New Stuff

The container from Africa arrived last week. We now have some new sizes of djembes. There's a medium size that is 11.5" X 21" and a small size that is 9" X 18" (both of these vary of course). There are new prices too. Keep watching the website for information about this. Our June newsletter is ready to be launched. We send it out by email to all eamil addresses that we have. If you want a copy sign up for it on the website or send me your email.

What’s New with Shorty

Wow, what a spring this has been! The container was delayed for the whole month of May! Finally it came to port and passed customs (the x-ray machine was broken). It's here full of Ivory Coast Djembes (full size and new sizes 11.5" X 21" and 9"(or 10") X 18"), goatskins, cow hides. drum bags, drum shells, a few djuns, and some special orders(now is the time to make special orders for the next container). Sadly some of our prices are going up because of the increase in wholesale costs. The American dollar is weak in the world economy, and the carvers must charge more in order to make a decent living. I've also just received items from Senegal. Watch the website for these new things. The Ghana Djembes are very popular. Currently the small ones are in stock. These are very light and easy to carry from place to place. We will be getting a new shipment of the larger ones again soon. My friend Clint Bach has made some very nice Ashikos that you can find on www.goatskins.com. Our redesigned drum straps are now 2" wide. Sandy has made some drum strap pads to help ease the load on shoulders. She also can make fabric drum straps (both are special order). I am having a great time making bells out of metal pipes. In May I visited Drum Camp in Little Switzerland, N.C. The drumming was great. Now we've just returned from the Bark Bash in Cape May, New Jersey. It was good to be with old friends. There I had so many drums to fix and so little time. I did find time to take Sandy for a walk on the beach though. Tennessee is so green now. Our small garden is growing fast. Sandy and I are so happy that we made this move that we renewed our vows to each other this June. Life is Good!

May and June

Drum Camp in Little Switzerland was really cool! There were 5 African drum teachers who were teaching drum, dance and balaphone teachers. I learned a lot about balaphones from Abul Sila. It inspired me to build one soon. The drumming was great.

Bark Bash was as usual great! I got there later than usual because the container came into TN a week late. However, I was still among the first arrivals. Barky has remodeled his house and it looks really, really good. I worked on more drums than ever this time. I kept thinking "so many drums, so little time." There were several people working on their own drums too. This was the first year that Sandy went with me and we drove. We were able to bring lots of drums with us. I even put her to work pulling diamonds and of course loading and unloading drums and things. It was so good to see my old freinds. Barky went out of his way to make us comfortable and served us all good food. As usual we performed at the Strawberry Festival. I ended the weeknd with my customary trip to Atlantic City and the Taj.

June 2008 Tip - Wax the Rim

It’s a good idea to put a coat of wax on the rim of the drum before you apply a new head. The wax will protect the wood from the moisture left on the skin from soaking and will prevent the skins from sticking to the wood.