Bruce W. Ford

In this edition:
 - Opportunities for sharing
 - Advertising on EverythingDulcimer.com - A question for you!
 - Manitou project news
 - News about Bruce's upcoming festival appearances
- This month's contest
 - New tablature!  (lots of it!)

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Those that notice such things will notice that I didn't send out a
newsletter last month.  What a month if was...one that I'd not like
to soon repeat.  Here in my area, there was a MOAF going around. 
What's a MOAF?  That's what I called it anyway, the Mother of All
Flus!  It took a full two weeks to feel like doing anything and
vocally, I'm still recovering!  Many things fell by the wayside,
and last month's newsletter was one of them.  Maybe it's age, but I
don't remember EVER being down so long with a flu!

Last week, I had my first gig where I dared sing again.  It went
okay, so recovering is happening.  Good thing too, I was running
out of pure instrumentals!

I've got lots of news for you, in no particular order...

 - A couple of outstanding opportunities to help our fellow
dulcimer players out have recently come to my attention and they
are both worthy of sharing:

     *   Dan Duggan needs help, please read this and help if you can:
http://tinyurl.com/dc2f8j

     *  Frances Hampton is a teacher at Pilot View Elementary, a
small country school in central Kentucky. She is trying to obtain
enough dulcimers to teach an enrichment class to 3rd- 5th graders.
The children at the school are so excited about this program. They
are looking for donation of dulcimers to use in this program.  So,
if you have one that needs to be used, please consider donating it!
If you have any questions feel free to e-mail at the following
address, 
  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 .

 - Advertising on EverythingDulcimer.com.  I've been approached by
some potential advertisers (folks you all know), and they are
twisting my arm!  They would like me to stop the Google ads, and
start giving space for those (vendors) in the dulcimer community to
directly advertize.  

EverythingDulcimer.com once did that, but there was very little
interest from the community.  I had ads at only $25/month, but only
had a few bites.  So, the Google ads relieved me of the time
commitment of shuffling ads around, and provided enough funds to
keep the lights on.  In the meantime, the site has REALLY grown. 
We reach over 5000 email address with this newsletter, the contests
routinely have thousands of entrants...the list goes on! 
EverythingDulcimer.com reaches more folks than any other dulcimer
related media outlet, and it does it every day,  24x7.   I wish you
could see the emails I get asking where to find something, or how
to go about buying dulcimer related products. 
EverythingDulcimer.com gets a LOT of traffic from those discovering
the dulcimer for the first time.

So, in light of this arm-twisting, I'm making a request:

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING SPACE ON
EVERYTHINGDULCIMER.COM, PLEASE EMAIL ME
(
  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 ) AND LET ME KNOW.

The reason for this request is simple, if changing the advertising
method will help the professionals of our community, and grow the
community in general, then it helps the community at large and I'm
all for that.  However, this effort must be supported by community
vendors or it will die on the vine.

 - Club updates!  Thanks for all the club updates!  If you haven't
updated your club information recently, or your club is not listed
on EverythingDulcimer.com, please correct that today!  
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/clubs.php

 - We are truly an international dulcimer community!  Check out the
pictures from the Japan dulcimer festival in the photo gallery!  
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/photos.php

 - You might have heard all the buzz about the Manitou project.  I
won't go into the details here, but since it has generated so much
buzz, I thought you might like to know that it's been released. 
Take a look here for details:  
http://www.myspace.com/manitoumanitou

*****

Gig News!
Thus far, I have two out-of-area festivals scheduled for the year. 
I hope to see a lot of you at one of these:
 - Kentucky Music Week, Bardstown, KY - June 21-27  -
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/festivals.php#197
 - The North Georgia Foothills Dulcimer Association Fall Festival
at Unicoi State Park, Helen, GA - Nov 19-22. (http://ngfda.com/)
If you're in these areas, I'd love to meet you!

*****

Contest
Congratulations to Lisa Brown for winning the March 2009 contest.
She won a miniature (7") mountain dulcimer with a case from CNY
Music Gifts.  Thanks to CNY (http://www.cnymusicgifts.com/) for
sponsoring!  Please support our sponsors!
For this month, Nina Zanetti has donated her tablature book "The
Softer Side of Dulcimer."  Go check it out and sign up!
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/contest.php

*****

New Tablature
Go check out these new tunes at
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/tab/  
Here are the songs I just added...
    *  All the Pretty Horses - Paul Dingle
    * Alle Jahre wieder - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Be Thou My Vision - August Elletson
    * Boil Them Cabbage Down - Sister Margaret Mary
    * Bourree - Paul Dingle
    * Dat du mien leevsten b?st - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Ein Hund lief in die K?che - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Hail to the Chief - Vicki Stuckert
    * I Know Whom I Have Believed - August Elletson
    * Ihr Kinderlein kommet - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Lasst uns Froh und Munter sein - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Leise rieselt der Schnee - Carsten Eichentopf
    * Lord Randal - Nina Zanetti
    * Morgen Kinder wird?s was geben - Carsten Eichentopf
    * My Brave Canoe - Dwight Sutton
    * My Hope Is Built - August Elletson
    * Schneefl?ckchen Wei?r?ckchen - Carsten Eichentopf
    * The Road to Gundagai - Jim Kuder
    * Will Ye No Come Back Again - Nina Zanetti

Archives

These newsletters have been a great source of information.  If you
missed one, here are the archives:
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/newsletter.php

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Thanks for all the wonderful support of EverythingDulcimer.com and
I hope to see you at a festival or concert soon!

Bruce