Hello Friends (aka shelter-in-place buddies!), April 14, 2020
Thanks for coming by for an online visit. Hope you and yours stay safe and healthy during these pandemic times. Carl and I are managing ok and have been home for a month after we finished our last music camp in Port Allen, Louisiana. We were grateful to get in a visit with Carl’s daughter Kelli Jones in Lafayette before flying home and like you all, self isolating…hunkering down.
The pandemic is awful and cruel to be sure but many silver linings appear to be coming out of the abrupt changes to our lifestyles. There seems to be a shift in the consciousness to realizing the importance of simple living and the “little things” in life that now appear to be the important things after all: communicating with people we care about, helping neighbors, thinking local and globally, planting gardens, being compassionate, home cooking, looking after pets, caring about the earth, going for walks and trying to live healthy lives. It’s as if we are all re-balancing and tuning in with what really matters and mother earth is getting a rest from some of the negative effects of industry (less air pollution) and that all seems good. Also – it’s inspiring to see the respect and gratitude rightfully bestowed upon health workers and the countless others working essential services who are risking their lives so that many of us may stay home. Thank you!! There is less interest in unhelpful political rants/ ego posturing and more appreciation for learning, facts, scientific research. There is a blooming of beautiful, kind humanity in the midst of disaster. There is much to be grateful for all around. We are still connected to others and it is good to be reminded we are all in this together and to keep hope alive. Our ancestors surmounted huge challenges and we can too.
On a lighter note, Carl and I hope many of you are finding ways to fill the well of creativity while staying at home. It is exciting to think of all the exploration going on now. Books being written, music being composed and played, artworks unfolding in brilliant colors. People are being adventurous, trying new things, breaking out of the norm, being innovative, thinking outside the box, becoming more self-sufficient, and finding joy in spite of ourselves as legendary songwriter John Prine would say. Outlook is everything. Perhaps we should think of this time as a gift of time for our own self-discovery or personal creativity?
In our own little home-world we’re spring cleaning, gardening (garlic, onions, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, collards planted so far), have seedlings on the windowsill, baked sourdough, made yoghurt, homemade granola and old-fashioned lye soap. I’m also really excited to make pasta from scratch for the first time (I love to cook). We’re doing yardwork, home improvement projects, and spoiling the cats. Seems like there is a whole back-to-the-land movement burgeoning and that’s pretty cool.
Carl and I are making some music too and hope you are as well. There will be a lot of better musicians when this pandemic slows down because so many are practicing their fiddles, banjos and guitars or taking up hurdy-gurdy (one of our friends did at least lol) and learning new tunes & songs. There has been more demand for us teaching online lessons for which we are grateful since all of our tours and concerts have been cancelled for the time being and only more of the same expected for summer. We have started a Patreon page and are providing video lessons on fiddle, guitar, banjo and mandolin there plus sheet music, tab, guitar chord charts, a tune-of-the-month plus other performance videos, “songwriter’s corner” musings from Carl, recipes from old-time musicians and other fun stuff. Check it out at Patreon.com by searching for our names or Dittyville which is also our website (www.dittyville.com) where we have CDs and our Instructional DVDs on sale big time. Our digital albums are available on Bandcamp, CD Baby and itunes. Patreon subscriptions are only $3, $6 or $10 a month and provide many hours of instruction (quite a deal!) and you can get a digital download of our new CD Old Tin (or any one of our other recordings) for free just for signing up. One can un-subscribe at any time too so you might want to try it out. We’re offering one-on-one Skype or Zoom lessons for a reduced rate ($40 instead of $50per hr or 2 for $75) to provide technique pointers to bring your playing to the next level. We’d love to help and you’d be helping us too stay alive as artists. Thanks! For those affected by Covid 19 we’re putting free videos on our YouTube channel, uplifting posts on facebook and if you know someone who is feeling low our out of work let us know (email us at info@dittyville.com) and we’ll send them a free digital download of our new album Old Tin in the hopes it will brighten their day.
‘Til the next time we meet online or in person we wish you and your families good health. Stay in and stay safe. The good times are not all passed and gone. They can happen at home, online and there are more good times down the road when we get past this…and we will.
Be well and play lots!
Warmly, Erynn and Carl
