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! :)
23 Eylül 2012 Pazar
soon to launch our kickstarter
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.
MMP Kickstarter Starts Today!
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
Keep the kickstarter kickin!!
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
CD and DVD Release show in Purvcelleville, VA!
We are happy to announce that we will be having a screening of the documentary at The Franklin Park Barns in Purcelleville, VA on Saturday April 7th at 7 PM.
The film will be followed by a live Appalachian-Himalayan Concert with Danny Knicely, Tara Linhardt, Raj Kapoor, Manoj Mahat, and performing for the first time with The Mountain Music Project gang- bansuri master Rajan Budhathoki, who is coming down from Boston for this momentous concert!
Tickets will be only $15 and can be reserved by calling The Franklin Park Performing Arts Center at (540) 338-7973. The website for the venue is www.FranklinPArkArtsCenter.org.
Our fresh, hot off the shelves CDs and DVDs will be available for purchase for the first time there too!
In Hanoi...Third Day
By midday today, the workshop group had all arrived and had met in the Golden Silk Boutique Hotel's lobby. For a couple of hours, I described the general parameters of the workshop insofar as multimedia was concerned. The participants are (by order of arrival to Hanoi) Colleen Kerrigan, Sharon Johnson Tennant, Graham Ware, Frances Bruchez, Victoria Alexander, David Regehr, and Shane and Julie Green.
Following lunch at a nearby restaurant, we then brought our photo gear out and walked in the streets of Hanoi, to explore the teeming street life, the pandemonium of zigzagging scooters, and the endless street food stalls. Street photography in Hanoi is both simple and difficult. The mass of people on the streets sidewalks is breathtaking, and lots of opportunities abound...however, it's quite difficult to figure out eye-pleasing patterns because there are simply too many people in one spot.
In the evening, we had dinner at the notorious Xoi Yen, where we all had xoi xeo ga (yellow glutinous sticky rice) with chicken breast, and fried shallots. This is a very tasty dish, and one we shall return to when we're back in Hanoi.
Tomorrow, we fly off to Danang...onwards to Hoi An and Hue.
In Hoi An....
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| Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved |
Immediately upon arriving in Hoi An, we had a walk-about in the center of this historic small town, with its well-known yellow decaying walls, small alleys and tiny store fronts.
Whilst walking, we encountered a group of movie technicians huddled with their lights and cameras around a gorgeous Vietnamese woman. Naturally, I quick-footed over to her to see what was all the fuss about, and it turned out that she was Ngô T Vân, one of the top Vietnamese actresses. We chatted while her handlers fussed around, and she was just delightfully approachable.
Subsequently, I and Maika chanced on the house of an elderly couple, who welcomed us in their living room. Octogenarians, they had worked in the coffee business all their lives. I intend to return today and try to develop a photo story on their lives.
This morning, we woke up really early to catch the fishermen delivering the daily catch to the fishmongers in the market, but we were either too late (5:30am?) or the fishermen didn't make any deliveries. We heard conflicting reasons...however, we spent around two hours documenting the fishmongers and the going-ons in that market.
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| Photo © Maika Elan- ALl Rights Reserved |
Morning photo shoot in Hoi An Old Quarter with Victoria Alexander, Colleen Kerrigan and Sharon Tennant-Johnson.
More to follow.
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