This drum is amazing! I’m talking about the horse hide/Alaskan yellow cedar frame drum with the roadrunner totem painted on it. Chiewa is the name. I already knew it was special, but I took it to a flute & drum gathering in Salem last weekend, where it really found its voice. Sublime is the best word that comes to mind. One gentleman at the gathering told me afterward that the drum took him on a shamanic journey while the flutes were playing along with it.

The whistling elk drum, Tonu, hasn’t had its debut yet. I’ve taken it to work a few times so I’d have a drum available to play along with Apapane, the flute player clan-painted elk hide drum I got from you when I first started my work for the Siletz tribe. So far, drumming in session hasn’t happened again, but it’s coming.

Here’s a picture of the new, happy members of my drum family.

MB