Instrument Videos
"Conversations", a new piece of music composed by Jerry!
Nearly every day for the last 35 years I have lived here in East Asheville I have spent the first hour or so hiking up the mountain. My walks are alone, quiet, usually before the sun comes up and, most certainly, conversations with the Creator of the Universe. You know … Our Father … or “dad” as He likes to be called! He had been giving me a new tune (the first, actually, since One Wintry Night) a quarter Century earlier. So at nearly 75 years young and in my 50th year of designing and building Hammered Dulcimer here at Song of the Wood I offer up this “new” tune! Happy Easter ya'll. -JRS
"Come Before Winter" played by Jerry on the Blackberry!
Many years ago a young man moved to Western North Carolina named Jim Taylor. He came to me for lessons. I gave him two! A few months later I went to a potluck at Timmy and Sally Abells house. Jim played this composition that he had just written. I was astounded so I asked him if he would mind if I recorded it. He said “I'd be honored.” This piece was added to my very next recording ... Homecoming. Jim tragically passed away many years ago now. He was a very talented, kind and gentle soul. -JRS
Jerry plays "One Wintry Night" on the Blackberry!
Back in early 1998 one of Billy and Ruth Graham's agents called me and said … the Grahams would love for you to record an Instrumental Album based on Ruth's wonderful Christmas Book entitled “One Wintry Night.” We had played for several years at the Billy Graham Training Center for their Christmas appreciation dinners. Lisa and I composed this melody as the title cut for the album. We played the finished version in Billy and Ruth's living room with the agent, his wife and Richard Jesse Watson (the amazing artist featured in Ruth's book). Billy was in the kitchen cooking a hamburger! He interrupted his culinary skills to get a closer listen with the “gang” in the main room. Everything about this project was fun and truly a blessing. Oh what a God we serve! I'm playing this piece on “The Blackberry.” -JRS
Jerry plays "Genesis / What Child Is This", which he first recorded over 30 years ago.
This is a video of me in my office with Zachary filming. I'm playing on one of my JRS Explorers and I'm playing the opening music of my Homecoming CD. This take is different because it's … just me, one instrument, two hammers and one take! My goal is to let you hear a JRS Hammered Dulcimer without fancy microphones, no accompaniment and relatively “spontaneous.” I have other pieces I'm hoping to do, similar to this experience, in the coming months. I have been asked for years to give folks a way to hear one of my instruments uncomplicated with “production.” These videos will be my effort to fulfill these requests. I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear comments. -JRS
Jerry gives an impromptu tour of a JRS Extended Chromatic Navigator.
(Sorry ... we had more ... but lost them in a Computer upgrade?!?) We will have more ... eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later!