Dumb Question #67

[vedauwoorocks]

Ok, I am stumped. Did anyone catch Alison Kraus on the Oscars last night? She was awesome and she was backed up by Sting, who was playing some kind of lute? Does anyone know what it was he was playing?
Thanks, it's been bugging me all night!
--Fred http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Steve L]

That instrument is a Hurdy-Gurdy, although I'd say Sting was wearing it more than playing it. It's primarily a French folk instrument (I believe) though the great Irish musician Andy Irvine uses one to great effect. It sounds like a cross of a fiddle and a bagpipe. I've always wanted one, but they are very expensive and rumored to be tempermental.

[Blind_Cowboy]

Didn't watch it. But, here's a link to Hurdy Gurdies I just found:

Hurdy Gurdy (http://www.apollosaxes.com/hurdygurdies.html)

Blind Cowboy...

[Paul Kotapish]

Here's another interesting hurdy gurdy website:

http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/hghome.html

There are varieties of hurdy gurdy found throughout European traditional music, but as Steve mentioned, they are most prominent in the traditional music of central France.

There is a huge festival featuring the hurdy gurdy--or ville a roux--in St. Chartier every year. To learn more, see some photos, and hear some cool clips of some great players, go to:

http://www.saintchartier.org

[Dan Adams]

The day before the Academy Awards my young daughter was mentioning she wanted a spider monkey as a pet when she was grown up. #I proceeded to tell her that was great but she would then have to purchase a Hurdy-Gurdy and stand on corners with her monkey and play for tips. #(Sounds like a mondolin player!) #Of course I had to explain to my children what a Hurdy-Gurdy was, and of course they looked at me like I was a lunatic. No change there.

The very next day, there was Sting on TV playing a crank-up guitar, and the very question about what he was playing was asked, and I of course jumped on the opportunity to reinforce my Hurdy-Gurdy story. #Both kids couldn't believe that I actually described the instrument acurately, and now it was on TV. #If its on TV it must be real! #The websites will come in handy tonight!

The used to be a small company that traveled the Rennaisance Festivals and sold Hurdy-Gurdys. #Wonder if they still do?

Where is my Donovan album now? #Dan

[John Flynn]

BTW, if you want to hear great hurdy gurdy work, check out Loreena McKinnett's CD "Book of Secrets," especially the cut "Mummer's Dance." I wanted to run out and buy a 'gurdy just over that.

[Bob DeVellis]

A friend of mine ordered a custom-built hurdy-gurdy, waited months to get it, and unloaded it within a couple of weeks of its arrival. He's a good fiddler and guitarist but he just couldn't get that darn hurdy-gurdy to behave. It was a bear to keep in tune and drone strings (I think they're called "dogs") were constantly acting up. It sounded nice when everthing was working properly but that wasn't often enough for him to keep it.