Dave's Cave

Laurie and I went to see the show Fine Times At Our House with Joe McHugh, Paula McHugh and Forrest Newton at Evergreen last night. The show was great, and the price was right, $10 for Laurie and free for me with my student ID.

It was a combination of old-time music, storytelling by the fiddle player (Joe McHugh) and paintings (Paula McHugh). I was having trouble imagining how they would work the paintings into it, but it worked out really well. Paula did her series of painting based on the titles of some of the old-time fiddle tunes.

In addition to his own stories, Joe played some recordings of stories from a series he did for NPR, going around Appalachia and talking to the old folk. It was a great time.

One of the coolest things that he pulled out was a courting dulcimer. It was two dulcimers with a shared body, meant to be played by the teenagers while they were courting. That way the chaperon could wanter off and do some other things, and as long as the music continued, they could be sure that hands weren't wandering in other pursuits.