Colonial National Historical Park

NOV

19

The making of the album Common Wealth

Posted by Timothy Seaman in The Making of Our Albums

In the year 2000 I was excited about all the well-received music I’d been able to do for Shenandoah National Park, and I’d begun playing music in the Park itself. I wanted to branch out from there to Virginia’s State Parks, where I also was performing, especially at our nearest ones, York River State Park (for whom I’d composed and recorded two pieces on the album Celebration of Centuries, ‘James and York Bluffs’ and ‘Spartina’) and Chippokes Plantation State Park across the ferry in Surry. So I was considering what could be added using the remaining pieces I’d composed in 1995 for the National Parks Suite and in 1996 for the defunct album project Such a Gift.

I was asked to play music in the Jones Mansion in the Christmas season of 2000. While there my music caught the attention of Holly Walker, a State Parks program director from Richmond, so I told her of my dream of making an album of pieces for the State Parks. To my surprise she said that they were actually looking for a CD to be sold in the park shops, so she set up a meeting for me with the Director of State Parks, Joe Elton! When I met with Joe he had the marketing guy, Tim Skinner, sit in. I explained my vision, and Tim took over the collaboration. They asked me how long the album might take to produce, and I said it would probably take several months, and they asked me if in the meantime we could put together an appropriate compilation of tracks from my existing albums, thus having two new albums over the next two years.

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SEP

04

The making of our album Here on this Ridge

Posted by Timothy Seaman in The Making of Our Albums

This will be my longest post about my albums --- and it’s perhaps the most trimmed-back! Here on this Ridge was clearly the big turning point in my music-making.

In 1994 the holiday album Incarnation showed me I could successfully produce recordings of my own music, so I moved right into production of a general-themed CD called Wayfaring Stranger . The instruments and the Celtic and hiking material could sort of be called themes, but it was mostly just a music CD for listening.

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APR

24

Animals that are fans of our music

Posted by Timothy Seaman in Thoughts About Music

No, not all animals like our music! I certainly remember when I was a teenager practicing flute our collie scratched and whined at the door --- then again, perhaps I was playing at her too much!

But last evening I got word from Lisa in California, yet another parrot owner insisting that our recordings were a favorite for the bird. (This is the third instance I know of.)

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flute tinwhistle Timothy Seaman wildlife music animals music birds music dulcimer pennywhistle Nature tin whistle whistle hammered dulcimer cardinal myna parrot Colonial National Historical Park alpaca Yorktown Here on this Ridge

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