A Conversation with Cindy Cashdollar (continued)

PM: Another guy you've played with that I like a lot, and I'm old friends with, is Jorma Kaukonen. My brother, Billy Goodman, used to play slide with him, actually.

CC: Oh, see, this world is just getting smaller and smaller. Jorma's just an amazing talent. I love to play with him.

PM: He's a beautiful guy.

CC: He's so nice and there's just so much to him. He's a real multifaceted person.

PM: And he's really not pushing it forward. He really holds it in reserve, all the many things that he's about. Unless you go to draw one thing or the other out of him, it would just kind of be there in reserve. He's not really selling himself.

CC: No. It's a quiet strength that he has, that you feel when you're around him. But it's there in his playing, too. And his playing is great, because it just goes in these little bursts. But then there's always like all this space around it. And so I think he just naturally encourages whoever is playing with him, you just kind of get on a different level of playing, and you come out with stuff you've never done before. And that's what he brings out in people, I think. And then when you're playing with him and Jack Cassady--and I love Jack's style, because he plays bass almost like a guitar player, it's melodic.

PM: Right.

CC: And so between he and Jorma--and then you have Barry Mitterhoff, so it's like a dream gig.

PM: I think we have to do a piece on [Jorma and his wife, Vanessa's] Fur Peace Ranch, like go there and see if they'll let me film, and shit like that, because that's a good thing, isn't it?

CC: I think it's one of the best teaching facilities that I've ever seen. The location is great, but I like it because the classes are small and intimate, number one. And the setting is so nice. And so it's a very easygoing atmosphere for both the students and the teachers. And they also have that theater up there for Peace Station.

PM: Ah.

CC: Every Saturday night there's a concert that whoever is teaching gives. And so it can be two or three or the teachers. But it's open to the public, and it's also broadcast on the local NPR station there.

PM: That's amazing. He really got that going on, all that stuff.

CC: Oh, you wouldn't believe what's up there. And then on Sundays there's a student concert. And so the students get to perform on that stage. Vanessa runs the sound. And the students get to experience performance--most of them have never even been on a stage, or played on a microphone. So it's a really nice experience for them, too. They incorporate just a lot of stuff in a long weekend up there.

PM: While we're on the subject of teaching and lessons and stuff, I'd like to hear something about the instructional videos you've done for Happy Traum's Homespun series?

CC: Oh, yeah, there are four of them now. There are two dobro videos. One is for beginning bluegrass players--that was the first one I did. And then there's Dobro Variations, which is more for intermediate players, that covers different tunings, and there's a very long segment on tackling the minor chords and style. And then the two non-pedal western swing steel videos--or DVDs. Everything has gone to DVD now.

PM: Right, right.

CC: I like doing it.

PM: That company has done so well.

CC: I know. And I remember when Happy started it. Happy and Artie both lived in Woodstock forever. And I remember calling him for guitar lessons, and he was always really busy. That's how Homespun started, that he was always too busy to do a regular schedule with students, so he started making cassette tapes to give to the students.

PM: Wow.

CC: And that's how Homespun started. [laughs]

PM: Wow, what an organic beginning to a company that went pretty damn big time.

CC: It is homespun. [laughs] I look at that name, and it cracks me up. Now it has international distribution. I think that first dobro video I did was one of the last ones to be done in their facility, which was a very cool little funky studio that Doug James had in Woodstock. So you can really see the difference, quality-wise, between that and the ones as the years progressed. But I really enjoy doing them.

It's kind of strange when you're there doing it, just teaching a camera. But it's an interesting process, at least for me. I take a long time, and I try to think back to all the questions I had and all the stuff I wanted to learn. So I kind of outline all those questions that I think somebody would want to ask if they were with me in person, then I tructure the lessons around that. In the past three DVDs, I've used a band on it, so the students can actually hear a guitar and a bass, so they've got some rhythm to play to.

PM: Wow. And it's a beautiful completion of the circle, that somebody who had kind of fortuitous beginning with a really good mentor should, in turn, give back in that very instructional, pointed way, to people who want to learn. That's fantastic.

CC: Yeah. It's hard to find a dobro teacher or a steel guitar teacher in a lot of areas. I was really fortunate. But in talking to so many people over the years, it's really hard to find.

PM: Because, as we know, a lot of really the best stringmeisters are just not good teachers. They're totally different talents.

CC: I think a lot of people, too, are very far removed at that point from what it was like at the beginning. And it's hard to sit there and play simply enough so it will get across to someone who might be just starting out. Or it's hard to think of the best way to explain things, because if you've been doing it for a long time, your brain is just full of ideas, and you can teach something ten different ways at a certain point after a while. So you have to really get to the basics, but make it interesting enough so people want to keep continuing throughout the lesson. It's real challenge, I think, to do that.

PM: Yeah, it is, because it's hard to find your way back to square one.

CC: And to relay it to someone else. But I think it's a great company that he has, and I'm sure he'll continue to do it. I mean, every time I turn around they're doing one other incredible thing after the other. You look through that catalog--it's fun to look through the catalog, even if you don't want to play an instrument.

[laughter]

PM: Yeah, it's gotten deep.

CC: And where else can you learn penny whistle?

[laughter]

CC: I mean, there's something for everybody.   continue

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