Sunday, June 2, 2013

it'll drive you crazy, if you let it

these past several weeks for me have been a bit of a blur. no amazing artistic breakthroughs. no mind-blowing sparks of realization. they've simply been markers of a string of ordinary events. drizzly rain on cloudy days. a bit of sun and mom and dad's. the long drive from here to boise and back again. more drizzly rain and cloudy days. and through it all a trail of half-formed ideas and addled musings that never quite seem to make it to the surface of the creative pool...

to pass the time and keep from going crazier than a one-eyed coon on a lopsided merry-go-round, i've been revisiting my musical instrument collection and sorting through my cloth stores. alternately, of course, since i seem to have the attention span of a retarded gnat lately so couldn't manage to focus on the two tasks at once.


this morning i was re-arranging my mountain dulcimer collection to make room for my cigar box guitars when a thought dashed through my foggy brain...  after a couple cups of coffee, i grabbed one of my favorite dulcimers (that'd be the one on the left...though i have so many favorites) and a couple of slides, then sat down to explore what it might sound like if i were to apply blues slide guitar techniques to the strings of a hillbilly instrument. a few hours...a several misguided turns, belly laughs, and a scared cat or two...later, here's what i came up with:


maybe there is a light glowing somewhere in the dark of this besotted tunnel?

namaste'

4 comments:

  1. I would have never known it was a dulcimer, sounds great - a very bright sound. And I remember thinking an orchid of mine was dead... but I still kept it and watered it now and again, one day - after maybe a year of looking dead - it bloomed magnificently. I think things are happening beneath the surface that are very important, just hard to see through the filter of a culture all about going and producing. Days of driving in drizzle and thinking nothing is happening might well be very useful :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i know. . .i had a hard time believing i was playing one of my dulcimers when i heard the sound it was creating. . .and i was the one playing it!!Was

      i think you are onto something there about subsurface shenanigans!

      Delete
  2. Wow! That's not what I expected at all. Louder, for one thing. It sounds really good, and there must be a wonderful disconnect between the visual of you playing the dulcimer and the music that's coming out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. definitely! i had heard slides used on dulcimers before, but usually in a country slide guitar style and while the tone was brighter than most lap steels, it sounded nothing like the blues i was coaxing out of my dulcimer. i am anxious to hey it out on one of the baritones next!

      Delete