Valentine’s Day, with music

[annathepiper]

solarbird came to the realization this weekend that she really needed a decent bodhran to finish up her CD, given that her little Kimi, which is essentially a toy, just wasn’t cutting it. So since we’re recovering well financially, we scampered down to Dusty Strings yesterday to get her a real drum!

They didn’t have the drum she really wanted–mostly because those, Dusty String’s highest end bodhrans–are made by an artisan in Ireland who makes new drums quite slowly and there was no real estimate on when he might get more to them. But happily they had a couple of drums that were kind of the next tier down, and Dara ultimately chose one of those. The new drum’s got a nice deep resonant voice to it and should sound awesome recorded. Its only drawback is that Dara can’t do that nifty rip noise around the rim, but it ain’t like she’s tossing Kimi, so she can still break out the little drum for that.

Meanwhile, because this is pretty much mandated any time I set foot in that place, I checked out their wall of acoustic guitars. They had a few Seagulls as well as two smaller guitars that said Art & Lutherie on the heads–and the Dusty Strings staff said that those were actually made by the same parent company, which was kind of neat. The A&L guitars I liked were these guys, and the one I particularly liked was about the size of Rags but with a bit more punch. Ultimately though Dara and I agreed that that instrument didn’t really have the capability to roar, so I started playing with the Seagulls, and the third one I tried had a really lovely voice to it, a good deep low end and some clear, precise upper notes as well.

I have to admit that a good Seagull is very likely a contender for the Cargo for the guitar I’ll ultimately buy. I have more than a little fear that the Cargo is possibly way more guitar than I actually need, since I have no aspirations to be a real performer; I just want a nice guitar I can play at jams and take to local conventions for filking purposes, and occasional busking as well. The Seagull very well may be about right.

On the other hand, Dara pointed out quite correctly that it’s very possible that I could grow enough as a guitarist to match the Cargo. The Seagull would certainly give me good room to grow–but I shouldn’t necessarily dismiss the possibility of growing to match the Cargo, either. What I would really like to do is go to the Bellevue store that carries the Cargos, see if they have Seagulls as well, and then just compare both instruments side by side and see which one calls to me louder.

Of course, this depends upon me selling enough copies of Faerie Blood to actually afford the Cargo. *^_^*;;

In the meantime, in the interests of giving me more room to grow as a guitarist, I snagged a copy of the same fakebook I’d bought for mandolin, only this is the guitar version. So I’ll see if I can start picking out some of these melodies on Rags, which will give me some fingerwork practice. Looking forward to that!

Last but not least, I snagged a couple of CDs from the store since they do have a small selection–and I was stunned, stunned I tell you, to see that they actually had a couple of La Bottine Souriante CDs! So I promptly grabbed one of those, as well as one by an Irish lady named Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh who appears on a previous CD I bought. Also, the name Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is just awesome.

All in all a lovely way to spend Valentine’s Day afternoon, and Dara and I were the last ones out of the store since we were there right up until they closed. Always a pleasure to visit there! Because as far as I’m concerned, music is love.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

music is love.

*nods vehemently*

May there be much music in your life. :)

[howlinhobbit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

A while after I fell madly in love with my little ukulele friends and began spending all my time with them I got tired of my beautiful Alvarez/Yairi dreadnought staring at me reproachfully. I sold her and bought a little Art & Luthiery parlor guitar.

While it has a laminate body, the face is solid cedar and is aging and opening up beautifully. Though not a "tree hugger" by any means, I like the fact that the company tries to stick to woods indigenous to their area when making their instruments. All in all she's a lovely little guitar, though she's made more for fingerpicking than for wild-eyed strumming (no pickguard for one).

I think I spent about $130 on her.

I don't know anything about the Cargo guitars you mention, but I'm reasonably sure that if you can't find/afford one of them, A&L makes a guitar that will fit your specs pretty well.

P.S. Where do you busk? I'm at the Pike Market quite a lot.

[annathepiper]

It sounds like your A&L guitar is maybe this one? I played with a couple of these at Dusty Strings.

Here's the thing. I quite liked the sound and clarity of the A&L's but they didn't actually have much power and volume to them, at least not as played by me; I'm not a very forceful player yet. I definitely need something with more punch to it, so if I go with anything made by those folks, I'm going to slant to the Seagulls instead. (I was rather pleased to learn that the A&L's and the Seagulls are actually made by the same parent company, so it's all good.)

There was one Seagull in particular at Dusty Strings that quite impressed me, and right now that guitar is the strongest contender to the Cargo. Its primary virtue honestly is financial, since it's less than half the price of the Cargo and I really need to get my hands on a Cargo again and compare the sound, just to make sure I don't choose the wrong one. Finding a Cargo won't be a problem; there's a local music store that carries them, and a couple of local musicians Dara and I know got their instruments from that store. The store's in Bellevue, though, so I will just have to haul myself over there some time soon and do some test playing of an instrument. If they also carry Seagulls there so I can compare, bonus.

I have GOT to have something with punch to it since, as I said, I would need it whenever I busk with Dara. She is a very forceful player, and in addition, both Summer (her mandolin, originally mine but I gave it to her) and Kohaku (her bouzouki) are loud and forceful instruments! Dara's been mistaken for being amped when she was just playing that loud and forcefully, which was pretty neat. ;) She cuts loose at the Lake Forest Park farmers' market, you can hear her clear across the parking lot. :)

I've tried to busk with Dara at Folklife, and being heard against her, especially with the din of the festival all around us, was impossible. So I have got to have a guitar that can assert itself under those conditions, for whatever frequency I'm likely to indulge in them. I don't busk with Dara very often, yet--partly because I don't have an adequate instrument for it yet, and partly just due to time. She has all day to schedule busking outings during the summer, but I'm always at work, so that's not really an option for me.

So far Dara's busked the last couple summers at a lot of the local farmers' markets: Lake Forest Park, Bothell, Woodinville, Kirkland, Edmonds, Lake City, and Magnolia off the top of my head. She's also semi-regularly shown up at the open mikes at Soul Food Books, and has had stage gigs in Boston and Vancouver, which is pretty neat. ^_^ She hasn't made it to Pike Place for busking, though.