W H A T’S N E W
(Previous Postings)
 |
December 14, 2005
Greetings of the Season,
As the year comes to a close, Bob and I want to thank you for visiting
this website and for listening to and supporting our music! Our new CD
Seeing Things was released at the end of October. We went directly on
tour to Washington State and northeastern Oregon, then played in New
Jersey and back in West Virginia. We were especially privileged to be
invited to play on Mountain Stage for the Christmas show, with wonderful
guests Ralph Stanley, Robin and Linda Williams, Kate Campbell, Crooked
Still and WV's own Missing Person Soup Kitchen Gospel Quartet. During
the week before Christmas, over 250,000 people will hear us on the radio!
To find stations that air Mountain Stage! , check out their website at
www.mountainstage.org.
Now as we reach the end of the year, I've been sending out CDs to public
radio stations far and wide. We've started to receive airplay from folk
shows in Connecticut, New Jersey, Columbia, MO, Carbondale, IL, Eugene,
Seattle, Portland, OR, Auburn Hills, MI and Melbourne, FL. We've been
one of the "Pick Hits of the Week" two times already on the
Midnight Special show from WFMT in Chicago! Whole Wheat Radio, an internet
station that airs from a cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska, has also been playing
our music. CDs have been sent to Germany, Israel, Canada, Virgin Islands,
Ireland and Australia.
Our first review has also come in from the Charleston Gazette! Thanks
to Paul Gartner, a fine WV fiddler, for a very nice review that is posted
at www.thegazz.com, under Blogs - NewSounds.
Seeing Things song titles are listed on the Books & CDs page. The
album includes nine of my new original songs, several inspired by places
in West Virginia. The title cut is from my return East a few years ago,
absorbing all the roadside changes in my home county in northwest New
Jersey. Two songs come from my Patchwork Dreams project last year at
Big Ugly Creek, WV. There are also three dulcimer instrumentals with
guitar and cello that include WV fiddle tunes Elk River Blues and Greasy
Coat, and a cover of the Beatles song "I Will". The last song
on the CD, "Sacred Ground", was inspired by my week teaching
at the Fishtrap writers' camp this past July at Wallowa Lake, OR which
was the ancestral home of the Nez Perce.
Seeing Things CDs are available by mail from the Order Page, or you may
place credit card orders at CDBaby.com, where you can hear sound samples
as well. Stores that carry the CD include Silver Platters and Dusty Strings
in the Seattle area; Off the Record in Yakima; Paradise Ridge in Moscow,
ID; Frog Creek Books, Taylor Books and Showcase West Virginia in Charleston,
WV; and Tamarack in Beckley, WV.
Besides performing and recording, Bob and I also teach in our home area
of Charleston, WV. We offer a program called Music Mentors that brings
free one-on-one music lessons to children who would not otherwise receive
them. Our pilot project is teaching dulcimer to children ages 6-11 in
an after-school program in Charleston two days a week. In January we
will be adding a day in Big Ugly and Chapmanville to offer dulcimer and
guitar lessons. We plan to eventually match up students with their instrument
of choice by finding them professional teachers and instruments. Local
grant funding has gotten us started. We will be exploring other sources
of funding to continue past spring of 2006. If you know of any leads
for further grant support, please let us know.
We wish you Merry Celebrations, Good Music and Many Happy Adventures
in 2006. May we do all we can to bring peace, blessings, clean air and
water, enough food and shelter, good health, creativity, equal opportunity
and fun to all the children of the world in the New Year.
Heidi Muller
