During the 1980s and 1990s, David Schnaufer made numerous guest appearances on the popular “Nashville Now” television show hosted by Ralph Emery. It was an entertainment/ talk show focused on country music performers, and was watched by millions from all over the country on the Nashville Network cable channel. Shortly after one such appearance in 1987, David received a letter from Mrs. Wanda Parrish, originally from Big Tyler Mt, WV. She included some photos of an old mountain dulcimer built in 1911 by Dennis McCown of Big Tyler Mt. as a “courtship present” for Mrs. Parrish’s great-aunt.

Around 1983, while splitting time between West Virginia and his native Texas, David Schnaufer made the decision to move to Nashville, TN as the next step in his career as a professional dulcimer artist. He was convinced that the dulcimer would fit in well with the recordings that were coming out of “Music City” at the time, and aspired to become Nashville’s first dulcimer session musician. He also knew that Nashville would be the best place to hone his own songwriting skills, and perhaps bring his songs to the attention of music producers, publishers, and artists.

In 1984, David Schnaufer was finishing up a new recording that was to be released as an EP. An EP ("extended play") was a 7" vinyl album that held a total of 10-15 minutes of music. He had already recorded the two tracks for "Side A": "Rosie's Arms", an original song of his that was to be the title track, and a Latin jazz instrumental he had collaborated with Alan Freeman on called "Viper Moon". The first cut on "Side B" was his arrangement of a traditional fiddle tune called "Santa Ana's Retreat" (one of the tunes he had played when he won the first-ever National Mountain Dulcimer Championship contest in Winfield, KS). He needed to decide on one more track to fill out the album, which he had decided to call “Rosie’s Arms … and Other Retreats”.

During his years as an adjunct professor at the Blair School of Music in Nashville, one of David’s closest friends, colleagues, and collaborators was Jerome “Butch” Baldassari. Butch was as passionate about the mandolin as David was about the dulcimer, and they both were true ambassadors and evangelists for their respective instruments.  One of the many things they had in common was the unshakeable belief that these instruments should not be "pigeon-holed" into any one single type of music, and they effortlessly straddled the widest spectrum of musical genres.

This month’s tab is an arrangement of another original song by David Schnaufer called “Brush Arbor”. The title refers to the rough, open-sided structures constructed of vertical poles driven into the ground with additional long poles laid across the top as support for a roof of brush, cut branches or hay. They were often used by churches to protect worshipers from the weather during lengthy revival meetings, also known as “camp meetings”.

Since 1979, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has helped students tell their stories through its innovative Words & Music program. More than 100,000 students have learned to write song lyrics while developing key skills in language arts. Words & Music also provides classroom teachers with new resources, tools, and techniques that get students excited about writing. David Schnaufer was one of the artists who participated in that program. In 1991, he was paired with Sharina Smith and Kelli Wiggins, 2 students from one of Nashville’s public middle schools who had written a set of lyrics for a song they titled “Colors”.

This month’s free tab is an arrangement of another one of David Schnaufer’s original tunes, “When Silence Was Golden”. David originally recorded this tune on his 1989 release "Dulcimer Player", initially available only in cassette tape format. A few years later, he combined that with his other cassette tape album "Dulcimer Deluxe", and released them as a double-length CD titled "Dulcimer Player Deluxe". David was joined by Nashville virtuoso Mark O'Connor on fiddle for this achingly beautiful arrangement.