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Bob Competes in the MLAG Contest

Bob and Lynda have eclectic tastes. Expect old-time tunes and new tunes with an old-time sound and modern folk songs mixed with humor and tenderness.

Bob’s instrumental arrangements encompass the unexpected. Celtic melodies and folk tunes might be found in any autoharp collection, but Led Zeppelin and Sousa? Here’s a spoonful of their repertoire:

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Ki Eleicha – © 1999: Shirona

The text of this song comes from 12th-century writings in Jewish mysticism. It is still recited today as a prayer in the Sabbath worship service. Shirona has turned it into a wonderful love song.

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Child of Mine – © 1992: Bill Staines

The hopes and dreams of parenthood are beautifully captured in this song. This is how Bob and Lynda imagined that their cousins Robin and Brian felt when their daughter Isabella was born. They dedicate this song to them.

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Lu Yehi – © 1973: Naomi Shemer

This song was originally intended as a Hebrew version of the Beatles’ song “Let It Be.” Composed just after the Yom Kippur war, the song has since taken on a life of its own.

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Colorful – © 2008: Robert D. Grappel

Bob recently took delivery of a single-key diatonic autoharp built by Pete Daigle. While most autoharps are equipped with the standard major, minor, and seventh chords, this instrument has a number of alternate “color chords” (major-sevenths, diminished-sevenths, etc.) as well. This piece is his first effort to exercise all those new chords.

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Kilkelly Ireland – © 1983: Peter Jones

OK, so there isn’t any autoharp on this one! It is one of Bob’s all-time favorite songs. The story is true. One hundred thirty years after his great grandfather left the small village of Kilkelly in County Mayo, Peter Jones found a bundle of letters sent to him by his father in Ireland. The letters tell of family news, births, death, sales of land, and bad harvests. They remind the son that he is loved, missed, and remembered by his family in Ireland. The final letter informs him that his father, whom he has not seen for 30 years, has died. The last link with home is broken.

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Rondeau – © 1729: Jean-Joseph Mouret

This movement from Mouret’s “First Suite in D” is the well-known theme music to PBS’s “Masterpiece Theater” program. Those brass fanfares work well on the diatonic autoharp.

Celtic Tunes

Folk Music

Bob And Lynda Onstage Performing

Rock

Hebrew

Classical

Brass Band

Show Tunes

Bob Competes in the MLAG Contest

Original Works