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The streets of inner city Cleveland, Ohio are not where you would expect a hammered dulcimer player to be from. I had always wanted to play music and had a brief stint on the trumpet before being excused from the elementary school band and told by my music teacher that I had no musical talent and would probably never be able to play anything. I believed what that music teacher had told me for the next twenty years. But at the age of 28, while on a backpacking trip and walking through the town of Bar Harbor, Maine I heard the most incredible, delightful sound floating down the street. I followed that sound into a little shop called Song of the Sea where sat a fellow named Ed Damm playing a multi-stringed trapezoid shaped instrument with tiny wooden hammers. The second I saw it, I knew. The music and instrument literally spoke to me. One day I would play the hammered dulcimer. I was exposed to more of the traditional styles of music on this backpacking trip as I ended up spending a year in Ireland in a tiny village in County Kerry called Finuge. I lived the rural Irish lifestyle and assisted local farmers in their chores like driving a donkey and cart into the bog to haul out turf and helping the salmon and oyster fishermen in Tralee. Almost every chore was proceeded with a trip to the pub where a pint and a tune could be had most any time. This trip in Ireland also exposed me to the need for medical care in other parts of the world, so upon returning to the states I entered nursing school. I was accepted into an accelerated program and received my RN licensure in a year and a half. Fed up with the severe winters in Cleveland, I decided to move south to Raleigh, N.C. where I was positively sure it never got cold! My first nursing job was in an open heart recovery unit which is very stressful work and since I could now afford an instrument, it was time to get my first hammered dulcimer. I would come home pretty stressed out after working all night in open heart recovery and trauma team and I would sit and pound away on the dulcimer. I took that dulcimer everywhere and made everyone listen to my few meager tunes. I almost got in trouble one time at the hospital. When I wasn't busy I would play late at night in the nurses lounge with the door closed so I wouldn't disturb anyone. Later on, I heard nurses in the cafeteria talking about patients three floors up being awoken in the middle of the night swearing they heard harp music. The rest is, as they say, history. I hooked up with some local Carolina musicians, formed the Blue Skies Band and recorded our first album, The Shepherd's Wife's Waltz. We only did it for fun and had planned on doing only one recording but as luck would have it we started getting airplay on national public radio shows. So back into the studio we went for album number two. I started selling our recordings sitting on the gate of my truck at the Raleigh flea market. This progressed into doing a few local arts and crafts shows which went well and convinced me that I had to go on the road if I was going to make this work. I started doing much bigger arts and crafts shows and was especially fortunate to become a part of the Christmas Made in the South shows which are put on by Bob and Janice Hunt. Over the years, Bob and Janice have been loyal supporters of my music and have become dear friends. I also started marketing my music in national wholesale shows. I've been on the road for eleven years now and have logged hundreds of thousands of miles and sold over 200,000 copies of my recordings. I've learned one truth about marketing your own product which I teach in entrepreneurial workshops. In business, you create your own luck by pounding the pavement more than your competitors. The education I've received and the success I've experienced from marketing my own products have afforded me some opportunities for which I am deeply grateful. I've been able to pass along my knowledge and experiences in business to inner city teenagers and have done a number of free concerts and entrepreneurial workshops in North Carolina prisons. My goal is to eventually be able to take this experience back into the medical field and give back a hundred fold what I've been blessed with. Thank you all for your support. |
