RalūGerri
(pronounced "Rah'-loo gAIR'-ee")

Fierce bard from the Highlands of Missouri.

Displaced from his beloved homeland -- which could be either Dingwall or Stonehaven, Scotland, but some say it were Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides (though recent scholars think they’ve got him pinpointed more near Hammerfest, in Norway; at any rate, if you look these places up in an Atlas you’ll agree he came from way out there!) – however, to go on...

Once was he hailed as a close bit of an annoyance to chieftains and priests; but following a tenure in war as an infantry musician, he began to sing political lays and dirges indicating his own displeasure as to how the soldiers were treated after the war was seemingly over, and the army pensions weren’t large enough to keep a fresh set of strings on his instrument but once a year, nor even enough left over after utilities to purchase a goat for meat and to get the skin to re-cover his bodhran.

He sang in the beer halls and coffee shops that dot the wild shores of the world, where decent men and women huddle over frosty mugs of brown ale, or cups of foaming latté – disgruntled folk, then, who waited to hear just the right tune, for their toes to tap in rhythm and their minds to ponder the words.

And the words of RalūGerri soon exalted him from a bit of an annoyance to a pretty darn big annoyance – thus he was forced to leave his wind-swept shores and come at last to this new land, Amerikay. And of course, that left him a bit depressed; so it were he was ripe to embrace the American Blues, and add it to his musical vocabulary, which already included Scottish, Irish, English and Norwegian traditions.

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Thus we are The RalūGerri Musicians, carrying on (and often away with), the exciting, eccentric, eclectic traditions of this unusual man, who reportedly made his last home in the American Midwest, but who had seen the world for what it was: RalūGerri, fierce bard of the Missouri Highlands.
------------------------------------------------------ Dale McUmber-House, 11-29-2004

Hear RalūGerri mp3's:
Paddy on the Railroad / Silver Spear / the High Reel 4.9 MEG Mp3
Maggie in the Wood / Rakes of Mallow 4.48 MEG Mp3

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RalūGerri consists of:
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Rob Ahrens - bodhran, bones, harmonica
Larry Ayers - fiddle, mandolin
Tony Blackford - flute, penny whistle, fiddle
Dale McUmber-House - guitar
Sarah Ann McUmber-House - bass, penny whistles
Dave Scharnhorst - rhythm guitar

Playing Traditional Music in the Celtic Style.
Available for Contra Dances, Concerts, and what have you.

For Bookings, call Dale McUmber-House 573-985-4141
E-mail - ralugerrisassafrassgrove.com

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UPCOMING DATES

Thursday, May 1st
"Fine Arts Night"
6-7pm
Stowell Elementary School
Hannibal, MO

Friday, May 2nd
"Fine Arts Night"
5-6pm
Eugene Field Elementary School
Hannibal, MO

Friday, May 9th
Along with friends...
NEMOFOTMAD Contra Dance, 7-10pm
First Christian Church Guild Hall,
1101 Broadway (entrance in rear)
Hannibal, MO

Sassafrass Grove Studio

This page last edited on 04/30/08.
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S.A. McUmber-House - Sassafrass Grove Studio
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