Re: Who is Robin Williamson?

["Michael P. Hughes, Ph.D." <pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk>]

At 12:01 PM 3/9/98 -0500, you (Frank Gerace) wrote:
>At 02:21 PM 3/8/98, you (Michael Pycraft-Hughes) wrote:
>
>>> sure you don't mean Robin Williamson???;-)
>>
>>I'm pretty sure... who's Robin Williamson?
>>
>        Robin Williamson is a Scot (from Glasgow, I believe) who in the 
>60s
>was part of the Incredible String Band. 

Hey, guess what?  I'm writing from Glasgow!

> He did a great album
>(not available on CD as far as I know) where he played all the instruments
>(he plays over 35) called Music For The Mabinogion.  (A collection of 
>Welsh
>Tales, originally from the oral bardic tradition, written down in the
>1400s).  Its great stuff if you can find it.  

Even more bizarre coincidence - I'm Welsh too!  

> He has done a great many recordings
> since then of traditional harp music, using the wire strung harp, the 
>nylon
> harp and he's also one of the only people I've heard who uses "buzzers" 
>one
> his strings on some tunes.  (Buzzers are a very old way of getting a 
>sort of
> sitar-like twang/buzz from your wire strung hard.). 

This sounds intriguing - my wife plays Clarsach (Scots folk harp).  Could
he be using the keys (which raise the pitch of the string one semitone) be
used in the "halfway" position, just touching the strings, i wonder.

Michael