30th Year Photos/#71

.  Jem Moore in the Wood ‘N Strings studio. 

1997 offered a new experience for us at Wood ‘N Strings.  We had been marketing my CD’s and having good luck but I just could not produce a new recording every single year.  So, we decided to take on new artists on the Wood ‘Strings label providing new recordings to offer our loyal customers.  Jem was the first.  He needed to record and we happened to have our own studio!  We had just finished it and he helped with microphone selection.  It was a great learning experience for me and helped produce better recordings of my own in the future.  His first album on our label was “Women of Ireland” with a bit of a romantic take on the theme but included some great faster melodies.  I still stand by my evaluation of Jem as one of the five very best hammer dulcimer players in the world.  But he now spends most of his time flying commercial airliners all over the world.  Before playing hammer dulcimer, Jem was a nuclear physicist working with nuclear power plants.  No sense in living a boring life is there Jem?!  Do yourself a favor and pick up both of Jem’s albums “Women of Ireland” and “Prelude to Evening”.