Forum Activity for @alegre1

Just saw this thread; what a great idea! In between playing dulcimer, if you have Apple TV, I can highly recommend Ted Lasso if you haven't seen it. Also, here is a photo of some happy chickens! 

 Al Pacino and the girls 2023.jpg - 286KB

Hi Ethan, thank you for the kind words--your message means a lot; I'm so glad you enjoyed it!  If you get a chance, please leave a review on Amazon. Every good review helps others find the book.

Happy playing!  Best regards, Linda

Thank you Dusty for the kind words! Linda

That is mighty kind, Nate, but I'd call myself like the person you describe rather than an ambassador. I had given up hope of ever being able to play an instrument until I found the dulcimer in my late fifties and then it was love at first sound.  I like that it will challenge me for the rest of my life but, as it does so, I still get to play songs!  Best regards, Linda

Aw shucks, thank you! I had fun making it with these friends and for the new Tn. club

Hi Robin and everyone who might be interested for International Dulcimer Day,

Hi Everyone, In case anyone might be interested in a "Why Play the Dulcimer" promo for your club, I've attached a link to a five minute video I made for a friend who is launching a new club in Middle Tennessee to help her attract new members.  The file is too big to attach here, but here's a link from her library's Facebook page, and so I think you can save the video that way if you'd like to use it. 

Happy Playing!

(Looks like you might have to cut and paste it into the URL space)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iiSRd9TtCUnwz5y2AwnEGp5j7MiTWpv6/view?fbclid=IwAR2qO49okapHt1G_C8pq6foVvjKYUUByAgSpQ_Xaknm5SBwleXxbrJr3qQU

[quote="Ariane"]

@Alegre1 - Hi Alegre, I have just seen that I did not sent you an answer to your kind post...I am very happy that you like my last year's Appalachian waltz and look forward to this year`s International Appalachian Dulcimer Day - it is just such a lovely initiative from Robin

[/quote] [quote="Ariane"]

No worries, Ariane ... your music says everything!

Thank you so much for this reminder!

Hi everyone

People send me things and I thought you might like to take a peek and see whom you can find!

 Appalachian State U_.jpg - 313KB

P.S. Karen, Also, if you haven't visited the Pluck Blog yet, you might want to take a peek there. Lots of overflow that I had to cut from the book due to length, plus interesting bits discovered since then.  If you're new to the Blog I recommend you start at the beginning. Best regards and thank you, Linda

https://www.davidschnauferpluck.com/blog

Hi again Karen, if you still feel that way by the end, I would be grateful if you would take a moment to review it on Amazon. Every review helps others find it! Best regards, Linda

Love this, and Sarah! Thank you for posting Robin

Hello, Karen, thank you for the comment. You've made my day! I am so glad you enjoy the book.

Thank you for posting the link to the mode posts; I woke up the next morning thinking, “I should have provided a link to the first one!” I’ve bookmarked them

Hi Strumelia, When I first heard there were these things called modes, I looked them up, but didn’t understand a thing, I spent the next two years periodically buying books, watching YouTube tutorials and reading online trying to understand the concept, to no avail. Then I came across a link you provided somewhere in FOTMD to your blog, and all I can do is scream THANK YOU!!! Your explanation is brilliant and simple at the same time. ( I definitely needed simple.) I am so happy that I found your posts.  If I had found them earlier it would have saved me hours and hours of wading through torturous explanations that I never understood. 

best regards, Linda

I just found your piece and absolutely love it.  Thank you for such beautiful work!  

That is very insightful. I didn't know how to interpret the tree on the far right because it appears to be cut off, but you're absolutely right.  And the arms/heart connection is interesting. 

Hi Robin, I am glad you caught the surfing metaphor, too. I have been struck by his feeling at home in "waves", whether of sound or water. That it was taken in a natural setting is a nod to his love of nature. (I met a woman named Karen who was good friends with him on Friday at the Blair School of Music's 75th Anniversary party. I asked her what she would tell someone about him who had never met him. She was emphatic: he loved nature. He used to write her little notes whenever he saw a mole or bunnies!)

Even the door is a kind of metaphor--the dulcimer and David are inseparable, and in order to "get" to him, all you have to do is open the dulcimer door so to speak. I am still gobsmacked by that portrait and how many layers of meaning one can find in it.  What, if anything, do you make of the lone tree in the background? 

Greetings everyone; since so many people on this forum knew David Schnaufer, I decided to share this latest Blog post about a little-known portrait  of a legend! I hope you enjoy it.

https://www.davidschnauferpluck.com/post/a-most-revealing-portrait

Hiya Jill, I do the same thing re movie stars.  I always imagine them to be super tall, but when you see their actual heights, they tend to be on the smaller side with some exceptions.  It's strange!  

Thank you so much for the kind words Robin.  I really appreciate your taking a chance on the book and am glad you enjoyed it. Best regards, Linda

Hi Jill, I love that quote about who masters whom, too!  And I had a long couple of chats with David's good friend T.J. Larkin about how he interpreted the second quote in which David said "I play the sound of the ground I walk on." T.J. said he thinks he meant that no matter where he was in the world, the music specific to that particular place was infused in and around him. . The music is in the air and in the ground.  It was such an evocative image.

If you haven't seen this blogpost , you might want to read about Jan Pulsford's electric mix called "Twanging Dude" and listen to the song (link is in paragraph six). I put the lyrics in the book, but, you really have to listen to him to get the full effect!  And he says that quote!

So glad you enjoyed David's story!  If you get a moment to review it on Amazon, please do; every review helps others find it. Best regards, Linda

Your post is so informative--thank you for posting it. 

Thank you for such a detailed post on strings ... this is very enlightening!

Ethan, I wanted to let you know that the Grand Old Dulcimer Club will finally be getting together at the Tennessee State Museum on Sunday, 10 April at 1:15 for our first playout together in two years. Stephen Seifert will be leading us. I do hope you'll come and pick a little with us! Anyone else who lives in south central Kentucky or the Nashville area is most welcome. 

Hello Jill, sorry to reply so late. I queried people who knew him and they said he was about 5'7" give or take. He was fine-boned and often thin, they said, so I suspect that John Lomax's comment that he looked like a gnome was due to the fact that he was slight and had long hair that day he showed up at John's door. Once he got to know him, I don't think he referred to him that way. Later, people also referred to him as "Amish-looking" and indeed after the point in which he gave Tramp all his clothes, he supposedly only wore pants that were made for him by the Amish, and their style of shoes and shirts.  Photos from earlier in his career show him in jeans and cowboy boots and either t-shirts or western style shirts.  Melanie Lomax told me that in the eighties, when he "dressed up" for events he looked extremely sharp; loved clothes and had a suit she liked a lot with faint tone-on-tone paisley designs.  I hope that answers your question :-D

This means more to me than you might imagine, Laurie. Thank you for the kind words.

Jill, thank you for the kind words about Pluck. I am just as amazed as you at how the "Fisher's Hornpipe" video stands the test of time. :-D

Believe it or not, a new version of the Cactus Brothers is still performing.  If you're not familiar with their fiddle player, Tramp, he's well worth looking up: https://trampcamp.net . Here's "Redhead", one of his older compositions that I really like:

And, here's the old Cactus Brother's cover of "Sixteen Tons", another favorite. You'll see glimpses of David in the van:

Thanks to Jan Pulsford, I'd like to share a bit of rare 2001 audio that you might enjoy: "Twanging Dude" ... link is enclosed within the post.

https://www.davidschnauferpluck.com/post/jan-pulsford-the-twanging-dude

Dave, thank you for these comments, and I'm smiling at your writing that it has "changed my playing perspective" because that is exactly what happened to me as I did the research. I started the project with a somewhat narrow focus: "Who was this guy, and what made him tick?" I ended up learning about a whole lot more than I ever dreamed thanks especially to the Dulcimer Boomers such as Doug Berch, Bonnie Carol, Neal Hellman, Bob Force, Leo Kretzner and many others ... their work and recollections taught me to elevate the dulcimer as an equal partner to its player, and to appreciate a much wider range of music than I had before I started. They were and are a group of the most admirable people for their creativity, passion, dedication, and inspiration and contributions of joy to the world. These days I think often the world would be much better off if people such as dulcimer players were running things!

Dear Robin, glad you liked the photos! I am going to nudge Rick into joining FOTMD because he has lots of historic treasures he is still finding in boxes and sharing. It makes me wonder how much gold is out there in shoeboxes that should be archived for future scholars of folk music.

Hi everyone, it's really interesting to read stories from those of you with first-hand knowledge of the seventies festivals. I have been working a little every day to catalogue all the files people have shared for the Vanderbilt Archives, and yesterday came across some photos that Rick Freimuth* sent me from that time period that I think you might enjoy. I will post more if you are interested, and have posted many already and with more to come on https://www.davidschnauferpluck.com/blog

*Rick was a good friend of Keith Young's, and a young admirer of David whom he met through the Youngs.

 1977 Roscoe Russell and Jonathan Padgett at Galax. August copy.jpg - 263KB

Dear Jill, it was a great pleasure to research and write because I learned so much. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did. I've met very nice people thanks to this project, and now you! Please let me know if you have any questions; I will be happy to answer.

While you wait, you might want to visit the Pluck Blog because there is and will be a lot of overflow in terms of photos, audio, documents and stories to supplement the book. Also, I've heard that people are getting together with friends to talk about it, so I just posted Book Club Discussions Starters for anyone interested. Thank you so much for writing. Best regards, Linda

[quote="steve c."]

I almost did fall off my chair back then. Lol

Well, I've had the great pleasure of getting to know Doug Berch the past two years and David, indirectly. I supposed if you had to go up against two nicer people, you couldn't have found them!