@Ariane, the guitar man and I appreciate your kind words.  

I love your unique sound, Robin & Mark

@betty-bj-jordan Thank you for listening and for your kind comment.  The Old Stone Church here in my neck of the woods is a ruin-- a couple partial stone walls-- and there is a burying ground with it.  

Lovely and so moving. Thanks for sharing with us.

BJ

@john-shaw Many thanks, John-- so good to hear from you!  

Robin - As ever, you mine the deep soul of the mountain dulcimer!  I love it.

Yeah that was a hard one to write. 

@strumelia, I've tried to tell Mark how what he does is rather unique.  You should've made $100 for the JJNiles cd review in OT Herald .

Well I did have a very brief career of writing reviews of CDs for the Oldtime Herald. I stopped after four reviews, because the pay at that time was $20 per review and each review took me about three days of listening, writing, and editing.

(There are tens of dollars to be made in oldtime music!)

I have to say that very few  guitar players would have any idea of what to do with this dulcimer line. Mark is so in synch with you that he creates a lush and perfect musical conversation that compliments what your dulcimer is doing perfectly. It's a true and pure equal duet of two very creative musicians just playing from the heart.  

Will you write the liner notes for my next album?

We're happy you and others find our duo pleasing, Strumelia!  And we don't let not knowing what we're doing stop us from doing it anyway.

Thanks Robin (and Mark). I cant really figure out the exact keys in use here either. I'm pretty sure you may be alternating playing in a couple of modes though. Fascinating and very compelling, whatever you're doing here.
You have a wonderfully creative method of playing by ear in which you seem to catch notes and feelings out of the ether, as though they were made of smoke, and then weave them into a cloak we can draw around us for comfort.

@dusty-turtle, @alan-thompson, @macaodha, @gordon-hardy, @strumelia

Many thanks, kind friends!  I've been here and there with how to begin this tune and this is where we have landed for now.  

Strumelia, Mark says he's playing out of Eminor.  I suspect I am changing modes with what I am doing yet am never certain about these things and I could be running between a couple different keys, too.  :) My pick is a leather tab cut off the waist of a pair of old dungarees.   

Sooooo beautiful and poignant.

I am suspecting this piece is modulating between more than one key, but it's nebulous enough to avoid being put in a neat box. I'd be curious to hear Mark's thinking on what key or keys it is being played in here. Could be he's just playing chords that sound good with what the dulcimer is playing while not worrying about the key?

Not that it matters very much- it's totally gorgeous without being 'analyzed' at all.

Robin I think you have become the Queen of Slide. What kind of pick are you using here if I may ask?

Good stuff Robin and Mark! Thank you.

Well done Robin and Mark, beautiful.

I had to dig out my best Bose headphones to listen to this and listen to it I did numerous time. Ditto to what Dusty said plus just beautiful. I love the sliding into and out of notes and the way you both work your instruments together into a complementing form. I see from the title that it is a work in progress cannot wait for more. 

What a pretty, haunting melody.