The month of October is often associated with spooky tales of apparitions and ghosts. In that spirit, this month’s free tab offering is an arrangement of the 19th century English folk ballad “The Unquiet Grave”, also known as “Cold Blows the Wind”. The story related in the ballad is actually much older, and similar accounts can be traced as far back as the 15th century.

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After having moved to Nashville in the 1980’s, David Schnaufer began a recording project that eventually would be released as 2 separate albums on cassette tape format - “Dulcimer Deluxe” and “Dulcimer Player”, both of which were released in 1989. One of the tracks on “Dulcimer Player” was an instrumental arrangement of the Christmas hymn “I Wonder As I Wonder” , in honor of the legendary folklorist, musicologist, and dulcimer player John Jacob Niles (1892-1980). Niles had started collecting folk songs in the Appalachian mountain region at the age of 15, and continued following that passion throughout his entire life.

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This month’s free tab is an arrangement of the hymn “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. The words were written by one of America's most prolific hymn writers, Frances Jane VanAlstyne, better known as Fanny Crosby. She is said to have written more than 8,000 poems during her lifetime, the vast majority of which were of a religious nature that eventually were paired with melodies and made into hymns. Fanny was blind from the age of 6 weeks. At 15 she enrolled in the New York Institute for the Blind. She was a student there for 8 years and upon graduation, she accepted a faculty position.

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