n-Track Studio's Featured Artist of the Month

DECEMBER 2001


The Five W

Featured Artist's Web Page: http://www.mp3.com/ChrisWalker


Where:
Fairlawn, Ohio USA

Who: Chris Walker

When: Sometime in 1969

Why:
[..] "
I heard the music of Richard and Mimi Farina. The dulcimer sound grabbed me hard."

What: [..] "What genre? Quirky!"

In Short:

Influences are richard farina, frank zappa, j. s. bach (all dead you'll note).

Gear: fretted dulcimer.



Chris Walker
by Alessandro De Murtas

Featured Songs: 

Debut Full Version
Vern's Fanfare
Lucky's Lament
Lucky Straight (Maybe)

[..] "Sometime in 1968, I first heard the music of Richard and Mimi Farina. He played dulcimer, she played guitar and autoharp. They sang. You might know the song 'Pack Up Your Sorrows' or the novel 'Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me' both by Richard. The dulcimer sound grabbed me hard. My Scottish ancestry (my mother is a Frazier) or something had always made the pipes reach a place much deeper than any pop song could. It was only much later that I figured out that the fretted dulcimer is a bagpipe in strings: melody string and two drones (some early instruments only had frets under the first string). I got my first one in early 1969; it wasn't very good but enough to start. It now decorates my mother-in-law's piano, which is a nice resting place. My current instrument, I got in 1977 from a store in Uniontown, Ohio called Boulder Junction, nice place but now long gone, made by a guy named Christian Wig. I've never met him, but as my parents tell me my name should have been Christian, after a great uncle Christian Long, rather than Christopher, I feel a certain affinity. In high school, I bought a guitar and learned the C, G, A, E, F, Em, Am, etc. chords (Bm was a major advance). I became a fairly good strummer, ala Phil Ochs, but my voice sucked. In college, I sat in with some folky bands and did a duo thing with my best bud. With a ton of work I could more often than not carry a tune. After college, with no one to play with the dulcimer became more and more my thing. In fact I sold my 1966 Gibson J50 to buy my best friend dulcimer. Until recently, I have played nearly every day mostly for personal/ spiritual/therapeutic reasons. The nature of the instrument lends itself to closing the eyes and letting go, pretty much every note you can play is in the key you're in, the drones drone and another world is where you find yourself.
I don't know exactly where there the need to record what I play came from, but one day I did an internet search on home recording, and after a couple of losers that were actually worse than Windows Sound Recorder, I found n-Track. I also found the Discussion Forum! When I posted a newbie ?? I got responses from Ireland, Michigan, Washington. Wow! (Recently, I also got a response that I'm not sure what century/universe/planet it came from, all I know is it said 'nice stuff ntxt' signed 'limey'. Anyway, I play to please myself, and now I record to please myself. I want to make sounds that please me. There is no other agenda. I don't care if I make a recording I can't reproduce live. Hey, so much the better! I'm really getting tired of artists with agendas. Not that I include myself in the company of artists, but it seems that there used to be artists and critics as separate camps. If you had ideas about art, you were a critic. If you had to do art, you were an artist. Today we have the critic as artist, so busy making a point there is no time for art. I am now officially ranting, so I will shut up. Other than the mp3.com site, I have walkerclewis.tripod.com. Unless you are fortunate enough to have broadband, the tripod site is a pain to get the music from, but there are some neat pix there from a recent trip to India that you might enjoy.

Tips and Tricks from Chris Walker using n-Track Studio.


[..] "I offer no tips. I found n-Track Studio in October this year.
I'm using the 'integrated' sound 'card' that came with my Gateway until I can afford something better. I'm using an old Realistic 33-919A Condenser mic that worked pretty well with an old Pioneer tape deck, but I'm getting a lot of noise from my funky adapter laden setup and computer fan. It's ok though because it sounds like the cartridge hum before a Johnny Mathis song in Betty's basement in 1964.
"

Gallery






What's Being Cooked Up?

Featured Artist of the Month - Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Are you an n-Track Studio's User? Would like to be reviewed? Send email to alex@n-track.com, reporting as much info as you can. Also including your recording equipment, procedures, tips & tricks for advantage of all the n-Track Studio's users.


n/a