Amid the delicate clutter of books and instruments on the shelves of the Folk Music Center, Charles Chase, the owner, demonstrates a handmade digeridoo.

"Brass has a memory - and a repairman. If there's a dent, the brass has the ability to go right back where it came from because it has a memory," says Charles Chase, the 83-year-old owner of the Claremont Folk Music Center.

As he strolls around the store pointing out his favorite instruments, he bends down and picks up a gong from a low shelf on the back wall of the shop. Chase points out that different gongs produce different resounding tones, and the sounds illustrate the variances in the instrument.

"This one is made out of the shell casings of the artillery fires we shot at the Viet Cong," he says. "They were gathered up after a battle and taken to Bangkok, where they were melted down into gongs, which really is turning one thing into something else."

Chase pauses for a moment and chuckles, before hitting the gong. The intonation resonates as deep toned, but sharp and quick, almost like a distorted gunshot. Chase points this out.
"This gong has a memory of how it was first used. It comes out in the sound," he says.

Photo : Guitar cases © Excerpted from the documentary "Welcome to the cruel World" by JP Plunier, Line Postmyr, Jeff Gottlieb.

In virtually every town, there is someone or something that brings definition to the area, be it through culture or historical insight.

Often this defining element is the epitome of life in the area it represents, and the lifeblood which connects the past to the present.

Claremont, a city known for its bohemian qualities, has many of these elements, but as contested by those who know and love him, none are quite as fitting as Chase and his Folk Music Center.

Just as brass has a memory, Chase has a complete cognizance of every event in his life, as well as in-depth knowledge of the history behind practically every instrument in the Folk Music Center, including their creation in correspondence with historical
events. Timeless stories flow from his mouth like songs of the past, giving life to the history he illustrates with the tales of instruments that come from all over the world.

Small-framed with longish, thinning white hair and a lengthy white beard, Chase is an apocalyptic mix between Jesus and Santa Claus. He walks with a slight limp. He speaks in soft, prophetic tones, characteristic of rural New Hampshire, where he is originally from, and his positive attitude and kindness illuminate his kindred spirit. He is both legend of his time and friend to Claremont
Village.

The Claremont Folk Music Center is located on Yale Avenue in the Village. From a glance, the Center looks like any other store in the Village - both naturalistic and avant garde. But once inside, the ambience takes over.

Beautiful and rare instruments - from flutes and mandolins to tambourines and drums from Uganda - drape the walls and cover shelves stacked high to the ceiling of the building's interior. Often people visit the store to buy or sample instruments which are difficult to locate in the United States. In addition to instruments, the shop also has items that epitomize folk art, including jewelry, dolls, books, and statues.

One of Chase's favorite instruments and "the only one I play," is the mouth bow, which descended from the east coast when England still had control over the colonies.

The Center is also a registered museum, Chase says. "My wife (Dorothy) and I started it 39 years ago. We have always felt like a museum. I have a penchant for collecting."

Photo : Dorothy and Charles Chase | source : folkmusiccenter.org

Chase opened the Folk Music Center on August 12, 1958, in a room behind a real estate office on Harvard Avenue in Claremont. The Chases moved from across the street to the present shop on April 5, 1970 because they felt they needed their own building, though Chase says at first "we didn't have near enough instruments to fill the space."
They bought the building for $28,000, and in a few years it "began to get a little crowded.

(Dorothy's father, Albert Udin, was the first manager)

"For a long time people donated instruments and used it as a tax write-off. That is how we get a lot of our instruments."

He describes his decision to make it a museum.

"When we applied to the state of California in 1982 to become an official museum, they wrote back and said we needed to get permission from the Folk Music Center to use their name. So we gave ourselves permission and made it an official museum," Chase says, laughing.

There is also a workshop in the back where instruments are built from scratch and fixed.

Chase does not play instruments, sing or read music and is "as deaf as a haddock." Nonetheless, he got his start in music in 1950,
when he decided to fix a banjo for his wife himself, rather than paying $7.

"I studied it and learned how to fix it and put the bridges on. My wife learned to play and teach," he says. "While she taught lessons, I took out ads to buy old banjos. I began restoring them, and she bought tapes, books and records to teach with.

"The way she put it, we later opened a toy section in the store because we had so many grandchildren."

Of the Chases' four daughters, there are 10 grandchildren. One is Ben Harper, a nationally famous musician and recording artist who started in the Center.

Photo © Excerpted from the documentary "Welcome to the cruel World" by JP Plunier, Line Postmyr, Jeff Gottlieb.

"He worked here five years," explains Chase. "He became an expert guitar repair person. He got so good at it that professionals brought in their instruments for repair. When he finished repairing them, he had to try them out to be sure they were playing well."

Chase pauses, and looks up. There is a playful gleam in his pale blue eyes. "Pretty soon the trying out time got longer and the repairing time shorter. Then one day he was off and gone."

In the last three years, Harper has emerged as one of America's newest voices of change, blending hip-hop, blues, soul and folk influences to create his own music. His fourth album, "The Will to Live," was released early this summer on Virgin Records.

In addition to discussing his family, another topic Chase talks a lot about poetry. It is, perhaps, his first passion. Outside the shop is the poetry post, a tall wood block where Chase posts poems he has written. He also invites anyone who wants to display their poems there to do so as well.

More than 3,000 poems are stored in Chase's personal computer, but a majority of them he has published in small chat books that he has graphically laid out, printed up and put on display to be sold in the store.

Stepping outside to point out his two giant sculptures behind the store, Chase acknowledges a handful of people who wave, call his name or stop to exchange a few words. Back inside, the Folk Music Center is packed. People line the walls and play instruments in the middle of the store.

Photo © Excerpted from the documentary "Welcome to the cruel World" by JP Plunier, Line Postmyr, Jeff Gottlieb.

Peter Harper, Ben's brother, also helps run the store. He approaches Chase and asks him how much a certain flute costs.

Chase looks at it for a minute before saying, "Well, a few years ago it was $27. I guess it still is."

Peter nods his head and returns to the phone. "It's $47," he says into the receiver. He continues, "No, I don't normally play it, but I can try it out for you if you want."

He then plays a few notes on the flute so the customer can hear it before coming in. "Sure I'll hold it here for you," Peter says before hanging up.

Every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., Chase and Peter run a children's group in which they tell about instruments from around the world.

"I usually start by holding the globe," Chase says. "I tell them, we are going on a trip around the world."

Then, like the brass with its memory, the man who can't read music yet holds the history of the musical world in his mind takes the children on an unforgettable journey through time.