Dulcimers flowing out of the shop door!
Good morning, Folkcraft people!
Lots of instruments went out this week, and I'm nearly caught up on past-due dulcimer orders. Well, not caught up, but getting closer at least. Here's a dulcimer that I'm taking to a festival next week - AS from NC will be happy to see it in today's newsletter!
The clamps are to provide an even pressure around the edges of the top while the glue is curing, helping to make the seam between the top and sides pretty much invisible.
And speaking of "festival next week"? Black Mountain Music Fest, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. One of my favorite festivals. Pam (many of you know her - she's made our cases for over 5 years now!) started prepping the traveling displays for the trip to Black Mountain. It is a lot of work in a normal year, but the last festival I went to in person was in March of 2020, so the traveling displays are a jumbled mess.
Pam will have this whipped into shape by the middle of next week, though, and we'll get the trailer loaded in time to leave for North Carolina.
If there's anything special you want me to bring to the festival, give Hayley a call and she'll make sure it ends up in the back of one of the display carts.
Featured video
This week's featured video is for the newer players. Titled "Your First Song", this one starts at the beginning. Enjoy!
Here's the page at Folkcraft.com that has a link to the video. There are two links on the Folkcraft page with PDF handouts that accompany this video.
The response to our "Featured Folkcraft Player" newsletter segment has been OFF THE CHARTS! We have submissions from y'all that will take us into December, but keep them coming - it'll be good to schedule out into the first part of 2022!)
Featured Folkcraft Player: Andrew Gordon
Have been playing mountain dulcimer for almost a decade now since 2012 when my friend Shelley who was moving asked if I would like her Great Aunt Marnell's dulcimer which had been sitting atop her piano, saying if anyone could figure out how to play it, I could!
Uncannily enough, I had been looking at dulcimers THAT WEEK, thinking I'd like hammered, and asked if it was that kind or fretted? She said frets, so I still said sure!
When she brought it to me, from the first moment and notes, I was enchanted!!!
Have been playing ever since.
Right after I first started, the public library was practically giving away an ENTIRE BOX OF USED DULCIMER MUSIC, I snapped it up, so you know when something is meant to be, and now have (oh Lordy) at least 18 dulcimers (kinda lost count), 3 of which are Folkcraft’s...
Andrew's bio continues on his page at Folkcraft.com. Click here to see all of our submitted photos and bios.
Andrew's photo shows him with a Folkcraft harp. An Irish harp/lever harp/folk harp that was made by David Marks, founder of Folkcraft, some time before 2007.
Featured PDF download
We now have many of the most in-demand artists' catalogs available for download at DulcimerDownloads.com! Bing Futch, Steve Seifert, Larry Conger, Aaron O'Rourke, and many, many more. (we're working on Linda Brockinton's books, and also on Dave Haas's books - so they're on the way!)
One of our best selling books is Judy House's "Christmas Songs For The Mountain Dulcimer". It is kind of funny to me that it sells year-round, but it is probably just people preparing for holiday shows with plenty of practice time.
You'll have a lot of fun with the songs in this book, even if you don't have a gig to prepare for. Any of Judy's books are awesome, and I can't recommend her titles highly enough.
Thank you for all of your support - the book, string, and instrument orders keep the doors open and the lights on. All of us at Folkcraft sincerely appreciate you all.
That's it for this week - thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Richard Ash