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.
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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.
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[..] "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."
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