Rock City

OK, so maybe a bazillion Christmas lights is cheesy but a little cheese is good for you now and then, right? Tonight I'll travel down Signal Mountain, across the valley and then back up Lookout Mountain to play a little music at Rock City.

Click their Enchanted Garden link or take a look at my Calendar for other dates.

I've been doing this holiday gig almost as long as I've been playing hammered dulcimer which is 19 years. I don't know for sure when the first time was I played Rock City but I've had couples with young children say they remember seeing me play there when they were in high school. Someone's getting older. It must be them.

There's something to be said for longevity here at the relatively obscure end of the music business. It is flattering and still surprising when someone I don't know asks if I have any new CDs out because they want to add to their collection. "Collection of what," I ask. "Of your CDs" they say. I finally stopped saying "Really?!?," and learned to respond with a simple "Thank you." Which by the way, I really mean.

Doing this music thing is hard and uncertain work. CD sales to an independent artist are like report cards and paychecks at the same time.

Speaking of paychecks, I got a small ASCAP check in the mail yesterday. ASCAP stands for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. This is how you get paid when your work gets airplay or is used some other way around the world. The bulk of this check was for airplay in Taiwan! Yes, I'm big in Taiwan. I think I'll have a t-shirt made. ¶ 8:56 AM 4 comments

Happy Thankgsiving!

¶ 7:14 AM 0 comments

Zenith

Check out these videos posted by a myspace friend. The music is a song called Zenith (named after my grandmother) off my CD Turning Point. Click Here

Here's another video by the same poster to the music of Icy Rain, written by Randy Clepper and found on our CD, Hammer On! ¶ 7:07 AM 0 comments

Comments Back On

I just turned commenting back on for my blog (this thing you're reading now.) The image verification should slow down the spam. Give it a try and let me know if it is working properly. Oh yeah, and Brad Bower is a new moderator on the forum. He likes complaints.

Dan ¶ 4:20 PM 2 comments

Three Hats - one bald head

Today will be a test of my juggling abilities. The Christmas gigging season officially opens for me tonight at Rock City. They have a brand new pavilion open this year and from the pictures the Chapins have sent me it looks like a great place to play, and stay warm while "See(ing) Rock City."

The weather is supposed to be nice and warm today and for the rest of week too. Hurray. In years past my first night at Rock City was also the first night in the 20's. We should be in the mid 50's tonight.

OK, the above counts for one hat - the gigging musician.

My second task today involves Dulcimer Players News. If you're just tuning in, Angie and I are now publishing this quarterly magazine. I've been a subscriber since 1987 and it has been around since 1975 without missing an edition. We're filling big shoes here as my friend Maddie MacNeil gets a long deserved break from deadlines to focus on her music a bit more. (Did I just imply that Maddie has big feet? - Sorry.)

Our office all set up now and if you need to contact us about DPN you can either call 423-886-3966, email us at dpn@dpnews.com, or write:

Dulcimer Players News
P.O. box 278
Signal Mountain, TN 37377

We're in the process of contacting all the advertisers and giving them an extension on the ad deadline. If you're an advertiser you can read all about it at dpnews.com

So, today's hat number two - Magazine Publisher (which subdivides into a hundred mini hats.)

The third thing on my calendar begins in about ten minutes as my friend Josh Edwards will be in the studio. We're mastering a Christmas fund raising CD for his group Zamerin, based out of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church.

I love my job, I just can't tell you in one sentence what it is! ¶ 8:03 AM 0 comments

More Forum

I just made a change to the forum that forces registration and signing in before viewing posts. You can of course just make up a name and still log in anonymously. I hope this works and doesn't slow down the flow of conversation. I think once you've logged in once your browser will remember the password and just let you in.

Thanks for your patience while I sort this out. I really don't know much about administrating a bulletin board. You already knew that, didn't you. ¶ 7:59 AM 0 comments

Forums

I apologize to those of you trying to post to the forum over the past couple of days. I clamped down a bit too tightly on the rules over there in order to stop the spam.

There was some really bad stuff posted by spammers a couple of days ago and I almost pulled the forum completely.

I've calmed down now and if I've done it right you should all be able to post again. Anyone else want to get moderator status? I'm serious. I know and trust everyone who's been posting so just drop me an email (dan@danlandrum.com) and if I know you I'll make you a moderator so you can start topics without waiting for approval.

Dan ¶ 7:35 AM 0 comments

Dulcimer Players News

I've been quiet for the past couple of weeks but not because things have been quiet around here. Click this link to be taken to the Dulcimer Players News web site. Make sure you click the Dulcimer Players Podcast link when you get there. ¶ 9:53 PM 0 comments

Photos

Angie and I are on the road for a couple of days. This morning we are in Kennett, my old home town. This afternoon we'll celebrate my grandmother Zenith's 95th birthday. I'll snap some pictures and post them after we get back to Tennessee. I first wanted to get a few posted from the past couple of days.



The cotton harvest is in full swing and there aren't too many bolls left on the stalk. We pulled off of the road near sunset and caught a great view of a field that will probably be plucked clean by the end of the weekend.



I come from farming ancestry and though I never met my grandfather, I've been told many times that he would have quickly fired anyone who left as much cotton on the stalks as the modern machinery does. My father's family all grew up picking cotton by hand and stuffing it into sacks.



That was long gone by the time I was old enough to work on the farm so yes, I drove a tractor a bit for summer work as a young teen. I have great memories of playing for hours in the big cotton trailers. It was unbelievably hot to tunnel down through the tons of cotton these giant baskets held. It was probably a little bit dangerous too, but we spent hours doing it.

Those cotton trailers are ancient history as modern cotton delivery methods use what can best be described as a giant trash compactor to produce modular bails wrapped in plastic that neither weather nor child can penetrate.


Click on any of the images for a larger version. These are pretty big pictures so it might be painful if you're on a dial-up connection.



The other pictures are a few I took in the yard Thursday morning before our Irish guests, John Carty and Francis Gaffney, hit the road. I'm afraid when we return home most of the leaves may be washed away by wind and rain.

¶ 11:07 AM 0 comments

John Carty and Francis Gaffney

Angie and I were honored to have musical house guests last night. John Carty and Francis Gaffney arrived in the U.S. from Ireland earlier this week. Their tour began a couple of days ago at Belmont College in Nashville. They played last night at Charles and Myrtle's Coffee House in Chattanooga.

Philip Luckey was there with a video camera so I'm posting this bit of YouTube video with his, and our guests' permission.




Here's a link to the rest of the tour. ¶ 8:24 AM 0 comments