One Sentence Bio
"Using shimmering instrumentals and vocals crafted into a James Taylor house, Steve provides smile-inducing, toe-tapping, thought-provoking folkgrass."
Steve Eulberg: About Steve
Jamie Anderson
Steve Eulberg
“… a superb dulcimer player … and a first rate composer.”
Neal Walters, Dulcimer Players News
He’s a versatile full-time folk musician who specializes in fretted and hammered dulcimers, but his first instrument was his mother’s ukulele. At a youth retreat the weekend after Jim Croce’s plane went down, he became so fired up about the guitar that he grabbed the only thing in the house with strings. His mother wanted her ukulele back so that Christmas, he got a guitar. As a college student, he heard his first dulcimers, but never thought he could afford his own. It wasn’t until graduate school when he realized that he wouldn’t have to live on peanut butter sandwiches the rest of his life, because the Hughes Dulcimer Company was just down the street. He bought a kit and built his first dulcimer. It’s been love ever since - through a career performing folk for kids to seniors, as a composer, and as an inner-city pastor, this award-winning touring musician brings joy to all who hear him.
He’s been called an Appalachian Jimmy Buffet because of his personable stage presence and warm voice, but Buffet doesn’t have Steve’s on-the-money musicianship on dulcimers and more. Whether he’s tapping out a joyful traditional tune like “St. Anne’s Reel,” or an original like “Blacktail Weasel and the Groundsquirrel Clan,” he’s showcased the versatility of these instruments in a variety of venues, from a featured spot at the Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield, KS), to the Cheyenne Celtic Festival (Cheyenne, WY).
[He’s also played in many liturgical settings, including the John F. Kennedy School (Berlin, Germany) and St. Annen Kirche, the church which Rev. Martin Niemöller served), and as a featured artist at the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ Washington State Convention. In 2012 alone, he did 183 performances.]
He has produced 15 recordings; the newest, Old School Old Time, was released in December 2012 and recorded with third-generation fiddler Vi Wickham. Calling themselves Fiddle Whamdiddle (the latter is slang for hammered dulcimer), this 15 song collection of old-time folk includes tunes they “can’t remember not knowing.” Steve offers his considerable hammered dulcimer talents on “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” and “Golden Slippers,” the latter a song that Steve jokes is the hammered dulcimer’s national anthem. He plays a mountain dulcimer on “Barlow Knife” and “Boil ‘em Cabbage Down,” a standard with dulcimer players and one of the first songs he ever learned. Other songs feature both fretted and hammered dulcimers. It all makes for a knee-slapping good time.
Other releases include A Piece of it All (2007), I Celebrate Life (2005), Random Acts of Fiddling (2005, with Carole and Teresa Lundgren), and many more, including contemporary and traditional folk, some for general audiences and some, done in the folk tradition and performed in and outside of religious settings.
Steve has a musical soul influenced by many, including Tchaikovsky, Jean Ritchie, and Stevie Wonder. He’s shared the stage with folk artists John McCutcheon, Bryan Bowers, Maggie Sansone, Emma’s Revolution, and Mundy Turner. Steve is a five-time National Winner in Mountain Dulcimer and a three-time National Finalist for Hammered Dulcimer, in addition to other honors.
His music has appeared on National Public Radio and on United Airlines Inflight Audio; his “Soaring” was licensed by PBS’ RoadTrip Nation. Several songs have charted on The Music Review, including “War Is Sweet,” which topped the Independent Country chart in September 2007. In the Roots Music Report for November and January 2013, he had 3 albums in the Top 50.
He also plays guitar, bass, piano and hand percussion. His mother is lucky that his musical curiosity led him to many wonderful places. Otherwise, she never would’ve gotten that ukulele back.
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 & COMMISSIONS
GRAMMY BALLOT
"a piece of it all" (Best Contemporary Folk/Americana) 2007
"'Twas In The Moon of Wintertime" (Instrumental) 2003
SONG-WRITING
"Sunday Afternoon" New Songs Showcase, Walnut Valley Festival (Alternate) 2010
"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
2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2006
2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2004
2nd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, KS 1998
3rd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2002
3rd Place National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2001
4th Place (tie) National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS (playing traditional Galax style) 2011
Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2004
Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2003
Finalist National Hammered Dulcimer Championship, Winfield, KS 2001
2nd Place, Colorado Hammered Dulcimer Contest 2001
THEATER
OPUS Award, "Sound Design for Arabian Nights" with Peter Anthony and Mary Zimmerman. OpenStage Theater Company. 2007-2008
COMMISIONS
"Serenade to the Canada Goose" (DVD Soundtrack by Positive Communication (2005-2006)
"Living One" (30-second TV Video Spot Soundtrack, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Lawrence, KS (2001)
"Build Up/Send Forth" Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp Capital Campaign Video Soundtrack (2000-2001)
"Beginnings" Rainbow Chorus, Fort Collins, Colorado for Millenium Concert and CD (2000)
"St. Thomas Blessing & Praise" Eucharistic Liturgy for Lutheran Campus Ministry @ Colorado State University--St. Thomas Chapel (1998)
Camp Program Theme Songs (LOMC, Oregon, IL; Sky Ranch Lutheran Camp, Ft. Collins, CO; Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp, Hillside, CO)
Arrangement of "Lord's Prayer" (Come, Letcha Come) featured in ELCA Natinoal Youth Gathering (1997)
2 Composition commisions for settings of hymn texts by Herbert Brokering for Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry, Kansas City, MO (1996)
NOTABLE
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)
Soaring featured on NPR's Open Mic (2002)
Hark the Glad Sound used as radio buttons on NPR broadcasts (2000)
BIO (Narrative)
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 the National Academy of Recording Sciences.
EDUCATION
Steve earned a Master of Music Education Degree from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. His final curriculum project designed a 2-year, standards-based Understanding by Design curriculum to teach hammered dulcimer to 5-8th grade students in private lessons.
He earned the Master of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary (1985) where he focused on innercity ministry as a participant in the SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education) in Chicago. (1983)
Steve holds a Bachelor's Degree in History from Capital University, Columbus, Ohio (1981) He received the Hilmar G. Grimm Award for excellence in History, Honorable Mention for poetry (1977) earned a varsity letter in Soccer and was chosen a member of the Kappa Alpha Pi honorary society. At Capital, he was a member of Alpha Phi Omega (service) fraternity and sang in the Men's Glee Club (in which he was Tour Manager and Student Director) and the Varsity Quartet. While at Capital he studied ear training arranging from David Wheeler.
He was active in bands and on stage in musicals at Eastwood High School (Pemberville, Ohio) and was a founding member of the singing groups, Beloved and Handmade.