I sommarens soliga daga and "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall" -- two choral traditions (or one choral tradition and one half-baked memory of high school)

ÖSTERVÅLA, Sweden -- When our turn came around to suggest a song, Debi and I completely, utterly blanked out. We were at a gathering of Swedish musicians at a retreat center on Lake Tämnaren north of Stockholm, and we'd been singing around the supper table for a good half hour after a meal of Thai carry-out.

After-dinner singing at the Nordiska Psalmodikonförbundet's annual meeting.

It was a festive occasion, the annual meeting of the Nordiska Psalmodikonförbundet, a society of people who play a folk zither called the psalmodikon, and the singing was followed by a jam session involving two nyckelharpor (Swedish keyed fiddles), a harmonica, a couple of ukes and -- something I'd never seen before and couldn't have imagined -- a psalmodikon playing backup chords.

But the singing was what stood out to a visitor from North America. About a dozen of us were gathered around the table, and all but two of us joined in on song after song -- they knew all the words, too, and several sang harmony parts -- and it sounded like fun. It was, too, as I'd catch a melody and softly join in singing "ah" on the second or third verse, nice and soft so I wouldn't ruin the harmonies.

After a while they asked us, well, what do you sing at parties in America?

Welp, we answered, uh ...

Long silence. Debi and I exchanged halfway panic-stricken glances. What do we sing?

Well, we don't sing all that much, we said. We don't learn as many songs in school as Swedes do, and we don't sing them much after we get out of elementary school.

But there are a few, we added, searching our memories. We used to sing one called "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall" on the school bus. I'd sing it in high school back in Tennessee, on the way to "away" ball games, and it drove our chaperones crazy.

Oh, the Swedes replied. "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall." That sounds rather nice. Will you sing it for us?

So Debi and I joined in:

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall,
Ninety-nine bottles of beer.
Take one down,
Pass it around,
And ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.

What else could we do?

We sang the next verse, and the Swedes joined in:

Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall,
Ninety-nine bottles of beer.
Take one down,
Pass it around,
And ninety-seven bottles of beer on the wall.

And so it went, everyone joining in. I won't claim it was great music, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the Swedes were humoring their North American guests who don't sing in public after they get out of school and aren't very good at it when we try, but we got down as far as 94 or 95 bottles of beer on the wall.

In Sweden, it's different. I've been told, and we heard it again that night at Östervåla, more Swedes per capita take part in church or community choirs than in any other country worldwide. Behind that statistic lies a simple fact -- they sing in groups because it's fun, and they've learned it from childhood.

It has other benefits as well, according to a study by the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg (Göteborg) University, ranging from cardiac to mental well-being.

Certainly it was a lot of fun at Östervåla. I wish we sang at social gatherings in America.

At any rate, perhaps inspired by our bravura performance of "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall," the Psalmodikonförbundet folks launched into what sounded like a chest-thumping march that is actually a school song called I sommarens soliga daga (in summer's sunny days). Summers throughout Scandinavia are lovely -- and brief -- and they are celebrated in several favorite Swedish songs. A lot of Swedish folk tunes are in minor modes that sound dark to American ears, but the summer tune are upbeat, peppy and really quite nice.

At one time, the Swedish education authorities decreed that every graduate of the Swedish school system ought to be able to join in a few songs, and I sommarens soliga daga was one of them. Clearly the school authorities were onto a good idea.

At any rate, another bravura performance followed around the table at Östervåla.

I liked the song immediately, and made a note of its title. When I got home, I looked it up -- even transposed it from B-flat to D and put it on a "good intentions" playlist I keep at home -- the ever-growing collection of tunes I want to learn on the dulcimer someday, when and if I ever follow through on my good intentions.

I sommarens soliga daga

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_sommarens_soliga_dagar has this: I sommarens soliga dagar är en svensk sång i tvåtakt med text av Gustaf Johansson. Melodin är enligt Sjung, svenska folk en ”gammal marschmelodi".

Sången ingick från 1943 bland de stamsånger som var obligatoriska i skolundervisningen men ströks från listan redan 1949.

• Notes (in B-flat) http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/mirror/musicaviva.com/sweden/i-sommarens-soliga/0000.

• Lyrics (with chords in A) http://www.svenskaackord.com/artists/ovrigt/tracks/i-sommarens-soliga-dagar-7446.

"Allsång på Skansen" (06 August, 2013). Wikipedia, Allsång på Skansen (Sing-along at Skansen) is a Swedish show held at Skansen, Stockholm, every summer on Tuesdays between 8pm and 9pm. The audience is supposed to sing-along with musical guests to well-known Swedish songs. The show started in 1935 on a small scale; about 50 people in the audience. Today about 10,000–25,500 people come to each performance.

Lill Babs: "I sommarens soliga dagar" & "Full orkan"

Second line parade at Pete Fountain's funeral in New Orleans

D R A F T

Posted live this afternoon by the New Orleans Historic Collection. I copied it to my Facebook feed at https://www.facebook.com/peter.ellertsen/posts/1731366487124390. I can't get back to the original, so I'm posting the link through my FB timeline here in the hopes it'll get us there later.

New Hindu temple in Chatham, per article in Illinois Times

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016 12:08 am
Hindus at home on the prairie
Chatham temple eyes expansion
By Bruce Rushton

[verbatim quotations copied and pasted from article at http://illinoistimes.com/article-17565-hindus-at-home-on-the-prairie.html]

* * *

[Lede:] At sunset one recent Thursday, Dr. Dharmendra Nimavat pauses outside the Hindu Temple of Greater Springfield, where he is installing new flags to replace storm-tattered banners.

New complete-with-fold-marks flags of India and the temple itself are ready, but the U.S. flag is missing. Nimavat, a pediatrician at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, unlocks the temple and checks inside. Still no luck. An American flag will be here soon, he determines after making a phone call. In the meantime, the flags that are ready are hoisted, with top position, above the Indian flag, left vacant for the expected U.S. flag, which Nimavat explains should naturally fly above the flag of his native land.

“Wherever you stay, that’s your home country,” Nimavat says. “You should respect it.”

* * *

In the Springfield area, desire for a temple that ended up in Chatham grew over the years, fueled by folks like Nimavat, who came to this country in 1996. Worshipping at home, where phone calls and other distractions are near givens, isn’t the same as coming to the temple, he says.

“You don’t get the same vibes when you come to the temple – it’s different,” Nimavat says. “The second generation that’s coming from India, they’re really driving things. They demanded it (a temple), and it’s happened.”

In the early days, before acquiring property, temple members gathered in basements, Nimavat recalls. The need for such gatherings, and for a temple, isn’t just religious. The temple has 90 members, most of Indian heritage (there is also a member from Iran and a member from Nepal). The U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t distinguish between people of Indian descent and other Asians, but it’s fair to say that Indians are a small fraction of the local population.

“The temple is a focal point,” Rao says. “It’s a meeting place to imbibe in our culture so that children in our community get an opportunity to get in touch with our roots. The other factor is, although people can pray at home, deities in temples have been specially energized, imbued with the presence of God. They’ve, in effect, been brought to life by a priest.

“Put another way, air is everywhere. But you go in front of an air conditioner if you want to get cool.”

* * *

Some compromises are almost inevitable.

In India, Hindu temples tend to be carved from granite. Granite and granite carvers being scarce in central Illinois, the temple in Springfield will likely feature plaster, says Rao, who grew up in Florida, where he says that his father helped organize and build the first Hindu temple in Tampa. It wasn’t an easy task, he recalls.

“I initially thought I would not be like my father,” Rao says. “Over time, people change.”

Hinduism evolved over centuries across India, one of the planet’s most populous nations. Besides geography, devotees are separated by language, and so traditions and beliefs vary. In the United States, however, the Indian population is relatively small, and so organizers must coalesce a temple community from folks who didn’t necessarily follow the same religious customs in their homeland. It is, essentially, a theological melting pot within a cultural melting pot that every immigrant experiences in the United States.

“It’s fondue all over,” says Dr. Kartik Mani, a cardiovascular physician who is chairman of the temple’s board of trustees.

Diversity is apparent during temple ceremonies. While groups of a dozen or more devotees seated on the floor sing or chant together, others walk in, alone or in twos and threes, to present offerings of fruit or money at three altars that display statues of more than a dozen deities. Paying no attention to group rituals, individual devotees clasp hands in prayer form or prostate themselves in various directions or simply linger for a few moments at the altar before leaving. Some appear to pray before pictures of deities that hang from the walls. Some announce their entrance into the worship room by ringing a bell that hangs at the entrance, others do not. No two devotees do exactly the same thing.

Augustana Synod as folk church -- miscellaneous references

Emory Lindquist. Shepherd of an Immigrant People: The Story of Erland Carlsson. Rock Island: Augustana Historical Society, 1978. The constitution emphasized the concept of a folk församling (a people's church) in contrast with ren församling (a pure congregation of believers) that was organized by Pastor Olof Olsson at Lindsborg, Kansas, in August 1869. ... The difference between {Carosson's church" and "Olsson's church" reflects the separate views of each pastor and the change in emphasis in some quarters of the läsare (readers) movement in 1854 and in contrast with 1869. (35)

n17, p. 39 For the implications of "ren församling" and Olof Olsson, see Emory Lindquist, Smoky Valley People ... pp. 25-32

washington phillips dulceola

D R A F T

Wikimedia Commons

Take your burden to the Lord [Columbia 19__]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXnRudjCh9c.

on ukulele

YouTube user Todd B

"Ar Eirinn ... (For Ireland, I Won't Say Her Name)" -- a slow air for the Clayville-Prairieland sessions

Our regular "third Thursday" session of the Clayville-Prairieland Academy of Music is from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, in the narthex (lobby) at Peace Lutheran Church, 2800 West Jefferson, in Springfield.

Ar Eirinn Ní Neosfainn Cé hÍ - Liam Clancy

By request. It's a simple melody and we can pick it up easily. (In fact, we just about had it when we were playing it by ear the other day at Clayville.) Since it's a slow air, it's been played in just about every key imaginable -- including D. Let's us play it in D, since we've got dulcimer tab in D, but let's be careful we're all in the same key. A couple of aids:

• Link to a lead sheet, with dulcimer tab and backup chords, for "Ar Eirinn -- (For Ireland, I Won't Say Her Name)" on Everything Dulcimer at

  http://everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/ar_eirinn_for_ireland_i_wont_say_her_name.pdf

• This is the MIDI sound file on Everything Dulcimer:

  http://everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/ar_eirinn_for_ireland_i_wont_say_her_name.mid.

• Sheet music (in D, A and G [!] because it's a slow air rather than a fiddle tune so nobody's as dogmatic about the keys) on The Session website at https://thesession.org/tunes/1039. Irish-language lyrics are available in the discussion there for the venturesome.

• An English translation with chords at http://www.irish-folk-songs.com/for-ireland-ill-not-tell-her-name-lyrics-and-chords.html on the Irish Songs With Guitar Chords website.

Martin Dardis, who maintains the Irish Songs website, has this to say about it:

An Irish folk / love Irish song. The tin whistle sheet music notes are included.
I only ever heard The Wolfe Tones sing this beautiful love song,To hear Tommy Byrne of the Tones sing it would send a shiver down your spine. What a singer he is,and such beautiful harmonies from The Wolfe Tones. The song was written by John Barry Oge from County Kerry. I asked Brian Warfield from The Wolfe Tones where he got the song from and he said he got it when it was written in Gaelic and translated it to English. The tin whistle notes are included with basic letter notes along with a video to help you on your way to learning the song.

HOWEVER: More confusion possible here, if we're not careful, about keys. Dardis gives the chords above in D. So far, so good. But the Wolfe Tones video he embeds is in F, and he also gives the chords in F for those who wish to sing along. Then on top of that, for reasons I might understand if I played the tin whistle, he gives the melody in standard notation and whistle tab in the key of G. Once we learn the melody in D, we can transpose it to G. Or to any key we choose. But we need to play it in one key at a time!

Lots of good information on the Mudcat Cafe thread at http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10531. Including this -- Mary O'Hara in Song for Ireland, says,

"The melody of this song has travelled far. Clondillon relates hearing a Roumanian folk singer sing the tune believing it to be a Roumanian folksong. Perhaps some soldier of fortune belonging to the Wild Geese had the gift of song! " [bracketed material omitted]

"Seán óg [ó Tuama ?] explained the story to me like this: a young man fell secretly in love with a girl. Too poor to support her and too shy to propose, he went abroad to seek his fortune. However, when he returned to claim his beloved, he was shattered to find her married to his brother. Still in love, he composed this song to her but, for obvious reasons, refused to reveal her name."

Den Danske Salmeduo plans CD, book for 500th anniversary of Reformation

"Salmer til folket – en Luther-koncert med Den Danske Salmeduo." Reformationsjubilæum. Aarhus Stift: En Del af Folkekirken http://aarhusstift.dk/reformationsjubilaeum/den-danske-salmeduo/.

Den Danske Salmeduo er, i samarbejde med en række erfarne skribenter, i færd med at lave en kombineret cd- og bogudgivelse, der skal sætte nyt lys på Luthers salmer. Cd’en vil indeholde duoens instrumentale nyfortolkninger af Luther-salmer. Bogen vil bl.a. indeholde en række korte tekster – både faglige og skønlitterære – der afdækker forskellige aspekter ved reformationen og dens samfundsmæssige og kulturelle betydning, både historisk, men ikke mindst i nutiden. Den skal bibringe en forståelse af Luthers musikhistoriske betydning – også ud over det rent kirkelige. Skribenterne bliver journalist Kåre Gade, biskop Henrik Wigh-Poulsen, digter Peter Laugesen og musikhistoriker Thorkil Mølle. Der planlægges udgivelse ved årsskiftet 2016-17.

Schedule for joint commoration of the Reformation Oct. 31 in Lund and Malmö

LWF General Secretary Martin Junge shares details about Lund, Malmö preparations

"From Conflict to Communion – Together in Hope” is the theme of the Joint Ecumenical Commemoration, which will be held in Lund and Malmö, Sweden, on 31 October. The event brings together Lutherans and Catholics from around the world to jointly commemorate the Reformation and look to the future. LWF President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge and Pope Francis will jointly host the event. Lutheran World Information asked Junge how people can participate in the event and what the day means for him. https://www.lutheranworld.org/news/many-ways-take-part-joint-commemoration-reformation

* * *

The commemoration event will have two main parts. In the early afternoon of 31 October, a common prayer will take place in Lund Cathedral. The liturgy is based on the report From Conflict to Communion and its Common Prayer, which were jointly developed by Catholics and Lutherans. At the same time there will be an event in Malmö Arena. Those who are there will be able to follow a live stream of the common prayer at the cathedral. After the common prayer the hosts will move to the Arena and join the people gathered there to witness activities showing the commitment to common witness and service of Catholics and Lutherans around the world. Highlights of the joint work of LWF World Service and Caritas Internationalis will be shown, including care for refugees, peace building and advocacy for climate justice.

Attendance in Lund Cathedral will be by invitation only but up to 10,000 people can participate in Malmö Arena. Registration will be necessary and only those registered with tickets will be able to enter the arena.

Petersburg dulcimer group to play at State Fair

Pictured L-R are Debbie Hill of Tallula, Jackie Horn, Kate Kanaley-Miller of Petersburg, Jill Coy from Pleasant Plains, Beckie Hart and Marilyn Montgomery of Petersburg.

To Perform at Illinois State Fair

The "Wildwood Strings and Friends" Dulcimer Group have been invited to play at the Illinois State Fair again. They will perform on Senior Citizen Day, Monday, August 15, 2016, and be located outside the Illinois Building in the Looking for Lincoln exhibit. Their performances will be at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM and at 3:00 PM. They will play Civil War era songs and songs President Lincoln enjoyed.

Song Legacy of Scottish-Irish Migration -- on a new website featuring European trad music

Among the great many cultural connections between Ireland and Scotland, the mutual influence of each nation’s musical and singing traditions on the other is perhaps one of the most interesting. As a case in point, below are some archival examples which point to the legacy of people travelling back and forward between the two countries, and the songs they took with them.

http://www.europeanasounds.eu/news/the-song-legacy-of-scottish-irish-migration

[On the Europeana Sounds website at http://www.europeanasounds.eu/ ... "Europe's sound heritage at your fingertips."

esbjörn misc references

Student skit [at Augie] about Lars Paul Esbjörn [20 min.]

"Jamaica Farewell" -- a standard from the '50s for this week's Prairieland Strings and Clayville Academy sessions

Back by popular demand --

A few weeks ago at Clayville, we started playing "Jamaica Farewell" by ear, and we didn't do such a bad job with it. After all, it's one our Prairieland Dulcimer Strings group used to play in an earlier incarnation. But we were a little rusty, especially on the words.

I mean, c'mon, what is *akee rice anyway?

So I said I'd find the dulcimer tab and send around a link. Here it is, with standard notation and guitar chords, on Shelley Stevens' website:

http://freepdfhosting.com/2a30ebc7b2.pdf.

She posted it to her tab archives in September 2006.

---

We have two sessions of the Prairieland Strings/Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music coming up this week:

• From 7 to 9 p.m. at Peace Lutheran Church (formerly Atonement, Faith and Luther Memoria), 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.
• From 10 a.m. to noon at Clayville Historic Stagecoach Stop, Ill. Rte. 125, Pleasant Plains.

---

The song was on Belafonte's classic 1956 LP album Calypso. It is credited to Lord Burgess (Irving Louis Burgie), who wrote eight of the 11 songs on Calypso. His mother was Barbados and his father was from Virginia. Wikipedia's article on Belafonte says this about the songs" Many of the compositions recorded for Calypso, including 'Banana Boat Song' and 'Jamaica Farewell', gave songwriting credit to Irving Burgie, Belafonte and his team, but were really previously recorded [traditional] Jamaican mento songs sold as calypso.

Wikipedia's article on "Jamaica Farewell," which is unusually informative even for Wikipedia and is probably definitive, says this:

Though many, including Belafonte himself, have said that the song was popular in the West Indies since long before Burgess, it is believed that Burgess compiled and modified the song from many folk pieces to make a new song, and it is clear that it was Belafonte who popularised the song outside the Caribbean Islands. Burgess acknowledged his use of the tune of another mento, "Iron Bar"

As far as I'm concerned, that settles it. Here's the original verison, uploaded by YouTube user Arup Chakraborty:

_________

* Wikipedia's article on "Jamaica Farewell" has this: "The term "Ackee" from the line "ackee, rice, saltfish is nice" refers to the fruit of a tropical tree indigenous to the Ivory Coast and Gold Coast of West Africa; taken to Jamaica in 1793. It has some poisonous properties, yet if properly prepared the fruit is quite good and is a part of the national dish 'ackee and saltfish'."

Peace Lutheran Church -- contemporary service -- Saturday, July 30 (Pentecost XI)

D R A F T

The Power Of The Cross (Live) Travis Cottrell - Topic

---

Our contemporary service is at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 30, at Peace Lutheran Church (formerly Atonement, Faith and Luther Memorial), 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield.

---

Call to Worship/Gathering Music: "One True God"

Worship Set:

• "There is None Like You" (chorus only) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ofyu8vN9w
• "How Great is Our God"
• "Awesome is the Lord Most High" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP7vObd4Rco
• *"The Power of the Cross" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCUYt4IoNHg

Creed: "We Believe"

sung Lord's Prayer

Closing Song: "I Will Follow" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ohvhmGSfxI

__________

* Michelle: "The Power of the Cross" is new. Rob or I will lead on the verses, and the other of us and you will help do the echo with the congregation. We may introduce the chorus first (not sure yet) and we'll build the bridge in kinda like they do on the recording -- congregation will join after hearing the first two times.

Gunnar Fredelius -- Psalmodikon med en Låt efter Joel Janson (It's all in the bowing, Part ___)

Psalmodikon med en Låt efter Joel Janson. Gunnar Fredelius

xxx

Låt efter Perols gudmund efter Nylands Erik med Gunnar Fredelius och Sven Nordin. The text in the video is wrong. We both play the 3 row kind of nyckelharpa at this one!

Two children's songs about cats, "Warm Kitty" and "Lille Katt" (little cat in Swedish)

D R A F T

"Lille Katt" (little cat), in Emil i Lönneberga

Mike Anderson has a lovely children's song up on Facebook, and it reminds me of an equally lovely song from a Swedish movie adaptation of a book by Astrid Lindgren. The book is Emil i Lönneberga, and the song is called "Lille Katt" (little cat), sung by Emil's sister Ada.

But first, Mike's song:

Mike posted it to Facebook yesterday, saying, "This tune has become a regular part of my shows (adults and kids!) I am amazed how much I have changed the words. I need to relearn the words the kids wrote; they are much better!!"

Lille katt, lille katt, lille söte katta. Vet du att, vet du att, de blir mörkt om natta. Lille gris, lille gris, lille söte grisen. Om du frys, om du frys, så gör eld i spisen. Lille ko, lille ko, lille söte koa. De va ho, de va ho, ho som sket på broa. Lille mor, lille mor, lille söte mora. Ho fick skor, ho fick skor, men dom va för stora. Lille far, lille far, lille söte faren. En sån karl, en sån karl, de e tur vi har'en. Little cat , little cat, Little katta the honeymoon . Do you know that , you know , they become dark if stay overnight. Little pig , little pig, the honeymoon little pig. If you freeze , you freeze , so does the fire in the fireplace . Little cow , little cow, little the honeymoon koa . They huh , ho, ho va , trough shat on broa . Little mother , little mother, little the honeymoon mora . Ho got shoes , ho got shoes, but judgment va large . Little father , little father, the honeymoon little sheep. What a man , what a man , e the turn we har'en . Read more: http://www.letssingit.com/astrid-lindgren-lyrics-lille-katt-gjsskfx#ixzz4FIiStn6q LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community

"Down in Union County" as played by Charlie Acuff, arguably East Tennessee's best old-time fiddle player

Charlie Acuff interviewed by John Rice Irwin

In this interview at Irwin's Museum of Appalachia on Highway 61 near Norris, he and Acuff discuss Charlie's father and fiddle-maker Fate Cassidy, comparing Everett Acuff's fiddles to Uncle Fate's. Then they play a tune -- "Down in Union County to see Mrs. Suzy Ann."

Acuff died in 2013 at the age of 93. He worked at the Alcoa Inc. aluminum plant in Alcoa, Tenn., and played in Knoxville-area bands for many years. Old-time musicians considered his style to be less commercial than that of musicians who moved to Nashville and played in the growing country music industry. He was revered by younger musicians, especially after the old-time music revival that began in the 1970s and continues to the present.

"Over the years his gentle spirit and steadfast love for old-time music has inspired scores of younger players, a number of whom will be on hand to play for his birthday party," said staff writer Morgan Simmons of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, when his 90th birthday was celebrated in 2009 at the Music Row store outside of Maryville.

Simmons said Acuff had been hospitalized recently, but:

"We decided to go ahead with the event even if we have to take Charlie down in a wheelchair," said Juanita Johnson, who has played bass with Acuff for the past 30 years. "The doctors are optimistic he'll be able to make it."

Like his second cousin, country music legend Roy Acuff, Charlie grew up in Union County. At age 12 he learned to fiddle from his grandfather, Charlie Boyd Acuff, whose repertory included "Josie Girl" and "Cricket on the Hearth" - tunes that date back to the Civil War.

In 1938 Acuff began playing on Knoxville radio with his brother, Gayle, backing him up on guitar. For 14 years he played fiddle with the old-time band the Lantana Drifters, and in 1985 he received the Tennessee Governor's Award in the Arts.

His last public performance was in October at the Museum of Appalachia's Fall Homecoming. Accompanying him on guitar that day was 30-year-old John Alvis, who has been playing with Acuff since he was 12 years old.

"Charlie has never been one to turn down a gig," Alvis said. "He still gets that twinkle in his eyes. All he has to do is walk out on stage, and the crowd loves it."

According to an unsigned obituary in the Maryville paper:

Acuff received a Tennessee Governor’s Award in the Arts in a 2005 ceremony that also included Memphis soul legend Isaac Hayes. Roy Garrett, who owned Roy’s Record Shop in downtown Maryville for 42 years before closing the store in 2005, said Acuff was a longtime customer.

Garrett said he would visit venues where Acuff was playing and he was oftentimes invited onstage to play alongside the southpaw fiddler.

“I didn’t play a whole lot back then,” Garrett said. “But he knew that I did and he would always invite me up to do a song or two with him when they were playing.”

Garrett said Acuff had a large number of fans in the area and was an extremely likeable person with a great personality.

He said musician and songwriter John Hartford, who died in 2001, learned a great deal of Old Time fiddle tunes from Acuff.

“John’s well known for knowing a lot of Old Time fiddle tunes,” Garrett said. “But John learned a lot of (those) tunes from Charlie. When someone like Charlie dies out, they take a lot of Old Time fiddle tunes out with them in their head.”

Another Performance

Roger Howell - Lunsford Festival 2015 - "Down in Union County."

At the daytime portion of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival at Mars Hill University, in Mars Hill, N.C., Oct. 24, 2015. Master fiddler Roger Howell playing and singing "Down in Union County." Other musicians are Bobby Hicks on the fiddle, Mike Hunter on the mandolin, Brian Hunter on the guitar, and John Davis on the bass.

Works Cited

"Lefty Fiddler Charlie Acuff Dies," Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times, Nov. 23, 2013. http://www.thedailytimes.com/news/lefty-fiddler-charlie-acuff-dies/article_a94d3945-ef1e-588a-a920-d4f03efff9ad.html.

Morgan Simmons. "Event to Recognize Fiddler Charlie Acuff's 90th Birthday." http://www.knoxnews.com/entertainment/music/event-to-recognize-fiddler-charlie-acuffs-90th-birthday-ep-409280358-359053601.html.

Dulcimer arrangements of a couple of Mixolydian tunes -- "June Apple" and "Rocky Top" -- for Thursday's Clayville-Prairieland session

David Schnauffer and Butch Baldassari playing "June Apple"

We've been playing a couple of tunes lately in the Mixolydian mode, "Over the Waterfall" and "Down the River I Go, Uncle Joe." It's like the good old major do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do mode we learned in elementary school, but with a flatted seventh -- "ti" in the do-re-mi scale -- that gives a lot of those old southern Appalachian ballads and fiddle tunes their distinctive high lonesome sound.

So this week I'd like to highlight a couple of other Mixolydian tunes:

• June Apple. Dulcimer tab at http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/june_apple2.pdf by Ron Zuckerman or at http://barbfeick.com/vaudeville/Tabs/Dulcimer/DAD/Juneapple.pdf by Barbara Feick. I's also in Steve Seifert's "Join the Jam." If you read music, you'll notice Zuckerman's looks like it's in G, and Feick's looks like it's in D (but with the C-sharp of a D scale flatted down to C-Natural). Relax -- it's just two ways of writing the same thing, the flatted seventh that gives the tune its high lonesome sound. If you don't read music, don't worry about it. Just play the C chords.

• Rocky Top. Available at http://bellingham-dulcimer-club.blogspot.com/p/music.html on the Bellingham (Wash.) Dulcimer Club website. (Scroll down directory to "Rocky Top" to open PDF document.) It's more of a bluegrass tune, an Osborne Brothers hit from 1967, but "paper-trained" music readers will notice that C-natural in the key of D. That's the flatted seventh that makes it Mixolydian. And if you don't read music, just play the C chord that gives the song its wild mountain music flavor.

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Our meeting is from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Peace Lutheran Church, 2800 West Jefferson.

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Some video clips on YouTube.

• Doc Watson and David Holt playing"June Apple" -- filmed in 1988 at his Merle Fest gathering, named for his late son Merle Watson:

• Mountain dulcimers playing "Rocky Top" -- Radella Ashton and Bing Futch at their dulcimer festival, JAM'N'QUE:

  Osborne Brothers performing "Rocky Top" on TV in 1967:

More sources on creolization, religion, syncretism

Charles Stewart. "From Creolization to Syncretism: Climbing the Ritual Ladder." Department of Anthropology, University College London. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/c_stewart/From_Creolizaton_to_Syncretism.pdf

page 4:

pages 7-8:

Joshua Roth 2007 study of Brazilian workers in Japan == participation in a kite-flying ritual -- took part, added Samba drumming to the ritual (pp. 10-11) -- and this discussion on pp. 13-14:

"Planxty Bill Monroe"

Tater Tate with Bill Monroe - Jerusalem Ridge

Outtakes from an article I'm finishing on Don Pedi's "Tao of Dulcimer" retreats ...

(Better not say anything more about the story, though, since I'm writing it on spec and don't want to jinx it.)

Actually, this one is the only outtake.

I tried and I tried, but I couldn't fit it into the article without going way out on a tangent. And it's too good not to get down in black in white.

So here it is.

It came up at the spring retreat back in April when we were going around the circle calling tunes, and someone called the Bill Monroe standard "Jerusalem Ridge." It's not exactly Don's style of music. But we retuned to EAD (which put us in E-minor), and by golly we played it.

And that's when I learned in Ireland "Jerusalem Ridge" is sometimes called "Planxty Bill Monroe."

Made my day.

Contemporary worship music for Peace Lutheran's "blended" service July 17 (Pentecost IX) -- with a self-indulgent little footnote on Chris Tomlin's Psalm 100 and memories of Anglican chant

Not exactly the Jubilate Deo I grew up with, but it's a nice song!

Official Lyric/Chord video for “Psalm 100” by Chris Tomlin

This service is one of three or four "blended" services that bring together parishioners and musicians from the contemporary and traditional services at Peace Lutheran Church (formerly Atonement, Faith and Luther Memorial), 2800 West Jefferson, Springfield, the Rev. Paul Schwartzkopf officiating. It will be at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, July 17.

Some notes to the contemporary praise team follow with links to our part(s) in the service:

Call to Worship: "Psalm 100" (we are doing it in a different key than Chris Tomlin does it on the video ...)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaL_VeHil6U

Hymn of Praise: (after the greeting) "Holy Holy Holy (God with Us)"

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUTAhBmCIY

The Hymn of the Day for the 17th is "Seek Ye First" - we're not leading it, but many of you might be familiar with it

"Lord's Prayer"

Songs during Communion:

• "The Table" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peeqJ1bmT_w

• "O Christ the Same" (solo by Adam)

Closing/Sending Song: "My Life is in You" (ties right in to Paul's message for the day)

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Psalm 100: What a long, strange trip, to quote Jerry Garcia, it's been

"Jubilate Deo" (Morning Prayer) @ St. John's Detroit

Jubilate Deo in the Anglican tradition Here, at right, are the settings for Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo) in the Episcopal Hymnal of 1940. http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/HPEC1940/643. The title is the Latin for the first line, "O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands" in the translation of the 1928 prayer book that went with the 1940 hymnal, which is the one I knew (and still catch myself repeating when we recite the creed in a different denomination more than 50 years later)! It's traditionally part of Morning Prayer, and I think we chanted it every Sunday. Most Sundays, at any rate.

There are numerous settings of the canticles floating around, some dating back to Thomas Tallis and the English Reformation. The one recorded above at St. John's Episcopal Church in Detroit is close to the one I remember from St. Francis Episcopal Mission in Norris, Tenn.

St. John's, which is holding out against all odds in downtown Detroit, makes it part of its mission and ministry to maintain the Anglican liturgical tradition. (More on the St. John's website at http://stjohnsdetroit.org/liturgy-and-music/.) They have some gorgeous video clips on YouTube, if you like the "high-church" Episcopal or Anglo-Catholic musical tradition.

A canticle is simply a "little song" -- that's what the word means in English -- that was sung, or chanted during the service. We weren't particularly high church at St. Francis (or weren't until we went off to church camp down on Sewanee Mountain and came home from camp with high-falutin' notions), but we chanted a lot, at least in my memory, and I recall learning to sing different plainsong settings in four-part harmony after I joined the choir at the age or 14 or 15.

There are solo recordings of the Jubilate, including two settings from the 1940 hymnal, available on line at http://cradleofprayer.org/jubilate/.

Another canticle I remember was the Magnificat, Mary's song in the gospel of St. Luke that begins "My soul doth magnify the Lord." (Heaven only knows how it's translated today -- maybe "The Lord is, like, way cool?") It's associated with the Christmas story, but it also figures in Evening Prayer throughout the liturgical year, along with the Nunc dimittis (Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace). As with Jubilate Deo, we had more than one form of the Magnificat in the 1940 hymnal. Both are available today on the Hymnary.org website:

• http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/HPEC1940/658 -- the full form (No. 658 in the 1940 hymnal), which, of course, we called the Magnificat.

• http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/HPEC1940/657 -- a shorter form (No. 656 or 657), which, of course, we called the "Magnifi-kitten."