My Father's World is an old hymn that I learned when I was in school. I always did like the tune, so here
it is played in my fake mountain dulcimer. The fake mountain dulcimer is really a tiny guitar I got when I
was working at the Young Street Mission about 12 years ago. For some time this guitar was an integral
had given me as a gift, and which Anthony renamed Gangador Dianande. The instrument's name
before it was Gangador Dianande was "The Thailand Instrument" because it was from Thailand. The
back of gourd that forms the bottom of the instrument has a scary face carved into it.
This erhu, which is now in Berlin with Anthony, also has an interesting history and I would even argue
that the origins of the Mobile Busking Unit go back to 1991 when I used to play Gangador Dianande
and Larry played upright bass in the hallways of Concordia residence in order to annoy a certain
busybody neighbour of mine who used to complain that my sexual misadventures and piss poor conga
playing were completely audible to her (especially when she put her ear right to the vent) and that they
were disturbing her studies. Fuck her.
Anyhow, back to the little guitar. I left it at my old place (now my sister's place) when I went to Panama
and had more or less forgotten it (although I always felt that, despite its cheap appearance it had a
really unique and not unpleasant tone). I heard, however, that Al was planning to throw it and some
other old guitars of mine (which richly deserve such a fate) into a big bonfire/ bluegrass camp out he is
planing to have next summer.
Suffice to say that this little guitar ought not to burn. In defence of this instrument's qualities, and in
defence to all my bluegrass and old-time playing friends, I've reinvented the little guitar as a
dulcimer-like instrument by doubling up the rhythm strings in a digital 8-track and adding a little reverb.
The effect is not all bad, in my opinion; although I think my dulcimer playing could use a little work.
This instrument lends itself to thoughts of the dulcimer because it only has three strings, all of which
are steel high e strings, so it's easy to tune to D-A-D (a suitable tuning for the subect matter)...well
actually it's not that simple to tune because one of the tuning pegs is broken and has to be tuned with a
pair of pliers. However, couldn't find my players today so I tuned the guitar with a monkey wrench,
which isn't all that easy to manipulate.
My Father's World