Janita.

Ken, who was the geology major, Bob or Janita? 

After reading the story from Janita, I have a vague recollection of her telling me that story. It was at one of the Shenandoah University dulcimer weeks that Maddie Mac Neal and Ralph Lee Smith organized. We were sharing our backgrounds and I asked how a geology major got involved in dulcimers. I had forgotten all about that until Silverstrings posted Janita's response.

Ken

"The dulcimer sing a sweet song."

Well the published story is better than any of those we just made up!  Thanks, @silverstrings, for reaching out to Janet.

Oh, @silverstrings , I just love this story and am so glad you pursued learning how Blue Lion Instruments came by their name!  Mark and I just finished playing together just a bit ago and I was playing a Blue Lion.  <3

Janice Baker wrote back to me on how Blue Lion Instruments got its name. It is a beautiful story. It makes me love my dulcimer even more, if that is possible. 

There is a “children’s book” (I think it really is an adult book) called Lion and Blue by Robert Vavra and Fleur Cowles.  It is the story of a lion who falls in love with a blue butterfly; the butterfly flies away and he spend the rest of his life trying to find her again.  (The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous!).  He travels all over and various animals keep telling him to follow his dream and his heart and he will find happiness,  but finally, in the end, the now very old lion passes away without having found his blue butterfly.  You turn the page, and the lion is now a sunflower, and of course, the blue butterfly has landed on the flower.

It’s a beautiful story about following your heart and not giving up. 

So how this relates to Blue Lion?  We needed to file for a business license and had to come up with a name in short order.  We didn’t want to be Baker Dulcimers and we didn’t want something too cute or folksy.  Bob noticed this book on our bookshelf and said “What about Blue Lion?”.  We both like the color blue, and a blue lion sounded somewhat mythical and noble and it just seemed right at the time.  So that is what we chose.

Ben, that is a great story. I actually did have a blue tie-dyed t-shirt. We learned how to do our own tie-dye in home economics in the 1970’s. 

Well, there was this lion living in the states sometime during the late 60s.  He observed many of the hippie people during that time doing the ever popular Tie-Dye thing with their t-shirts and other pieces of clothing.  The lion liked what he saw and thought that it was pretty groovy.  However, belonging to a Pride of Lions Den, he didn't want to go too extreme as he thought the other lions might make fun of him.  So, in not going to extremes he ordered some blue dye and when it came he poured a bunch into a bathtub full of water and then dove in swimming to his heart's content. He got out of the tub covered in blue dye and just let it air dry so that he wouldn't lose the hue.  When Bob and Janita saw the Blue Lion in the local zoo, well, they pointed and said at the same time, "look, a blue lion"; they just couldn't believe their good luck and the rest is history.  

Dusty, I enjoyed your story about Blue Lion dulcimers. I love to create crazy stories, too. I decided to email Janita and ask her the question. If and when I get an answer, I will post it here. 

As many may know, Bob and Janita are busy people. Hopefully, I will get an answer.

I recently bought an Acoustic Jam Blue Lion dulcimer. Even though it is designed bigger for jam sessions, I actually use it for fingerpicking. With the larger body, the Acoustic Jam sounds quite magical when fingerpicked.

Apparently, Bob and Janita used to have a dog, a chow chow to be precise.  They and their hairy--dare I say maned--canine were in the nearby town of Morro Bay for the annual celebration of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, on November 30.  To celebrate this day the local residents of Scottish heritage had dumped a bunch of blue food coloring in the bay. Blue, after all, is the color of the Scottish flag, and supposedly ancient Scots warriors used to paint their bodies blue before they went into battle.

When Bob put the leash down to dig for some change in his pocket to offer a local street musician playing a cover of Joni Michell's "Blue," the chow chow bolted after a duck, chasing it into the bay.  By the time they got the dog out of the water, it was, well, blue.  Kind of.  Here is an untouched photo of the lion/dog:

OK.  So none of that's true. I made it all up.  Sorry. I have no idea either.

I have no idea, but I'm sure you could email Janita and ask her. Bob and Janita have building dulcimers since 1977. There must be a story behind the name.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Does anyone know how Blue Lion Instruments got its name?