* * Talking with Randy Marchany about his band, "No Strings Attached"

Randy Marchany is a founding member of No Strings Attached, a string band with three decades of history. A jovial man with long braided grey hair, Randy’s day job is in computers at Virginia Tech, but music is his passion.

“I started playing the hammered dulcimer in 1978. Most dulcimer players are from the Celtic tradition. I came from a classical piano background.”

Randy met Wes Chappell and Pete Hastings in their Tech dormitories in the early 1970s. They discovered a common interest in the clogging and folk traditions that were emerging then. The Appalachian mountain dulcimer is a simple, hourglass shaped instrument with four strings that sits in the musician’s lap. The hammered dulcimer is a large, trapezoidal table-like instrument that sits on a stand. The musician plays by standing in front of it and tapping the strings with pencil-like wooden hammers.

“The instrument has a long history, dating back thousands of years to the Persians. In the late 1960s, there was a revival of interest in New England that filtered to the southern states.” Randy found it a perfect compliment to his piano training. He paid $200 for his first one, and delivered it home in a laundry bag as he rode his bicycle. He got together with Wes and Pete and began practicing, “in the stairwells of Squires (Student Center). By 1980 we had coalesced into a band of six musicians.”

Three of the band’s original members left the area. A new bass player, Bob Thomas, joined the remaining three in 1984. So for most of the band’s years, the members were Randy, Wes, Pete, and Bob.

I asked Randy about the other players.

“Wes Chappell is one of the most talented natural musicians I’ve ever met. We once counted the instruments he could play, and we got to 19. You can hum a song to him, hand him virtually any instrument in the world, give him ten minutes and he could play it – well! Some instruments are similar in fingering, but some aren’t. He can play clarinet, dulcimer, violin, didgeridoo, pennywhistle or hurdy-gurdy. It’s almost a subconscious ability to play almost anything. And he is a good singer.

“Pete plays rhythm guitar but is phenomenal on the harmonica. There are few if any better anywhere in the country. When we’ve played in front of large audiences, the blues harmonica players move forward to watch and listen to Pete. And he’s totally modest about his abilities. He’s really special.

“Bob fit right in. He got the names of the songs and the chord progressions and he already knew most of the Old-Time tunes. Bob knew Jazz, Bluegrass and Punk Rock. Bob played everything bass. His main instrument was the upright bass, which he played with an elegance, versatility, and fluidity that most people have only ever seen on violins. His goal was to play the bass instrument in every family. He had a bass mandolin, a bass saxophone, bass clarinet, contra-bass clarinet, tuba, euphonium, you name it. He did woodwind, brass, and strings.

“We started playing Old-Time fiddle tunes like Rag Time Annie and Whiskey Before Breakfast, but playing them on dulcimers. We knew the melodies from clogging. So we were playing a blend of Celtic and Old-Time tunes. We played lots of reels and gigs, good dance music.

“We did our first album in 1983. We did our second in 1984 with more of our original stuff.”

They’ve released 10 albums with 6 of them nominated for Indie Awards in the “Best Album – String Music” category. Their 5^th album, “Take 5” won the Indie in 1988. Music has opened doors for them all across the country and even in Europe. For several years in the 1980s, they routinely toured the West Coast playing at festivals and house concerts.

“It was a hoot!”

People always enjoy the humor, spirit and camaraderie of No Strings Attached concerts. I asked Randy about it. “We’ve been playing together forever. When I play with the band, my own musicianship is so much better from a quality standpoint, than with any other people or by myself. We have a natural chemistry and bring out the best in each other. Wes was into Rock-N-Roll. Pete was into the Blues. I came from the Classical side of the house. Bob brought every genre. We were ostensibly an Appalachian string band, centered on hammered dulcimers, but we played Jazz and many other things. Other hammered dulcimer bands are often Celtic duets, but we were playing things people had never heard played on dulcimers. So that’s kept it fun and fresh for decades.”

Bob Thomas died unexpectedly from a heart attack a few weeks before my conversation with Randy. Randy said, “We really began to understand his contribution after he had passed. I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to play with musicians of the caliber of Bob Thomas, Pete Hastings, and Wes Chappell.”

With Bob’s passing, the band is being forced to enter a new era. “We’re all in mourning now. We all shed man-tears when he died. But I hope soon we’ll get back on track. There’s nothing better for the soul than playing music.”