The Mountain Music Project

Keep the kickstarter kickin!!

2011-11-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

Keep the kickstarter kickin!

So now thanks to kickstarter and our wonderful friends and supporters we now have enough money to print these CDs and DVDs! Yay! Thanks to everyone who has been helping so much with spreading the word and with the generous donations! When we chose our kickstarter goal we were very worried about making too high of a goal since if we were to fall even one dollar short, we would not get even a penny. We just factored in the most basic and immediate of needs.

We still need help though! Please keep spreading the word about the kickstarter! We would love to keep this kickstarter momentum rolling!

We have been chastised many times for our lack of website. If we can keep the donations rolling in we can hopefully have enough money to set up a real website and also have a budget to hire a publicist and buy some ads to get this project released in a really professional way!

Thanks y’all!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737800704/the-mountain-music-project-documentary-film-and-cd/posts

MMP Kickstarter Starts Today!

2011-11-14T06:34:00.000-08:00

We have launched our kickstarter campaign!!
We are really excited and hopeful that we can raise enough money to finally get both the documentary out and available for purchase as well as our really great CD project.

Please click on this link and check out our kickstarter page. It has some nice links to video clips from the film too! There is some cool information about the project and a link to see some clips from the film too! If you've got a few spare dollars, rupees, ngultrum, baht, pounds, pesos, or togrog, we've got some very nice gifts for you... Help us out by checking out the site and if you can you can donate too here.

Also we need all the help we can get getting the word out so please share, post, and email this link to anyone that you think might be interested!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737800704/the-mountain-music-project-documentary-film-and-cd

soon to launch our kickstarter

2011-11-10T22:08:00.000-08:00

We are happy to announce that we are about to launch a kickstarter to raise funds needed to print and release our completed documentary film and our awesome collaborative CD project! Many folks have been interested in purchasing the final completed projects and we are very happy that we have the projects completed and are finally at this last stage to get them out and available to the public!

We will need all the help we can get getting the word out about our projects and our kickstarter, so please share the link and tell lots of folks about us and how they can help us out.

We will post the link as soon as the project is officially launched, but here are just a few things folks have been saying about the projects who have seen and heard them.

About our film:

"Two traditional musicians from the hills of Virginia take you to the villages of rugged Nepal, where you discover the amazing similarities between Appalachian and Himalayan folk music—and the eerily parallel heritage that gave birth to them both. This vivid portrayal of endangered music and culture celebrates remarkable instruments, foot-tapping sounds, and the people who create them."

Jonathan B. Tourtellot
National Geographic Fellow;
Founding Director, Center for Sustainable Destinations;
Geotourism Editor, National Geographic Traveler

“What they did in that film would not be possible for a lot of people. You don’t get that kind of response from people when you just go interview them. They lived with and jammed with the musicians as a musician. There is no better way to do it!”

Curtis Burch

Grammy award winning musician and one of the founding members of the legendary and pioneering bluegrass band New Grass Revival.

And about our CD Project:

“The CD project, “The Mountain Music Project” beautifully illuminates the parallel experiences of musicians from Virginia and Nepal. We see and hear these fiddlers and flute players, banjo pickers and drummers playing in new urban environs as well as in their native chicken yards. To so many, they represent a constant in the face of changing times and lifestyles. These honorable troubadours keep the old songs and stories alive, reminding us all where we come from.”

Tim Obrien

Grammy Award winning musician and bluegrass and old time music legend.

Sammy Shelor wins yet another award

2011-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Sammy Shelor is one of the Virginian/Appalachian musicians that we have interviewed in our soon to be released documentary and we would like to congratulate him on his most recent award!

He added so much to our story and our film adding his own insights into the music and the culture of the music of the Appalachian region as we knew that he would. It is great to see him recognized for his skills and knowledge by yet another esteemed group.

He is certainly no stranger to winning awards. He has been named as the International Bluegrass Music Association' Banjo Player of the Year four times and Huber banjos have made a signature model of Sammy Shelor banjos and fingerpicks to to name a few of his honors. His most recent honor has been named as this years' recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. This prize is quite an honor and also is accompanied by the $50,000 award money.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-patrick-county-picker-wins-steve-martins-admiration-and-award-20110907,0,7089888.story

http://virginiafolklife.org/2011/09/folklife-showcase-presenter-sammy-shelor-named-steve-martin-prize-winner/

In case anyone was wondering, a similar award does not yet exist for mandolin players, but perhaps in time...

Congratulations Sammy! A well deserved award.

It is so nice to see that sometimes playing mountain music really can have some advantages! :)

Mountain Music Project in Texas

2011-07-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

In June, we took the Mountain Music Project to Houston, Texas.

The Asia Society had us come down there and show the film and perform some of our hot Nepali and Appalachian traditional music for them live.

We played to yet another packed house. Sorry for any of you who got turned away at the door. Also apologies to all of you who were interested in buying our CD project and our film. We are hoping to have available by this fall, so stay tuned.

All of the people that we met both at this Texas show and at our last show in Ohio at Muskingum University have been so nice and so excited about the project. We had some great questions and discussions about the instruments and film and the cultures. It is so wonderful to see so many people becoming interested both in Nepali and Appalachian traditional musics and cultures!

Rubin Museum Show in New York City

2011-03-23T13:27:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much for all the folks that came out to see our film and concert at the beautiful Rubin Museum in New York. Also a big thank you to the folks at the museum who were such a delight to work with and keep that really amazing place running so smoothly. If you have never been to the Rubin Museum make sure to check it out!

Also humble apologies to so many folks who came out to the show or tried to buy tickets the day of the show, but couldn't get any because it was sold out.

It is so great to have so much interest in our project, but at the same time we felt so bad seeing just how many people did get turned away at the door. I included at the right the flier some folks sadly saw that stated that no more seats were available...

Seeing how great the interest in New York is, we will try to arrange to have another showing in New York City in the future. Stayed tuned. :)

Film Screening & Concert at The Rubin Museum in New York City

2011-02-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like we have one more screening coming up!
We are honored to be showing our film at The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City on Friday, February 25, 2011 at 7 PM. This screening will be followed by a live performance of Nepali-Appalachian music featuring the Mountain Music Project's Danny Knicely, Tara Linhardt, Raj Kapoor, and Manoz Mahat. We may even have an added special guest... You'll just have to come and see it to find out.

The Rubin Museum is a beautiful venue in Manhattan with top of the line everything. Watching a movie on a really nice screen with a great sound system and fantastic acoustics... That is going to be sooo nice!

Hope to see you there!

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17^th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344 and on line at www.rmanyc.org

Tickets: $15 in advance, includes admission to the museum’s galleries
RMA Members receive 10% discount

MMP on PBS Newshour!

2011-01-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

We recently did an interview and were featured on PBS Newshour Art Beat. Seems to be some buzz going on now about our work. Check it out right here!

DC Area Film Showing!!

2010-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

The Mountain Music Project will have a showing of the film in the DC area and it will be accompanied by a live concert of Nepali-Appalachian music! Should be a really great night. Below are the details.

Our film "The Mountain Music Project: A Musical Odyssey from Appalachia to Himalaya"
will be followed by a live concert of Appalachian-Himalayan music with Danny Knicely, Tara Linhardt, Prem Raja Mahat, Rajendra Karn, and Raj Kapoor and a question answer session about the film and the musics of the two regions.
Tue, Dec 7,
7-9pm
Admission: free
Co-hosted by Sidwell Friends Global Programs and Asia Society Washington

Where:
Mary Ellen Caplin Theater
Kogod Arts Center
Sidwell Friends School
3825 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

Sarangi Day 2010

2010-09-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Come one, Come all! Friends in Kathmandu, we welcome you to join us for a full day of traditional Nepali folk music, October 29th @ Comfort Zone in Thamel, Kathmandu.

This year, Sarangi Day will feature over 8 hours of live music from the unsung legends of Nepali folk music, hailing from Gorkha, Lamjung, Hyangja, Palpa, Pokhara, and Kathmandu. It all takes place in the relaxing rooftop environs of Comfort Zone, just north of 7 corners in Thamel atop the Bank of Kathmandu Building. If you've not yet seen our film we'll be screening it at 7:30 PM.

Admission is absolutely free of charge, with exceptional food and drink available for purchase from the restaurant and bar.

Here's the map to Comfort Zone in Thamel:
We hope you'll join us for this once-a-year celebration of Nepali music, food & film!

Questions? Call Jake in Kathmandu (+977) 980-886-3412.

In the week leading up to Sarangi Day, we'll also be hosting master classes from 3 elder Gandharba musicians for young sarangi players, offered free of charge to Nepalis. Contact Kedar for details: (+977) 984-124-9004.

On the same day (October 29th), back in Erwin, Tennesee, you can catch the MMP film at the Southern Appalachian Film Festival, 2:20 PM at the Kinsport Public Library.

MMP film nominated at International Filmmaker Festival in UK

2010-09-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

We've been nominated for best soundtrack and best producer by the International Filmmaker Festival in Kent, England. Tell your friends across the pond...

Catch the MMP film at the Woodlands Heritage Festival

2010-09-03T03:07:00.000-07:00

Our friends at the Mountain Institute are gonna be showing our film at this year's Woodlands Heritage Festival near Spruce Knob Mountain Center, West Virginia, September 24 at 9PM. Come on down!

MMP screening & musical performance with Prem Raja in WV!

2010-08-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

If you're near Shepherdstown, WV on September 10, come down to Shepherd University...

We'll be screening our film, and you can catch a live music concert featuring Tara Linhardt & Danny Knicely, with special guests including Nepali songwriting legend Prem Raja Mahat, and some fantastic Nepali drummers. Q&A session too! Come on down!

Reynold's Hall

109. N. King St.

Shepherdstown, WV

For ticket info call 304-263 2531 or www.smad.us

Film Screenings in Charlotte and Toronto

2010-08-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

The MMP film will soon be showing at:

The Charlotte Film Festival
6PM, September 26 at Regal Park Terrace cinemas in Charlotte, NC

The Toronto Independent Film Festival
Sept 8-18, Showtimes coming soon...

COMMFFEST (Global) Community Film Festival
September 22-27, Showtimes coming soon...

Vote for MMP at the World Music & International Film Festival

2010-07-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

We're in the running for a "people's choice" award from the World Music and International Film Festival coming up in August. We could sure use your vote! Please click here to cast your virtual ballot, and tell your friends and grandmas!

MMP film at King's Mountain, NC

2010-07-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

The MMP film will be showing at the Real to Reel International Film Festival, Kings Mountain, NC at the Joy Performance Center, matinee showing (around 7PM) on July 23. Tell the folks!

Help Support Traditional Karen Music from Burma

2010-07-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

While our film is making the festival rounds, and while we're looking for ways to get the DVD and music CD into the eyes and ears of our fans, we thought we'd take a moment to try and help out a friend of ours, who's also working with traditional musicians.

Gregory Scarborough and his organization Cultural Cornerstones, are have been working along the Thai-Burma border with traditional Karen musicians, many of whom are refugees fleeing the oppressive regime in Burma/Myanmar. Greg has been working on a CD of the musicians he's met and he's hoping to get it out there to the public with a little help from Kickstarter. We hope you'll pay a visit and maybe drop some change in his hat.

MMP is doing some work with Karen musicians as well. You can check out a few recordings of their wonderful instruments here, and stay tuned for future multimedia projects with this unique musical culture.

MMP film screenings in Detroit & County Tipperary, Ireland

2010-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Mountain Music Project film will be showing at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 9:10 PM at Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan.

We've been accepted by the International Film Festival of Ireland, running between September 4-11th 2010 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland. More details on that soon.

We've also been nominated for a few awards at the World Music & International Film Festival, including the People's Choice Awards for our trailer. To vote for us, click here.

More updates soon.
Love,
MMP

Film Screening this weekend in Huntington, WV

2010-04-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Friends in West Virginia can check out the MMP film this weekend, April 23rd at the Keith Albee Theatre in Huntington, WV. Showtime at 5:35PM. Don't miss the other films at this year's Appalachian Film Festival.

Film Screening in Lancaster, PA

2010-04-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Friends in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area can catch the MMP film at Penn Cinemas as part of the Lancaster Area Film Festival 12:30PM on Saturday, April 24th. Check their website for updates... Thanks Lancaster!

MMP film screenings in Memphis, Huntington, & Washington,DC

2010-03-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

We're mighty pleased to tell ya that the MMP film will be playing Friday April 16th, 5:30 PM at the Keith Albee Theater in Huntington, West Virginia, the film will be screening at the Appalachian Film Festival.

Tell yer west Tennessee friends to check us out at the Ridgeway Four Theater 5PM Friday April 23rd and again at 3PM on Sunday April 25th, at the 11th annual Memphis International Film and Music Festival.

Later this summer, our film will also be screened at the World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, DC. We'll have more info on that in forthcoming posts...Hope to see ya there!

We're award-winning! Who knew?

2010-02-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

The Mountain Film Festival in Mammoth California gave our film a "Sierra Nevada" award and we've just learned that we've been voted the best independent documentary at the Carolina Film & Video Festival. Woo hoo!

We're still working out details of how to get DVD's out to our friends and fans, meanwhile, there's some new clips here. Great job everyone!

MMP Film showing in Chicago, Charleston, & Greensboro...

2010-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, looks like we're gonna be in a couple of festivals...

At the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, showtime will be at 12 noon on March 7th at the Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center. Admission is free! For more info, please visit: www.cimmfest.org

Charleston International Film Festival will be showing our film at 11 AM, Sunday April 11 (block 1) at the American Theater in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. You can check out their details at www.CharlestonIFF.com

Friends near Greensboro, North Carolina can check us out at at the Carolina Film & Video Festival, February 27th, showtime at 3pm in the University of North Carolina Greensboro's Elliot University (EUC) Auditorium. More details at: www.cfvf.blogspot.com

Tell your friends!

MMP film at Bozeman, Montana's Emerson Cultural Center

2009-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Bozeman! With gratitude for the years of support from the Montana community, we're proud to present the second US screening of the Mountain Music Project film at the Emerson Cultural Center on Sunday December 6th at 7PM.

Filmmaker Jacob Penchansky will be there for Q & A, there'll be stacks of MMP t-shirts available, and a $5 donation gets you in the door. Families & fiddles welcome!

Big thanks to KGLT-FM, the Emerson Center for Arts & Culture, and Tol & Mike!

Prem Raja Mahat joins MMP at National Geographic

2009-10-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

The film screening and concert at National Geographic went exceptionally well, with a packed house. Thanks so much for everyone's encouragement, the compliments keep pouring in...

We were very lucky to have Nepali songwriting legend Prem Raja Mahat joining Tara and Danny onstage. Thanks to Rock Wheeler for setting everything up, and for everyone who helped out. It was so much fun, we'll just have to do it again sometime... Stay tuned!

Mountain Music Project at National Geographic, Oct.27th

2009-10-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

Hey friends, we'd like to invite you to come and see the Mountain Music Project film at National Geographic's Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington, DC, Tuesday October 27th at Noon. There'll be live music from Tara, Danny & friends, we'll discuss the film and our work in Nepal, and present the 56 minute film on the big screen. If you can get off work that day, it's free, free, free! For more info and directions, please click here. Hope to see ya there...

Sarangi Day 2009 and Gandharba Music Teachers

2009-10-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well folks, Sarangi Day 2009 couldn't have gone better. With performances from Hum Bahadur, the Samundra Band, Bartha Gandharba, Buddhiman, Check Bahadur from Lamjung, and Akal Bahadur and Gopilal Gandhari (below) from Gorkha, the music really shined this year. Hats off to Mangal Gandhari, Buddha Gandharba, and several volunteers from the Gandharba Cultural & Arts Organization for putting together such a good show.

We also screened the Nepali-language version of our film, with a really great response. It was really exciting to hear the Nepali audience laughing out loud at the funny moments, and I had several comments that really made me feel like we told the story of both the Virginian and Nepali musicians in a way that made both sides proud of their culture. Now, we bring it home to the Americans.

Last year we began helping a few of our Gandharba friends by getting them hired as music teachers at local orphanages and other homes which care for and educate underprivileged kids. Here's a few shots from the Ghar Sita Mutu home, where our friend Buddhiman is now teaching traditional Nepali music to the children.

We're doing similar work at the Mitrata House, where Ms. Nanda Kulu cares for about 40 children and where MMP is providing musical instruments and funding for a dance teacher for the upcoming year. This opportunity to help keep traditional music alive in Nepal and aiding the education of these kids couldn't make us feel happier.

Sarangi Day 2009 in Kathmandu

2009-09-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

We invite our friends in Nepal to join us for Sarangi Day 2009, a celebration of traditional music in Nepal. The Nepali program runs from 2-6 PM, October 9th at the Nepal Tourism Board's Auditorium Hall, Bhrikutimandap Marg, just east of Ratna Park in Kathmandu.

This year's event will showcase several Gandharba musicians from all over Nepal, as well as a Nepali-Language screening of the Mountain Music Project film (at 4PM).

At 7 PM, we'll move the show to the Northfield Cafe in Thamel, with several performances for our tourist friends. Admission to both events is free and open to the public.

Sarangi Day 2009 will feature the traditional musical stylings of Gopilal Gandhari, Hum Bahadur, Junga Bahadur, Akal, Lal Bahadur, and Bartha Gandharba, Shyam Nepali, the Samundra band, a dohori group, and several performances from the Gandharba Cultural & Arts Organization, our brothers in cultural preservation here in Nepal.

Hope to see you there!

The Mountain Music Project - Trailer

2008-05-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hot off the presses, a trailer for the upcoming Mountain Music Project film... enjoy!

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Rubin Gandharba on NPR

2008-04-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here's another short MMP-produced radio broadcast, this time on Rubin Gandharba, the "Nepali Bob Dylan." Big thanks to KGLT-FM, Hearing Voices, and the CPB. Listen here:

A Song for New Nepal

2008-04-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Nepal becomes a democracy this week, with long-delayed elections which will likely result in the Nepali monarchy being retired. It's a very exciting time, but it's also unlikely that the elections will heal ethnic violence in the Terai or old caste discriminations throughout the country. This week, we bring you old-timer Hum Bahadur Gandharba's song, Untouchability.

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MMP Tibetan Music on the Radio

2008-03-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

A short MMP radio story on Tibetan traditional music, produced with support from KGLT-FM, Hearing Voices, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

GCAO blog up and running

2008-03-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

The Gandharba Culture & Arts Organization now has a blog of their own. Nice going, Kedar!

Sarangi Day 2008

2008-03-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

There are 8 hour power blackouts in Kathmandu these days, and fuel rationing makes transport in the city, a little more tricky than usual. But we're proud to say that the Gandharba musicians and MMP have brought this celebration of traditional Nepali music back to life. We hope it will continue, with the Gandharbas being able to hold Sarangi Day independently in the future.

The day began at the Russian Cultural Center with several speakers and researchers of Nepali music presenting for a Nepali audience. The Gandharba Culture & Arts Organization requested a few members of Nepali Parliament to speak to the Nepali audience, since the GCAO is lobbying for some parliamentary representation in the new government. Like all politicians, they sure can talk, but how much they'll really do for lower caste dalit groups like the Gandharbas remains to be seen.

Anyway we can't let the politicians take up too much time...On to the music! This year on the stage we had Barta Gandharba (Tikki Maya's sister for long-time MMP fans, one only 3 women sarangi players we've met), a group from Jyapa in Eastern Nepal, Palpa's Hum Bahadur Gandharba, and several other groups. A great turnout, and fantastic music from all the artists, including several styles I hadn't heard before. But the most outstanding performance of the day goes to virtuoso sarangi player Shyam Nepali and his fusion band (tabla, guitar, bansuri flute). I'll have that mp3 up soon as I can.

Several radio and tv reporters showed up for their soundbites, hopefully a few of em can give the Gandharbas some airtime here in Kathmandu.

In the evening, we held a fundraising concert at the North Palace Restaurant in the tourist district of Thamel featuring encore performances by Rubin, Barta, Hum Bahadur, the Jyapa Gandharbas and several other singers, dancers, and performers...and a heck of alot of dahl baht...The turnout was amazing, and we think we got the music and message out to quite a few foreigners this evening, and had a blast doing so.

We were extremely lucky to have 4 elderly musicians from the countryside with us for the event. Gopilal Gandhari, Akal Bahadur Gandharba, and Lal Bahadur Gandharba all made the trip from the Gorkha area. But everyone's favorite was Hum Bahadur Gandharba all the way from Palpa. With these old-timers in Kathmandu, we were able to bring them to a studio to record a few of the songs they don't want their grandkids to forget. Click the flash player below to hear Hum Bahadur performing the embittered love song Honi Maya:

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Another performer at Sarangi Day, whose songs and face are well-known in Nepal (if not his name) is 17 year old Rubin Gandharba. His politically-inspired songs, often landing him in jail for performances at the democracy protests of recent years have some people calling him the Bob Dylan of Nepal. We'll try to get an interview of him on the MMP blog one of these days...

Huge thanks to Ashley Stone and Laura Brennan for volunteering, to Raj Kumar Gandhari and Buddha Gandharba for their outstanding efforts in this year's Sarangi Day festival, to all the Gandharbas who volunteered, and to our donors for making it all possible.

In other news, we're donating some sarangi (fiddles) and madal (drums) to a local Kathmandu orphanage's music education program. Check out our new friends at www.mitrata.org. Another few days in Kathmandu and Jake's off to Dehli to edit the film with Monga. Stay tuned for clips for A Higher Lonesome Sound in the coming months.

To our friends back home in the USA: We've got some new t-shirts on their merry way back to the states, as well as a bunch of instruments. For donations of $50 or more, you can now choose between two tshirt designs (pics coming soon). For donations of $100 or more, we'll send you a full-size Nepali sarangi or madal drum as an incentive gift. See the bottom of the page for donation information.

Namaste!

2008-02-29T20:35:00.001-08:00

Well Folks, Sarangi Day went beautifully. We'll have photos and audio up soon (still busy this week getting the old guys into the recording studio). Here's a shot of Jake, Buddhiman, and Raj Kumar bringing in the tourists for the evening concert in Thamel...

Sarangi Day Concerts in Kathmandu

2008-02-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

Come one, come all...Not one but two concerts Thursday February 28th. The first event begins at 1PM at the Russian Cultural Center, Kamal Pokhari. There'll be guest speakers, researchers presenting their work, and more importantly, several of the old-school musicians from the hills of Palpa, Gorkha, and eastern Jyapa will be performing onstage. This first event is mainly for Nepalis, but all are welcome.

In the evening, starting at 7PM, the North Palace Restaurant will host the second event, for our tourist friends. Admission is 400 Nrp and gets you a drink and vegetarian thakali buffet, as well as an evening of authentic Nepali folk music and some good karma for helping out the GCAO (and since so many people are asking, we'll have some of those embroidered MMP t-shirts for sale too).

Local Bideshis: We're looking for some volunteers to help out with the concert here in Kathmandu. Please call Jake: +977 980 368 2306 or email us: mountainmusicproject at gmail dot com.

I'm so proud of the Gandharbas who have really come together to make Sarangi Day work. We hope you can join us...

Riley Baugus and the Return of Sarangi Day

2008-02-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

So we got our final guest artist to record on the MMP fusion CD project! Our buddy Riley Baugus laid down some awesome vocal tracks; on a song we had done with the Nepalis and then a beautiful old time a cappella piece. He and Danny also sang another duet a cappella song for the video camera, which rocked in the way that only two real Appalachian-raised singers can get it rocking. Hopefully, we'll have a clip of that up soon for folks to see.

Riley grew up going to a regular Baptist Church in North Carolina, where a cappella singing in the Southern Appalachian style was the tradition. And he got real good at it too. ☺ He is an Old Time multi-instrumentalist and has played with all sorts of folks from the big names in the music business to the old mountain musicians from deep in the hills, some of whom are now legends in Appalachian music. He also sang for the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning movie Cold Mountain. Now he will get to add being a proud member of the MMP recording team!

We would also like to say a special thanks to Les Thompson and Cabin Studios for letting us use his phenomenal microphones for the US recording part of our project. He has a fantastic recording studio out in the country near Lincoln, VA and is a great musician. Some of you may know his name from his days in the award-winning band “The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.” Thanks Les!

Meanwhile, back in Kathmandu, Jake's helping the Gandharbas to revive Sarangi Day, a festival of traditional Gandharba music, featuring musicians from throughout Nepal, who will be performing for both Nepali and tourist audiences. The celebration will begin on February 28th, starting in the Russian Cultural Center at 1PM, with a tourist-oriented dinner concert held in Thamel at the North Palace Restaurant at 7PM.

Some of the performers will include sarangi virtuoso Shyam Nepali, Hum Bahadur (who plays with a haunting western-Nepali style) and several of our friends from the Gandharba Cultural & Arts Organization. For our friends in Kathmandu, we'll have more information here on the blog in the next few days, as the program is finalized. It's gonna be a blast and all are welcome to attend both events. Stay tuned...

Banjos

2007-07-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago we got Paul Brown (whom many of you have heard reading the news on NPR) to come out and put some clawhammer banjo on the recording project. He did a great job and said that learning and playing on the Nepali song was surprisingly like Appalachian Old-Time. He said the music on the project was not only fascinating, but sounded really great too.

Then just this last week while Danny and I were teaching bluegrass music at McDaniel College’s “Common Ground” program, we had a chance to work and perform with Tony Trischka. In case there is anyone out there who might not know, he is a phenomenal player as well as a really nice guy. We told him about Gandharbas and the Mountain Music Project, and he was really interested in the music. We played him some of the project so far and he volunteered to put a finger-style banjo track on the project. He is such a master of his instrument and such a respected musician, we are really happy to have him on board. This CD is going to be a landmark album introducing the music of the Gandharbas to the world of traditional style music in the United States.

Abigail Washburn! Aaron & Matthew Olwell!

2007-05-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well, here is yet another exciting post from Tara and Danny on the CD recording project. We have recorded Aaron Olwell on the wooden flute and his brother Matthew Olwell on Appalachian style foot percussion in Charlottesville, VA.

From there we recorded Abigail Washburn’s vocals in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She did an amazing job of lead and harmony singing in that cutting-edge old-time style of hers. This is going to be one hot CD when it comes out. A must-have for every household!

Curtis Burch and Tim O'Brien!

2007-03-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is an update from Tara and Danny. We just got back to Virginia from a fun-filled week of recording bluegrass musicians for the MMP’s CD project. (Since we are multi-tracking the recording, we are able to add people here for the US side of the fusion project.)

First we went to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to the home of Curtis Burch. For those of you who may not know the world of bluegrass music, Curtis is a Grammy award winning musician and a really fun guy. He used to be in The New Grass Revival and is known far and wide as Dr. Dobro. He recorded some great dobro tracks and did a great job of blending with the Nepali musicians recorded back in Kathmandu.

Then we headed down to “Music City USA” (Nashville, Tennessee), where we went to Tim O’Brien’s house. Tim is another Grammy award winning musician and a great bluegrass and old-time picker and singer. He added a lead vocal on one song, harmony vocal on another, a mandola part, and a great fiddle and vocal combination to parallel the sarangi and vocal number that Buddhiman recorded in Nepal. He was a delight to work with and has a real gift at finding just the right thing to add to bring out the best in the music.

Danny's CD Release Party and MMP Fundraiser

2007-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, Danny's celebrating the release of his new CD, "Roots and Branches" with a concert at The Old Stone School in Hillsboro, VA on February 10th.

If you're in the area, come on down and check out the rockin' lineup of phenomenal musicians. Zan McLeod (guitar and bouzouki), Ralph Gordon (bass), Nate Leath and Dave VanDeventer (fiddle), Rex McGee (banjo), and Matthew Olwell (percussion and percussive dance) will be joining Danny for some bluegrass, Irish, jazz and old-time.

There will be artwork on display by Melissa Foster who did the cover art for Roots and Branches. And of course we'll also have some Mountain Music Project t-shirts and an information booth with some photos and video from our expedition.

The Old Stone School is located at 37098 Charlestown Pike in Hillsboro, VA. Doors open at 7 PM. Showtime at 8 PM.

In other Mountain Music Project news, bassist Mark Schatz added some tracks to the fusion CD we started in Nepal. If you haven't heard of Mark, he's twice been named the International Bluegrass Music Association's bass player of the year. We'll keep you posted as more musicians join in the fun.

Plane Tickets, Tikkas, and T-Shirts

2006-12-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

We're about finished with this musical ramble here in Nepal. We say our goodbyes, with lots of red tikka powder on our foreheads, kattak scarves and marigold leis presented at wellwishing ceremonies. The Gandharba Culture and Arts Organization just gave a press conference demanding better representation for Dalit (untouchable) castes in Nepali parliament. We hope they get it.

Tara and Danny are here for a few more days, maybe we can get them to write another post before they come back across the pond. They were just interviewed by our radio friends at Green Productions. Dan's on a bus to India to meet up with Monga. I'm gone tomorrow; back to the states for a few weeks to catch up on some sleep and do a little fundraising before the next adventure begins.

The studio recordings will have some tracks added back in the states by some bluegrass musicians who couldn't make the trip. The film awaits translations, a lot of cash, and a month in Monga's editing studio in Dehli. We're hoping to have the film and CD finished in about six months, but for now we're too broke to make any promises (guerilla ethnomusicological expeditions ain't cheap). We'll let you know right here when the goods are ready, or you can email us and ask to be put on the mailing list. No spam I promise.

Meanwhile we've got some handsome T-shirts embroidered with the Mountain Music Project logo on the front and a sarangi and mandolin on the back. If you donate $50 or more to our tax-deductibly non-profit sponsor, we'll be glad to send you one.

Please make your checks out to: Tundra Club

...and mail them to:
Mountain Music Project
c/o Tundra Club
686 Canyon View Road
Bozeman, MT 59715
USA

Email: mountainmusicproject@gmail.com to let us know your size.

As we watch the Gandharbas selling their sarangis to the tourists in Kathmandu, we noticed that they could use a little marketing. We made em some shirts as well, hopefully these shirts will let the turistas know a little more about this unique and infectious music.

I'd like to take a moment to thank some folks back who've made our work to date possible. Without the selfless efforts of Charity Smith, Barrett Golding, Joanne Lee, Shannon Kelley, and Gregg Orr, we'd have had a rough go on this trip. For our donors, who I'll keep anonymous for the time being, we'd hug you if you were here. Y'all helped send several poor kids to school, and helped us to work with some amazing musicians, hopefully not for the last time.

And I'd personally like to thank Monga and Praveen for rocking so hard behind the cameras and for giving so much of their time and talents.

I'll keep this blog updated as things develop and I'm putting up more mp3's on the old posts, but for now, it's on to the Himalayan task of fundraising. As for that next adventure? We'll let you know real soon. Those Tibetan banjos sound kind of bluesy...

Old Songs in Changing Times

2006-11-30T05:59:00.000-08:00

In the Kathmandu valley, there are 800 year old religious shrines next to internet cafes. Barefoot sadhus walking side by side with modern businessmen. Loudspeakers on the sidewalk play Nepali Hip Hop as well as the old sarangi tunes. During our two months here in Nepal, we've worked to document the endangered songs of the villagers and have listened for the links to our own rural culture. But just as plenty of Americans don't listen to Bluegrass or Old-Time Appalachian tunes regularly, many young Nepalis find their way to the city where pop music is the soundtrack of life.

Younger Gandharbas are unlikely to be wandering minstrels like their parents. Some become studio musicians or find regular gigs at local restaurants. But most work the streets of Thamel, noodling on miniature sarangis for disinterested tourists, in hopes of selling one (and sending the money back to their village). Other Nepalis seem uninterested as well. The Gandharbas still bear the prejudice of the racial slur Gaine, which means "to hassle." They are stereotyped as demanding and dishonest, and the "untouchable-ness" still lingers in the minds of some Nepali castes.

When Nepal was first united, the king sent Gandharbas out to deliver the news to the remote Himalayan villages. But as more villages get electricity, televisions, and internet access, the Gandharbas are no longer singing the news, and Nepal loses a bit of its cultural heritage. Modern music influenced by India and the west begins to replace the creaky melodies of wandering Gandharba minstrels.

In searching for the old songs, it's often frustrating to hear cheesy synthesizers playing Nepali melodies. But cultures are not static. The words "authentic" or "traditional" are subject to interpretation, just as the same fiddle song might be played differently in Kentucky than it is in Ireland, or might even be remixed over electronic beats by a producer who's never held a fiddle. The same technology that allows you to download these songs and videos is the same technology that is replacing the village storytellers in Nepal. I wonder if our grandkids will think about mp3's the same way we might think of a reel-to-reel tape recorder. In any case it makes those rare songs and stories all the more precious.

Guest House Studios

2006-11-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

Back in Kathmandu, we've spent the last few weeks mostly in our recording studio. Most professional recording studios we've found here are great for radio voices but too dead for acoustic instruments, so we've converted Tara and Danny's hotel room into a decent space, complete with hot showers for the musicians, something the Gandharbas don't get too often. The studio isn't perfect, and we have to stop for airplanes, water tanks being filled, or the odd Maoist rally in the streets below.

This last week has been a big one for Nepal. Maoist leaders signed a permanent ceasefire with the Nepali government, approving a new constitution that appears to have made everyone happy. The UN is excited (it may be one of the few recent cases of UN mediation actually helping achieve peace), and Nepal is gearing up to be a tourist destination again, with new trekking routes in the works and an optimistic plan to bring the country out of third world living standard within a decade.

But we've got a record to make, and several Nepali and Appalachian songs to teach each other. We can't play you the cuts for the disc, but here's Danny and Buddhiman making a little fusion of the ubiquitous Nepali folk song, Resham Firiri.

We've just got a few days left here in Nepal, but I'll try to keep the blog updated as we get through the footage. We'll see if we can get Tara and Danny to make a couple posts too.

Return to Lamjung

2006-11-13T04:57:00.000-08:00

Buddhiman and I hop in a minibus back to Kalimati in Lamjung, cross the creaky bridge and walk through the now harvested rice fields to his home in Pipal Tari. Neighboring farmers ride their plows on the backs of water buffalo as others wave straw platters at the rice piles, blowing the chaff away. Everyone is friendly, a welcome respite after the unending touts in Thamel. At night the stars are vast above the open fields, with thousands of crickets chirp in unison and the occasional rhythm of a distant madal drum.

It's nice to have another few days off from the grime and hustle of Kathmandu. I've left Tara and Danny in the good hands of Monga. Between Danny's ears and Monga's computer knowledge, they should be able to keep the recording sessions running smoothly.

We came back for a Puja, a religious ceremony that Buddhiman's wife was going to hold. But she consulted a Brahmin priest who advised her to wait until December. In any case, we're here with camera and mic, and we spend the next day climbing up the ridge again to Moria (which means Banana tree by the way), and further along the ridge to a small shrine to Shiva, where Buddhiman plays a few tunes before clouds engulf the mountains to the north.

Buddhiman's son has joined us, and he picks up chesnuts for us along the walk. With Buddhiman in Kathmandu most of the time, Suman is mature for a 15 year old, hooking up the electicity in his house with simple wires and bartering for rice with the neighbors when Buddhiman's sarangi sales in Kathmandu aren't enough. I give him the sound kit to run for awhile and we film and record a passing donkey caravan and some local villagers doing odd farm chores.

Suman will probably never go village to village like the previous generation. Buddhiman's made enough for him to stay in school so far, and he'll be done in a year or two. After that his prospects are most likely getting married and going to Kathmandu to sell sarangis to indifferent tourists. But in any case, he's 15 and enjoying the cd player Tara and Danny gave to his father. He plays the rough mix of a song Buddhiman sings on nonstop.

We walk back beneath the ridge, passing round mudbrick huts, bamboo groves, and a small snake on the side of the trail. It's no bigger than an earthworm but Buddhiman holds us back. Really poisonous apparently.

"Do you ever see cobras down in Pipal Tari?" I ask.

"Sometimes."

"How big do they get?"

He holds his hands up to indicate the girth; about the size of a grapefruit. Then he tells me about how down in Chitwan, some snakes will latch on the the breasts of sleeping mothers to suck their milk. He says it's not uncommon for new mothers to die in their sleep from suckling cobras.

We cross the ridge and I ask Buddhiman to play a tune while the light's still good. He plays this song (video from the cheap camera operated with my third hand--others busy recording sound, running the DV camera, and shushing loud passersby). The song is about Sagarmatha, better known to you and me as Mt. Everest. It's hard to tell how old some of the songs are. An old song can mean 5 years old to a Gandharba, as if there's no way to distinguish between the recent and distant past. And the Gandharbas are so used to improvising that a "new" song might just mean the one they just made up. Not the easiest stuff to document, but the melodies are often passed down, if not the words.

Back in the village we sit on Buddhiman's porch drinking raksi and eating dahl baht. Buddhiman tells me about how his father and grandfather were known to play songs to bring the rain. The rain would last the duration of the song. This skill has been lost, but was witnessed within living memory of some Gandharbas, like the ones we met in at Manoj's home in Chitwan. There was apparently a book containing the words to these rain songs in the Gandharba language, but this text was supposedly stolen by a Nepali and sold to an unknown foreigner.

Buddhiman plays a few more songs and we sleep, catching a bus the next morning back to Kathmandu. There's an accident on the road and we walk the last few miles into the valley, catching a ride on top of an overcrowded bus.

That evening Monga, Dan, and I discuss cultural preservation and what we're really doing to encourage it among the Gandharbas. There's no way we could stop younger Gandharbas from listening to Hip Hop or wanting to move to the city to become street hustlers with miniature sarangis as tourist trinkets. Radio and television, which have replaced the Gandharbas as the storytellers in most rural villages, are not going away anytime soon.

Sure, we've donated recording equipment and helped some children go to school, but I think if we have any real impact, it will be on the kids of the elder Gandharbas we recorded, the ones who noticed someone else was interested in Grandpa's old sarangi, collecting dust on the wall. Maybe a few of those kids might ask for a lesson. But we'll never know.

Kathmandu

2006-11-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

Back in the big city, we rehearse and scout for studios to record a CD that will capture the best songs that we think show the similarities between Appalachian and Himalayan folk music. No small task, since drums are rare in Appalachian music and Nepalis don't use pickup notes; everything starts on the downbeat. There are all sorts of tempo issues which make multi-track recording a challenge. And of course there's keeping the atmosphere relaxed. But so far so good. The gear has more or less survived the rattling of three weeks in a van and we eventually decide on a hotel room that is relatively quiet.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. There's songs to be learned. The songs that both Nepalis and Americans can recognize, even if the tune comes from some backwoods halfway across the world, where people might be Buddhist instead of Baptist. Where the civil war might refer to something else entirely. But there's something in the a few of the songs that is mysteriously connected. Here's Danny and Buddhiman playing a few licks from a tune called Paina Coppara, or "No News from You."

A surprise our first few days back: Akal and his wife show up at my guest house. She's going to get that finger amputated, and is short on cash. We need to test out a studio space, so I tell Akal if he plays a few songs with us, I'll cover the operation. A strange arrangement to be sure, but he sings us this song, about a boy and a girl, while his wife pulls rosin from a tree in the compound of Green Productions, Monga's friend's studio. Here's a link to some Nepali pop music that Neeraz and friends produce there.

I'm off to Lamjung again this weekend with the talented Mr. Buddhiman, but I promise to put more photos, music, and maybe some video up real soon. So check these last few updates again next week and there'll be a few gems to brighten your day...

The Terai

2006-11-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

We leave Hum Bahadur and drive out of the Himalayan foothills to the northern edge of Chitwan National Park, where we spend a night in Jyamire with Shiva Gandharba's family, a friend of ours from Kathmandu. Shiva's father builds sarangis and there's about 20 kids in and around the family compound to keep us occupied. Most of the locals here are sharecroppers, and quite poor, even compared to the Gandharbas we'd met in the mountain towns.

The next morning we drive deep into Chitwan to stay at with Manoj's family in an area called Madi. Save for the odd solar panel, there's no electricity around these parts. Vehicles don't make it out here much, so the Mountain Music Project begins the latest phase of it's aid work in the pursuit of folk music. In Nepali English we can now say, "The Mountain Music Project: Also Roads Building." We hold our breaths crossing a few rivers, push the Kia through narrow riverbeds and finally pull out the shovels, rearrange rocks, and stack pieces of sod to get ourselves to Madi by nightfall.

It's peaceful and hot in Madi, the lowlands filled with amber rice fields as locals harvest with short sickles. Since it's in the middle of a national park with tigers, rhinos, and bears, people stay in most evenings, and we play music together by candlelight to the chagrin of our filmmakers. In the daytime we record and are also invited to a few local schools for which the Gandharba Culture and Arts Organization, along with our help, has provided a few scholarships as well as basic school supplies. We are serenaded with tea and marigold necklaces, and a few brave children practice their English.

In Madi we meet some elder Gandharbas who can still speak an old language even Buddhiman, Manoj, and Ganesh can barely understand. This Gandharba language is on it's last legs, but we manage to record a few songs and interviews with the few who can speak it. Manoj takes us to a nearby lake and waterfall where we film Buddhiman playing a bit.

Can't help but wish we had more time, but most of the crew is pretty weary from all this running around the last few weeks, and anyway we're out of cash, so it's back to Kathmandu to work on some studio recordings and filming interviews with the Gandharbas who've moved to the cities. We've been looking for the few Gandharbas who still go village to village, and, just as we're about to climb in the van, an old Damai man comes to Manoj's family compound and serenades us with his buffalo horn. The valleys glow as we follow the rivers back into the mountains and into Kathmandu Valley.

On to Palpa

2006-11-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

The road from Pokhara to Palpa curves through rice fields midharvest, deep river gorges with the churning water several hundred feet below the road, and snowy Himalayas peaking through the valleys as we round the endless bends on a five hour journey. Small towns with brightly painted brick buildings, kids who can say "Hello, give me your pen!" - the standard greeting for bideshis (foreigners).

Tansen is located in Palpa district, just north of where Buddha was born in Lumbini. As we approach the hilltop town, there are pine forests and black-faced langur monkeys running along the road beside our van.

Tansen is home to Nepal's largest wooden door, which doesn't look so fancy, but must have been a humongous tree once upon a time. Maoist rebels blew up the police station here a while back and the barracks' remains stand like a miniature warzone in the midst of a cozy hilltop town with stone streets.

There's a significant population of Gandharbas in the Palpa area, but most of them have quit the wandering minstrel lifestyle. We meet Bal Bahadur Gandharba, who quit going village to village a long time ago, still he remembers a song or two as we sit on a rooftop next to his cottage.

The next morning we go down the valley in search of a respected elder Gandharba singer. But he's not home, so Buddhiman shows us how to make bowstrings from an agave plant, and how to get bow rosin from a type of pine tree. The musicians take some time off to rehearse and then late in the afternoon, we move everyone up to Srinagar, where there's a hilltop park with teenagers rocking their ghetto blasters. We set up to shoot a session of Dohori singing as the sun sets. Dohori songs are improvised, with a man and woman poking fun of each other in alternating verses, with the crowd singing along for the chorus. The song goes 40 minutes, and apparently they often go longer! I'll have some photos of that for y'all real soon.

Our last day in Tansen, we meet Hum Bahadur Gandharba, who used to travel Nepal in a dance troup which enacted social issues, such as class discrimination. He played us this song, an old one that leaves our translators amazed; although they are folklorists and well-versed in Gandharba music, it's one they've never heard before. We're still waiting for a full translation, but it's basically about a queen who receives a warning not to break her bracelets. Inevitably she breaks the bangles and her husband is killed in the forest. Check out the tone on Hum Bahadur's sarangi. He's using cotton string for his fiddle strings.

A Note from Tara and Danny (The American Musicians)

2006-11-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

It has been great fun for us to travel around meeting Gandharba musicians, listening to their music, and sometimes playing together. The fallback tune is Reshum Phiriri. It is a great love song, crowd pleaser that everybody knows and all the kids love to sing. Since it the one that they always call for, it is starting to feel like they are calling out for "Freebird."

Some fun things for us are when we have a jam with the Nepalis that really clicks and gets that music magic going. We had one of those jams in a Terai (lowland) town called Jyamire playing Cluck Old Hen with our buddy Buddiman.

Another fun thing is when we get those culturally different moments when we get to teach each other culturally different concepts. Musically, we usually have 2 parts to a tune and play each part twice. That is really hard for them to get the feel of and remember, but is second nature to us. They tend to play a tune with two parts also, but put together differently and usually having an extra half part where the last line repeats again.

There are loads of non-musical differences that are fun too. Having spent a lot of time in Nepal and India we are very comfortable eating with our hands. This trip we got to bring some Nepalis out to a fancy restaurant with a western style of food preparation where they served big peices of uncut meat. Some had never used a fork and knife to cut meat. We showed them a few techniques and one girl settled on the old knife going between the prongs of the fork technique that I showed her. Danny said it reminded him of his first fancy dinner where he was the only one who had never used chopsticks.

We also got teach some Nepalis how to open car and van doors that said they had never attempted such a thing. Many places in Nepal still do not have roads and even in those places that do have roads there are some people who rarely ever would have reason to be in a car.

We get really into doing things that are really normal here that are not normal in the US. For example, what to do when the power comes back on. In Nepal, one should never assume that because one has electricity now that it will still be on in 10 minutes. The fun thing is that when it comes back on you can go really fast between your forehead and chest three times. It is like a quick prayer or showing of respect. One also touches things to ones head here to show respect. So, if someone pays you money, or gives you a book one might touch it to their head to show respect to it.

One thing that can be difficult in trying to have our evening front porch jams in the Nepali villages is the speed with which the sarangi (Nepali fiddle) and modal (Nepali drum) climb out of tune, while our mandolins and guitars are holding steady. The sarangi is in an open tuning and the songs and tunes are all in the key that it is tuned to. Sometimes we have started in G, then within a few songs they have climbed up through G#, then to A and beyond. Do we chase after or keep trying to pull them back? Different days we chose different ways of handling that depending on the cultural situation. One does not want to slow down a Nepali musician with their eyes closed that is really on a roll at a party.

In Kathmandu, we are now trying to start recording a CD project. The fusion process should be interesting since each tradition hears sometimes a different natural arrangement and feel of the music for the same tune. We should probably both expand our ideas somewhat during the process as we share ideas.

On a side note, our guest house has a very friendly guard rabbit named Poppy who roams around at his own free will and never makes a noise to disrupt practice. Obviously, Poppy is very considerate and sensitive to our musical needs.

Pokhara

2006-10-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

Pokhara is a lakeside town with views of Macchapuchare, the Fish's Tail, the starkest of the Annapurnas, which has never been climbed. It sticks up like the Matterhorn above the touristy pizza restaurants and Tibetan handicraft shops. Tourist mecca, dreadlocks and all the trimmings.

We're here to find Mohan Gandharba, an 83 year old musician who is one of the few living players of the Arbaj. The Arbaj is kind of like a banjo, with a four strings, a goatskin over the body but with a hollow neck. Most young Nepalis won't learn it because it's much heavier than a sarangi and thus more difficult to travel with.

I wasn't really impressed with Mohan's playing when I was here before, but this time he's brilliant, with a great voice that Danny says reminds him of Roscoe Holcomb. In addition to being a wandering Gandharba musician, Mohan used to work as a traveling medicine man, and he takes out his paraphernalia to show us. We film and record a few short songs and hear some stories before heading off to find Tikki Maya, a woman who plays and sings with a great Nepali twang.

Tikki Maya takes an instant liking to Tara. She probably doesn't trust us guys too much, plus Tara speaks fluent Nepalese. She's so good I've got to share it with y'all. We haven't translated all the lyrics yet, but the name of this song translates as No Happiness in My Heart. Her voices gives me chills.

We agree to pick up Tikki Maya to do some recording at our hotel the next day, where there are less chickens and children to interfere with the recordings. Then we head to Batulechour, a large Gandharba village on the outskirts of Pokhara.

We walk down into a lush steep valley near the village and meet Khim Bahadur Gandharba, an old music teacher who's traveled quite a bit outside of Nepal. He gives us a basic lesson on sarangi and clearly has more Indian influence than the rest, using different ragas and writing his lyrics down on paper.

It's Tihar festival today, kind of like Nepali Christmas. The lights are strung and candles lit across town, and today brothers and sisters will eat together. We're taking a day off of filming, content to eat and drink with our Nepali friends, catch up on some email, and figure out where to go next. It's looking like Palpa, back up in the mountains, and from there to Manoj's home in the flatlands of the Terai, near Chitwan National Park. There's rhinos, tigers, and more Gandharba communities. I'll post some video clips when we get back to Kathmandu around early November. Until then, Happy Tihar!

Lamjung

2006-10-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

Folks who've traveled to Nepal and trekked the Annapurna Circuit have passed through the town of Besisahar, where the eastern trail around the Annapurnas begins. The road to Besisahar is gorgeous, running parallel to the Marsyangdi River as it churns from the Himalayas down through the wide valleys of Lamjung.

We stop the minivan just before Besisahar and follow Buddhiman across the bridge to a wide apron below a series of ridges that lead to the Annapurnas and a snowy peak known simply as Boddha Himal. An hour hike through rice fields and we reach Pipal Tari, Buddhiman's village. Pipal refers to a tree which is often planted in pairs when a couple gets married. It's also the holy tree under which Buddha reached enlightenment. They make great shade for a traveler, and not a bad spot to play a little music.

Buddhiman's wife greets us and we spend the evening with the village kids, Tara teaching them how to Hambone and Buddhiman's neighbor showing us how to make a sarangi from the Kirra tree. We sleep in a simple mudbrick huts, just above the water buffalo stable.

Next afternoon we walk down to a village school where Tara and Danny play Appalachian tunes for the students. Sitaram, an old man I recorded last time I was here, shows up and leads the kids in a few Nepali songs, with Danny playing along on fiddle. We continue back down to the river to watch Tek, Buddhiman's neighbor, fishing and we take a dip in the chilly Marsyangdi. We spend the evening singing on Buddhiman's porch under a brilliant canopy of stars.

Next day we follow Buddhiman up the steep hillside to a village called Moria, where we film Buddhiman playing music for the locals and Danny playing atop the ridge. The clouds swallow the Himal to the north but we catch a few minutes of it on time-lapse video before heading back down into the heat of the valley.

Before leaving Lamjung, we record Sitaram, who knows many old Hindu religious songs, mostly retelling stories from the Ramayana. Sitaram's brother Hiralal has moved to Ireland, where he works as a cook, but makes more money than anyone in his village. They have a new style toilet; high class. I'm content to stay in the village a few more days, in spite of the dust and heat, but we've got to make tracks to Pokhara.

Gorkha

2006-10-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

When Nepal first became united, the capital wasn't Kathmandu, but a hillside town called Gorkha, 5 hours drive northwest of today's capital. You may have heard of the Gurkhas, soldiers from this kingdom hired by the British and renowned for their loyalty in Britain's colonial days in South Asia. Rugged mountain living makes for good musicians as well as hired soldiers.

I love this town. I first came here in 2002 with my friend Raj Kumar, in search of musicians who knew the old songs. We found Akal Bahadur Gandarba, (the guy with the brilliant eyes in the video and photo from the first blog). He had this great scratchy style of singing and was incredibly humble compared to the other musicians I'd recorded. When I asked what he wanted in exchange for letting me record him, he simply asked for clothes for his grandchildren. So this time around we've got loads of secondhand childrens' clothes, as well as a fair chunk of change for the old guy.

After shaking off the twisty drive from Kathmandu, we walk to his small mudbrick house and try not to give him a heart attack with all our film gear and funny-looking faces. In spite of no forewarning, Akal and his wife break out the floormats and invite us in. It never ceases to amaze me how the people with the least material wealth are the ones who give the most to strangers. Akal remembers me and we sit down to chat, play music, and catch up. His son is happily no longer on the police force, all smiles now that his clothing doesn't make him a target.

Akal's wife has some form of cancer, which has taken one of her fingers and is working on a second. Since she'll never have the money to see a doctor in Kathmandu, I take some pictures of the rotten apendage to send to doctors back in the states. Maybe someone there can at least diagnose it. I give her some antibiotic ointment to keep the infection from getting any worse and also about 5000 rupees for their time and Akal's brilliant playing.

Akal sings us a few songs and plays with Danny on the fiddle. It's a good first day of shooting, giving everyone on the video crew a chance to sort out how things are going to work, with a musician who's accustomed to me pointing weird electronic devices at him while he plays his sarangi. The light is gorgeous in late afternoon, but since Akal lives next to the only flat ground on his part of the hillside, we have to constantly shush the kids playing football next door. "You want us to be quiet???" they scream as we retake interview questions. Next time we're gonna buy em off with candy.

The following morning we climb the stone steps to the ridge above Gorkha where the Durbar (castle temple) sits perched between the lowlands to the south and the Himalayas to the north. Over the ridge, we can see a few of the huge white Himal, peering through the morning haze over a deep valley of rice terraces, the deepest part filled with a sea of cloud. Although I live in Montana and have seen plenty of jagged snowy mountains, nothing compares to the Himal rising out of the morning mist. The photographs do it no justice.

Hundreds of Nepalis have brought goats to the Hindu temple to sacrifice, so the wild sound recordings are a mix of bleeting, temple bells, and echoing roosters from the valley below. As we walk back into town, an eerie mist envelopes the hillside and kills our plans for shooting in the morning light.

We close the doors to Akal's small home and set up the mics for a slightly cleaner studio session. Still people come around looking through the windows and offering their loud commentary. But we're able to maintain some reasonable crowd control, and the recordings come out well.

That afternoon we walk down to Ganesh's family's home. Ganesh is our translator for this recording expedition and his father, Gopi Lal Gandhari, plays us some great old songs, including one in 7/8 time, based off an old Indian raga and more complex than the typical folk songs. It's thought that the Gandharbas may have come from Rajastan in India a long time ago and brought vestiges of Indian classical music along with them. Gopi Lal's sister starts singing along and turns out to be the jewel of this gathering. She has great stories about her days traveling village to village as a wandering minstrel, in spite of her parents' warnings. Not too many women Gandharbas do this, but Durga Devi insists that her daughter will learn to play sarangi.

Leaving the cameras and recorders at home this evening, we return to Gopilal's house for dinner of Dahl Bhat (lentils and rice) and raksi (local rice moonshine). We bring our instruments and there's plenty of dancing and merriment, the Gopilal's wife insisting that Danny and I are her new sons.

We return to Akal's the next day and he joins us down at Gopi Lal's for an all-star jam of Gorkha's Gandharba community, including Lal Bahadur, an old-timer from nearby Ghampesal. Tara and Danny join in with a few Appalachian songs and play along to the Nepali tunes. Great fun in the high mountain sun.

Lights, Camera, Ekshin...

2006-10-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Tara tells me that when the movie Little Buddha was filmed in Kathmandu, there were hundreds of local extras hired to hang out and do Buddhist things around the temple in Bodda. Once everyone was in place the Italian director said the usual "lights, cah-mera, ekshin!" But nobody moved. They tried it again. Again everyone froze. Ahh, but in the Nepalese language, ekshin means wait.

As any filmmaker knows, there's a lot of waiting, which can try the patience of the people involved. We wait for light, we wait for quiet, we wait for instruments to be tuned and retuned. We wait for the kids to stop shouting, "You want us to be quiet!?" We pay grandma to take the kids as far away from the microphones as possible. We wait while we chase off the crowds of neighbors who walk by and spit loudly during the quiet part of the song.

We wait to keep our group together. 4 Americans, 3 Nepalis, 2 Indians, 1 driver plus whichever musicians we're working with that day. It's like herding kittens, but so far so good, and more fun than I'd expected. Here's how it's gone so far...

On Friday the 13th, at 7AM we drop a few bags in storage and meet the van driver out in front of our hole-in-the-wall guesthouse. The filmmakers have arrived from New Dehli. Praveen Singh and his friend Sanjeev Monga. At first I was a little reluctant to take a second film guy, after all it's another mouth to feed. But Monga has proved to be essential; enthusiastic and nearly invisible behind the camera; very important when dropping a crew of foreigners on the old people's doorsteps. Tara, Danny, Dan, Praveen, Monga, Buddhiman, Manoj, Ganesh, myself and the driver pile in the Kia minibus and weave through the crowded streets and out of the Kathmandu smog.

The drive is gorgeous, snaking along towering Himalayan "foothills," pregnant rivers after the monsoons, clean air and small brightly painted Nepali towns. We climb the road to Gorkha, and it's a relief to see the town without the curfews and police presence I've seen there in 2002 and earlier this year. Some Maoist rebels killed about a hundred soldiers and policemen in Nepal's ancient capital a few years back, but with the Maoist ceasefire still holding and negotiations underway, it's a refreshing to see Nepal at peace.

Rehearsal

2006-10-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

The negotiations got a bit ugly, the higher-ups within the GCAO feeling left out of the fun (and money), but we smooth things out with a donation to a children's emergency scholarship fund. Huge thanks to all the folks in Bozeman who came out to the Filling Station last month. You saved us and sent some kids to school this year!

I spend the morning with Ganesh and Manoj, buying notebooks, pencils, fountain pens, ink, erasers, sharpeners, and most boringly important, a book of blank receipts in Nepali and English script, so the IRS doesn't put me away when I get back home.

Nice to know we're helping some poor folks out, but I'm counting the days until we can get out of Kathmandu. We still have another day before Praveen the cinematographer arrives from New Dehli, so with the school supplies purchased, the van squared away, and the bureaucrats satisfied, it's time to get back to the music. In addition to helping out the kids and documenting the old folks, we're also gonna try to record an album mixing Nepali and Appalachian folk songs. This takes more work than you'd think and so the rehearsals have started. Here's Tara, Danny, Buddhiman and Manoj as they test the waters on this Old-Time Himalayan Bluegrass thing...

(my apologies for the low-rez footage-this was shot on a point-and-shoot digital camera). The real filming/recording begins in two days. We've got two months with these guys, as well as the old-timers playing the real backwoods Himalayan music. We're just getting started.

Negotiations

2006-10-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at the table with a potential minivan driver. He just asked for a month's wage...per day. We chuckle and proceed to bargain, each coming up with extraordinary excuses and justifications and in the end settling for nearly 10 times more than I'd budgeted (but better than 20).

On previous trips, I've always just taken the bus around Nepal, but we want to be out in some rural areas for about 3 weeks with lots of fragile gear, and anyway nobody else really wants to take the bus, which is dangerous, uncomfortable, and unlikely to have 9 seats available during festival season. (9 people? Where did that guy come from?) Despite my best bargaining efforts, our expedition budget has just devoured my plane-ticket-home-budget. But that's next month's problem...

The last few days have been spent writing last-minute grants in internet cafes and negotiating logistics in the Gandharbas' office. The Gandharbas might make around 40 US dollars a month, so they're all there waiting to be invited along on the foreigners' expedition. In the office it's a barrage of ideas from everybody who can make it in the door. We're here to help, but also have to keep the scams to a minimum.

500 rupees per person per day for food and lodging? Are you mad?

Ok, 250.

Tik-cha, tik-cha...

How many pencils? How many notebooks? No way, notebooks do not cost that much. How much should we pay the elderly musicians we record? Absolutely not, the driver does not get to bring a friend. How many pieces of clothing does each family get?

Which villages should we visit? Archale? Never heard of it. Are there any musicians there? Your grandfather? Can he still play? How much diesel to get there and back? Ok, we can go. If I don't shave do you think they'll charge me as a foreigner in the National Park?

Which Gandharbas will get to be our paid guides and translators? They look a little disappointed as we whittle the number down from 5 to 3. Guess we're not as rich as the Americans on TV.

We choose Buddhiman from Lamjung, the best sarangi player, Ganesh from Gorkha, the best translator, and Manoj from the Terai lowlands, the best singer and multi-instrumentalist. The president of the GCAO, a great guy in his own right, is gonna feel stiffed, but he doesn't really have much to offer outside the office. And besides, we need people with contacts in the different regions we're going. The ones who go will get some cash for their efforts, so it's got to feel lousy to not get picked. It will take some tight-rope wheel-greasing diplomacy over the next few days not to offend our hosts. We have to tell the president of the organization that he is unfortunately no longer invited. He loses face but takes it like a champ.

After four years in planning, you'd think we'd have had everything taken care of. Generous donors, fundraising concerts, a nice grant from a charitable foundation, hours of budgets and logistics and graphic designing. In the end one's expectations and those nice rounded figures get thrown to the wind.

The good news is that we're gonna pull off a good 3 weeks of filming and recording in some remote villages with some cool people. Tara and Danny are teaching a few musicians the Appalachian tunes, and we're definitely helping the Gandharbas out, teaching them how to make their own audio recordings, providing an emergency scholarship fund for those who almost have enough to go to school this year (many Gandharbas I've met average a 3rd grade education level), and giving out about 50 pounds worth of Salvation Army clothing. But no matter how many smiles and itemized receipts I get, the bottom line is that I'm gonna eat it on this one. Hope the footage is good.

Across the street as I type this there is a rather fat monkey using the telephone lines as a traffic lane, swinging across the street and has nicely managing to sever the internet connection. A couple of red-robed Tibetan monks chuckle as he untangles himself from the cables. I love Nepal...

OK, checklist...

2006-10-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

Let's see there's close to 400 pounds in our overstuffed bags: a few hundred gigabytes of hard drive space, blank DVD-R's, way more DV tapes than you're allowed to bring into Nepal, various cameras, microphones, audio recorders, mixers, cables and adaptors, batteries, tripods, mic stands, banjo, fiddle, mandolins, guitars, a very tired laptop, plastic bags for waterproofing, water filter for drinking, assorted pharmaceuticals from Thailand, phrasebooks, passports, visas, ATM cards, hijacked airline blankets, heaping piles of children's clothing to be donated, and as many napkins (toilet paper) as we can pocket. So much for traveling light.

A late addition to the team is Dan Snyder, a Montana guitarist who's volunteered to help out in turn for getting to meet lots of musicians and maybe make his way to Dharmasala when we're done with our work in Nepal. It's his first time out of North America and he's adapting splendidly to the local insects.

Over the last two weeks Dan and I have been doing the whirlwind tour of Northern Thailand; meeting old Burmese friends in the border town of Mae Sot, playing Gypsy Swing with French aid workers, spending a night at our friend's orphanage near Tat Song Yang, giving a seminar about world music at a school for Burmese migrants, taking lessons on the Pin Pia up in Chiang Mai, and recording guys like my good friend Win. Here's one of his songs.

But that's another story. We meet Tara and Danny at the airport in Bangkok, and fly into Kathmandu the next afternoon, Everest and other Himalayas glowing to the north as the plane drops into Kathmandu valley. The low concrete buildings are a massive contrast to the glittery architecture of Bangkok.

Our minivan driver is happy that peace has returned to Nepal after several years of violent Maoist insurrection and general mismanagement by the king. The tourists are flowing back to the narrow streets of Thamel, a funky hippie/tourist district where Nepalis dress like Westerners and Westerners dress like Himalayan holy men; a perfect backdrop for our little musical marriage.

We drop our bags off at a guesthouse and head off to meet our friends around the corner at the Gandharba Culture and Arts Organization. I'm trying to remember everyone's name as we greet each other and sit down to dig on some of that old-time himalayan bluegrass. The sarangi fiddles and madal drums lay a musical bed for cheerful singing and dancing in the florescent light of their makeshift stage. They hold a free concert every night, but lacking much in the way of advertising, it's only the odd musically-curious tourist who can navigate the narrow alley and up the darkened stairs to find it. Hopefully we can help the Gandharbas with that while we're here.

We eat some dahl baht and make plans to meet several times over the next week to decide how the scholarship money we've raised will be distributed, where we're going to film, what the new t-shirt design should look like, and generally how to make everybody happy over the next 2 months. We've got about a week to kill before Praveen, our cinematographer, arrives from New Dehli, plenty of time to burn CD's for the GCAO to sell, practice each others' songs, and teach a few of the Gandharbas how to use the minidisc recorder we brought for them.

Then we'll be off to Pokhara, Lamjung, Ghampesal, and Gorkha, where Akal Bahadur Gandharba lives. He's the guy from the video on the last blog update, and has a great scratchy style of sarangi-playing. With time (and internet connections) on our hands this week, I'll update this as often as I can, so let me know what y'all want to hear about (gear, language, traditional culture, how to eat rice with your bare hands...) and I'll see what I can do.

Old-Time Himalayan Bluegrass

2006-09-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

In 2002 some friends and I were traveling through Tibet and Nepal recording traditional music and jamming with whoever we met; guerilla ethnomusicology if you will. We noticed that some of the Himalayan folk music in Nepal sounded alot like old-time Appalachian music. Not the Buddhist monk chants or Hare Krishna organ grinding; these folks were playing homemade fiddles and banjos, making moonshine, and singing about the same things you'd hear about in old-time and bluegrass songs. Himalayan Bluegrass? Have a listen or watch this quicktime video.

These folks are called the Gandharbas. They're a Hindu caste of musicians, sometimes called the singing messengers of rural Nepal. These wandering minstrels walk from hilltop village to hilltop village, play a couple tunes on your doorstep, tell you the news from the next town, and ask for some rice or a few rupees in return. Simple folk. Great musicians.

Now Nepal's seen some rough times lately. There was the royal family being assassinated by a heartbroken nephew. There was the King's brother cancelling parliament and ordering protesters to be shot. And then there's the Maoist insurgency, which has been going on for ten years, scaring tourists away (and their dollars, 40% of Nepal's GDP) and killing lots of police and soldiers along the way.

Lots of rural folk, like the Gandharbas, end up moving to the cities like Kathmandu, where other Nepalis consider them to be Dalit, or "untouchables." Belonging to this lowest of Hindu castes means you can't enter anyone's house, and typically miss out on aid money to provide for your kids' education, etc. And Nepal's already pretty poor. I read once that in terms of the number of people, there is more poverty in the southern Himalayas than in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Some Nepalis I met didn't have the basic education to know to keep their outhouse toilets away from their drinking water. In addition to being poor and lacking the means to improve their lives, lots of younger Gandharbas (as they move to the cities) aren't picking up their elders' instruments, so there's a decent chance some of the music will be lost within a generation.

We wanted to help our friends out. We teamed up with a non-profit group called Tundra Club and started learning how to write grants. We're pretty new at the charity game, but after a few years, we've raised enough dough from some generous Americans to go back to Nepal and work with a few Gandharbas in some methods of cultural preservation (like teaching them how to record their grandparents' songs). We've also got a couple bucks to help send a few of em to school. Finally, since we're gonna jam with our Himalayan fiddling friends, we're gonna film and record the whole shindig.

The people we've got on this project are amazing. From Virginia, there's Danny Knicely, playing fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and maybe a little banjo. He's played with tons of the bluegrass greats, like Vassar Clements, Tony Rice, Sam Bush, and Bela Fleck, and even won the Telluride mandolin competition back in '95. We've got Tara Linhardt, a fantastic mandolinist who used to live in Nepal. Behind the camera, we've got Praveen Singh, whose wildlife films have graced Discovery and National Geographic Channels. And me? I'm Jacob Penchansky, but friends in Asia seem to always call me Jack. I'll be your host on this journey; I'm a wandering sound recordist, semi-competent radio producer, and occasional jug-band banjo player. You can read about my most recent ramble here.

You can listen for us on public radio and possibly some of the more culturally-friendly television programs in the next year, but for now, we're off to find some of the highest lonesome sounds in the world. Stay tuned in the next few months and we'll be sure to post some good tunes and spectacular photos.

If you or your Old-Time music/Nepali culture lovin' friends have some cash kicking around and you'd like to support our efforts, you can write a tax-deductible check to:

Tundra Club, 501(c)3

...and mail it to...

Mountain Music Project
c/o Tundra Club
686 Canyon View Road
Bozeman, MT 59715

Please include a memo for MMP on the check.

Questions? Comments? You can email us at mountainmusicproject@gmail.com.

I'll do my best to keep this here blog updated as we begin our recording expedition/homegrown aid organization/traveling shindig this October. Internet-willing, you'll be seeing and hearing alot more from us.

Namaste!