So now thanks to kickstarter and our wonderful friends and supporters we now have enough money to print these CDs and DVDs! Yay! Thanks to everyone who has been helping so much with spreading the word and with the generous donations! When we chose our kickstarter goal we were very worried about making too high of a goal since if we were to fall even one dollar short, we would not get even a penny. We just factored in the most basic and immediate of needs.

We still need help though! Please keep spreading the word about the kickstarter! We would love to keep this kickstarter momentum rolling!

We have been chastised many times for our lack of website. If we can keep the donations rolling in we can hopefully have enough money to set up a real website and also have a budget to hire a publicist and buy some ads to get this project released in a really professional way!

Thanks y’all!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737800704/the-mountain-music-project-documentary-film-and-cd/posts

Please click on this link and check out our kickstarter page. It has some nice links to video clips from the film too! There is some cool information about the project and a link to see some clips from the film too! If you’ve got a few spare dollars, rupees, ngultrum, baht, pounds, pesos, or togrog, we’ve got some very nice gifts for you… Help us out by checking out the site and if you can you can donate too here.

Also we need all the help we can get getting the word out so please share, post, and email this link to anyone that you think might be interested!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/737800704/the-mountain-music-project-documentary-film-and-cd

We will need all the help we can get getting the word out about our projects and our kickstarter, so please share the link and tell lots of folks about us and how they can help us out.

We will post the link as soon as the project is officially launched, but here are just a few things folks have been saying about the projects who have seen and heard them.

About our film:

“Two traditional musicians from the hills of Virginia take you to the villages of rugged Nepal, where you discover the amazing similarities between Appalachian and Himalayan folk music—and the eerily parallel heritage that gave birth to them both. This vivid portrayal of endangered music and culture celebrates remarkable instruments, foot-tapping sounds, and the people who create them.”

Jonathan B. Tourtellot
National Geographic Fellow;
Founding Director, Center for Sustainable Destinations;
Geotourism Editor, National Geographic Traveler

“What they did in that film would not be possible for a lot of people. You don’t get that kind of response from people when you just go interview them. They lived with and jammed with the musicians as a musician. There is no better way to do it!”

Curtis Burch

Grammy award winning musician and one of the founding members of the legendary and pioneering bluegrass band New Grass Revival.

And about our CD Project:

“The CD project, “The Mountain Music Project” beautifully illuminates the parallel experiences of musicians from Virginia and Nepal. We see and hear these fiddlers and flute players, banjo pickers and drummers playing in new urban environs as well as in their native chicken yards. To so many, they represent a constant in the face of changing times and lifestyles. These honorable troubadours keep the old songs and stories alive, reminding us all where we come from.”

Tim Obrien

Grammy Award winning musician and bluegrass and old time music legend.

He added so much to our story and our film adding his own insights into the music and the culture of the music of the Appalachian region as we knew that he would. It is great to see him recognized for his skills and knowledge by yet another esteemed group.

He is certainly no stranger to winning awards. He has been named as the International Bluegrass Music Association’ Banjo Player of the Year four times and Huber banjos have made a signature model of Sammy Shelor banjos and fingerpicks to to name a few of his honors. His most recent honor has been named as this years’ recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. This prize is quite an honor and also is accompanied by the $50,000 award money.

http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-patrick-county-picker-wins-steve-martins-admiration-and-award-20110907,0,7089888.story

http://virginiafolklife.org/2011/09/folklife-showcase-presenter-sammy-shelor-named-steve-martin-prize-winner/

In case anyone was wondering, a similar award does not yet exist for mandolin players, but perhaps in time…

Congratulations Sammy! A well deserved award.

It is so nice to see that sometimes playing mountain music really can have some advantages!

The Asia Society had us come down there and show the film and perform some of our hot Nepali and Appalachian traditional music for them live.

We played to yet another packed house. Sorry for any of you who got turned away at the door. Also apologies to all of you who were interested in buying our CD project and our film. We are hoping to have available by this fall, so stay tuned.

All of the people that we met both at this Texas show and at our last show in Ohio at Muskingum University have been so nice and so excited about the project. We had some great questions and discussions about the instruments and film and the cultures. It is so wonderful to see so many people becoming interested both in Nepali and Appalachian traditional musics and cultures!

Also humble apologies to so many folks who came out to the show or tried to buy tickets the day of the show, but couldn’t get any because it was sold out.

It is so great to have so much interest in our project, but at the same time we felt so bad seeing just how many people did get turned away at the door. I included at the right the flier some folks sadly saw that stated that no more seats were available…

Seeing how great the interest in New York is, we will try to arrange to have another showing in New York City in the future. Stayed tuned.

The Rubin Museum is a beautiful venue in Manhattan with top of the line everything. Watching a movie on a really nice screen with a great sound system and fantastic acoustics… That is going to be sooo nice!

Hope to see you there!


Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17^th Street
New York, NY 10011

Box office: 212.620.5000 ext. 344 and on line at www.rmanyc.org

Tickets: $15 in advance, includes admission to the museum’s galleries
RMA Members receive 10% discount

Our film “The Mountain Music Project: A Musical Odyssey from Appalachia to Himalaya”
will be followed by a live concert of Appalachian-Himalayan music with Danny Knicely, Tara Linhardt, Prem Raja Mahat, Rajendra Karn, and Raj Kapoor and a question answer session about the film and the musics of the two regions.
Tue, Dec 7,
7-9pm
Admission: free
Co-hosted by Sidwell Friends Global Programs and Asia Society Washington

Where:
Mary Ellen Caplin Theater
Kogod Arts Center
Sidwell Friends School
3825 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

This year, Sarangi Day will feature over 8 hours of live music from the unsung legends of Nepali folk music, hailing from Gorkha, Lamjung, Hyangja, Palpa, Pokhara, and Kathmandu. It all takes place in the relaxing rooftop environs of Comfort Zone, just north of 7 corners in Thamel atop the Bank of Kathmandu Building. If you’ve not yet seen our film we’ll be screening it at 7:30 PM.

Admission is absolutely free of charge, with exceptional food and drink available for purchase from the restaurant and bar.

Here’s the map to Comfort Zone in Thamel:
We hope you’ll join us for this once-a-year celebration of Nepali music, food & film!

Questions? Call Jake in Kathmandu (+977) 980-886-3412.

In the week leading up to Sarangi Day, we’ll also be hosting master classes from 3 elder Gandharba musicians for young sarangi players, offered free of charge to Nepalis. Contact Kedar for details: (+977) 984-124-9004.

On the same day (October 29th), back in Erwin, Tennesee, you can catch the MMP film at the Southern Appalachian Film Festival, 2:20 PM at the Kinsport Public Library.