Percussion

I just added a couple of new rattles to our percussion page. One of our customers made the cowhide rattles. They sound really good and look amazing. The others come from West Africa and are made out of nut shells. They are fun.

Clearance Drums

I am cleaning out the drum shed because the big shipment from Ivory Coast is due next week. Check out these good deals by clicking here to see our website Sales and Specials page at Goatskins.com. Most of these djembes were damaged during shipping. Some Shorty doesn't like. All can be repaired and will sound good. Most of the flaws will never show.

Djembe Special - Special Djembe

Shorty headed this Guinea Djembe (made of Lenge wood) with cowhide. It looks and sound fabulous. It almost plays itself. It measures 13 1/2" x 24 1/2". He is also including a nice case with great padding. The price for the set is $425.00. There's only one.

New Arrivals

This just in!
Goatskins from Ivory Coast and Guinea with and without hair. Woohoo!
Djembes in all 3 sizes from Ghana. Also Large Kente Bags
Djembe Shells, krins, and cowhides from Guinea!
I updated the website with this information. The goatskins and the ghana djembes can all be purchased from the website at retail.
Everything else is available and you will have to call 800-549-3966 or email djembe@goatskins.com to order them.
No photos yet, we are busy catching up from being gone for a week.
http://www.goatskins.com

DrumStrong

We support DrumStrong a 24+ hour long drum-a-thon to raise funds for cancer research, awareness and families affected by cancer. Scott Swimmer brings in celebrity artists and great drum circle facilitators to keep this circle going from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. There are all sorts of vendors including us, Djembe Drums & Skins with our drums and percussion! If you live in or near the Charlotte, NC area this is a good place to visit and spend time drumming to BEAT Cancer! We donate a full sized djembe to the event and also a part of our proceeds.

Paralounge

Dollywood Days are over. Now we are at home reorganizing. Next week we travel to Paralounge in Ocla, FL to drum and dance lakeside. Oh yes, Shorty will be demonstrating his skills and I'll be selling our drums and other stuff. This year I have some nice clothes and bags from India. I am really looking forward to the shows and workshops that Sharee and Clint have organized. Jana will be doing an extra workshop on the business of drum circle facilitation. There will also be early morning yoga by the lake. It will be good to connect with old friends too.
Check out our djembes and other merchandise at www.goatskins.com

Re: Professionial

Hi Dave, For some reason I cannot comment on your comment so I am doing so as a new post. First of all, thanks so much for your compliment, and I'm very glad that you like your goatskins.
And also thank-you for commenting on my post.
Oops, I did not mean to say that Shorty's love of drums is a hobby and I worded my thought just that way. He is a professional when it comes to creating, repairing, building and selling drums, skins, rope and lots of other stuff. His love of drums led him to the hobby of building and rebuilding rope tuned drums. His hobby became a business in 1996. When we moved to Tennessee in 2008, Djembe Drums & Skins became our lives and careers. Shorty is lucky because he is able to make a living at what he loves. He is a professional when it comes to what he does. He gives good and consistent service and he strives for quality materials and merchandise. Shorty is not a professional musician, he is a professional in the world of hand drumming. Once again, thanks so much for your input.

Spring

I just added several new nice comments about our djembes and goatskins to the Testimonial Link of www.goatskins.com. We've been selling a lot of mini djembes from Ghana at Dollywood along with lots of small percussion instruments. We have sold 10 Jumbie Jams too. It's really nice to be able to expose so many people to drums and drumming. We are there for 12 more days. Hurry-up if you'd like to see the Festival of Nations. It will end on May 2nd. Dollywood is not open on Easter, but will be open from 9:00 AM until 8 PM on Good Friday and Saturday!

Professional

This post is by Sandy Palmer
What makes a professional professional? I'd like to ask this question as I have been struggling with it? Lots of people just love music, percussion and drumming. They play because it feels good. Sometimes (frequently) they are really good and others enjoy listening or playing with them. Or maybe their enthusiasm and love is contagious. Some enjoy the hobby of creating nice sounding instruments (that would be Shorty). Does joy and talent make you a professional alone? Or do you move to that stage when you begin to make a living at it. Or does business practice including staying fresh in your knowledge do it? What? I'd like to hear some input.

April

Djembe Drums & Skins is vending at the the Festival of Nations at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN until May 2nd. Come visit our booth on Show Street. If you know that you will be there and have a special order let us know.
A new ship of small and smaller djembes just came in from Ghana. These are great as beginner drums. They are easy to carry and they sound very good.
www.goatskins.com

Whats New in March

We will be showing our drums off at Dollywood's Festival of Nations
starting next Friday. Tamy Brown will be helping us at the Park and Rebecca will be helping us in the shop. Business will proceed as usual. We are expecting a shipment from Ghana within the next week or so.
We still have some not so perfect but better than seconds skins on sale. Go to this Specials link for more information and to purchase.
We have one Kpanlogo drum left. It's price is $225. It is not on our website www.goatskins.com. You must call if you are interested.
Please Give us a call if you need to order or have questions about our products - 800-549-3966 or 865-908-4227.

What's New

Wow, wow, wow! This year 2011 has started in many memorable ways. Shorty finally visited Africa. He joined Jonathon Murray of Culture Shock Productions on a trip to Ghana, and met with his contacts from both Ghana and Ivory Coast. They talked about the drums and the skins that we sell to you. They toured Accra, attended drumming and dancing performances, visited friends and family and traded techniques for drum building.

Our website www.goatskins.com is changing. Links to our Drum Bags, Djuns, and Specials (check out the Krins there) are working. Soon you will be able to look at our drums by Country of Origin. Please be patient as change is slow. Hopefully we will be able to get more of our merchandise on the Shopping Cart.

The Drum Circle Facilitator’s Guild Annual Conference is coming to Myrtle Beach very soon. We will be there with a sampling of our drums and percussion instruments. Sandy is now a member of the DCFG board so she will be busy during the event. It has an awesome line up of workshops this year.

The Dollywood Festival of Nations is a lot of fun bringing in percussion and dance performers from all over the world. You can find our Djembe Drums & Skins booth on Main Street. Drum Glory of Knoxville, TN will facilitate drum circles every weekend.

Next we travel to The Ocala National Forest for Paralounge. Clint and Sharee have some new talent in store for us. The following weekend we will travel to Charlotte, NC for the DrumStrong drum circle. We donate part of our show proceeds to the Drums for Cure organization. Rebecca will be there performing and facilitating with her group Tuatha Dea.

We’ve had to juggle working with the responsibility that comes with life. We are so happy that our daughter Elanor was married in December. In January, however, Shorty’s brother passed away. Thank-you all for the kindness, understanding and patience that you have shown us these past few months. We appreciate your business and your friendship!

This is a sample of our newsletter. You can read the whole thing at www.goatskins.com.

Big Trip To Ghana

Shorty is in Ghana meeting with the carvers that we deal with from both Ghana and Ivory Coast. They are trading drum making techniques. Shorty has been to market several times. He's been looking for new products. Sandy is at home sending out the orders. Bob Heath is helping and making drum rings. Rebecca is also helping tightening, cleaning and packing djembes and all orders. Goatskins.com

New Drums from Ghana

We have new Kpanlogo drums and lots of miniatures in from Ghana. Shorty is there visiting now. The Kpanlogos are not on the website so give us a call if you are interested in them. www.goatskins.com and 800-549-3966

Cowhides and Krins

We just received a shipment of Cowhides and Krins from Guinea. These are not on our shopping cart so if you are interested please give us a call at 800-549-3966. www.goatskins.com. I also noticed that our large and medium Ghana Djembes are not on the shopping cart. I am working on fixing this problem right now.

Drum Circle Facilitator's Guild Conference

The 6th Annual Drum Circle Facilitator's Guild Meeting is coming up next month. It is a very cool conference. There are several workshops that cover topics of interest and importance to facilitators and drummers. DCF Business Development, Program Design & Activities for Specific Populations, DCF Techniques and Strategies, DCF Mastery.

Shorty and I have attended as vendors for the past two years. We'll be there again this year. We will have a sample of all of our drums and our percussion instruments. Hopefully we will have some new stuff. Shorty will be there with the drum tuning and building expertise that he is so willing to share. And of course if you are attending the DCFG you can make arrangement for us to bring your order to the event. Thereby saving shipping.

The accommodations are pretty nice. We stayed in a suite with a kitchen and a living room. There's an inside Olympic size pool and Jacuzzi. There's a beach too. The resort rates are very reasonable and make the cost of the conference affordable. This is the week to register if you want the accommodations discount.

The drumming and percussion is superb and a real treat. I hope to see you there. Go to this link for all the information dcfg.net.

Mini Djembe from Ghana

Shorty asked our regular carver in Ghana to produce a nice djembe for children or very small hands. They finally came in. The measure 7" diamter X 9" height.

They can be purchased by going to this link.
http://www.goatskins.com/Specials.htm

Goatskin Sale

Shorty has found a few haired goatskins from Ivory Coast that are lower quality than he likes to sell. They are better than seconds and very usable, just not up to Shorty's standards. So we reduced their price. $12 for 1 and $50 for a 5 pack. These skins have wrinkles, folds, creases. Some are dirtier than usual. They are usable. Shorty will give them the same warentee, if you don't like it we will replace it, but in this case with these lower quality skins you will need to pay the additional postage for an exchange. These can be purchased on our website: http://www.goatskins.com/Specials.htm


We also have the regular high quality skins and seconds too. www.goatskins.com.