twang deep...twang darkly

what does a creative mind with a musical bent do with 130 year old coffin-style violin case? re-purpose it into a mountain dulcimer, of course! i have purchased a couple others in the past and turned them into sewing boxes for my slow cloth fragments, but this one had something entirely different in mind... having housed music for so long, this time it wanted to make it's own music!

very little was done to the box itself, aside from removing the side panels on the two curved shoulders at the top to create a surprisingly resonant sound chamber after removing felt linings and dividing walls. add to that a hand-cut, scrolled headed fret board made of oak, stained to compliment, and...twang! instant dulcimer! okay, so maybe it wasn't quite *instant*...but you get the idea. given its dimensions, this unique beauty has a lovely, dark bass timbre. why don't you pour a little of its magic into your ear?

namaste'

you can't pick up raindrops

"i always like

walking in the rain,

so no one can

see me crying."

-charlie chaplin

the weather here has been as changeable as my mood. perhaps one is responsible for the other? though i'm not certain at times which is which... each day this week has held beautiful sunshine, turned to looming, expressive storm clouds, turned to downpouring rains.

sometimes, looking up, i feel very small and just want to run and hide somewhere warm and dry!

but then the rain begins to fall, washing away the dust from the neighboring fields and taking the fears along with it.

the first carrots were offered up by the soil this morning, between the raindrops. these i can pick up. and eat.

i've been looking back through my many cloths and have decided to pick up mind flowers once again. it feels good to get in some thread chanting while the rains crash about outside and the fire crackles in the fireplace.

the latest cigar box guitar creation is complete! re-purposed from a vintage kildow's old stock cigar box, butternut neck with 100+ year old barnwood fret board, and three vintage flatware stems re-imagined into string holders strung up with the three lower strings from an old guitar set, this wondrous little gem has a great, booming sound that is perfect for throaty delta rhythms! the perfect counterpoint to the rolling thunder outside these walls...

time for some snuggling with the saint...she's looking somewhat lonely over on the davenport.

namaste'

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'

music boro?

they said, "you have a blue guitar,

you do not play things as they are."

the man replied, "things as they are

are changed upon a blue guitar."

-wallace stevens

i have been aware of the existence of cigar box guitars for some years now. how could i not? i mean, i play the mountain dulcimer, a not so distant cousin of the cigar box guitar (one might even say, kissin' cuzzin's). i've been to folk music festivals here and there (and even a few way over there and elsewhere). but i never really heard one played properly until most recently. by properly i mean, in the depression era blues style it was meant to used to create...

the other day i ran into a man downtown sitting on a transit bench. though he was definitely not waiting for an errant bus. he was instead taking advantage of the shade and the not-so-comfortable place to sit and make music on the most ingenious instrument.  a cigar box guitar. i was hooked! totally and utterly mesmerized!

i began chatting with him...and then with anyone on the world wide web who would respond...about these ingenious instruments and found out how amazingly simple they can be to create (granted, i found many marvelous and head-spinning examples of creativity and skill as well) so i set out to find the perfect cigar box with which to make my first guitar. i saw this skull and bones box at a local smoke shop and new i had found the one (remembering that i have a penchant for bones and the personal symbolism of skulls to remind us that time is fleeting and we must make use of every moment while we are still here).

i had hoped to talk them into selling me the smaller box as well, with a mind to turning it into a coordinating cigar box amp, but it was still half full of cigars and the shopkeep declined. sigh. i hope to find one (or this one, when it is empty) some day as i love the idea of the coordinated amp!

piper is busy licking his chops in anticipation of finding me at home for a while any chance i get so that i can work on my new cigar box guitar (of course, he could care less about the guitar. he's more interested in the fact that he will have a nice warm lap to sleep on while i sit at my workbench).  i pick up the electronics, hardware and strings for this project tomorrow. this bit of music boro. cobbling together bits of this and that to breathe new life and dimension into sound.

i'm so excited, i don't know how i am going to sleep when i get off work in the morning...

namaste'