Day 31: In the Right Spot.

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 seven 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!".

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!