So, we have had many a chat but none as I can recall, William, about your music and what motivates you to play the dulcimer. Let’s remedy that now. First of all, how did you get into music – what’s your back-story?
WILLIAM: Now as you mention it, Steve, I have fond memories of that Spring Fling in Allendale – great music and camaraderie high up in the magnificent North Pennines. I won’t forget the Sunday night concert in Sinderhope Hall featuring Liz Conway and her “Midsummer Blue” ensemble. That’s also when I first met our good friend Erin Mae Lewis (who joined Úna and me, with her husband Justin, for an evening’s music and craic in Belfast a couple of weeks later during their holiday tour of Ireland!).
Anyway, to answer your question, it all started when three young college boys bought their first acoustic guitars in Phillips Music shop, Londonderry in 1965. I still have that Egmond “Lucky 7” which I chose for the simple, posey reason that it looked electric! In the college concert programme for 1968 we billed ourselves as “The Gargoyles” (!) and our set comprised “Homeward Bound”, “Good News Week” and “Eve of Destruction” – yes, I know, teenage angst!
After Queen’s University Folk Club years in the early 1970’s, and entry into the “rat race”, music was always in the background however it was the mid 1990’s when I “found” bluegrass, adding 5-string banjo to my collection. Then, at the late lamented North Wales Bluegrass Festival in Conway (I think it was 2011) I wandered into Robin Clarke’s Bird Rock Dulcimer tent and left with my first mountain dulcimer (a much-loved walnut McSpadden). Along the way, there was a dalliance with Irish traditional music - ergo a tenor banjo – which led, in turn to mandolin (and an increasingly exasperated better half!).
However, the “light bulb” moment was the Halsway Dulcimer Week in 2018, which I only booked as an add-on to the immediately preceding Appalachian Song Weekend. I will bore everyone for all time with my memorable first encounter with a Nonsucher on a sunny Monday afternoon – the inimitable John Crocker – and the rest is history. Thank you, John!
STEVE: I believe you have a small, but perfectly formed, collection of dulcimers. Tell us more about them. What’s this with a baritone and how are you finding it?
WILLIAM: I’ve already mentioned the walnut McSpadden which, to be honest, spent too much time languishing” under the spare bed” until I joined Nonsuch in 2018. As a next step, I made a possum board to match at the Lagan Lutherie School where I had made my rather nice acoustic guitar as a post-retirement project. Possum boards do work!
Then, coinciding with the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic, I took delivery of my “go to” custom built instrument from superb luthiers Piotr (and son Michal) Bulas – Bulas Banjos, Warsaw (28.5in VSL, spruce top, European walnut back and sides, Galax back). They were a joy to work with and my only regret is that I can’t show it off at Nonsuch events because I won’t risk the vagaries of Mr Easyjet’s baggage handlers.
And finally (for now, at least) I noticed a couple of months ago that Nick O’Sullivan (another of the small Irish Nonsuch tribe resident in Sligo) was prepared to part with a Mike Clemmer, 4 course/5 string butternut model. Under cover of persuading my wife that a pleasant weekend in the Leitrim countryside air would be most restorative, I arranged a rendezvous with the very agreeable Nick and am now spending rainy afternoons discovering the added potential of the 5-string genre.
STEVE: I know you are a regular at the Sunflower folk club in Belfast and you have managed to accompany some of the guests with your dulcimer. Tell us about the club and the music scene over there. Are there any other MD players about?
WILLIAM: There aren’t too many “traditional” folk clubs left, as you know, however the Sunflower (along with your own Bridge in the Toon) is keeping the flame alive. The Sunflower Bar kindly makes the upstairs room available, complete with a small bar at one end and the small stage (with very good sound system) at the other. The landlord insists on keeping the wire grille around the front entrance as a “listed feature” harking back to the dark days of “The Troubles” when its purpose was to keep out would-be bombers. In these happier days, each Thursday evening, the first half is “open mike” for regulars and visitors and then, after the break, we have our guest performance. One of the most memorable was the great Pete Coe who was our guest in October 2018 – the only other mountain dulcimer player to have appeared at the Club! Oh – and as a footnote the Bar owner also has a large banner on the outside wall requesting “No topless sunbathing – Ulster has had enough”!
We’re a small (slowly growing) tribe here in Ireland and I know of only 5 other mountain dulcimer players on the island - but there may be more in their closets!
STEVE: What songs are you working on at the moment and where do you get your inspiration from? Have you neen to see any bands/singers recently?
WILLIAM: Whilst I admire friends who write their own material, I am continuously inspired by discovering or resurrecting great songs from the ‘60’s and 70’s and the challenge of arranging them for mountain dulcimer. Periodically, I seem to get obsessed by a particular group or artist and “mine” their catalogue for suitable contenders – I’ve revisited the Rolling Stones a few times and Gordon Lightfoot is probably turning in his grave at the moment! These days, I enjoy playing as much as listening, but I’m very attached to my (carefully preserved) collection of original vinyls and – depending on the weather and mood – might spin “Fire and Water” by Free or “Let it Bleed” by the Stones, amongst a host of others.
The first time I asked Úna (still my long-suffering wife) out during our University days was to a Ralph McTell concert here in Belfast in 1972 (when very few artists would risk touring here). We went to another of his concerts which almost coincided with our 25th wedding anniversary and I’ve just bought tickets for his next visit in November – over half a century on!
STEVE: You play by ear mostly. How do you go about working up your arrangements?
WILLIAM: For me, there’s no better way to spend the occasional rainy afternoon than to pick a “least likely for dulcimer” song, find my key for singing and then try to make it fit. The mountain dulcimer being a wonderfully versatile, forgiving instrument, I rarely fail. If the song has a recognisable riff or “hook” then that’s a great start. Take “No Regrets” by the Walker Brothers (yes, I know!) – the orchestral introduction easily translates to the dulcimer and the rest just slots into place. I got a great buzz out of replicating Brian Jones’ mountain dulcimer backup on the Stones’ Lady Jane – my wife remarked that the only thing missing was the hair!
So many great songs, a great instrument that adapts so easily and so many kindred spirits in Nonsuch to share with and learn from.
See you in the Toon at Spring Fling next April, Steve!
Comments
Post a Comment