By Thou a Catalyst

 

 

This past weekend was the 41st Annual Appalachian Dulcimer Festival in rural Alabama.     The festival is one of my favorite events to attend when I am fortunate enough to spend spring in the South!   There are gorgeous hand-built instruments, talented folk musicians, homemade Southern cookin', and best of all... genuine, beautifully simple people.    If you want to truly experience the feel and effortless, backwoods romanticism of Alabama..  this is the place to invest a few days of your time.  You will receive joy. 

I am probably the youngest participant in the event..  by a long shot.  I get stares, I get inquisitive eyebrow raises..  and people always seem to think I just accidentally wandered up.    In a group of mainly Southerners in their mid-seventies..  I am a social anomaly.    And I prefer it that way.    I have learned that looking different from the majority here is actually a very powerful asset..  it means people seek me out, they ask me questions,  they tell me their stories, they are eager to listen to my music, as well as my thoughts... and I to theirs. 

For me, there are two reasons why I come here.  The first, is to be taught.   This is a slice of old-Southern culture that will not last much longer, and I am grateful to be able to experience it first hand.   From learning traditional methods of strumming, to the history of dulcimer designs,  to the gospel songs that have become woven through generations.  It is a gift to be with these people.. to watch and to listen and absorb their muchness.    They have taught me gentleness and respect for my birthplace. 

 

The second reason I attend the festival is very intentional..  I see myself as a catalyst for the method and expression of this style of music.   I desire to intentionally cause a commotion.   Offering songs that scratch at the the predictable diaphragm of the culture... and demonstrate the malleability of an instrument that is commonly stereotyped.    Since I first picked up a mountain dulcimer,  I have never wanted to "master" the way it is usually played..    instead I have a vision for a way it might evolve.    It is one thing to become a great musician and effectively play an instrument..  it is another entirely to attempt to undermine the way an instrument is perceived -  and perhaps open people's minds to the next chapter in its evolution.  
I believe that if a person who has experienced the dulcimer in a specific way their entire life can suddenly hear it played in a "new light",  it might just allow them to see themselves in a "new light" as well.   Often times when an experience has become so common.. we do not imagine that it was ever a different way.. or that it could ever become a different way.    But all it takes is one person showing us something contrary.. then our perception of "what is possible" is forever expanded.    

 

 

After a finishing a song this weekend..  a elderly man came over and touched my shoulder..  "I never knew the dulcimer could be played like that..."  he said grinning..  "..well done."  

 

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The man's words stuck in my head..  and got me thinking about the prophet Jesus.  Recently, as I have read through verses in the Bible, I am beginning to see Jesus as a person who fundamentally questioned what tradition had "set in stone"  - A catalyst if you will...  for the evolution of the human experience in relation to god.    I respect that very much.   He was a person who took traditional, cliché thought.. and flipped it upside down - allowing people to see life from a radically different perspective.  Repetitively blowing minds.. is a way to describe his lifestyle...   as men we should want the same.   

 "Be thou a Catalyst."    
 

 

 

Andrew Tipton