Upper dulcimer made by Homer Ledford, of antique beechwood (#1955, described by Mr. Ledford thus: “Heart-shaped sound holes, butternut top, 4 string, walnut fingerboard”); purchased by my mother from Homer Ledford at the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen’s autumn fair at Indian Fort Mountain, Berea, Kentucky, 1970, as a very generous gift to me. Other dulcimer, in walnut, made by Charlie Whitaker; purchased at the Appalachian Artisan Center in the historic Young Building, Hindman, KY, in the spring of 2009. The inscription inside says “Charlie Whitaker, Christmas Day 2006.” Cherry china cabinet upon which dulcimers are resting was handmade by my husband’s grandfather, A.D. Brown, a musician and woodworker from Birmingham, Alabama, circa 1960.
Legendary Kentucky folk singer Jean Ritchie was playing the first Appalachian dulcimer I ever saw, at a concert at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, many years ago. The instrument is native to Appalachia, perhaps patterned after a European instrument called the scheitholt. For centuries, Appalachian dulcimers were rare, even in Appalachia. There are probably more of them in Warren May’s fine woodworking shop in Berea, Kentucky, and will certainly be more of them at the upcoming Guild fair, than there were in all of Appalachian Kentucky before the 1950s.
Jean Ritchie, who began her muscial career in the 1950s, was among the first to bring widespread attention to the Appalachian dulcimer. Ritchie’s father, Balis, had a dulcimer, but would not let Jean and her many siblings learn to play it. The young Ritchies nevertheless learned to sing hundreds of traditional folk songs a cappella, while growing up in remote Viper, in Perry County, Kentucky (near somewhat less remote Hazard, which is spelled with only one “z”, unlike the ridiculous Hollywood interpretation of the place). Jean secretly learned to play the forbidden instrument, and would use dulcimers in her performances for the next sixty years.
In the early 1960s, Kentucky’s governor Bert T. Combs, who was from Eastern Kentucky, supported the Kentucky Guild of Artists & Craftsmen in creating a traveling artisans’ exhibit in a two-car train that shuttled the state for many years, featuring traditional arts and crafts and bringing them to far-flung communities. The Guild began to have annual crafts fairs at Indian Fort Mountain, near Berea, Kentucky, and continues that tradition; its upcoming fair will be October 9-10, 2010.
At a Guild fair not long after that Jean Ritchie concert at Centre, I heard what sounded like a dulcimer.
I followed the sound to Homer Ledford, who was playing the wood-pegged butternut dulcimer shown above for a group of admirers. I thought Mr. Ledford, with his gentle smile, looked like a skinny, pale angel with huge black-framed glasses. I thought the hourglass-shaped dulcimer he was playing was one of the most beautifully made things I had ever seen. I especially admired (and still do admire) the elegant turn of its neck, and the warm, harmonious colors of the butternut and walnut of which it is made.
As he was wrapping the dulcimer following the sale, Mr. Ledford explained that the butternut he had used to make the instrument was over a hundred years old. He said he had salvaged it from an old hotel that was being torn down somewhere near Winchester, where he lived at the time.
I later learned a little more about the soft-spoken dulcimer-maker I had met at the fair. Homer Ledford, originally from Tennessee, had attended the John Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, had attended Berea College, and had graduated from Eastern Kentucky University. He’d taught industrial arts for several years, was a master musician and instrument maker, could play thirteen instruments, and traveled the world making music.
When the Homer Ledford dulcimer was about twenty-five years old, it needed some minor repairs. I called Mr. Ledford at his home in Winchester, and he said to bring it on over. I got to tour his woodworking shop, in the basement of his house, and he told me about how his Cabin Creek Band members would take their handmade instruments on tour in foreign countries, then sell the instruments to raise the money to get home. He commented that my dulcimer was a little unusual because it had wooden tuning pegs, which he had considered not using. I can see why: the wooden pegs, though historically accurate, are difficult to adjust, and are more fragile than the metal tuning keys we now see on stringed instruments. The charge for repairing my dulcimer was a modest $25.
While passing through Hindman, in Knott County, in 2009, I stopped at the Appalachian Artisan Center on Main Street, for a sandwich at the pleasant café. From my table, I could see the other dulcimer pictured above, made by local artist Charlie Whitaker, and I found that I couldn’t leave Hindman without it. I particularly like the heart-shaped peg on the bottom of the instrument.
I don’t play the dulcimers often, but today was the day to check on their welfare and get them out for a while. I never see them without thinking of that long-ago Jean Ritchie concert, and of hearing Homer Ledford play that butternut-walnut dulcimer that fine afternoon at the Guild fair.
Jean Ritchie with Appalachian Dulcimer. This photograph is probably from the 1950s. Note the wooden tuning pegs on the dulcimer.
