Mike Berst
Dulcimer Artist and Story Teller
Mike Berst is a world-class virtuoso dulcimer artist and story teller. He performed for years around the country at fairs, festivals and concert venues since the 1970's. He is one of the handful of players who learned directly from the surviving traditional musicians in Michigan 40 years ago, and in addition to the early American repertory also plays music from a wide variety of ethnic traditions, learned from immigrants in his hometown of Detroit, and plays hundreds of traditional sacred tunes and hymns. His vast knowledge of history and his anecdotes and stories make for a unique concert experience. The recordings of his beautiful and haunting renditions of traditional music have sold over 50,000 copies and have been in great demand since they went out of production.
You can order CDs from King Orchards, a small family fruit farm in northern Michigan:
Order Mike Berst CDs online or call 877-937-5464 or send a check or MO to King Orchards, 4620 N. M-88, Central Lake MI 49622.
Five vintage albums by virtuouso dulcimer player Mike Berst are being re-released. Here are the titles now in stock, to be shipped immediately:
Star of the County Down (1992) - traditional Irish and Scottish
melodies: Skye Boat Song, Westering Home, Rosin the Beau, The Minstrel Boy, etc
Star of the County Down was recorded at Howard White Audio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and features accompanists David Mosher and Bud Michaels on guitar, mandolin and bass.
Sweet Hour of Prayer (1992) - the old country hymn tunes from the period after the Civil War that became staples in the Baptist and Methodist congregational singing repertory: Whispering Hope, His Eye is on the Sparrow, How Great Thou Art, Will the Circle be Unbroken, etc.
Sweet Hour of Prayer was recorded at Howard White Audio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and features accompanists David Mosher, Howard White and Bud Michaels on guitar, mandolin, organ and bass.
Troika (1995) - Russian and Ukrainian folk tunes: Troika, Bandura, Red Sarafan Dance, Autumn Dream, Nastassja, etc.
listen to a sample I Met You
listen to a sample Korobeiniki
Tunes of the Civil War Era (1995) - a collection of tunes the soldiers sang and played during the war: Home Sweet Home, The Girl I Left Behind Me, Aura Lee, Just Before the Battle Mother, etc.
The Holly and the Ivy (1994) - traditional tunes associated with old
carols: O Tanenbaum, Lo How a Rose, Good King Wenceslas, etc.