Rehearsal Day Three

Friday was our last day of band only rehearsals as we'll be joined by the orchestra this afternoon. The core band consists of those who are soloists in the show:

Charlie Adams - Drums
Michelle Amato - Vocals
Karen Briggs, - Violin
Victor Espinola - Harp
Pedro Eustache - Various Wind Instruments
Ramon Flores - Trumpet
Ming Freeman - Keyboards
Alfreda Gerald - Vocals
David Hudson - Didgeridoo
Hussain Jiffry - Bass
Dan Landrum - Hammer Dulcimer
Armen Movsessian - Violin, Concert Master
Walter Rodriguez - Percussion
Samvel Yervinyan - Violin

David is the only one in that list who hasn't been rehearsing with us so far. He was supposed to be there a couple of days ago but there was a problem with his passport that is being worked out now. He's one of my favorite people in the tour and I'm anxious for him to get here so we can catch up.

Since yesterday was our last day without the orchestra, Yanni was, how should I say, a little intense that every detail be fine tuned. He pays close attention to what everyone is playing and wants each augmentation, chord voicing, syncopation etc., to be 'spot on' as my friend David would say. He reminds me of a jeweler examing a diamond with a magnifying glass, correcting each cut until he's ready for the public to see his work. The adding of the orchestra today will complete the ring. ¶ 12:33 PM

Rehearsal Day Two

We jumped right into second half of the show Tuesday. It will once again begin with For All Seasons in which Samvel, Victor and I have solos. I got that same sweaty palmed feeling I had last year when the show was about to begin and I'll have to admit my solo didn't fall into place until the third time through the song.

I am very excited that the multiple pickup/microphone system that I designed has gotten the thumbs up. My hammer dulcimer will sound better than ever this year and I won't have to play as hard in the upper range of the instrument. It also means it will stay better in tune, suffer fewer broken strings, and be physically easier on me. The preamp mixer gives me an extra output that I now keep hooked up to my Peterson strobe tuner so I can make quick tuning adjusments if necessary. This may not be exciting news to any of you but it is a big relief for me.

We worked every song yesterday multiple times and by the end of the day it felt like we were really gelling. Yanni's supply of patience generally gets a bit dry as the hours of rehearsal tick by, but for some reason yesterday he seemed to mellow later in the day, probably as a reaction to quality of the musianship he was hearing. I'm once again in awe of the incredible musicians that surround me and honored to have this gig.

We'll run the entire show today and focus on any areas that need tweeking.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm going to keep an accounting of a few seemingly meaningless details while on this leg of the tour. One such detail is the price of the bottled water that awaits us in our rooms. This hotel is on the low end of the bottled water scale, at $3.00 for a 1 liter bottle. I'm looking for suggestions for other items to track. Things I want to remember are which hotels had a guest laundry, how much it costs to get a pair of underwear washed by the hotel laundry, how much the breakfast bar costs, is there internet access and if so is it free. If anyone has suggestions for other items that would be interesting see tracked, not that any of this will be, put a note up on my guest book. For obvious reasons of privacy I will not reveal the names of the hotels in which we stay until after we've already headed to the next city.

I noticed that my guestbook got hit by a couple of spammers yesterday. Unbelievable, why don't they just go away! About the only thing you and I can do is never, never, never click on one of their links. I'll do my best to take obvious commercial garbage out of the guestbook as quickly as possible but sometimes I don't get to see it for many hours. I apologize in advance if any innapropriate garbage ends up getting posted. ¶ 12:38 PM

Rehearsals: Day One

Charlie Adams and I were pickup up promptly at 10 am yesterday by the same driver who carted us around last year. His name is James and he's a New York transplant whom I recall describing LA as flaky. He told us he's gotten used to it now and may be getting a bit flaky himself. He said he now sees southern California as disaster central with earthquakes, fires, floods and mud slides as commonplace occurrences. He still drives like he's from New York as we made the normal 20 minute drive to Culver Studio in 15 white knuckled minutes.

Culver is famous for many television and big screen productions, but the two most talked about are Gone With The Wind - the burning of Atlanta was filmed in the back lot, and The Lucy Show - which was reportedly taped in the building in which we're rehearsing. I'll see if I can get some pictures today from around the studio and post them asap.

As we pulled up to our production offices I saw a red-haired child actor that I recognize from TV commercials. He and a buddy were leaning their bicycles around corners like race car drivers.

We entered the studio to find crews putting finishing touches on the stage. I jumped right into setting up the Dusty Strings D600 hammer dulcimer I will use on the tour which has been sitting in a warehouse in La since the Houston show. It needed a thorough tuning and a string replaced that snapped during our last song, Santorini. I also had to put my K&K microphone and pickup system back in place.

Charlie was occupied for a couple of hours tuning a new drum kit. Meanwhile representatives from the Roland corporation made sure the electronic gizmos in his set were working properly and that the backup systems - three of them - were ready to spring into action if necessary. I learned early-on that Yanni has no tolerance for any kind of technical glitches disrupting his show. If it can break or crash it has a backup, and sometimes two or three backups.

Over the next few hours the rest of the core band members arrived - Walter was first, followed by Pedro, Ming, Samvel, Armen, Ramone, Alfreda, Michelle, Karen and the new bass player Houssein. It is going to be a pleasure getting to know Houssein who seems to be a very gentle and humble person.

Walter and I used our breaks to shop online for a new Powerbook that he'll bring along on the tour. Alfreda says she's ready to get a more powerful laptop computer too. She's had the iBook we bought for her on the last tour for about a year now. She's become a power user and wants to get into digital recording. I have a feeling there's going to be a few computer lessons conducted while rolling down the highways on this trip.

Yanni arrived at Culver around 1pm and we began sound checks. He's very involved in this process and has to approve every microphone and how it blends into the overall product. He's fun to watch in this process as he tries to communicate to the engineers what he likes or dislikes about a particular sound. He's been working with the same guys for years so they sometimes are able to anticipate where he's going and make adjustments quite quickly.

We made it through the first half of the show with Yanni making minor adjustments to just about every song. By the time we played each song twice they sounded ready for the stage.

We'll work the second half of the show today. I may be able to do a mid-day update today in which I'll post a few pictures so check back later. Dan ¶ 12:00 PM

Ready To Roll

My plane's tires barked down onto the runway of Los Angeles International Airport yesterday evening as if to signal the start of some new adventure. The flight from Atlanta was bumpy, but enjoyable in part due to the young man in the adjacent seat. He was an ultra cool hip-hop hopeful who was more than a little afraid of flying. Cool goes out the window when terror knocks on the door.

I helped him settle down and then heard his story. He was on his way to LA to appear on the Judge Joe Brown show where he is being sued by his mother for $5000, and will of course receive a stern lecture from the judge. It was funny, but a little sad too and I had to remind myself that I was not his father and he didn't need a lecture from me too - ok, maybe a short lecture, but I was gentle. We had a pleasant conversation and after he put his headphones on, and started singing like he was the only person on the plane, I was able to respond to about 20 email messages.

Speaking of email, I remember how hard it was to keep up with correspondence during the last leg of the Yanni tour. That is one of the reasons why I put a guestbook on this site. I read every message, but sometimes the volume gets overwhelming, so please write, but don't be offended if I don't always respond quickly. Remember to post your message on the guestbook for all to see!

It was tough saying goodbye to my family again. I won't see Angie until we get to Louisville which is in three weeks. Our mobile phones allow us unlimited time when calling each other so we'll talk often. The free calling will also allow me to continue to teach Missy a web design class three days a week as part of her home school curriculum. She's learning Dreamweaver, Flash, and FreeHand, and will soon post her own web site, dedicated to horses of course.

Lobby call is 10am today for me, Charlie and Walter. The rest of the band and orchestra join us this afternoon. It's going to be a long day as I've been up since 5am and we won't get back to the hotel until after 10 tonight. The early start gave me plenty of time to exercise and get a little writing done this morning but I've got to force myself to switch to west coast time and not get up so early tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and spread the word that the tour journal is back in business. Later, Dan. ¶ 12:15 PM

The straw that tickled the camel's back

My mother is here for just a couple more days and I'll use getting her back and forth from dialysis as my excuse for not posting much recently. It's funny how adding just one more thing to an already packed schedule can throw things out of order. The past couple of weeks have been pleasant with her here and we'll be sad to see her head back to Missouri Saturday.

I took my first hike in a while this afternoon shortly after teaching a hammer dulcimer lesson. Congratulations to Drake on your first lesson. You did a great job!

I just posted a few pictures from today's hike and last night's Mock Trial competition in which my daughter's home school team was narrowly defeated by a worthy opponent team from the Chattanooga School for Arts and Sciences. Missy won the best witness honor from her team.

I only have a couple more days at home before I head to LA for Yanni tour rehearsals. I've been a little depressed the last couple of days and I pretty sure it is anticipation of being seperated from my family for 6 weeks. I'm glad this leg of the tour is going to be short.

¶ 10:35 PM

Alexian

I'll be playing at Alexian this afternoon which is a luxurious mountain top retirement community a couple of miles from my home. The Activities Director there told me to plan plenty of time for hanging out and chatting after I play. I can handle that.

Immediately after we leave Alexian, my mother, who is visiting from Missouri, along with Angie and I will head to the Hamilton County Court House to see Missy compete in a Mock Trial competition. Chattanooga has several very competitive home school and high school teams. One of our home school teams won the national competition several times in the past few years.

After the competition, we'll rush out of the court house and arrive a little late at dinner party. Our Friends Bryan and Madeline are celebrating the completion (word used loosely) of their house remodel. ¶ 7:52 AM

Dancing Hammers

Hopefully you were greeted with a D Major scale when you last navigated to this site. This is evidence that I really having been spending time learning to do Flash animation. This is just the beginning. My first project is to recreate an animated version of both my D600 and Linear Chromatic dulcimers so you can try them out yourselves by simply rolling your mouse over the bridge caps.

Please let me know if you have any problems with the new animation. Your computer's audio must be on and up to hear the notes. ¶ 11:05 PM

Taxing Question

Angie and I visited with an accountant today regarding our 2003 income taxes. We've done our own taxes for quite a while now and he informed us that we are paying much more than we should because we haven't taken full advantage of all possible tax breaks.

One suggestion he had was that we go out and buy a vehicle to replace the van I use for gigs. He explained that under current tax law we can deduct the entire cost of the vehicle in one year since I use it for business purposes. OK, that sounds great, especially if you have the cash, but the dilemma is the vehicle has to weigh at least 6000 pounds in order to qualify for the benefit. That's huge. I do need quite a bit of space for my gear but I hate the thought of driving a gas guzzling beast. My current van, a Chrysler Town and Country, still gets a respectable 23mpg on the highway, which is where I log most of my miles.

So, here's the question. Does anyone know of, or currently own, a vehicle which can haul a bunch of heavy gear that gets really good gas mileage? Email with answers: dan@danlandrum.com

Does anyone make a hybrid van? ¶ 5:44 PM

Thank you notes from Fairyland

Some of you might enjoy reading thank you notes in the guestbook from Fairyland Elementary schoolers. You have to use the pull down menu to select previous notes in groups of twenty. Use the button to the left to go to the guestbook page.

¶ 5:18 PM

Dulcimer Days Workshops

My first festival after returning from the Yanni Spring Tour will be the Roscoe Village Dulcimer Days in Coshocton, OH May 13 through 16. I had to turn in my workshop titles and descriptions today. Here they are:


1. Exercises in Core Rudiments (Intermediate)
We'll examine these fundamental arrangement tools and then apply them to the song "I'll Fly Away."
2. Song: Spring Peepers (Intermediate)
This 3 part tune is in D and requires at least a 15/14 hammer dulcimer.
3. Duet: Planxty Corcoran (Intermediate)
Randy Clepper will co-teach as we can divide the group, learn both parts, and then play them together.
4. Making Money, Making Music (all)
The what, where, when, why, how and how much of teaching your instrument to earn its keep. This is a demonstration class and all the material with the exception of amplification techniques will apply to other instruments as well.

If you're headed to this festival and trying to determine which workshops to attend, I'd be glad to answer any questions. You can post them in the guestbook or email me at dan@danlandrum.com

The songs we'll be learning are also on my CD's if anyone wants to get a head start. ¶ 10:25 AM

A day at home

My mother arrived here safely from Missouri yesterday afternoon. She'll be staying for a couple of weeks and taking her regularly scheduled dialysis treatments in Hixson. Apparently when they tell dialysis patients that they can travel and be worked in to the schedule as 'visitors' at other treatment centers, it doesn't necessarily mean at the most convenient hours. We'll be getting up at 5:15 tomorrow morning in order to make a 6:30 appointment. I'm just glad she's getting to visit.

We stayed in all day today and talked and read. I'm about halfway through my 'Flash' training book and will be adding some fun flash elements to this web site in coming days.

¶ 11:07 PM

Sloshing Through the Woods

I'm back from my slosh through the woods and have posted a few pictures. Five inches of rainfall made for spectacular changes to normally peaceful creeks and streams. What the pictures can't convey is the incredible sound of being surrounded by rushing water, everywhere.

The biggest creek on the trail, Middle Creek, was definitely boatable today. It reminded of my friend Gibbs whom we lost to cancer last year. After a rainfall like this I would have expected the phone to ring and to hear the words "Skoboatendan," which translated "Hey Dan, let's go risk our lives and freeze our toes off for a few hours and let the river toss us out of control down a hill." Of course I'd always say "Sure!" The best cup of coffee I've ever had in my life came halfway down the Occoee River in the middle of January. Gibbs had hidden a thermos in his boat and only revealed it when we stopped to stretch our legs and dump the water out of our boats. I was freezing and a little miserable. I'll never forget how that surprise cup of hot coffee made me feel. Ahhhhhhhh! ¶ 7:01 PM

Water, Water, Everywhere

I'm getting ready to head to my normal hiking grounds in the Prentice Cooper State forest to see the effect of the huge amount of water that has fallen here in the past 24 hours. Hershey, my four legged hiking companion won't be accompanying me today for fear she'll be swept away. I expect the creeks to be intense and hope to get some interesting waterfall pictures. I'll post them later this evening if I don't get swept away myself. ¶ 2:44 PM

Swimming to Fairyland

Thank you to everyone for the smiles and warm welcome at Fairyland Elementary School in Lookout Mountain, GA where I played this morning. I was scheduled to be there a couple of weeks ago but had to cancel due to a minor ice storm that closed most area schools and turned my driveway into a luge. We had a major thunderstorm system roll through the area over the past 24 hours and severe flooding closed just about all the area schools again but I was determined to not to cancel. I left Signal Mountain around 6:30 giving me plenty of time to make it through the valley, navigate around, not through, multiple flooded streets and back up Lookout mountain. Detours stretched the normal 20 minute trip to an hour and numerous impromptu waterfalls cascading onto mountain roads not only made the trip interesting, but gave me a free car wash as well!

I had a wonderful time playing three sets for first through sixth graders. Check out their pictures by using my photographs link to the left and please sign the guestbook, especially if this is your first time here. ¶ 2:26 PM

Ten Hours Later

We're done for the day. My daughter now has her own working shower, I now have a working bathtub in the master bathroom, the hot water on my wife's sink works again and we have a working water filter under our kitchen sink. All it took was about $400.00, two trips to hardware stores and a plumber supply house, and ten hours. I still have to replace two more faucets and repair the hole we punched in the wall to access the shower pipes but that's nothing compared to what we accomplished today.

My friend Brent told me to wait a couple of weeks before I repair the sheetrock just in case a leak develops in the shower. That sounds good to me, since I'll be back on the road then. I guess we'll just put a bookcase in front of it.

I feel a strange sense of responsibility in keeping this house in decent repair. It was built the same year I was born, 1961. I plan to do my best to keep us both from falling apart for as long as I can.

¶ 8:08 PM

Plumbing

I probably won't post much today. I have a good friend over, Brent, who is going to help me repair all the plumbing issues in the house. It seems that something leaks or runs in just about every room. ¶ 10:36 AM

Signal Mountain Mirror

The Signal Mountain Mirror, one of our local newspapers, arrived today and it contains a nice article written about me written by Lorie F. Tessmer. Thanks Lorie! She included my URL in the story and I'd like to do a quick check of how many people come to this web site after reading the article. If you fit this category please use the Guestbook link and make yourself known. If you want to keep your email address hidden, just leave that portion of the guestbook form blank. ¶ 2:36 PM

I just noticed that Ecto is leaving off the titles of my blog posts. I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. It's time for bed.
¶ 11:14 PM

I'm playing with a demo of a program called Ecto. It provides a desktop interface for Blogger, which would be handy to use when I don't have an internet connection and feel like writing. It crashed on me once tonight, so I'm skeptical as to its stability. One feature that looks cool is the ability to quickly have Ecto post in my journal a link to the music to which I'm currently listening in iTunes. Here's an example:



Out Of The Question from the album Into The Mystery by David Wilcox



If you hit the hyperlink it takes you to a Google search based on the song, album and artist. ¶ 11:12 PM

I just spent an hour practicing on the linear chromatic hammer dulcimer. Man, I'm just as excited about this tuning scheme as I was when I first found it. The possibillities of this instrument astound me.

With just a little more practice, Flight of the Bumblebee will be ready for public performance. I'm mixing it with Arkansas Traveler, which as a child I knew as "I'm picking up a baby bumblebee . . ." I've mentioned that to many children and found that for the most part, they don't know what I'm talking about.

I spent the rest of my practice time tonight playing ragtime songs. The chromaticism of most ragtime tunes has always limited what songs could be played on a diatonic hammer dulcimer. The linear changes that. Several years ago I bought a collection of the complete tunes by the legendary Scott Joplin. I'm going to be busy with them for a long time. ¶ 11:02 PM

Photographs Update Completed

Over the past several days I've been periodically converting all the photographs pages on this web site to the new format. The job is done now and in the process I deleted, as well as added a few new pictures. I needed to make room for new pictures from the upcoming tour.

We're now less than two weeks away from the beginning of rehearsals. One month from today we'll be opening in Albuquerque. ¶ 9:08 PM

Holy Now

One of my Monday rituals is to read the weekly column by one of the most interesting people I know. His name is Dalton Roberts and I won't list his resume here but it stretches from being County Executive to a successful singer-songwriter. You can check out his column archives at www.daltonroberts.com. Today the subject was holiness and it reminded me of one of my all time favorite lyrics. I've never posted anything like this here before but after typing out the words to send to Dalton, I thought I might as well share with everyone else too.

The lyrics come from the song "Holy Now" off the album Million Year Mind by Peter Mayer.
Here's a link to his web site:

http://www.peppermintcds.com/peterdemo.html

Peter's not what you would call a religious singer songwriter but to me these words cut right to the heart of the matter of holiness.

Everything Is Holy Now

When I was a boy, each week
On Sunday, we would go to church
And pay attention to the priest
As he would read the Holy Word.
And consecrate the holy bread
And everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now.

Everything, everything,
Everything is holy now . . .
When I was in Sunday school
We would learn about the time
Moses split the sea in two
Jesus made the water wine
And I remember feeling sad
that miracles don't happen still
But now I can't keep track
'Cause everything's a miracle

Everything, everything
Everything's a miracle . . .  

Wine into water is not so small,
but an even better magic trick
is that anything is here at all.
So, the challenging thing becomes
not to look for miracles,
but finding where there isn't one.

When holy water was rare at best
I barely wet my finger tips.
Now I have to hold my breath
like I'm swimming in a sea of it.

It used to be a world half there
heaven's second rate hand me downs
but I'm walking with a reverent air
cause everything's holy now.

Read a questioning child's face,
to say it's not a testament,
now that'd be very hard to say.
To see another new morning come,
to say it's not a sacrament,
I tell you that it

can't
be
done.

This morning outside I stood
And saw a little red-winged bird
Shining like a burning bush
Singing like a scripture verse
It made me want to bow my head
and I remember when church let out
how things have changed since then,
everything is holy now.

It used to be a world half there,
heaven's second rate hand me downs.
I'm walking with a reverent air
cause everything's holy now.

Lyrics by Peter Mayer Copyright 1999 (ASCAP) ¶ 12:44 PM