Beth A. Stockdell, Harpist

Most independent musicians wear a lot of hats. In addition to being a musician, you are a business person, accountant, public relations and marketing guru, agent, logistics expert, and more. Also, many musicians have other jobs in addition to their music gigs. I claim to have two other jobs, Editor-in-Chief of the Folk Harp Journal, and artist. Lately, a third has developed as I am doing more and more editing and book design work for an important author. Beyond those hats, there is the hubby, the house, the life…

Regardless, of how many hats you want to count, I’m so grateful that I get to find a way to balance all those things into this beautiful, creative, musical life that I lead.

If you would like to know more about the FHJ side of my life, here are two videos that I recently did for the Somerset Harp Festival that happens each year in July. Usually, the event takes place in New Jersey, and I’ve been lucky enough to go in person three times. Of course, last year and this year, they have gone digital, so I’ve been able to attend both. Enjoy.

As Editor of the Folk Harp Journal I was sent the exquisite book by Marianne McShane, Rónán and the Mermaid: A Tale of Old Ireland. (You should go get it!) We worked together to incorporate a story about her book into the Fall 2020 issue of the FHJ.

The bulk of the work happened in July and my community book challenge theme for this month was SEA. My favorite topic.

While I was working with her I realized I had a lot of mermaid imagery in my life. However, in her tale it is the boy and not the mermaid that plays the harp. But in my world all mermaids play the harp. She just didn’t mention that truism in her story. All of this led me to think about making a book to honor her book. And she has been generous appreciating all the liberties I took with her beautiful book.

Since I started with so many diverse source materials, I decided to turn all the images B&W and color them using felt markers and water on thick handmade paper since I didn’t have any watercolors. And, as always, plans were made, lessons were learned, and I received further evidence about where I am in the artist-engineer spectrum.

Thanks to Sam Divinia and Grace Divinia who gave me a birthday card I treasure that was used in his project. I also used sketches by great harpists, Sue Richards and Becky Szymenski. Thank you!

To see a video of the book in action, click here(Youtube Link). Lastly, I added the title on the spine A Mermaid’s Tale (no photo but it needed that last finishing touch).

Here are a couple images from Marianne’s original book…. again, I can’t recommend it highly enough. The tale is wonderful and the beautiful illustrations are by Jodi Solano.

My last blog post (Healing Harp) was about the new world order but the world feels more like chaos every day. On May 23rd, with just a two-hour notice I did a little driveway concert for a few friends. Being able to SEE everyone was wonderful and lifted my spirits tremendously. Hopefully, it did for others as well. Actually, I know the music did help a few people beyond those I saw in my driveway because a few days later I received an anonymous note from a neighbor that they had heard and enjoyed the concert so much. What a kindness that they sent the note.

Last week, on June 2, 2020, there were many peace rallies going on across the nation for Black Lives Matter. This was a tough week. So my small contribution was to have a harp concert for peace and love in my driveway. Although most of my friends were down at our local rally a few neighbors and friends came to watch. I had carefully crafted the set list to specifically talk about what I was feeling through the use music. The night proved to be emotional for many of us. We had music from Bob Dylan, the Beatles, several hymns and gospel songs, as well as a patriotic tribute and some mood lifters. You can’t see it but my shirt says LOVE! While the video skills of my main grip might need perfecting I do plan to keep him on staff for many more years. (You might see an actual professional videographer in the crowd, but he’s not mine, so we’ll have to wait to see what comes of that tape.)

I hope you enjoy a small excerpt from the concert. Video link below.

Below is my calendar for May. See an ocean of blank. Not the picture a few months ago when the calendar was full of wedding gigs and travel. My calendar has NEVER been this blank—and I’m a low-key homebody! My calendar is always busier than my husband would prefer but pretty quiet by many people’s standards. But since I already work at home, and we live outside a major metro area, my life hasn’t changed as much as it has for many people.

In March several important gigs were cancelled so I took the opportunity for some guiltless time in my art studio and made things to mail to family members. In April I generally spend most of the month doing 10-hour days in front of my computer working on the Folk Harp Journal. So life was almost completely normal for me except that several weddings were postponed or cancelled. Now May will be different. Normally, by early March I would have added several new weddings for the summer. That certainly didn’t happen. A nice trip we had planned for May has been cancelled and we obviously don’t know yet when we can re-schedule. The biggest disappointment is that our late July-August trip to Wales for the World Harp Congress has been postponed until 2021. I’ve been waiting 18 years to go to that conference! The conference is every three years in locations around the world and ever since I started playing the harp, I’ve sworn I’ll attend. I promise myself, next year.

My husband has the good fortune to be on his first sabbatical EVER after teaching at the university for 40 years. He was actually still going up to his office most days but stopped when campus shut down mid-March. Therefore he luckily didn’t have to pivot his classes to online teaching but is starting to wonder about the status for fall classes. But we never have, and never will, get tired of being together so his being home isn’t a problem.

I am incredibly blessed. I get to devote my life to art, music, and books, and I never take that gift for granted. Although my income is normally about 50/50 between the Folk Harp Journal and harp gigs, because of my husband, we have a stable income. And, as I like to say, as long as the mortgage is paid and the kids aren’t starving, we’re good. Luckily, our “kids” are both lovely, functional, happy adults and we don’t have to worry about them… much. Of course, we still worry. Within my family circle, we have nurses, teachers, a news producer, a corporate event planner, several in the high-risk category, a mother-in-law that fell and broke her hip the day the world shut down, some personal health problems, someone who had the virus before we even knew there was a virus, and other fears. Each has had their issues and trials, but, overall, we know we will weather the storm.

Today, I sent the Summer issue of the Folk Harp Journal to the printer. Last I heard they were running on schedule and I hope this is still true. On Thursday, I’m thrilled to be taking part in a virtual event of “40 Women Artists of Arkansas.” I made as many new books and gifts for the sale as I could sneak in around my FHJ work. Not sure how sale this will work but fingers crossed. I have a very cool (hopefully) book planned for my monthly #areyoubookenough challenge using the headlight from my Grandfather’s 1920s Model T.

And now, on to May, and the blank page. There has been a lot of talk and little action lately on my long rumored new CD, Beneath the Starry Moonlight. I plan to work on that this month and maybe livestream a driveway concert (stay tuned for alerts!). If I can figure out how to do that… I’m sure there will be more time in my art studio and I’ll tackle a few household projects.

Most musicians look back on their earliest CDs and cringe. Musicians hope and want to move forward and always improve so looking back can be painful and I thought about this as I released my first CD. But I do cringe now, some, even though I swore I wouldn’t. Also, at the time, I needed the CD to serve too many purposes at once. And I think I can safely say I’ve progressed and evolved quite a bit as a harpist since the CD was released. Someone received this CD this past week and sent me the kindest note about how moved they were by the music. As I thought about it, I realized that usually in May I’m complaining (mostly good naturedly) about all the pop music that I have to learn for weddings, staying up-to-date with trends, and requests. Now I can put that off until mid-June… hopefully. But truly, if I’m going to sit down and play for myself, going back to those early songs is like comfort food. And that is nice. So, I’ll learn a few new pop songs, and work on my favorite love songs for the new CD, but I’ll probably spend some time with those wonderful tunes from the old CD. Because we all need some comfort right about now, don’t we.

Ok. We are now under a tornado watch. Really, that’s too much. So I need to post this but I think it is also beer-thirty. Corona, anyone?

In November 2018, my father sent me a box of postcards. The box contained two sets of cards. One set was a group of cards that were sent to my Grandmother between 1910-1920 when she was a young girl. The second set is unsent cards from about 1930 that give a great tour of the highlights of Oregon. From these cards I ended up making four books. For the three books that include the actual cards, I created pages with windows so that you can see both the front and the back of each card. The postmarks, text, and postcard descriptions are all priceless, so we had to be able to see everything!

For the set of cards sent to my Grandmother I split the cards and made one book for my cousin’s daughter, Natalie, and one for myself (nearly identical on the outside except for the binding thread). Natalie is the youngest female in our family so I thought she might appreciate the cards. For her book I created a letter that tells her about the cards and includes a little family history. We seem to be losing more and more of those tales over the years.

For the Oregon cards, there was one oddball card which actually turns out to be a key piece of our families Oregon history. This turned into a great opportunity to have my Dad write up a few of those tales that we are on the brink of missing out on forever. Dad spent some time at the Oregon State Insane Asylum… as a doctor. I made one book for myself with the actual cards and then a second book for my brother with scans of the cards. I know he will appreciate the family history too. You can read the intro letter.