Castaway Music Cruise - Part Two
Good Morning, Y'all!
We (me, my wife Aly, and my father, Jim) are back from the Castaway Music Cruise. Aly is back at her nursing job, and Dad and I are back in the shop, making instruments for you.
I'm going to focus this week's newsletter on finishing off the "travelogue" I started with last Friday's dispatch. Here we go:
Classes Continued. Classes kept going throughout the week, during the day, especially on "at sea" days - when there wasn't a port to go visit. I taught a class focused on "Shove The Pigs Foot A Little Farther In The Fire." We took the basic song and really doctored it up, adding all kinds of ornaments, fills, and alternate harmonies. We started in the key of D, then once we made the song challenging enough, switched to playing in G (by tuning DGD, instead of the usual DAD), and just to make matters even more challenging, we retuned to EAD, and played the tune in A. This was an advanced-level class, for sure, but my genius students did a fantastic job!
Students getting ready to start a class - lots of empty seats, but things filled up by the time we got started. I balanced my DulciVox on two chair backs, so I could stand up to teach the class. Placing the two chairs about 20 inches apart - facing away from each other - made for a very serviceable dulcimer stand.
Each evening of the cruise, we had reservations at a nice restaurant. On one evening, all of the instructors (and the two wives who weren't instructors) got to sit together:
From left to right: Bing Futch, Jae Futch, Aly Ash, Guy George, Richard Ash, and Sharrie George. Great food, great company.
Here's the lovely Mrs. Ash sitting in front of the sunset-filled window:
Aly Ash
Flash Mob Fun. One evening, we held a "flash mob" - with performers descending on a public area from all directions. We regaled the ship's passengers (and crew!) with a rousing rendition of "Jamaica Farewell." Bing and Guy arrived first, started playing, and then the rest of the musicians in our crew showed up and joined in.
Here's Bing, Sharrie, and Guy, approaching the secret rendezvous point.
Onboard Open Mic Night. On Thursday evening, we had an open mic night for the guests. There were about a dozen performances, from all kinds of people. Each and every one of them did a fine job. It was fun to listen in (and nice to NOT have to perform!) at a festival.
One FolkRoots dulcimer, one FolkRoots dulcimer player, playing at open mic night.
Two FolkRoots dulcimers, two FolkRoots dulcimer players (and instructor Sharrie George providing ukulele backup) playing at open mic night.
Bing had a personal (his own) DulciVox (top left), as did Amy (top right). The DulciVox on my lap (foreground) was from the showroom, and that particular instrument is this week's featured dulcimer. It is still pristine, but now it is slightly used (it's been on a Bahamas dulcimer cruise!), so that dulcimer is now reduced in price. (See below for full details...)
Perfect Weather. There were a LOT of clear skies and warm days, which is probably typical for dulcimer festival cruises. Since this was my very first music cruise, I can say with authority that it is always, 100 % of the time, clear, warm, and sunny for music cruises. Not once have I seen anything other than perfect weather, therefore music cruises have flawless weather every time. I'll stick with this statistic until I experience something else!
Dad got a chance to jam, solo, with Bing. In case you weren't sure, Dad's the one on the left.
A Big Thank You. This was a fine event, and I would like to thank Bing and Jae, Guy and Sharrie, and Aly, for helping make this a fun and memorable experience for all of the Castaway Music Cruise attendees. I had a great time, enjoyed my classes, the private lessons I taught, and the jams I participated in.
We don't have dates and details set up for next year's cruise, yet, but I'll let Y'all know when I know the specifics.
Thanks for reading - Have a great weekend making music!
Richard Ash, luthier-who-enjoyed-the-cruise-but-is-happy-to-be-back-at-the-shop-making-dulcimers-for-next-year's-attendees
P.S. The featured dulcimer (see below) is the DulciVox I had on my lap - on the cruise - in the photo above. I'll give it fresh strings before shipping, unless you want me to leave the original strings on it (that Bing played)? If you're the lucky person that gets this DulciVox, let me know which strings you want!
IRISH SESSION TUNES - Volume 2
by Aaron O'Rourke
Just in the nick of time, here's master dulcimer player Aaron O'Rourke's second collection of Irish session tunes. Filled with MORE jigs, reels, and polkas commonly played in Irish sessions - arranged for the mountain dulcimer. This book includes a brief introduction to playing in an Irish session, and also includes an explanation of Irish ornamentation. Free downloadable audio tracks are available, which demonstrate the songs. The tracks include both fast, and slow, versions of each tune. (53 pages - all in DAD tuning)
This book is published by Fingers Of Steel, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
SOME OF THE TUNES INCLUDED:
Concertina Reel • Drunken Landlady • Father Kelly's • Miss Monaghan • Otter's Holt • Providence Reel • Stoney Steps • The Banshee • The Youngest Daughter • Boys Of The Town • Gillian's Apples • Old Hag You've Killed Me • Roscommon Jig • Sporting Pitchfork • The Black Rogue • Tommy Mulhair's • Tripping Up The Stairs • Babes In The Wood • Paddy Scanlon's • The Galway Belle • The Kinard Polka