Dave Poulsom

Dave

Even though I read that bio's are often written in the third person, I felt that it would be more "down to earth" and personal to write it in the first person, like would be the case when having, as they say in Scotland, a "wee chin wag" with a good friend. That approach I think is actually just a reflection of the kind of music I like to listen to, play, and compose, "down to earth", natural, and sincere, i.e. music that is centered around the realities of life's ups, downs, and comfortable in betweens. My musical journey started at the ripe old age of ten on the clarinet, which was soon followed by some basic chording on the piano, taught to me by my dad, then in my early teens, the guitar on which I've been self taught for many years, except for a few years of lessons in jazz chord melody and classical, which provided me with the skills to play other finger picking styles like ragtime and acoustic blues I soon discovered that I wasn't going to be content playing just one instrument, and the reason why I now play not only the guitar, but also the mandolin, the 4 string tenor banjo, the 10 button diatonic ( Cajun ) accordion, and a little bit of Celtic whistle now and again I would describe the kind of music that the Red Porch Ramblers plays as traditional acoustic, like old time fiddle, Celtic from Ireland, Scotland, and east coast Canada, and yes, even some Cajun music from Louisiana Even though mics, pickups, and sound systems have their place, for me, the magic happens when we play in purely acoustic settings, like around the kitchen table or out on the porch where you can hear the natural sounds of the instruments and the vocal harmonies