meeting these fineguys. 

Dwain is carving a scroll head (on the left) for an instrument that he is building. On a whim he went over to look at the Sunhearth's scroll head (on rhw right)--there is a couple that sold the Sunhearth here at the gathering. Dwain likes the lines and curves of the Sunhearth better than his, and he cannot recall why his developed differently than his teacher taught him. He went back to the one that he is working on and promptly made the changes.Done. That is the mark a true master, I think.

Workshop bench after much work. Dwain cautions and advises me on how to decide what repair to do "curb side." This was a very important lesson, as I'm sure that I will have to do the circuit of dulcimer makers in order to make a living.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich, macaroni salad, and some chips and a brownie.





We watched a baby woodchuck climb into the engine compartment of a car and alerted the driver. They put food out and the little guy went on his way. These are the moments between the art making and the music.



I took a picture of dinner half way through and the boys laughed at me. I told them that I was on a diet so I wanted to show how little I ate. I had already eaten the mashed potatoes and gravy, a big spinach salad, and most of my chicken.

People came and it was nice to talk about instruments and music.

There were three concerts put on. The only part of one that I saw was a woman dressed as an Irish special guest singing an Irish tune about a woman who kills her entire family in weird ways.

Another concert was put on by the directors of Dulcimer U, Larry & Elaine Conger. When he did the Everly Brothers' "gee wiz" song everybody sang. I knew the "dream, dream, dream" and "gee wiz" parts. He put on a nice show that displayed his versatility.


Yeah, this is really up in the church.

George Handy, who has been building for just over a year with his wife. He makes some really nice dulcimers with wonderful inlay.

And these guys are amazing! House of Waters.

And it is 12:04, and I'm going to sleep!

So I discovered that there is room for me in the dulcimer building world. The other guys who build are not by adversaries. We don't have to compete. Each builder has his own sound and aesthetics. We all want to pass on to the world our art form, namely dulcimer building. I am so happy with my foray into the dulcimer circuit. We are not adversaries, but we are artists who want the same thing in the world: for others to enjoy playing music on hand-made mountain dulcimers.