Nick & Julia Blake

Nicholas Blake plays the violin and his wife, Julia, plays the piano, but it was the penny whistle that got them together.

That was about seven years ago when a mutual friend introduced them because they both loved music.

“I wanted to play Celtic music,” Julia said. “Nick and Joanne Ryan were starting a Celtic band, and they asked if I wanted to try out.”

She began playing with them, and though she admits there isn’t a lot of demand for penny whistle music, “It is important because that’s how we met — and we ended up getting married!”

The very word “music” brings joy and excitement to Julia’s voice, and though Nicholas is a bit more reticent, he smiles and his blue eyes sparkle.

Both began their musical training when they were 4. Nicholas’ mother, Phyllis, “thought I had an ear for music,” he said, and he started learning the violin by the Suzuki method. He later took lessons in Jackson and at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Vicksburg and then in Florida when the family moved there. But, since he was 16 or 17, “I’ve been pretty much on my own.”

When she was 4, Julia was playing the piano by ear. After the family moved to Vicksburg, which was her mother’s hometown, she began taking lessons from Barbara Tracy, who taught her piano and organ “and encouraged me and exposed me to all sorts of wonderful music.”

Julia participated in competitions across the state and took organ lessons and studied composition at Mississippi College. Her talent also comes from her mother’s side of the family. Her grandfather, Charles Carlson, played the accordion, and had a good voice. Her mother, Sarah Carlson Dionne, plays the piano and organ and, once with her sister Gerda and brother Eric, joined a circus band and traveled around the country.

It was also music that brought about an introduction of Nicholas’ parents, Danny Blake and Phyllis Ashcraft Blake. Danny first saw and heard a dulcimer in Mountain View, Ark. He came home, built one, but didn’t know how to play it. That’s when and why he met Phyllis, who was teaching at All Saints’ and played the dulcimer.

“And I’ve still got that dulcimer,” Nicholas said.

“Music also played a big part in our courtship,” Julia said. “We got to know each other as friends and bandmates before we ever dated. We found we had a lot in common.”

“And somewhere along the way I found out she could really cook, too,” Nicholas quipped, and Julia added, “One day I brought oatmeal and raisin cookies to band practice, not knowing they were his favorite, and his eyes lit up and he looked at me in a very different way.”

He said, “You can cook!” and he asked her out the very next week. They dated for six weeks and were engaged for six months, marrying in March 2006. It was the union of families from opposite ends of Warren County — Julia from Redbone, in the south, and Nicholas from Redwood, the north.

“We are both from interesting and unusual families,“ Julia said, and Nicholas interjected “and eccentric.”

Though Julia has music in front of her when she plays — “It’s my lifeline” — Nicholas does not. He can read music “but it’s not my greatest strength,” he said. “I read it in order to learn a song but soon I put it away. It just gets in my way.”

Their first public performance was at RebStock, a short-lived Civil War music festival in Vicksburg. They’ve also played at “Music in the Courtyard” at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center. They play for churches, weddings, festivals and background music for parties where, Nicholas said, if the crowd has too much wine, “We can start repeating songs.”

Nicholas’ resume includes two trips to Europe. When he graduated from Flagler College, he went to Ireland for more than four months and he sometimes played on the streets. After he and Julia married, they spent six weeks in England, Scotland and Wales.

“I played in Wales and Scotland,” he said. “They call it ‘busking’ — or it may be ‘busquing.’ It means playing on the streets and putting your hat out in front of a crowd.” Julia went along just for the ride, she said, “for it’s hard to pack a piano around.”

Though she was trained in classical music, Nicholas often played at the other end of the spectrum — blues, jazz, rock and roll. Now they play it all — classical, folk, old-time country, gospel and church songs, Celtic and Irish and easy listening like “’Stardust, 40ish stuff.”

Their favorite tunes? Well, Julia might be able to boil hers down to the Top Ten, but she and Nicholas agree that “Star of the County Down” is near the head of the list.

Their diverse interests in music have a common background, for classical music often is based on traditional folk melodies, and a violin is a fiddle, Nicholas said, depending on how you play it though “a fiddle is usually a little more run down.”

What do they do if they forget the music? Nicholas improvises, she said, “but I just keep a poker face, just make something up. The show must go on.”

The worst situation, he said, was when he got the music out of order and he was playing the ending in the middle, “But we just charged through and it all worked out. Sort of avant-garde.” People said it was beautiful.

They don’t practice as much as they used to for two very good reasons — Patrick, who is 4 1/2, and Andrew, who is 2. Patrick already has a tiny violin and Andrew wants one, and they both sing quite well for their ages.

Though music is the center of the Blakes’ lives, they also have other interests. Julia’s grandmother, the late Margaret Carlson, taught her to knit and embroider, and Julia has seven knitting patterns for sale on “Ravelry,” a knitting website with 4 million members. She has people around the world knitting sweaters, and “It’s exciting! People in Russia and Germany especially like my designs.”

She’s also a talented baker and, before the boys were born, taught private piano lessons. Nicholas designs and builds fine furniture, meticulously cutting, fitting and dovetailing pieces. He also enjoys blacksmithing, and recently he helped his father restore a 1948 Jeep. He taught high school English for a few years, and he and Julia have an orchard, raise goats, sheep and chickens.

“Life is so short and there are so many things to do,” Nicholas said.

Yet they’ll always have time for their music. It may be a worn-out cliche, but Nicholas and Julia Blake make beautiful music together.

The Blakes released their first CD, “Come Thou Fount,” an instrumental collection of 17 classic hymns arranged for violin and piano just in time for the 200th anniversary of Redbone Methodist Church. The CD may be purchased for $20 by calling 601-636-1639 or by email, [email protected].

STORY Gordon Cotton
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis