Saturday, July 11, 2009

Dulcimerica 125 - "Only A Northwest Song"

On June 14th, 2009 - Northwest Airlines baggage handlers damaged Bing's Folkcraft double-neck dulcimer on flight 2363 from Detroit, MI to Ft. Wayne, IN. Many people requested that Bing write a song about the situation, much like Tom Paxton did in his tune "Thank You Republic Airlines."

When Dave Carroll released the video for "United Breaks Guitars", Bing saw an opportunity for even more awareness in the area of baggage handling guidelines for airlines, not to mention perhaps an opportunity to have Northwest finally hear his story out and pay for the damages inflicted by their ground crew. "Only A Northwest Song" was written and recorded on Friday, July 10th. The video was partially shot on the day of and after the incident with editing taking place also on July 10th.

2 comments:

Tim Walker said...

Hi Bing - great song, and I can relate to how you felt when you found Annie damaged. I had a solid electric dulcimer built for me, and when it was shipped to me in the UK, the headstock was broken so that the dulcimer was unplayable. Thankfully the builder was able to help put things right, and all is now well, but I can easily imagine how your heart sank when you saw what happened to Annie. I'm just glad the Folkcraft folk were able to fix her up as good as new!

(And BTW, I really wish I could visit Folkcraft HQ - ooh, all those dulcimers! - but England's just a bit too far away :-( )

Thanks again for the song, and I hope Northwest listens and makes it up to you...

Tim

Bing Futch said...

Thanks, Tim -

Ouch, they really had to try in order to damage a solidbody, didn't they? Glad you were also able to get things put right.

Yes, that first inspection was a shocker - hope to never experience that awful feeling again.

And hope one day you can experience the Folkcraft shop!

Aloha,

Bing