05 Intro to the Dulcimer and "I Never Will Marry"

A very humorous introduction to the dulcimer, both flat-picking ala Richard Fariña and finger-picking ala me, including snippets of "Bonaparte's Retreat" as learned from the playing of Michael Nesmith (yes, of Monkees fame—he is a great singer-songwriter-video artist-entrepreneur—check him out) and the children's song, "This Old Man." Ultimately, this serves as an intro to the plaintive love song, "I Never Will Marry" with strummed mountain dulcimer accompaniment.

This is Video #5 from the musical lecture "Songs of the West" by Tim McMullen: A folk music odyssey, presenting story songs, work songs, travel songs, love songs, protest songs, and comedy songs performed on the 6-string and 12-string guitar, 6-string banjo, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, and a cappella, culled from the playing of Patrick Sky; Pete Seeger, Mike Nesmith, The Smothers Brothers; Woody Guthrie; Koerner, Ray, and Glover; Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly); Biff Rose, Mark Spoelstra; Gene Autry; The Firesign Theatre; Ramblin' Jack Elliott; Tom Paxton; and Pat Paulsen. The text for many of the songs began with THE SONGS OF MAN by Norman Luboff and Win Stracke published in 1965. Variations from the aforementioned performers were included in new arrangements by Tim McMullen.

Recorded in 1993, this historical, folk music lecture was created by Tim McMullen in 1980 and performed annually for his American Studies Junior Honors English/Social Studies Team class at El Rancho HIgh School in Pico Rivera. It was performed each year as the class completed Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.This lecture is a companion to the Woody Guthrie "Grapes of Wrath/Dust Bowl" musical lecture found at http://www.youtube.com/TimMcMullen and on the lyrics pages of Manfred Helfert's Woody Guthrie site at http://www.woodyguthrie.de/lyrics.html.

Tim McMullen, ©1993, 2007 All Rights Reserved

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tim
• McMullen
• Mike
• Nesmith
• Richard
• Fariña
• flat-pick
• finger-pick
• strum
• mountain
• dulcimer
• humor
• bungee
• Bonaparte

[strollby]

great to hear the laughter of the kids, great video played by a master, thanks for posting

[TimMcMullen]

Thanks for the very kind comment.

Tim

[TZ2OurLittleDogToo]

very enjoyable - thankyou!

[reeldulcimer]

I really enjoyed your video combining fun with music and a history lesson! Thanks! From the sound of the kids they liked it also!

[dread66mon]

Wow, this is so great! Highly entertaining and how cool that you're taking this to the schools. Very inspirational, Tim. Thanks for posting this.

[dulcajack]

Hey Tim, Very entertaining video. Great Job. Great Music too.

Thanks

Jack

[Dulcimerist]

That bungee cord idea is awesome! Thanks for posting this cool video! Awesome playing!