Join the Dulcimer Revolution: Meet the Dulcimer in Dulcimerhead

Joni Mitchell's Blue album made the Appalachian dulcimer super cool in the sixties. Its “voice” gave clear notes and emotional texture to her most personal album. Today, Dulcimerhead takes the instrument to electric realms it has rarely seen before, inspired by sources like Persian and Celtic dance, sixties psychedelia and the rebellious mod hopping of the mighty Who.



It's a fact that dulcimers are closely associated with traditional Appalachian folk music. It is actually one of the only musical instruments indigenous to North America. Here is a fact I did not know: Pete Seeger's father Charles was the first musicologist to consider the dulcimer to be worthy of attention in its own right, but only as recently as 1958. That puts Joni Mitchell well ahead of the curve on that trend. She always was an iconoclastic type. :)

So let's take some time to really get down and intimate with this simple yet emotive instrument -- also known as the "hog fiddle" or "music box." With only four strings, it can still sing a melody that will move your heart.



I learned more interesting history from Lucy M. Long's site http://www.bearmeadow.com/smi/histof.htm

Dave's dulcimer has stood up to all kinds of punishment over the years -- it was constructed by noted Canadian luthier Peter Cox. You can find Cox at music festivals like the Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich and Summerfolk in Owen Sound. He handcrafts a variety of less well-known stringed instruments such as citterns, bowed psalteries, mandolas and of course guitars and mandolins. http://www.petercox.ca


Dave’s dulcimer is even more beautiful because it was hand-illuminated… by Dave. He does harps and drums too, folks!

One amazing dulcimer player we just found on YouTube is Bing Futch, from Orlando Florida. He hosts a podcast called Dulcimerica and just clearly loves to play! He praises the “progressive and emotive” sound of the electricized dulcimer. You have just got to hear his original tunes -- and check out the cool little dulcimer rocket at the beginning of each podcast. Just great uplifting music. I'm a subscriber! http://www.youtube.com/user/dread66mon


What’s great about the dulcimer is you can make a nice sound on one without a lot of training, which is why it probably became a mainstay in group music making -- you can pick up new songs fast in a community setting, and it's very portable. Dave says you can't make a bad note on one – which goes along with his art philosophy that “there are no mistakes.” With four strings, you can start strumming happily right away; in the Appalachian folk tradition, people used boiled goose quills as picks, to create a kind of droning accompaniment for the vocal melody line. You can't play all the notes and chords of a guitar, but you can embellish with grace notes and slide notes -- very similar texture to Dave's Highland piping experience.

So -- add some electric powerchords and some feedback, some heavy duty percussion, some synergistic musical influences and you have -- Dulcimerhead! True to the dulcimer tradition, they are building community through music.

Check Dulcimerhead's latest sounds out at http://www.davidrankineart.com/Dulcimerhead.htm today!