Forum Activity for @david-bennett

Here's a side by side comparison of Sally Ann from 11 May and today (I have this in the correct forum today).

In the top photo Sally is checking out my 1931 Uncle Ed Thomas reproduction made by Kevin Messenger and in the bottom one she is looking at my 1915 Uncle Ed Thomas reproduction made by John Knopf.

Our previous furball, Peachy, really enjoyed it when I'd play my dulcimer and would contentedly watch me play for the longest time she'd even ask me to play. So far Sally Ann doesn't have a lot of interest in the instrument or listening to it much, though she did the other night. I think right now for Sally Ann everything in the world is too new and interesting to sit around and listen to me play music. My guess is when she becomes an adult cat she won't have so much energy and have a more contemplative. And if not, that's ok too!

 Sally May-Julyb.jpg - 82KB

So, David, Sally Ann is a cat. If she is like our cat, she IS the boss. Tis the nature of house cats.

One relaxed kitty!

Sheba (aka Boo Boo) likes to lie on the backs of chairs and along the tops of open doors.

It's hard to imagine that she's not this size anymore. The good thing is we don't have to treat her like something very fragile (she's pretty tough, in a nice way, now). This pic is about two months old.

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Sally Ann will be four months in a few days. For some reason she thinks she's the boss.

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Gary Sager is a friend of mine!  He and his wife, Toni, own and operate Prussia Valley Dulcimers and are fine folks!  Gary builds a nice instrument-- I own two of his Prussia Valley mountain dulcimers, the box was a custom build and my teardrop I came by used.  You're fortunate to have one of Gary's instruments-- enjoy! 

@lois-sprengnether-keel  Was your baritone built by Gary Sager?  

My new baritone has what I think is called a Weeping Heart?  Robin 8 years ago posted a photo with the same type of sound hole.  I never heard of this type, so I went looking on the Sound Hole discussion.

Just one more thing in my getting to know my Bari.  It has a lovely tone, but I am having to adjust to extra frets.  Joined the Extra Fret group.  Nothing like an addition to the family to get you involved in more and learning more.

not that it is important... i have bluebirds on my tc obrien.... i hate them.

( if it had been any other of his birds or animal sound holes  I would not have bought it)

they came with the machine which i picked up used for a great price in NC when i

visited.

i prefer traditional holes... except hearts are over used.... i like C holes a lot....f holes are fine... if i could choose i would like the crescent-moon and star as David Schnaufer  had on his .... kind of a stylized C hole.... but never animals or birds. jmho

 schauf zoom.jpg - 57KB

Hi everyone! I recently found a little dulcimer on Reverb for $55 that I intended to use as a beater for kids to try at demos. It has arrived and it is far better than I thought it would be. It needs a clean up and new strings (the ones on it look like they date from 1981, the date written inside!) but has a nice sound despite it's small size due to it's surprizing depth (2.5") and it can be standardly tuned. The label inside says Loran Harmon, Pensacola, FL    848 B   12/81. I googled him and I guess he sold at the Gulf Coast Arts Festivals. He is now deceased.

Please let me know if you are familiar with his work, I enjoy having stories to tell about my instruments.

Barb

Yeah, the Laurel Mountain website has been taken down.  I fear Mary has retired.

I see her birthday is today she's turned 65.  I also see, on her Facebook page, that she lists herself as "former owner of Laurel Mountain Instruments.  My best guess is that she's not building; or not building under that name anyway.  I'd say query her on Facebook.

Reviving an old thread here to ask if anyone knows what has become of Laurel Mountain dulcimers. Is Mary still making dulcimers? 

Well said!  :-)

Thanks for being a long time listener and contributor!

Thanks for sharing your stories ... it's always a hoot to be around Steve, eh? 

Stephen Seifert is the "bomb"!!! What I didn't hear in the episode was the term "environment". Stephen has the uncanny ability to create an environment in his play. His music can actually take you to places you've never been before, and maybe places you have been to! This is why in my book he is undoubtedly the number one conventional player bar none..... and he is good people!

Dulcimore Dan

Keep the coming. I find them both educational and enjoyable. Thanks for producing these.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for all the work you put into the podcasts, Patricia.  You guys always do very good work.  Let me share two stories.

1) I attended one of Stephen Seifert's 3-day intensives last year in Berkeley.  As we went around introducing ourselves, Stephen said "You all have probably heard Dusty play and know that he's sometimes kinda fancy."  If I ever record a CD, I'll put that as a blurb on back "'Sometimes kinda fancy' according to Stephen Seifert."

2) I have to admit that I often listen to podcasts at a faster than normal speed.  Having grown up in the northeast, I'm just used to a faster pace of conversation than you find in most of the rest of the country.  But sometimes I forget that my default speed setting is x1.5 or x2. Once I listened to your podcast on Aaron O'Rourke while on a plane and had gotten used to the faster pace, until you played a clip of one of his faster songs.  I was in disbelief!  I knew that he can play very fast, but the lick I heard seemed impossible.  Only then did I realize that I was listening at twice the normal speed!

Keep doing what you do!  We appreciate it!

Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast - Episode 36
The Many Modes of Stephen Seifert

http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

Stephen Seifert is one of the most accomplished dulcimer performers today. Possessing an impeccable command of the instrument, he’s a favorite at festivals and clubs around the country and has performed as a soloist on his mountain dulcimer with symphony orchestras.

Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast can be found on most podcast apps.
Here's the link to Hearts of the Dulcimer on iTunes:  http://bit.ly/hotdpodcast

Don't use a podcast app or iTunes? You can listen to all the podcast episodes directly on our website:  http://dulcimuse.com/podcast

We also have a resource page for every episode, where you can find photos, videos, and song lists. Here's the resource page for this episode:  http://dulcimuse.com/podcast/resource/036.html

Thanks for listening! :-)

Hi, My daughter has had trouble posting a video of mine that she put on You Tube to FOTMD.

I think the problem is that I have forgotten the password.  Can I get a new pass word by 

going to the settings and entering a new one?  Can one just use numbers in the password

or if I use letters and numbers is there a certain length that they should be?

Rocky Top!!!       

Steven Berger:I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.

@steven-berger, for a couple of years I played a gig here during Gold Rush Days, a kind of living history festival in which we dressed in clothing dating from the mid-nineteenth century and performed music and theater and stuff.  I played the character of someone from Appalachia who brought his dulcimer to the "diggins," sharing songs along the way. In one part of my act I asked the audience if they liked modern music or old traditional music.  Then when the younger in the audience thought they were being bratty and said they preferred modern music, I would tell them that I agreed and I especially liked that new songwriter Stephen Foster. I then launched into a few Foster tunes.

In the nineteenth century, both Foster and the dulcimer were modern and innovative.

I enjoy playing Stephen Foster songs, which was popular music back in the day.....way back.

Looks great!

the end results

 dulcimer markers.jpeg - 64KB

I have a whole set that I call Top Of The Pops --  1650 !!

Hey Guys, When I read Dusty's post about cold brew coffee, I was intrigued since I love ice coffee in the summer.  So I Googled it and chose a recipe and made some.  I steeped it for 24 hours and it was good but not strong enough.  So I will let my next batch go longer, maybe only 48 hours.

My husband buys 3 kinds of whole bean coffee and mixes them for our own special brew. I grind beans every morning for coffee so I feel I have that part down pat.  I'm going to make ice cubes from my first batch and make my next batch stronger.  I just used a qt mason jar and after 24 hrs strained the grounds through a fine sieve.  Even though it wasn't as strong as I expected, it was still good.  I, too, have to be careful not to drink caffeine after a certain hour. Thanks for the pictures, Dusty.  This was great information for coffee lovers.  Dulcinina

I was also told by one doctor to avoid coffee because it aggravated my acid reflux problem. But that's another benefit of cold brew. Although it still has the caffeine, it has no acid!  Obviously, for those with acid reflux it would be best to avoid all coffee, but if you're like me, there are mental health benefits to coffee, and cold brew is a way to drink it while minimizing the acid reflux problems.

Wish i could drink strong coffee because I love the taste. Alas, I must avoid caffeine!

Well if you just want a chuckle . . .

At the jam after the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering this past spring we played "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. It was mostly barre chords.  I was cracking up the whole time.

I often play Prince's "Raspberry Beret" with a kind of honky tonk shuffle, and idea I got from a band called the Derailers.

And to please my daughter, I occasionally play Bruno Mars's "The Lazy Song."

A couple of years ago Stephen Seifert was the guest instructor at the Redwood Dulcimer Day in Santa Cruz.  I was invited to the after-party and was really excited to jam informally with Stephen, Neal Hellman, and others of my dulcimer heroes.  I had been learning so many fiddle tunes and Celtic tunes and I couldn't wait to show them. And what do you know? They all wanted to play 70s pop.  The same stuff I played guitar to my whole life.  Can we just put "Hotel California" away?  I wish I could stab that song with a steely knife!

I took a dulcimer to Uke Club last week.  It was one of our 3-chord-song nights... although we are fast and loose with the number 3.  The songs were in several keys.  I tuned Ginger to D-A-d-d (it would have worked just as well with a three-string setup) and made extensive use of the 1.5 fret. 

I played every chord in every song with no capo and no retuning.  With one exception.  I could not find a true G-minor chord (no B-flat in this tuning) so I substituted a G power chord barring the 3rd fret.  Since this was a proof of concept, I made extensive notes.  The setlist (in alphabetical order from the song packet, although we did not play them in this order):

All Shook Up (key of A)
Big Yellow Taxi (C)
Brown-Eyed Girl (G)
Chapel of Love (D)
Feeling Alright (D)

Get Back (A) -- try these barre chords...
                       4th fret for 8 counts (Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner...)
                       0 (open) for 4 counts (but he knew it couldn't...)
                       4th fret for 2 counts (last...)
                       3rd fret for 1 count
                       2nd fret for 1 count

Hound Dog (D)
Jambalaya (G)
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (C)
Love Me Do (G)

Memphis (A) -- A chord 101 and walk the bass string 1-2-3-2-1
                       E7 chord 111 and walk the middle string 1-2-3-2-1

Moonlight Bay (C)
Old Time Rock and Roll (C)
On Top of Spaghetti (G)
Pink Cadillac (G) -- Play G 013 and walk the bass between 0 and 1.5 frets
Spooky (Gm) -- Cheat the Gm as 333, play Am 446 and C-diminished is 656
Takin' Care of Business (A)
Twenty Flight Rock (A)
When Will I Be Loved? (D)
You Are My Sunshine (C)
The uke club theme song is basically Movin' On Over (G)

I did put in a few hours' practice on the days before the club meeting.  I consulted two chord books (Neal Hellman's little one and the gigantic Mel Bay spiral-bound one).  And I very deliberately chose a night when the setlist was manageable.  Tin pan alley night would require a chromatic fretboard... or the patience of a saint.

Sandi, under the circumstances, I don't have any business judging you too harshly! 

The mason jar I use came with the conical filter. It holds 6 cups, so it's like a quart + a pint.  The cafe owner who turned me on to this stuff makes her cold brew with a big cheesecloth bag and a 5-gallon bucket.  If you search online you can find all sorts of devices for making cold brew, most much smaller than my 6-cup jar.  But you don't really need fancy equipment.  A container and some kind of filtering system is all you need.  You could even use one of those French press coffee makers.  The only question would then be the ratio of coffee grinds to water, and I'm sure that information is available online.

And remember to use coarsely ground beans.  Pre-ground beans are way too fine.  Also, apparently, those cheap coffee grinders that actually cut the beans up are no good. The beans have to be actually ground (don't ask me why), which is why I got a cheap hand-grinder.

How long will the coffee last in the fridge?  Good question.  I don't know for sure. I usually pour the coffee out of the big mason jar into smaller mason jars so that my wife can take one to work if she wishes.  My sense is that they could last a long time sealed in those jars in the fridge.  When I pour the coffee from the big mason jar there is some sediment at the bottom that makes the last 1/2 inch or so unusable.  I just dump that.

@dusty-turtle , is that a quart sized mason jar or a pint?

And... once you've made your jar and put it in the fridge, how long is it good for would you say?

Acouple of weeks ago I was at a business meeting at a hotel whose bar advertised cold brew coffee.  Just after lunch I left the meeting to order some.  They poured a few ounces in the bottom of a large glass, filled the glass with ice, and then poured in a bunch of water.  They were treating the cold brew as a coffee concentrate.  That's probably a safe way to consume it, though you lose some of that strong flavor, obviously.

Hey @strumelia.

Yes, the grounds sit in the water for 48 hours.  The contraption that I have came with a recipe book that suggests 12 hours is enough, but the first 12-hour brew I made was not nearly as strong as the original stuff I had from that cafe, so the next batch I increased the "brewing" time.   I eventually settled on a minimum of 36 hours. The cafe owner that converted me claims that more than 24 hours will create a bitter taste, but that has not been my experience.  I think that dynamic is determined by how coarsely the beans are ground.  I hand grind my beans in a very unscientific manner so my exact method may not be reproducible. 

The water is not hot to begin with. In fact, the brewing process can take place in the refrigerator, but I start with cool water and leave it out on the counter, not refrigerating until after I remove the coffee grounds.

My headache yesterday was from a sleep deficit.  But you are right about watching out for the strength of the coffee.  I usually dole it out in very small doses, which is why I can say for certain that I had 2 ounces yesterday.  I never pour a whole bunch in a big glass as you would if you were serving iced tea. And it sometimes "hits" you as much as an hour after consumption, so it's easy to overdo it.

From left to right: a manual coffee grinder, an empty mason jar eager to start brewing, a conical strainer, and a batch of cold brew that will be ready this afternoon. In the foreground, a cold brew recipe book which I never use because almost all the recipes involve something sugary, and I just enjoy the taste of plain coffee.

Yes, I am well acquainted with that watery coffee every cafe and diner served us for decades.  It was not only the brewing method that made that coffee so bad; it was a different kind of coffee. For some reason, after WWII, Americans stopped using Arabica beans and switched to some other lesser coffee bean. The coffee renaissance that we associate with Starbucks has involved a return to the Arabica bean. Yum!