{"id":1793,"date":"2010-10-06T14:47:49","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T12:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mandoisland.com\/?p=1793"},"modified":"2018-10-26T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T09:42:00","slug":"mimi-and-richard-farina-the-mountain-dulcimer-appalachian-dulcimer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mandoisland.com\/?p=1793","title":{"rendered":"Mimi and Richard Farina – The Mountain Dulcimer \/ Appalachian Dulcimer"},"content":{"rendered":"

By a tweet I was led to a blog post about the music of Richard and Mimi Fari\u00f1a<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In this blog post Neal Hellman tells about his passion about the Mountain Dulcimer<\/strong> or Appalachian Dulcimer<\/strong>, whow he wrote his first book about the dulcimer and after some time also found a publisher for this project. And the about Richard Fari\u00f1a<\/strong>, who during the early sixties brought the mountain dulcimer<\/strong> from the Appalachians to the cities and to the young generation.<\/p>\n

Richard George Fari\u00f1a was born in 1937 and brought up in Flatbush Brooklyn on Linden Boulevard less then a mile from my parent\u2019s house. His father Liborio Ricardo was from Cuba and his mother Theresa Crozier was from Northern Ireland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He took the dulcimer out of the Appalachians and made it accessible to city kids like me. To anyone over 40 who plays the dulcimer Richard Farina has earned patriarchal status.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea to write a book about Richard Fari\u00f1a and the Dulcimer, but he did not find a publishing company for this. So Neal Hellman decided to publish the book by his own. He printed 5000 copies, and did not sell very many books in the beginning.<\/p>\n

But years later the interest in Richard and Mimi Fari\u00f1a began to rise, and a website about Richard and Mimi Fari\u00f1a was created by Douglass Cooke, and a book about Richard Fari\u00f1a was published. Mimi Fari\u00f1a – by the way – was Joan Baez’ siter and died in 2001.<\/p>\n

Last year the last of the 5000 copies of the Book about Richard Fari\u00f1a and his dulcimer have been sold.<\/p>\n

Shorty after hearing a Richard and Mimi recording of \u201cReno Nevada\u201d Douglass Cooke (yet another Brooklyn native) created a Fari\u00f1a web page, and a book on his life. Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fari\u00f1a and Richard Fari\u00f1a by David Hajdu was published on Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In December of 2009 I sold my last copy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Neal Hellman has decided to make his book available, you can find a download link at the end of this blog post:<\/p>\n

Blog post by Neal Hellman about Richard Fari\u00f1a: http:\/\/gourdmusic.blogspot.com\/2010\/05\/liberating-richard.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Fari\u00f1a died in April 1966 by a motobyke accident. Just some month ago Pete Seeger had invited Richard and Mimi Fari\u00f1a to a TV show named Rainbow Quest – and it is great that this is availale at youtube. Those videos give a great impression of the time in 1966 when the folk revival was at its height.<\/p>\n

Mimi and Richard Farina Bold Marauder<\/h4>\n