- Fully chromatic.
- 15 treble and 15 bass courses, with 2 strings per course; two additional bridges making the instrument fully chromatic
- Wood: maple — it’s a beautiful instrument
- Huddleson signature sound holes — cut in the shape of irises
- Medium sustain — great sound!
- Padded case included.
- Instrument won as an award for third place at the National Hammered Dulcimer Competition in Winfield, Kansas.
- Originally priced at approximately $1,000.
ASKING PRICE: $800 (negotiable!)

A little bit about Samantha’s life as of current:

Beginning in September of this past year, I began interviewing for positions with public accounting firms in audit.  After receiving several offers, I accepted a position as an audit associate with KPMG, LLC.  I will be starting in mid-August or early September of 2008.  Until then, I will be finishing my master’s degree in accounting at Washington University in St. Louis, and I will graduate this May.  I’ll also be taking all four sections of the CPA exam between April and August.
One project on which I am working this semester is my senior thesis for my music major.  I am studying the shaped note singing tradition, and I will actually be leading my own singing this spring to demonstrate the tradition for my judge panel.  I’m going to try and convince my panel of professors to participate in the singing as well, which will be very entertaining!  If anyone has any input on the shaped note singing tradition — ideas of sources I can use in research for my paper — your comments would be much appreciated!  You can e-mail me at samantha@rockitdawg.com.

The duo will be performing at The Focal Point in Maplewood, Missouri on Friday, June 23rd.  The evening will feature a collection of traditional music on hammered dulcimer, fiddle, mountain dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, and guitar.  The concert will feature songs from Thum’s albums “Hammered Fiddle Tunes,” “A Reason to Dance,” and “Front Porch Waltz.”  In addition, you will hear selections from Wright’s albums “Crossing the Line” and his first solo CD “Northfield.”   Joining Lloyd and Rick on stage: Samantha Oberkfell (yours truly!) and Carole Bryan.

The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert will begin at 7:00 on Friday, June 23, 2006 at The Focal Point.  The ticket price is $15.00 at the door.  The Focal Point is located at 2720 Sutton Boulevard, 1 1/2 blocks south of the intersection at Manchester Road and Sutton Boulevard, on the east side of the street.  For more information or for advance ticket sales,  contact Samantha Oberkfell at samantha@rockitdawg.com or at (314) 647-8127.  Hope to see you there!!!!!

     

I’m currently trying to sell two of my dulcimers. I won a Mike Huddleson dulcimer when I took third place at the National Hammered Dulcimer Competitions in Winfield, Kansas. The second instrument is made by David Lindsey, his Bill Spence edition. Both of these dulcimers are in need of a good home where they’ll be played as much as they ought to be! Pictures can be found in the album marked DULCIMERS FOR SALE!!!! If interested in either or both of these dulcimers, please send me an e-mail at samantha@rockitdawg.com!  The details are as follows:

The David Lindsey:

Bill Spence Edition (2005):

* = The features as listed on David’s web site
Features:
* Range: 3 octaves, from D below middle C to g” — non-chromatic
* Lightweight: only 18 pounds!
* 16 treble and 15 bass courses, with 2 strings per course
* Materials: Pin blocks are made of laminated hard maple piano pin blocks. Sides and bridges can be made of a variety of beautiful hardwoods, including cherry and walnut. Tops of either mahogany or redwood are available (for this particular dulcimer, made almost entirely out of cherry — I believe!! — you can see pictures)
* David’s Dulcimers specially-designed rosettes and inlaid bridge course markers are standard equipment.
* Price: $995.00, including hammers and tuning wrench.
* Padded case of a value of $130
- Lindsey dulcimers typically have a metal rod placed on top of each bridge to hold up the strings and decrease sustain. In order to warm up the tone, I replaced these with pieces of delron in addition to replacing the lower three courses (G#/D#, A/E, and B/F#) with wound string.
- David’s dulcimers are known for having significantly decreased sustain. This makes it a great instrument to play a lot of upbeat, energetic tunes.

ASKING PRICE: $1,000 (negotiable!)
Mike Huddleson:

Style UL400 (2004):

- Fully chromatic.
- 15 treble and 15 bass courses, with 2 strings per course; two additional bridges making the instrument fully chromatic
- Wood: maple — it’s a beautiful instrument
- Huddleson signature sound holes — cut in the shape of irises
- Medium sustain — great sound!
- Padded case included.
- Instrument won as an award for third place at the National Hammered Dulcimer Competition in Winfield, Kansas.

ASKING PRICE: $1,000 (negotiable!)

This past Tuesday I had surgery on my left hand. Over the summer I developed a ganglion cyst on the back of my left wrist. It’s a benign growth that typically grows around the joints of the hand, most typical in women. They say it’s from a trauma to the area, but I’m pretty positive it’s from all of the repetitive motion of playing fiddle so much this summer. These cysts are frequently referred to as “Bible cysts” because many people, in order to get rid of these bumps in a low-cost manner, would smash the cyst with a Bible or a large book. Unfortunately, this method is not very effective, and the cysts often grow back within several months. Thus, I opted to have it cut out. I went under the knife the morning of January 3 and spent the remainder of that day as well as the next in a significant amount of pain. I had to keep my hand up in the air for 48 hours afterwards — I possessed a striking resemblance to the Statue of Liberty! I was allowed to take the bandages off, and now I am just required to wear a splint in order to immobilize my wrist. I’ll wear that for 2 weeks until the stitches are removed, after which I can return to my normal way of life. The only thing I can’t do for an entire month is play my fiddle. I was not too happy when my doctor told me this while I was being hooked up to IVs in the surgical center, but I’m hoping I’ll make it through by listening to a lot of CDs and playing my dulcimer a little more to compensate.

I’m currently finishing up an application to spend a week with Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Mike Marshall, and Jerry Douglas in New York City. While I was working for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this past semester, a co-worker forwarded me an e-mail she received from Carnegie Hall thinking I’d be interested. Edgar Meyer is an AMAZING double bass player as well as pianist. He is hosting a week-long workshop in May for 15 musicians between the years of 18 and 30, who play traditional and/or classical music. The workshop will focus on both types of music, both improvisational and composed. Mr. Meyer is well-known for his roots in both genres and his attempt to fuse both elements in his music. He will be assisted by a wonderful group of musicians, Fleck, Marshall, and Douglas, to work with this group of young musicians. I was very excited when I first learned about this opportunity, and I really hope I have a chance at participating!

Reflecting back on the past few months, I’ve realized that I haven’t mentioned anything about the Walnut Valley Association Festival held in Winfield, Kansas nor the Sawdust Festival in Bennington, Oklahoma: both wonderful festivals I had the pleasure of attending! I have gone to Winfield every year for the past 7 years, and I must say it is one of, if not THE best festival I have ever been to. If you are a musician and appreciate old-time, bluegrass, or even a little Celtic music, I would highly recommend this festival! It is an experience to say the least! It’s not like a lot of the festivals out there in that it is not workshop-based at all, in fact they only have a handful throughout the entire 4-day festival. The main focuses are concerts and jamming. There are 5 stages strewn about the fair grounds, and there are concerts scheduled from 9 a.m. until midnight each day. The WVA hires amazing musicians from all over the world to entertain the attendees, and I always have a big time sitting in the grand stands or on a grassy hill listening to some hot bands all day and night long. When you’re not listening to concerts, shopping among the many craft and instrument booths, or eating those festival goodies like homemade ice cream, you can jam in the vastness of campgrounds or the Pecan Grove. This is also the location of the national competitions for hammered and mountain dulcimer, old-time fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, bluegrass banjo, flatpick and fingerstyle guitar. I participated in the HD contest, but I did not make the top 5 this time around. There were a lot of great competitors this year! I performed a number of times with the band No Strings Attached on a couple of the stages and had a blast!  I also got to sit in on some amazing jam sessions.  I’ve posted some pictures from here!

2 weeks after returning from Kansas, my mom and I drove down to Bennington, Oklahoma. Russell Cook hosts the Sawdust Festival right outside his Masterworks workshop, and I must say, he puts on a wonderful festival! There is so much to do, and he really knows how to keep you busy! I was fortunate enough to be one of the performers and teachers. It was certainly a great learning experience! I taught my first official workshops on the hammered dulcimer at the beginning and intermediate level. All of the people who attended my classes were very friendly and patient with me, and I felt like I really got the hang of it after my first couple of workshops. I played with the Bailey Family as well as the Wrights on stage a couple times, and I had a lot of fun jamming in the evenings. Lloyd Wright and I got a chance to play some of the tunes he and I had recorded for Jiggle the Handle over the summer as well. It was a lot of fun. I look forward to returning to Bennington for next year’s festival! I’ve posted pictures from this trip as well.

Finally, the last musical event that sticks out in my mind is my CD release concert!! After a lot of work finishing up the album and doing a little promoting, we put on a really great show at the Missouri Ethical Society on October 29. Lloyd Wright and Wes Chappell flew in to play on stage with me, Carole Bryan, and Mike Tiefenbrun. We all had a good time on stage, and I was sad to see it pass by so quickly! The Ethical Society has a great acoustic sound, and our sound man Paul Stamler did a wonderful job helping us get the sound we wanted. Overall, although the turnout was a bit smaller than planned, competing with Halloween weekend activities, it was a wonderful night surrounded by friends. I’ve also posted a release concert photo album.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays, and I look forward to all of the festivals quickly approaching in the spring!

Rockit Dawg Productions proudly announces the release of Samantha Oberkfell’s follow up to Cow Spots, a collection of fiddle and hammered dulcimer tunes entitled “Jiggle the Handle.” If you have a yen for a little hammered dulcimer music to brighten your day, copies will be available for sale.

CD RELEASE EXTRAVAGANZA

Samantha will be performing songs from the new CD at the Ethical Society of Saint Louis. She will be accompanied by Wes Chappell of the band No Strings Attached based in Roanoke, Virginia; Lloyd Wright, the 2000 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion; Carole Bryan, a Saint Louis hammered dulcimer player extraordinaire; Mike Tiefenbrun, a fabulous double bass player also from Saint Louis and others.

The Ethical Society is located at 9001 Clayton Road, ½ mile west of The Galleria at Brentwood and Clayton Roads, on the north side of the street, right across from The Immacolata Catholic Church.)

The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the concert will be over by 9:00 p.m. or so.
The ticket price is $10.00.
All profits from ticket sales will go to
The Children’s Miracle Network.

For more information:
angela@rockitdawg.com
Rockit Dawg Productions, LLC
1188 Moorlands
St. Louis, MO 63117

My annual trip to Winfield, Kansas is quickly approaching. I’m definitely looking forward to listening to some good musicians play, spending my evenings and early mornings in the Pecan Grove jamming, and competing in the national hammered dulcimer competition. It’s always a fun 5 days!