Steve Eulberg: About Steve
Interview with Steve Eulberg - Acoustic Musician
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: Pemberville, a small farming community in the Great Black Swamp of northwestern Ohio.
Q: What made you realize that music was your path?
A: When I couldn't get away from it. No matter what I was doing, music was dogging my steps! A good dog, too.
Q: How would you describe the music that you typically create?
A: I prefer the timbre of acoustic instruments overall, but what I'm looking for is music that moves my soul, and touches and moves the soul of listeners, too.
Q: Who are your biggest musical influences?
A: Jim Croce, John McCutcheon, Libbis Cotten, Jean Ritchie, George Heckman (the bandstand fiddler from Pemberville as I grew up), the church organists and choir directors from my home church, Larry McCormack, Dave Wheeler, Eric Christianson, Dan Fogelberg, Heidi Mueller, Esther Kreek, Janita Baker, John Denver, Elton John and Wynton Marsalis.
Q: What makes your music unique?
A: Instrumentation: mountain and hammered dulcimers can (and like to!) play a broader variety of music than is often expected. Rootedness: in the earth, in the traditions of the past, integrating today with yesterday for tomorrow. Playfulness: surprising listeners with what they didn't know they really expected. Thoughtfulness: the Other angle to view from.
Q: Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of?
A: Singing "I Said Nothing" (an original setting of Martin Niemöller's famous post-world war II quote) in concerts in Berlin, Germany, most notably in the church where he served when forming the resistance to the Nazis ("The Confessing Church"); the church from which he was arrested to be "Hitler's Special Prisoner" (at Sachsenhausen) from 1937 to 1945. People in the audience knew and remembered him and spoke to me of the power of hearing that song in 2006.
Q: What's next for you?
A: I just completed a long-simmered CD ("a piece of it all") which I'm promoting with a lot of energy. I also completed a Master of Music Education from Boston University with a focus on teaching folk music on folk instruments. My calendar is booked for a good bit of 2008 so I'll continue writing, composing, producing, performing, teaching and sharing the music!
AWARDS
SONG-WRITING
"Uncle Jim's Song" New Songs Showcase, Walnut Valley Festival (1998)
"(6-String) Mail Order Bride" New Songs Showcase, Walnut Valley Festival (1997)
"Maquiladora" Kansas City Songwriter's Showcase Concert (1997)
"Hard-Living Faith" Honorable Mention by *The Star*, a Kansas City-based magazine for songwriters (1993)
INSTRUMENTAL
2006 2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, WInfield, KS
2004 2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, WInfield, KS
2004 Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
2003 Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
2002 3rd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
2001 3rd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
2001 Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
2001 2nd Place, Colorado Hammered Dulcimer Contest
1998 2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS
NOTABLE
"a piece of it all" on the First Round Grammy ballot (Best Folk/Americana category)!
"war is sweet" tops top 40 Independent Country Chart (Sept 2007)
"Soaring" featured in PBS's "RoadTrip Nation" soundtrack and DVD (2005)
"A La Nanita Nana" featured on United Airlines' Inflight Audio (2003)
"'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime" on the First Round Grammy Ballot (2003)
"Soaring" featured on NPR's Open Mic (2002)
"Hark the Glad Sound" used as radio buttons on NPR broadcasts (2000)
Steve Eulberg
An Award-winning multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Steve Eulberg weaves mountain and hammered dulcimers with a variety of unusual instruments to create thought-provoking, smile-inducing, toe-tapping acoustic experiences.
He has sung and composed for religious communities, union halls, picket lines, inter-faith retreats, mountain-top youth camps, as well as the more familiar venues: clubs, coffeehouses, bookstores, festivals, charity benefits and showcase concerts.
Born and raised in the German-heritage town of Pemberville, Ohio, Steve was exposed to a variety of music in his home. Early piano lessons were followed by trumpet in school band, and he became self-taught on ukelele and guitar and harmonica. Mandolin was added at Capital University where, while majoring in History, he studied Ear Training, Voice and took Arranging lessons from the Conservatory of Music.
While at college, he first heard hammered and mountain dulcimers, building his first mountain dulcimer just before his final year. Seminary training took him the west side of Denver where he built his first hammered dulcimer. With these instruments, he was able to give voice to the Scottish, English and Irish traditions to which he is also heir.
Following marriage in 1985 to Connie Winter-Eulberg he settled in Kansas City, Missouri. There he worked cross-culturally in a church of African-Americans, Latinos and European Americans, with music being a primary organizing tool. He moved with his family in 1997 to be nestled beside the Rocky Mountains in Fort Coillins, Colorado.
Founder of Owl Mountain Music, Inc. he teaches and performs extensively in Colorado and Wyoming with tours across the US and the UK. He delights in introducing the “sweet music” of dulcimers to people in diverse settings and in addition to his own recordings, has included dulcimers in a variety of session work for other musicians.
In 2000 he was commissioned to create a choral composition featuring dulcimers for the Rainbow Chorus in Fort Collins. It was recorded in the same year (BEGINNINGS). He is currently at work on a commissioned symphony that will feature hammered dulcimer and Australian didjeridu.
Eulberg passionately believes that music crosses cultural and language barriers because music builds community. Influenced by a variety of ethnic styles, his music weaves vital lyric with rap, rock, folk, gospel and blues. Audiences of all ages respond well to his presentation and to his warm sense of humor.
Steve is a member of Local 1000 (AFM), The Folk Alliance, BMI and BWAAG (Better World Artists and Activist’s Guild).