Kentucky Music Week 2023
June 30, 2023
Good Morning, Y'all!
Good Morning, Y'all!
As you're reading this, I'm sitting on the beach in sunny Hawaii, enjoying a fruity adult beverage served in a coconut shell...
Oops, wrong career. I'm not on a beach. I'm in a high school gymnasium in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. No beach, just the faint scent of a locker room.
But this is better!
Folkcraft display at Kentucky Music Week 2023
Why? I'm at Kentucky Music Week! KMW is one of the biggest, oldest, and best dulcimer festivals found anywhere. With hundreds of dulcimer players in attendance, I'm seeing A LOT of my friends this week.
L. to R. - Folkcraft endorsing artists Mandy Tyner & Bing Futch take a selfie with yours truly (Richard).
Our friend, and Folkcraft endorsing artist, Dave Haas, stopped by to wow us on the LAP-JO.
Folkcraft is vending, of course! We bring our big display to KMW and load it with all kinds of instruments. We brought a few ukuleles (the last of the Steve-made instruments from 2016, finally strung up for playing), a bunch of standard DAD dulcimers, plus a few baritone dulcimers, and five each of MaxDADs, LAP-JOs, and resonator dulcimers. The display looks great, and it is nice to have stock to bring to a festival. When the virus first hit, y'all went on a huge shopping spree, and it has been a slow slog to get our in-stock dulcimer level back to a reasonable level.
Our great big beautiful display corner at Kentucky Music Week - 2023. Ya'll should stop by.
Next weekend (a week from tomorrow) we're hosting dulcimer superstar Bing Futch as our clinician (July 8, 2023) for our monthly Second Saturday Clinic series. Just a few days after that, we're heading to Evart, Michigan for the ODPC Funfest.
I mentioned getting to see many of my dulcimer friends as a highlight of KMW, but there's another highlight: Nancy Barker (festival organizer) hires the best available instructors for her festival, and as usual, she's hired most of the Folkcraft Endorsing Artists roster. In attendance at KMW this year? Bing Futch, Dave Haas, John Keane, Karen Keane, and Mandy Tyner. "Five Out Of Seven Ain't Bad!" Isn't that the title of a Meat Loaf song?
I mentioned getting to see many of my dulcimer friends as a highlight of KMW, but there's another highlight: Nancy Barker (festival organizer) hires the best available instructors for her festival, and as usual, she's hired most of the Folkcraft Endorsing Artists roster. In attendance at KMW this year? Bing Futch, Dave Haas, John Keane, Karen Keane, and Mandy Tyner. "Five Out Of Seven Ain't Bad!" Isn't that the title of a Meat Loaf song?
All of Y'all who have instruments in the works back at the Folkcraft shop? No worries - we're making progress, even with me on the beach (aka in a locker-room-scented high school gym). Jim/Dad, Pam, Cheyenne, and Dominic are hard at work. At least they had better be hard at work!
Hope you enjoyed the KMW photos. Maybe come visit Folkcraft at one of the remaining 2023 dulcimer festivals we'll be attending? We'd love to see ya!
Thanks for reading!
Richard Ash, luthier-who-likes-dulcimer-festivals-more-than-beaches-anyway