Vandalia Dulcimer Contest
Monday, May 28th, 2007It’s been a gloriously sunny Memorial Day weekend here in Charleston, and I was finally able to attend the Vandalia Gathering at the State Capitol after years of having other gigs. This is one of West Virginia’s favorite old-time music events, with food and crafters, dances and jamming under the trees. And then there are the contests - fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and dulcimer. We have kids’ contests in fiddle and dulcimer, too, and this year Bob was able to coach one of our Music Mentors after-school kids to enter the youth contest yesterday afternoon. 8-year-old Shalor took 2nd place! It was his first contest. He got a fabulous long red ribbon and some money to boot.
This was my first contest, too, at least in the world of dulcimer. I’ve always been uncomfortable with competition - that aspect of comparing yourself to others just doesn’t do much for my playing. I’ve coached students who’ve gone on to win. I have done pretty well in songwriting contests. I’ve also judged both songwriting and dulcimer contests, so maybe that might help. It’s been such a busy time finishing up the Patchwork Dreams book that I hardly gave it a thought all spring, but suddenly there it was - the Vandalia Dulcimer Contest. I knew some friends would be in it, and it seemed like it might be fun to try.
I tossed around ideas of what made a contest song, and finally three days ago I sat down and started working on my ideas. I rehearsed them in my head when I was driving to school gigs an hour away. I put some time in on Saturday night to work out the bugs, but then there were the nerves! I did my best to shoo them away, from meditating to telling myself that 20 years must count for something. When that didn’t work, there was Bob’s favorite elixir to drown out the butterflies: kava tea.
So it came to Sunday afternoon, and Shalor had just gotten his ribbon. I asked him to cheer me on. About a dozen of us, mostly men and two of us women (including my friend Tish Westman, who just won the Mid-Eastern Regional contest at Coshocton, Ohio) ventured forth to play two songs for three out-of-state judges and a couple hundred fans under the oaks and magnolias. I went up about halfway through and made my share of mistakes - you could say I played slightly different arrangements than I planned on. So I was pretty surprised when our emcee John Lilly called me up to the stage to stand in the Top Five. It was even more amazing to take 3rd Prize!
And now it’s Monday, the holiday, a day to kick back and relax. I love my yellow ribbon and I’m proud of Shalor. I’m closer with Tish and Dave, having shared the hair-raising experience (she won 4th, he won 2nd). Maybe these contests aren’t so bad after all.
