Monday's Muse

Life is brief, even at its longest. Whatever you are going to do with your life, get at it.  ~ Jim Rohn

CTO … Ruth and Steve Smith Release NEW CD

Ruth & Steve Smith's eagerly anticipated CD of instrumental hymns is now available!

Check This Out … As seen on FaceBook:  "Well, our new CD has finally arrived and we first want to make it available to all of you, our Facebook friends, before we offer it on our website and across the Internet. Give a listen to some samples of the music on the order page by clicking the link below! If you order over the weekend, we'll ship your CDs on Monday. We are quite pleased with the outcome and hope it will bless you all!"

Check it out! You're going to want to order your own copy of "He Leadeth Me" … and LIKE Ruth & Steve's FaceBook page while you're at it!

Tomorrow … tomorrow … there's always tomorrow!

Perhaps you've noticed a paucity of mid-week postings on this blog. I've been away a lot recently … way long gone the entire week of Easter, plus traveling 15 of the 31 days in the month of May. Don't get me wrong. It's all been good stuff! Beach vacations, professional meetings, family visits, a wedding, baby showers, even a dulcimer festival. But such a schedule does push some things to the back burner.

One thing that has been pushed aside is my personal dulcimer practice. I've done what is necessary to keep up with students, but by the time all my other jobs are finished there's been no time or energy left for my own practice. Sound familiar? Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've been hearing a lot of "true confessions" in the music room lately. Let us take some comfort in the fact that we're not alone in our neglect of the instrument. But, then, let's make a plan to get going!

Today I confessed to my own teacher that I have not been playing. It was late in the evening when I got his response, "Start playing!! Tomorrow!!" Will do, Ken!

Monday's Muse

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.  ~ Maya Angelou  RIP 1928 - 2014

CTO … Ken Kolodner passing through the Triangle area in November. Any leads on a concert op?

Check This Out … Ken Kolodner and son, Brad, will be heading to Charleston, SC this coming November 7-8  to play a concert (and contra dance) plus fiddle and banjo workshops. They are looking for a house concert or other concert opportunity in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area on Nov 6 or Nov 9. Any ideas? Contact Ken!

Monday's Muse

37,000 flags planted in Boston Common to honor the fallen soldiers of Massachusetts
~ from Revolutionary War to present time ~

CTO … Photos Taken Inside Instruments

Now this is a different perspective! Imagine shrinking small enough to climb into a musical instrument. Any photographers out there interested in giving us the inside scoop on a hammered dulcimer?

Check This Out … Photographs taken by Mierswa Kluska for the Berlin Philharmonic, concept by Björn Ewers and Mona Sibai. It's like stepping into another world! Check out Björn's gallery, Instruments from the Inside .