FRED & DOROTHY TECHAU
Simple Gifts – Parlor Instrumentals
The Rose – Enduring Young Charms – Spinning
Wheel – Limerick Waltz – Carry Me Back To Old Virginny – Old Black Joe –
Annie Laurie – Santa Lucia – Banks Of The Ohio – Danny Boy – Old
Kentucky Home – Rosewood Casket – I’m Always Chasing Rainbows – Goin’
Home – Juniper Medley – Beautiful Dreamer – Shenandoah – When I Grow Too
Old To Dream – I Dream Of Jeannie – Tennessee Waltz – Simple Gifts
Medley – Waltz Of The Wind – Somewhere My Love
Wheel – Limerick Waltz – Carry Me Back To Old Virginny – Old Black Joe –
Annie Laurie – Santa Lucia – Banks Of The Ohio – Danny Boy – Old
Kentucky Home – Rosewood Casket – I’m Always Chasing Rainbows – Goin’
Home – Juniper Medley – Beautiful Dreamer – Shenandoah – When I Grow Too
Old To Dream – I Dream Of Jeannie – Tennessee Waltz – Simple Gifts
Medley – Waltz Of The Wind – Somewhere My Love
This is an amazing CD to review, for several reasons. I’ve
never listened to a ‘parlor instrumental’ CD, neither have I listened
to something that carries me back so many years when ‘parlor music’ was
the ‘in’ thing to do. Not only listening to it, but playing it. Please
remember we are in a time when there was no television, no radio, no
amplifying microphones or anything like that. Just pleasant music
played well on acoustic musical instruments….in the parlor. Guests
would come for an evening of chit-chat and background music. Sometimes
the musicians were so good there was very little chit-chat. That’s kind
of what this CD is all about. The musicians are so good they will
‘draw’ attention away from anything else going on. But also, it’s
definitely ‘background music’ and would make an incredibly good
attraction in an antique store, a museum, a florist’s shop, just about
anything that would be attractively enhanced by light
‘easy-to-listen-to’ music. Here’s the instruments. Fred Techau plays
lap dulcimer, guitar, harmonica, and mandolin. His wife Dorothy plays
lap dulcimer and hammered dulcimer, and Harriette Andersen added the
acoustic upright bass. Now there’s a big difference between lap
dulcimer and hammered dulcimer. The lap one is exactly that, it sits on
the lap and is played with a pick. the hammered one is the forerunner
to the piano and is played with mallets. Lovely music all the way
through, I would certainly recommend this for any of the preceding
stores, and would hope they would find a way to contact the Techau’s,
who by the way just returned from a several week trip up the Amazon
River in South America.
never listened to a ‘parlor instrumental’ CD, neither have I listened
to something that carries me back so many years when ‘parlor music’ was
the ‘in’ thing to do. Not only listening to it, but playing it. Please
remember we are in a time when there was no television, no radio, no
amplifying microphones or anything like that. Just pleasant music
played well on acoustic musical instruments….in the parlor. Guests
would come for an evening of chit-chat and background music. Sometimes
the musicians were so good there was very little chit-chat. That’s kind
of what this CD is all about. The musicians are so good they will
‘draw’ attention away from anything else going on. But also, it’s
definitely ‘background music’ and would make an incredibly good
attraction in an antique store, a museum, a florist’s shop, just about
anything that would be attractively enhanced by light
‘easy-to-listen-to’ music. Here’s the instruments. Fred Techau plays
lap dulcimer, guitar, harmonica, and mandolin. His wife Dorothy plays
lap dulcimer and hammered dulcimer, and Harriette Andersen added the
acoustic upright bass. Now there’s a big difference between lap
dulcimer and hammered dulcimer. The lap one is exactly that, it sits on
the lap and is played with a pick. the hammered one is the forerunner
to the piano and is played with mallets. Lovely music all the way
through, I would certainly recommend this for any of the preceding
stores, and would hope they would find a way to contact the Techau’s,
who by the way just returned from a several week trip up the Amazon
River in South America.
Bob Everhart, Music Reviewer, www.ntcma.net