The Magic of Evart

[SUE C WHEELER]

Just seven dollars for one day's admission and an excuse to spend a couple nights up north. What would keep me away from the Original Dulcimer Players Club's annual Funfest? Uh, I just got home from it.

http://evartdulcimerfest.org/

This is the third time I've gone. The first time, I dropped by for twenty minutes, the second time I spent most of the day, and this year I spent the entire day, including supper, and the start of the evening concert. Now I'm figuring how I can manage multiple days next year. I've become friends with a number of dulcimer players, so I'm less shy about crashing their event with my psaltery.  Thank you People's Dulcimer Circle in Pinckney!   It was fun to run into Sharna and Lei. Also I encountered Stan and Sande from  Psaltery Symphony. Sandy from Laingsburg, too.  What lovely and versatile people! I had a great time.

What workshops could a psalterist attend? Well, first I went to "Write a tune with Larry Unger."This was a blast. The talented and engaging Mr. Unger had us sing and play phrases that we made up on the spot. It fed my creativity bug, but I'll leave serious composing to others.  After lunch and a tour of the vendors  (I fell for JM Bolton's _A Psaltery Christmas_ but that's all!), I went to the Christian Hymn Jam. I was happily joining the jam, when I realized my psaltery had fallen seriously out of tune, so I made myself withdraw rather than be offensive. I won't leave my tuner in the car next time!  Any way, I went to "Practice Smarter Not Harder" with Brett Ridgeway, instead of hour two of the hymn jam.  Mr Ridgeway offered practice tips in such a way that I can imagine improving in both skill and spirit.  The Mountain Dulcimer Slow Jam was elementary-dulcimer-centered, but I got out of it what I could, mainly insight into the challenges of my dulcimer-playing  buddies. 

I happily encountered StanandSandy at dinner. They invited me to sit with them at the concert. The evening had cooled down and was sunny with a perfect breeze. I'm sure the concert ended as excitingly as it began, but I left early in order to get back to the cottage before dark. Thank you, ODPC, for a day rich with music and smiles!  See you next year!