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by Christie

Wildwood Flower

September 20, 2011 in banjo, captured sound, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, original music, traditional music, voice by Christie

Christie Burns: vocals, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer (3), guitar(4, 8)
Kara Miscio: vocals | Brian Miscio: guitar (2, 3, 6), vocals | Charles Allison: vocals
Lynn Wamp: bass (4, 9) | Matt Evans: banjo (8) | Lisa Ferguson: hammered dulcimer (10)
Jack Magee: fiddle (4) | Aaron O’Rourke: guitar (1, 5), mountain dulcimer (7)

Recorded at Spanner Sound, Chattanooga, TN

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by Christie

If you don’t know Naragonia, you haven’t danced in Belgium.

September 19, 2011 in dance, original music by Christie

 

That’s not exactly true, because the couple at the core of Naragonia, Toon and Pascale, are arriving to a party that had already gotten started by the folk dance bands that came before in Flanders… But with the way people talk about Naragonia in the traditional music circles around Belgium, you’d think it was the capital city or something.  They write their own tunes, they show up at every festival, they play very well with others, and they arrange their tunes with such exciting finesse that even just to sit and listen really means you’re dancing in your seat.  Speaking of seats, this is what I saw yesterday when I looked over at the passenger seat of my car– my brand new Naragonia sitting on top of Eddie Vedder’s “Ukulele Songs” cd, and I noticed how they both sport the underwater theme.  Nice color coordination there fellas!  (Naragonia still gets my vote, though, sorry Eddie!)

 

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by Christie

Chicky Run (bicycle song)

March 5, 2010 in original music, voice by Christie

Chattanooga is a great bicycle town.  Now that my office at the folk school is pretty much put together (I’ll be having to haul less stuff back and forth), and now that the weather’s getting better, I’m looking forward to daily bicycle commutes– And counting on my bike to be the official vehicle of my spring and summer nighttime ramblings around town.  In a daydream about riding around town, this song bubbled to mind.  It’s exactly the kind of happy little melody I like to sing when I’m on my bike.  I hope it helps summon the warmer weather and a cheerful spring in Chattanooga!

I just recorded this here at my desk, using Lisa’s handy Zoom H4n.  Nothing fancy… Just a simple little song about the city I love, with a nonsense chorus, “Chicky Run”!
Chicky Run

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by Christie

Dodecamedita, Gooik, Belgium, 2009.

February 22, 2010 in hammered dulcimer, original music by Christie

What a wonderful surprise in my mailbox a few days ago, right in the dead of winter, a cd reminder of a summer week spent in Gooik, Belgium.  I’ve written on this blog before about working with Maarten Decombel, and what a pleasure it was to get to know his music.  This recording is from the concert we gave inside Gooik’s giant church.  My favorite track is still this one: “Dodecamedita”, a piece composed by Maarten himself.  I love the main melody, the harmony that goes with, the interesting rhythm, the improvisation sections.

Maarten Decombel, bouzouki, and Christie Burns, hammered dulcimer, August 2009:

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by Christie

Merry Merry Merry Merry Merry

December 25, 2009 in improvisation, original music, voice by Christie

Here’s a brand new Christmas song I made myself!  With a little help from my new toy, the Boss RC-50.  Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun.

Merry!

[audio http://www.chattanoogafolk.com/christie/MerryChristmas.mp3]

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by Christie

Catcerto

December 17, 2009 in captured sound, improvisation, original music, piano, unlikely ensembles by Christie

I have to take a break from this Christmas program to show off this clip I found today!  Thanks to my friend David, who mentioned the famous Youtube “piano playing cat” to me, right after his daughter drew a picture of a cat playing the piano (which now lives on top of my piano!).  As if it wasn’t crazy enough that this cat named Nora–from Cherry Hill, NJ, no less!–truly plays the piano, and is an internet star for it, then this Lithuanian composer comes along and features Nora as his soloist in a concerto written around her music.  You people have got to be thinking I’m just crazy obsessed with cats by now, but seriously, this is really special!  I applaud the composer, Mindaugas Piecaitis, for recognizing the potential of those homemade video clips, and hats off to Nora’s family for appreciating her music as they do.  And ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a big hand to the internet for putting all of these pieces of the puzzle into a common pot, from which we can all find inspiration!  This composition is like the product of a worldwide Art X-Tractor, just like the one we had on Main Street during MainX24.

[youtube src=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg]

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by Christie

Rehearsing in Belgium

August 20, 2009 in hammered dulcimer, original music by Christie

What a gift, to be set up on a musical “blind date” like this.  I’ve been paired with Maarten Decombel to perform at the Friday night concert in Gooik.  Maarten and I hadn’t really met before yesterday, but we did exchange a few mp3s of some good tune candidates.  This one, “Dodecamedita,” is one that he wrote and sent to me.  It’s been my happy tune for several weeks now, as I’ve been looking forward to Belgium.  Yesterday, Maarten and I treated ourselves to a full rehearsal day, and we put together arrangements for a full set of music.  It’s so wonderful to meet and work with someone who has such compatible musical sensibility.  Right from the very beginning, we were thinking very similarly about what to do with all these tunes, a very natural flow.  I think it’s going to be a respectable performance on Friday, if not downright enjoyable!

Here’s Maarten and I practicing his tune, “Dodecamedita”– although it cuts off near the end, right in the middle of his improv section… camera malfunction.

Thanks to Jan and An for hosting our rehearsal in their paradise of a garden!

[youtube src=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjC2Rg-TJaQ]

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by Christie

Working Hands

June 8, 2009 in original music, piano, voice by Christie

Here’s a little gospely number I wrote in the shower the other day.  Seems like something that could’ve come out of the Unitarian hymn book, and no surprise there.  This song has some of my favorite things in it– playing the piano, lots of fifth intervals, and invented words (“feelya”, “walkya”, “growya”, and “giveya”).  I’m not that crazy about the quality of the recording… Still on a search for a good digital recorder, I suppose.  This one makes the piano sound muffled, my voice sound unreasonably clear, and is overall too quiet or something.  It could just be that I need a good microphone.

Anyway, all technological critiques aside, I’m pretty happy with the song… It sounds to me like a conversation between a person (ok, me) and the universe.  Just some happy thoughts passed back and forth, you know, a little small talk, me and the universe.

“Working Hands” recorded at 524 East 18th St., Chattanooga, June 8, 2009:

Working Hands, by Christie Burns

[audio http://www.chattanoogafolk.com/christie/WorkingHands.mp3]

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by Christie

Tune for Rebecca

April 15, 2009 in hammered dulcimer, original music by Christie

The Colorado Dulcimer Fest was asking its performers to donate something to the door prize prize pool, and I didn’t want to be like everyone else and just put in a CD.  So I made up a little certificate instead, which entitled the winner to an original tune, composed by me, in the winner’s honor.  I’ll call this the “O’Carolan tactic”… or in other words, self-assigned homework.  I was lucky that the winner of the certificate was actually a hammered dulcimer player herself, and a pretty cool gal at that.  It has been an honor for me to compose in honor of her, even if it has taken me two months to write the tune.  I’ll be seeing Rebecca, the winner, soon.  It’ll be up to her to title the tune.

I’m my own worst videographer, so nevermind the headlessness in this clip.  Just enjoy the music, and focus on the hammers, because that’s what it’s all about anyway.  Oh, and by the way, those are Paul Haslem hammers I’m using, and he’s about to make a new batch of them to send to America.  Contact me if you’re interested in buying a pair!

[youtube src=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfaHKJV0QpM]

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by Christie

Colorado Dulcimer Fest: Allison Lotterhos

February 14, 2009 in hammered dulcimer, original music by Christie

Last weekend at the Colorado Dulcimer Festival, there were all of the wonderful elements that make up a dulcimer festival: concerts, workshops, jamming in the lobby, meals and social time with the world’s friendliest strangers. There was much comparing of notes over different makes of instruments, different takes on tunes. There were people on the hammered dulcimer side of the fence peeking up over the fence into the mountain dulcimer yard with an “ooh,” “aah,” and “wow!” [Leave it to Erin Rogers and Aaron O'Rourke to make us all want to take one of those three-stringed suckers home with us.]
But for me, one of the most surprising and inspiring parts of the weekend happened while I was backstage judging the Colorado State Hammered Dulcimer Contest. Of course I heard many lovely things, fine arrangements and great playing. When I heard Allison Lotterhos play (without seeing her), I thought the player was a guy. I may be way out of line saying something like this, but what I was hearing was this rapid, mathematically-perfect, technical precision in her playing that I’ve mostly heard from guys who come to the dulcimer from the percussion world. Numbers, intervals, patterns, rhythms that move and change like hummingbirds… I was pleased to see our champion was a girl–and a rather young one at that. I think Allison had stumbled upon her first dulcimer festival, and the weekend was made all the better for it. She and I swapped CDs (oh, I so got the better end of that deal) and now I’m sitting here in Chattanooga listening to her compositions. As I listen, I’m wanting to take back what I just typed about the math and the numbers. That’s all there, certainly, but what comes out in her playing more than anything else is her direct heart-to-dulcimer connection. This level of focus, imagination, and listening/responding to one’s own music as it’s being created– these are all elements that comprise the playing of my most favorite musicians.
Allison, I don’t know if you’re reading this post, but I’d like to say thanks for making this CD and sharing it. Thanks for showing up at the festival and making it extra special for me (and I’m sure many others). Keep it up with the composing, performing, and recording; you set a great example to follow.

Allison Lotterhos at the Colorado Dulcimer Festival, 2009:
[youtube src=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8jgkJnmKQ0]

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