It is a super-nice day outside. This is me playing at the Perryville Outlet Center in Maryland just a few hours ago. Headed down to Killens Pond in Felton, DE in a bit to play a campground set. :)
ex-humed asked: what kind of dulcimer do you have?
I have two!
My first is a dulcimer someone made from a kit. We got it off e-bay. I’m told it dates, at youngest, to the 70’s, since that’s when the company which made the kits went out of business.
My latest is a June Apple dulcimer, which I bought from the House of Musical Traditions (MY FAVORITE STORE). It’s made of black walnut and it is a delightful instrument.
I’m playing the 2nd annual Ladybug Festival! Yowza! These ladies are all killer musicians.
Dulcimer Thursday #39: “Fever Dream,” by Iron and Wine.
Did a smudge of multitracking. This arrangement is very faithful to the original. Sounds good on a dulcimer, if I do say so myself :)
It’s tuned aAG# (the two A’s are an octave, the G# is right below the higher A). I tried a few different tunings and this one I liked the best. Maybe not the easiest.
Had to share this photo of The Honey Badgers collaborating with Halley & McKeever last night at Mojo Main ^^
Check out Ghoyst Photography for more shots, including touring bands Speaker for the Dead and Bright Red Reason, and newly-founded local folkies Alidade.
Did I mention how good Alidade was?! Goodness gracious they’re like the new Mumford or something. Only without a banjo right yet.
quick demo of a quick song I wrote instead of shopping for groceries.
Writing at people
Many of my songs are, shall we say, inspired by other people, and our personal interactions. This is, I think, a fairly common writing technique among singer-songwriters. Many of my favorite songs take root from a single kernel of thought regarding personal interactions.
I thought to myself the other day, “self, how crazy is it that I write all these songs about all these people, and they don’t know, and you have no intention of telling them?”
I’m not about to begin advocating that everyone should always know everything. It’s not always possible, or even a good idea, to reveal everything all of the time. However, this apparent longing for some of my songwriting subjects to know… I think indicates that my songwriting has supplanted what should be normal and healthy communication; that is, I’ve been writing so many songs with sentiments that have never been expressed in the relationships they’re about. For whatever reason.
I’m not sure that I need to tell people that they’ve inspired such-and-such song; songs take on a life of their own after they’ve been written, and to an extent, they stop being about whatever they’re about the second you share them. However… what did I ever have to lose by being honest and communicative?
Halley & McKeever are advancing to the finals of the Delmarva Folk Hero competition!
This is an annual competition run by Delaware Friends of Folk. Our friends The Honey Badgers won last year’s round, and Michael has been very encouraging about me trying again this year. This is an epic inauguration of Matt and I being, officially, Halley & McKeever, as a folk duo. (We need a facebook page, I think… you can’t be official without one… right?)
I’m thrilled, I was thrilled regardless of whether we advanced or not - playing at Wesley Chapel in Dover was awesome, we did five songs without the sound system, and frankly, it was (in my opinion) our best performance to date. That alone was good enough for me. Plus, we met awesome folks (such as our co-winner for the night, Matt McGuigan, and our friend and fellow FAWMer Jessica Graae, and let’s not forget the face of Delaware Friends of Folk, Jan).
Still, excited to share a stage with five other awesome competitors on October 4! Plus, The Honey Badgers will be playing as the outgoing winners! You should come. If you’re anywhere near central Dover, DE at the time.
SorryNotSorry, ya’ll. I’m housesitting, I promise the dog photos will stop after the weekend.
I was trying to take a picture of me shaking hands with this oddly-shaped piece of bark. She was convinced I was teasing her and kept trying to snatch the thing out of my hand.
Photo yoinked from The Palette and the Page’s facebook page. It was First Friday in Elkton and I like playing music in art galleries.
