A Case, A Cat, A Curio

A Case, A Cat, A Curio
Originally uploaded by dreadmon.

Wow, I didn't expect it so quick, but my new dulcimer case arrived a few minutes ago (I also didn't know that UPS delivered in the evening....hmmmm)

It only took two days after inquiring about decent hard cases at Everything Dulcimer (thanks Ken!) and voila!, it's here for the cats to play on. Sluefoot Sue couldn't wait to get her paws on it, sure is a lot more fun than those old chipboard cases, huh Sue?

And now - a second sneak peek at clear blue trickling:

[ROUGH MIX] Mohave - Simon Brothers Mercantile (First Draft).mp3 (4:02/3.6 MB)

This tune is a 100% true story about an interesting place that we stopped at (for a loooong time) in Roosevelt, Texas.

One early morning, while on tour and returning from the west coast, we discovered that money was getting short and needed to stop and get some funds from an ATM machine. The nearest one to our location (roughly dead-spot center of Where Da Heck Are We) was at a charming little place called Simon Brothers Mercantile, owned and operated by one Clay Simon.

He happily informed us that they did have an ATM, but it was on the blink and probably wouldn't be up until much later that morning. It was a sleepy stretch of road, not much of anything around besides the store, so I pulled up a seat on the front porch, took out the dulcimer and started playing. Well, Clay came out of the store, said that it was about the coolest thing he had ever heard, and said "y'all can hang around as long as you wanta."

Part post office, part restaurant, part grocery store and part feed store, this was one of the most unusual places we'd ever come across. Inspired to write a song about a place that literally had everything you could ever want, I began videotaping some of the wares inside. Clay, seeing my interest, invited me to go out back where the feed was stored (along with live quail!) to get a more thorough tour of the facilities. Too bad The Back Door Cafe wasn't open - we surely would have sat a spell and had some grub while we were at it!

When the ATM finally sprung to life and we hit the road, I had the first bits of song written. By the time we hit Houston, it was completed.

Someday we'll go back to Simon Brothers Mercantile and give Clay a signed copy of the song and hopefully he'll place it right under that picture of The Donnas that he had by the door. (Apparently, while on tour, they stopped there too!)