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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This month’s free tab is an arrangement of another classic Tin Pan Alley era tune. Composer Larry Shay had just completed work on his first big hit “When You’re Smiling” in 1928 (see the free tab entry for June 2025). Later that same year, he collaborated with lyricists Charles Tobias and William Jerome to come up with “Get Out and Get Under the Moon”. The song captures the carefree spirit of the Jazz Age, encouraging listeners to shake off their worries and bask in the glow of moonlight — a sentiment that resonated deeply during a decade of both exuberance and uncertainty.

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