Latest Southern Craze: Aussie Didgeridoo

A S H E V I L L E, N.C., Sept. 5, 2000 -- In the heart of the mountains — home of the dulcimer, bastion of bluegrass — music lovers are doing something very un-American.

Playing the didgeridoo.

The didgeridoo — also known as a “didge” — is an ancient wind instrument from the Australian Outback that produces a low, tonal, some might say slightly monotonous, hum.

Aficionados in Asheville, where a growing didgeridoo-playing circle meets on Mondays, say they love the instrument’s vibrations — and the friendly vibe it creates in the eclectic playing group.

If the didgeridoo seems a peculiar presence in bluegrass country, consider that in Asheville rebel flags fly just a few miles from gay pride rainbow banners, and Bible bookstores operate just blocks from pagan gift shops.

Here, the traditional and the fringe, the old and the new, exist side-by-side. Vendors hawk hot dogs and veggie dogs. Asheville is both greasy spoons and espresso bars, neckties and nose rings, Baptists and Buddhists.

And besides, the didgeridoo, though foreign, is about as traditional as instruments come, with a history that some say dates back 40,000 years.

Interest in Indigenous Culture

“I’ve always been interested in [indigenous] cultures,” said SnakeHawke, a 59-year-old retired electronics technician who lives near Mars Hill in an 1800s-era cabin with no electricity or running water. SnakeHawke says the didgeridoo (pronounced dij-er-ee-DOO) appeals to his search for simplicity.

Aboriginals, or indigenous Australians, typically make didgeridoos from eucalyptus trees hollowed out by termites and use the instruments to induce a meditative state. Through “circular breathing,” where a player breathes in while continuing to play, expert didge players can hum for hours without stopping.

In some parts of this country — the West, in particular — didgeridoos have become big doings. A didgeridoo festival near Joshua Tree National Park in California is set to bring in players from all across the country, and Australia, this month.

Didgeridoos are commonly used in “sound therapy,” the practice of trying to soothe the soul and heal the body through sound vibration. The World Wide Web is crawling with sites dedicated to the didge. The instrument has also made its way into commercial music — most recently into trance or ambient music.

Some players make their own didges with plastic pipes or bamboo. Others buy them at music festivals, from other didge players or through stores such as Early Music, an Asheville shop that sells a range of traditional instruments — from didgeridoos to dulcimers.

Players blow into the pipe — something like the way you blow through a straw to make bubbles — to get sound.

Play the didgeridoo incorrectly, and it calls to mind a bad case of indigestion. Play it right, and its low, resonant hum can soothe the soul, players say.

“I say it’s the best fun you can have legally in Asheville on a Monday night,” said Glenda Dyer, a government retiree who joined the didge circle several weeks ago. The group meets for about an hour each week at the French Broad Food Co-op downtown.

Dyer says the didgeridoo’s soothing tones have helped her fight depression. “The first time I heard it, I sobbed,” she said. “It just goes to your soul. I’ll didge forever.”

Fans Come Out of the Woods

During a recent session, about 15 players gathered at the co-op — from ages 17 to 59, college students to mountain men. Some looked like they had just come out of the woods — and had. Others looked like they had just come from The Gap.

Some came with ornately decorated didges imported from the Outback; others with homemade instruments fashioned for about $2, from piping and bee’s wax.

Dyer, like the other players, took off her shoes and sat in the circle, across from a 19-year-old man in a floor-length sarong and an “I’d rather be naked” T-shirt.

As they played, the wood floor vibrated, and the instruments joined together in a primal, pulsating buzz — like the hum of cicadas combined with the tones made by blowing across a Coke bottle.

Some players screeched out animal sounds, mimicking elephants, crickets, big cats. Some just listened, with their eyes closed. No one talked.

There was no need to, said 25-year-old Jefree Hodge.

“It’s conversation without talking,” said Hodge, who works in the library at Isothermal Community College near Forest City.

Playing With Nature

It’s also a way to talk with nature, said SnakeHawke, the didge group’s oldest regular. From the first time he heard the instrument, at an exposition at the Asheville Civic Center, he was hooked. Since then, he’s made about a dozen didges, mastered circular breathing, and become something of a legend among local didgeridoo-ers.

SnakeHawke — who says that is his entire name — plays along to the music of gospel radio programs on Sunday mornings, at the request of friends, and recently performed at a tree-cutting on the land near his cabin.

“The center of the tree had a hole in it, and I played into it, and it went into the root system. Then I played into the top, and it went out into the ether,” said SnakeHawke, who has a wood nymph tattoo on his neck. “The earth hears it really well.”

Players say they hear the drone of the didgeridoo everywhere — in the hum of traffic, in the din of bar chatter, even in bluegrass.

“The hum of the universe,” said 42-year-old Koriander, a New Jersey transplant who plays in the circle. “That’s kind of what it makes me feel like.”

For information about the Asheville didgeridoo circle, call the French Broad Food Co-op at (828) 255-7650.