Sara plays Hammer Dulcimer and a little fiddle.
Actually, I play three Hammer Dulcimers, an octave bass chromatic dulcimer made by Bill Webster, a Lost Valley fifth tuned bass dulcimer made by Linda Foley and Curt Sanders, and a restored old instrument from the 1800's. There are more lying around the house.
The little fiddle is an 18th century dancing master's "kit", sometimes called a "pochette", or "pocket fiddle". I even dabble with the virginal and "keyed dulcimer" (pianoforte) and more modern keyboards.
In many of the music parties I have attended, hosted or crashed, the hottest jam sessions somehow wound up in the kitchen. Besides, it's a nice trademark.
I began writing Kitchen Musician® books over 15 years ago, and have now written 17 Kitchen Musician music books for hammer dulcimer and other instruments, co-authored a beginning dulcimer book, a dulcimer excercise book and books of Scottish tunes for fiddle, and recorded four CD's.
There's an old Scot's ballad called "Jesuitmont", from the days when evil stepmothers were really evil, not like that wimp in "Cinderella". The evil stepmother conspires with the master cook to bake the knight's daughter into a meat pie. The "kitchieboy" attempts to foil the plot, and eventually exposes the evildoers. After crime comes punishment; the evil stepmother is burned at the stake while the evil cook is boiled in lead. The knight - now without family - makes the kitchieboy his heir. For the Kitchen Musician and her husband, it's "kitchiegal" and "kitchieboy".
I write a column on historical music, Tunes of the Times, for the Smoke and Fire News, a monthly publication for living history buffs and living history reenactors. As the articles are published in Smoke and Fire, they are added to my Kitchen Musician website.
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