Jerry Rockwell's Gentle and Soothing Music of the Mountain Dulcimer
I continue to update this autobiographical listening fest — not even up to the late 1970s yet, and I’m totally exhausted!!!
I DID find a splendid cover of the Green Leaves of Summer by the incredible Wes Montgomery!!!
Andy Salvanos, a fantastic Chapman Stick player from Australia, has posted a nice Apple Music playlist of peaceful, ambient music – guaranteed to slow you down to a healthy, natural pace during this stressful time. What a charge to see my tune Bright Field of Stars starting things off!!
For the last 4 or 5 months, I’ve been spending more and more time gradually building quality playlists of relaxing and meditative instrumental music on Spotify. Thanks to this platform’s Spotify For Artists program, I’ve had some success in networking with other musicians who are also building great playlists. Here I want to introduce you to the playlists that I’m personally building, and encourage you to follow them and listen:
Relaxing Acoustic Instrumentals – This one is one of my more popular playlists. It includes the wonderful guitarists Michelle Qureshi, Tommy Berre, Lance Allen, and Vin Downes. It has the wonderful hammered and mountain dulcimer of Thomsina Levy on her collaborative new album with David Darling, a master cellist who is a very popular and influential New Age artist. And we also have the stunning Chapman Stick playing of Andy Salvanos, of Adelaide, Australia! This playlist leans slightly toward the folk and Celtic influences, though there is a wide variety of music included.
Atmospheric Calm, Ambient Guitar, Dulcimer, and Chapman Stick – This one features some of the leading “post-rock” artists, like Helios, Hammock, The Echelon Effect, and Lowercase Noises, as well as great ambient guitarists Erik Wollo and Jeff Pearce.
Hypnotic, Circular, and Mesmerizing – I am a huge fan of minimalist, constantly-repeating and circular chord cycles!!! This music is positively trance-inducing, and it will often get your mind out of ruts it does not need to be in!! Here we have Tracey Chattaway, Message To Bears, The American Dollar, Clem Leek, and many more amazing masters of this circular music.
Waking Up On Cloud Nine – These are the dreamiest most sublime tunes I can find! From Parijat (my current favorite) to Meg Bowles, to Iceland’s phenomenal Olaf Arnalds, it just doesn’t get any dreamier than this!!
If you’d like to hear some of my music on Spotify, here is a link to my official “Spotify For Artists” profile:
Here is a playlist on Spotify that I’ve been slowly building for a while. It has some great acoustic guitarists, like Vin Downes, Lance Allen, Michelle Qureshi, Tommy Berre, Al Petteway, and many more, but there are also some players of Hammered Dulcimer, Mountain Dulcimer, Chapman Stick, and Harp. Many of these tunes have strong Celtic influences, or are actually traditional Irish or Scots tunes. Enjoy!
Here is a playlist on Spotify I made of some great ambient guitar and other atmospheric, relaxing sounds:
Ambient Guitar and Atmospheric Calm
I am currently taking delight in (slowly) building some big playlists on Spotify, and some even contain a few of my own electric and acoustic dulcimer tracks. If you are on Spotify, look me up and we can share our new discoveries!