"Strawberry-blonde Prophet" is a collaborative effort...showcasing the original music of singer-songwriter, R. L. Metheny. On this site, you will find a collection of EP's, original demos & what I like to call "B-sides".

Host:  Steve Sims
Catch Not Weird, Queer Sunday's 6pm Pacific on QLRadio.org. NWQ is a production of Quest of Life Media & Broadcast questoflife.org

It features music from LGBTQ artists from Portland, The Pacific Northwest, and the Wild Planet.

Not Weird, Queer gets its name from the Portland slogan "Keep Portland Weird" and from the talented LGBTQ artists that provide the great music.

The Quest of Life was created by Harry Faddis in 2003 focusing on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people who are leading lives of inspiration, with a special emphasis on spirituality. We feature music from GLBT artists. Fridays noon-2pm eastern

2016 International Blues Challenge Finalist Winner - "Best Guitarist (Solo/Duo)" Award

"A master of the mountain dulcimer" - Connections Magazine

"He plays the dulcimer like Jimi Hendrix. He has this ability to communicate a sensual energy when he's onstage" - Tom Shed, Florida Folk Festival organizer  

 "...a high-energy solo performer and frontman..." - Music Connection   

"Musical Tabasco!" - The Orlando Weekly  

Using Appalachian mountain dulcimer, Native American flute, ukulele and a board full of stomp-boxes, Bing Futch celebrates traditional and modern Americana music with passion, humor and boundless energy. Known for his musical shape-shifting, Bing switches the channels on style and tone with every new song, from his roots-rock and blues originals to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Disney covers.  

As a nationally touring solo performer he's headlined at such events as The Walnut Valley Festival, The Florida Folk Festival, Old Songs Festival, Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, The Big Muddy and Common Ground On The Hill. 

Bing has enjoyed a career as both folkie and rocker, first with post-punk act Crazed Bunnyz in 1986 and much later in 1999 as co-founder of Mohave on mountain dulcimer.  That band, with bassist Mike Burney and drummer McGyver, made their debut performance at the House of Blues at Walt Disney World and would go on to open for Molly Hatchet, St. Somewhere and The Crests.

  In 2006, Bing began performing solo at festivals and music venues across the country. Since then, he has recorded a number of albums and published several music-education books including the best-selling Blues Method For Mountain Dulcimer 101.  

In 2014, Bing won the Solo/Duo Artist award in the Central Florida Blues Challenge competition, earning a coveted entry into the 2015 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, where he advanced to the semifinals. Several months later, Bing competed in the 2015 Central Florida Blues Challenge and won his category for the second year in a row, which led him back to Memphis to compete in the 2016 International Blues Challenge.  There, he advanced all the way to the finals and was given the award for "Best Guitarist" in the Solo/Duo category, despite competing solely on the mountain dulcimer.  

Bing's music has been featured in film, video, on stage and in exhibits at the Orlando Museum of Art.  He was composer and musical director for "The Jungle Book: A Musical Adaptation" at Stage Left Theater in Orlando, Florida.  He also contributed music to the soundtrack of The Castle of Miracles attraction at Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee, Florida.

In 2008, Bing became the first endorsing artist for Folkcraft Instruments and has written a number of books for them, including the best-selling Method For Beginning Mountain Dulcimer.  Around that same time, he worked with V-Picks to develop a pick specifically for mountain dulcimers. This collaboration resulted in both the “Bing” Lite and “Bing” Ultra-Lite models.

Typically traveling over 35,000 miles a year in a 32’ Jayco Greyhawk named Marahute, Bing keeps a busy schedule of performances, workshops and production that includes shooting episodes of Dulcimerica, a video series on YouTube that’s been viewed by millions of people worldwide and is currently in its 13th year.  Since the spring of 2020, when coronavirus began to make its presence widely known, he’s been producing music and video from his home in Orlando, Florida and spending lots of time with his wife, Jae, and a menagerie of rescued critters.

"DK" is an NYC born, urban mountain dulcimer performer and singer-songwriter who plays both traditional “lap” and “Nova Scotian” style on four and five string dulcimers, holding the electric dulcimer like a guitar. It’s easy to get a sweet, seductive sound out of the dulcimer but DK takes it to another level---playing power chords, original fiddle tunes, edgy and mournful trad tunes and some lesser known covers, and original material that has a reputation for “rocking out” on this trad instrument. Even when playing acoustically, much of her work is beat driven with a roots undertone. She accompanies “The Joy Machine” (as she calls the dulcimer) with singing that is melodic, heart-felt, and powerful---with the gutsy, full-hearted voice you’d expect a “roll up your sleeves, there’s work to be done” woman to have---the kind of woman who would have worked the railroads or tilled a field. 

DK performs a range of material, varying her set and sound depending on the gig and who's joining her on stage. Her repertoire includes old-timey, "trad," and fiddle tunes, original songs and instrumentals (ranging from an alt-folk sound to acoustic punk) and some covers. All of it's got energy and passion---and, of course, thanks to the dulcimer, a kind of dark, melodic joy.

Castle Black is a Brooklyn-based rock band, bringing a powerful and thunderous sound, full of hard-hitting jams, never sacrificing the hook.  Described as drawing from punk, post-punk, grunge, alternative and new wave, Castle Black defies the average rock genre.  Each song careens through an almost stream of consciousness depiction of life stories, social anthems and raw emotions.   With an intense live show, “impossible to tell what was coming next, except that it was bound to be loud and hard and intense – and catchy" (NY Music Daily), Castle Black is a “reminder of what dominating guitar riffs, melodic basslines, booming drums and a powerful singer with rock prowess can do.”  (Subversive Zine)

Three Thirds have their feet firmly on the California ground, but their heads are spinning with myriad musical aspirations. They run from playing at a barn dance, to performing at an art show, then at a funeral: in the resulting chaos the double bass, the English horn, the viola make a perfect marriage. So, they gather on porches and in living rooms to sing songs: songs with spiraling, endlessly overlapping harmonies; songs about history and living in the desert...and the occasional murder ballad.

Followers of DK &amp; the Joy Machine

Followers of DK & the Joy Machine