Update on the grand opening on the Applachian Dulcimer Museum!

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From Kendra Ward: November 9, 2024, Sperryville, VA

Schedule of Events:

12:00 (noon) – Museum unofficially opens.

12:00 – 12:45 – “The Traditional Dulcimer VS the Modern Dulcimer”, a workshop by Kendra Ward and Bob Bence. Price: no charge, but a suggested donation of $10 would be appreciated.

This workshop will be an engaging discussion focused on the characteristics of pre-1935 dulcimers. Attendees will explore the unique features that distinguish these traditional instruments from their modern counterparts. Several authentic dulcimers from this era will be available for hands-on examination, allowing participants to experience the distinctive qualities that set them apart.

We will dive into various aspects, such as construction materials, tonal qualities, and design elements. Understanding these differences not only enhances appreciation for the instruments themselves but also sheds light on the evolution of musical craftsmanship over the decades.

Handouts will be provided to reinforce key points and facilitate deeper discussions. Participants will have plenty of opportunities to ask questions during our interactive Q&A session. By the end of the workshop, everyone will leave with a greater appreciation for the history and artistry of dulcimers, bridging the past and present in the world of music.

1:00 – Official Opening, remarks by John Hallberg

1:00 – 2:00 – “History of Traditional Dulcimers and Walk-Around in the Museum” with John Hallberg, Kendra Ward, Don Pedi, and Kimberly Burnette-Dean.

Please join our panel of experts on a tour of the Appalachian Dulcimer Museum. Attendees will learn more about the museum’s renowned dulcimer collection, while John Hallberg and his team of esteemed musicians, folklorists, and historians share personal experiences and insights from within the dulcimer tradition.

2:00 – 3:30 – “Learn Old Time and Fiddle Tunes” with Don Pedi. Price: $25 per person.

4:00 – 5:30 – “Traditional Tunes and Tunings” with Kendra Ward and Bob Bence. Price: $25 per person. This will be hands on learning workshop so bring your dulcimers tuned to DAd and your noter. This workshop will allow you to explore the expressive range of the deep mountain sounds your dulcimer can produce while also giving you valuable confidence in different tunings. We will begin in D-A-d tuning and learn how easy and worthwhile it is to tune between the four most common mountain modes, each with a different “feel”: Mixolydian, Aeolian, Ionian, and Dorian. During the lesson you will learn a tune using each tuning, significantly expand your understanding of the diatonic fretboard, and learn to appreciate the differences between playing a modal tune in its natural tuning versus playing it in D-A-d.

Concert…suggested $10+ donation.

7:00 – 10:15 – concert featuring John Hallberg, John Renrick, Chris Colvin, Thomasina Levy, Vince Farsetta, Don Pedi, Kimberly Burnette-Dean, and Kendra Ward and Bob Bence.

7:00 – 7:20 John Hallberg
7:25 – 7:45 John Renwick
7:50 – 8:10 Chris Colvin
8:15 – 8:35 Thomasina Levy
8:40 – 9:00 Vince Farsetta
9:05 – 9:25 Don Pedi
9:30 – 9:50 Kimberly Burnette-Dean
9:55 -10:15 Kendra Ward and Bob Bence

The museum is located on the second floor of the Apple Atcha Cidery
3 Josh Ben Lane, Sperryville, VA
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424725363

More on épinette des Vosges

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(this related to my September 20, 2024 post below)

https://epinettesetcetera.com
https://epinettesetcetera.com/dulcimer#intro
https://epinettesetcetera.com/autres-cithares
https://epinettesetcetera.com/et-la-suite-stages-groupes-luthiers-du-folk#stagesetc
https://epinettesetcetera.com/bibliographie-etc
https://epinettesetcetera.com/presentation
https://epinettesetcetera.com/lepinette-etc-quesaco
https://epinettesetcetera.com/lepinette-davant

Worth scrolling through though quite lengthy
https://epinettesetcetera.com/epinettes-du-nord-et-belgique#

You can use Google Translate to bring op the pages in English

épinette des Vosges

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David Bennett <><
September, 20, 2024

Two videos from 1964 and two from the 1970s:

Valse de Dorothée jouée par Mme Laure Gravier – 1964 – Extrait de “Folklore de France, les Vosges”
[Loose tanslation: Dorothée’s waltz played by played by Mrs. Laure Gravier – 1964 – Excerpt from “Folklore de France, at les Vosges”]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_jQlK_vTnQ

Fabrication d’une épinette du Val d’Ajol par Jules Vançon -1964- Folklore de France, les Vosges ORTF
[Manufacture of an épinette des Vosges in Val d’Ajol by Jules Vançon -1964- Folklore de France, les Vosges ORTF]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qcOdb_BSgI

Extraits d’émission “Faire du sentiment avec du bois” (“Bruits en fête et sons de plaisir”)-TF1 1977
[Loose translation: Excerpts from the program “Making sentiment/feeling out of wood” (Festive sounds and sounds of pleasure)-TF1 1977]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2f1pUJ5nqg

Steve Martin on speaking French
[Steve Martin parle français]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_8amMzGAx4

“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.” Zephaniah 3:9

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary…” Isaiah 50:4

“For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people” Isaiah 28:11

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

Job Carr (1813-1887)

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David Bennett <><

September 18, 2024

A few months ago Steve Carney shared another lead with me regarding early dulcimore (referred to from here on out as “dulcimer”) players “Out West,” Job Carr (1813-1887) and his sons Anthony (1841–1923) and Howard (1846–1891).

Part of what got Steve Carney started on this was the following YouTube video from the Job Carr Cabin Museum in Tacoma, Washington, Music and Instruments – Life on the Oregon Trail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3uhxTpuBo

Miss Karen in the video makes the case that the fretted dulcimer was the perfect instrument to take on the Oregon Trail because it is small and easy to play.

Regarding travel in 1860s, the most common forms of travel were either by wagon train or stagecoach. Wagon trains in the 1860s took about four months between Independence, Missouri, and San Francisco, California. There was the Oregon Trail, Oregon/California Trail, and the Mormon Trail.

Stage lines between 1861-1869 took 25-days from Atchison, Kansas, to San Franciso, California. There were two main lines, the Wells Fargo Express and the Overland Stage. The first transcontinental train didn’t run until 1869.

The father, Job Carr (1813-1887) was born in New Jersey and died in Tacoma, Washington Territory.

As a young man, Job Carr moved to Jay County, Indiana, which is near the Indiana/Ohio state line, where he met and married Rebecca Pitman and they had four children. Job and Rebecca were Quakers but strayed from strict adherence when it came to their love of music and actively supporting the abolitionist movement and the war.

Job’s son Anthony Pittman Carr was born in 1841 in Jay County, Indiana, and died in 1923 in Tacoma, Washington.

Job’s younger son, Francis “Howard” Carr was born in 1846 in Jay County, Indiana, and died in 1891 in Yakima, Washington.

During the Civil War, despite his advanced age (he was forty-seven), Job joined the Union Army, with the 36th Indiana Infantry Regiment. His two sons also joined the Union Army as well. Serving less than three years he was wounded twice, the second time seriously, and his wife brought him home to Indiana to recover. After his recovery Job moved to Iowa, where he bought a fruit tree nursery, but Rebecca refused to come with him. They divorced on mutual agreement in June 1864, which was unconventional since Quakerism only allowed for divorce when one party was unfaithful to the other.

Job Carr came across the plains to California in 1864. Continuing on, Job Carr arrived on December 25, 1864 at the future site of Tacoma in Washington Territory (Washington became a state in 1889) and became the first permanent Euro-American settler in Tacoma and the founding father of Tacoma. Job Carr’s two sons, Howard and Anthony, joined him in 1866. I have not found the route that Anthony took from Indiana to Tacoma, Washington Territory. His brother, Howard, drove a mule team for a Mormon wagon train from Atchison, Kansas, to the Great Salt Lake. He ended up in Sacramento, California, and after earning some money took a steamship to Portland, Oregon, and in November 1866 joined his father and older brother in Washington Territory.

Back to the dulcimer part of the story…

In an email to me, Steve Carney suggested a connection between George Boxley (1780–1865) and Job Carr (1813-1887) as both were strong abolitionists from the Ohio/Indiana area and both apparently played dulcimers. See my George Boxley blog post at

https://heritagedulcimers.wordpress.com/george-boxley-1780-1865/

In L. Allen Smith’ s book “A Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers” he says of early dulcimers found in Ohio, “Pennsylvania fretted zithers” were found not far from Lancaster in Licking County in central Ohio. Also, dulcimer historian Ralph Lee Smith found what he termed as a “direct descent” (meaning someone put a raised fretboard on a zitter/scheitholt body) in southwest Ohio near the Indiana border.

In an undated Job Carr Museum blog post, Religion and the Carr Family: Quaker Heritage (Part 2) by Gabi Sutton, and also from Mary Bowlby’s article in the Eureka Times 2015 Summer issue, The Carr Family: Separate Lives and Tacoma Reunion, they wrote in part, “…In fact, the entire Carr family love music. While Rebecca was singing, Job and their son Anthony played the dulcimer. Their younger son Howard also wrote in his journals about playing the flute and accordion…”

In a book published in 1916 written by Herbert Hunt, TACOMA Its History and Its Builders, he writes that Howard Carr kept a diary, beginning as a boy, for many years and that his entries were usually short and to the point.

On page 103 of Mr. Hunt’s book it tells us “…Howard brought with him to Tacoma a dulcimer which both he and Job played with facility, and acquaintances from the reservation and elsewhere came over to enjoy instrumental music of a variety very rare at that time…”

This of course raises the question was it Anthony or Howard that played the dulcimer with Job, or perhaps both….

The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1

The Vietnam War and an Appalacian Dulcimer

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David Bennett <><
9/12/2024

Those that know me know I like searching the Internet and old books for anything related to dulcimore history. Sometimes when I wonder if I’ve run out of anything to find I’ll think of a couple of random words that may be unrelated and see what a search brings up. You’d be surprised how effective that is. Today (and I have no idea why) I decided to search on “Vietnam War” & “dulcimer” and had success. So here is that story…

My search took me to the Australian War Memorial website and Richard Troughear, who I think is already familiar with some of you. It involves his early start building Appalachian dulcimers in while serving in Vietnam.

According to that website Australian Lance Corporal Richard Harrison Troughear served in Vietnam with the Royal Australian Corps of Signals in 1969. In 2007 he wrote that “we were physically housed in tents in the rubber plantation at Nui Dat.” Troughear had a lot of spare time and needed something to divert him and so he made an Appalachian dulcimer. He wrote that before he’d left Australia he had seen an Appalachian dulcimer played at a folk festival. He wrote, “I scrounged some scraps of plywood from the carpentry shop of a nearby unit and made one from memory. It was pretty poor.” He wrote to his future wife and asked her to send over an illustrated book by Jean Ritchie that he’d remembered reading.

His dulcimer was set to the diatonic scale. The finished dulcimer was finished with varnish found at the Baria markets just north of Vung Tau.

While in ‘Nam he interested a fellow soldier, Al Pullen, in making a proper dulcimer from plans. Pullen “found a place that sold solid plywood and varnish in the market at Baria and we each made an instrument whilst on duty in the transmission shack. The tuning machine heads and the strings were salvaged from a couple of old guitars.”

Upon return from to Australia, Troughear worked as a biomedical engineer and in the 1970s made two more dulcimers (which he describes as being pretty pleased with, but in retrospect, “were, in fact, appalling”).

Troughear returned to making dulcimers in the late 1990s and now is regarded as a professional luthier making a couple dulcimers a year using Australian hardwoods.

He wrote on his website, “I made my first Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer in 1969 in Vietnam, as a soldier, and although I have made a few other stringed instruments, dulcimers are what I like to make… I like to use Australian woods in the construction… My dulcimers are generally unadorned and feature a fiddle edge in the traditional style. Three small wooden feet hold the instruments off flat surfaces to increase loudness when played on a table…”

He was active on EverythingDulcimer.com before it shut down. Ken Hulme wrote on FOTMD on 05/17/13, “For those who don’t know, Richard, down on OZ, is perhaps the only person in the world who is scientifically, quantitatively, delving into the science of dulcimer acoustics. Over the past couple years he has made some fascinating discoveries about how our beloved instruments ‘make a joyful noise’.”

“…a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:7-8


“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

1973: Multitude of Tunes Heard on ‘Bowers’ Music Box’

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Posted: David Bennett September 10, 2024

Tulsa World
November 20, 1973
page 23 section B

Multitude of Tunes Heard on ‘Bowers’ Music Box’

…Sixty-six years ago, a 19-year-old farmboy hurried down to the train depot in nearby Durant, plucked the $2 savings from his faded overalls and paid the “express” on the strange instrument shipped from Town Creek, Ala.
Bigger than a breadbox but just as shapeless, it was painted a muddy brown. Four strings trailed over the tall bridge, flanked by nickel-sized holes forming escape routes for the folkish-sounding music.
“A man had come through northern Alabama with a wagon load of the things,” Bowers said. “My uncle gave him $5 for this one, but he later boxed it up and sent it to me ’cause he never could learn to play the danged thing.”

IT WAS A FULL YEAR BEfore Bowers could manage to pick out “Home, Sweet Home,” followed by “Sally Gooden.” Now at age 85, he knows more tunes than he cares to recall…
…The instrument apparently is similar to the more shapely dulcimer… Called a harmonace, it bore patent dates of 1880 and 1886 until Bowers finally scrubbed the figures away, trying to get rid of that brown wagon paint.
“Sort of wish I hadn’t done that now,” he said, referring to the disappearance of the figure. “But it sounded a lot better when I got the paint off.

THE SPRY, BLUE-EYED farmer has made some other “modifications” to the harmonace. For one thing, the frets didn’t “suit” him so he replaced them with carpet staples. And a fiddle head takes the place of loop screws once used to tune it.
The instrument’s strings apparently have suited Bowers. He put the last set of new bass strings on “back in the fall of 1925.” As for the pair of higher-keyed wires, he’s only replaced them once in more than four decades.
“My brother-in-law bought the strings from Sears and Roebuck in 1906… ordered a pound of the stuff. It’s just plain piano wire you know…”

PICKING UP HIS HICKory “noting stick” and placing a homemade metal pick over his right thumb, Bowers proceeded to play the thing…
…he played for an estimated 10,000 people a couple of summers ago over at the Grant Bluegrass Festival near Hugo…

…with a smile he added, “I couldn’t carry a tune if I had one in a sack — but I got a whole boxful of them, I don’t know one note from another, but I know the notes on this.”

John Calvin Bowers was born March 3, 1888 in Lawrence County, Alabama. He died June 12, 1980 in Bryan County, Oklahoma. During World War I he served in the Army.

Regarding the above article’s reference to “harmonace” and “1886” I found this reference to a “harmonace” by Sandy Conatser and David Schnaufer of the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University:
…The fourth label of interest is on a box pictured in Bonnie Carol’s Dust Off That Dulcimer & Dance. Painted directly on the box is the following information:

THE HARMONACE
Made by
Eckard & Goodman of Tennessee
………Imp. 1886 350526

All of the labels bear the name Goodman. The Goodman family is one of two families identified in the 1970’s by Richard Hulan as builders of the music boxes. In the mid 1800’s, this branch of the Goodman family was centered in Lewis and surrounding counties. W. E. Goodman moved his family to Maury County where his son Dee (born around 1870) made and sold the music boxes. George Goodman, a cousin of Dee Goodman, traveled in southern Middle Tennessee and sold the boxes which Dee made. George Goodman also lived for a time on Little Beech Creek in Wayne County, just south of White Oak Creek where John Pevahouse, another builder, lived. Miss Ida Sharp of Savannah, Tennessee, owned a box which her sister bought from George Goodman for $4.00. The Goodman boxes were also called “Harmonicas,” and Miss Sharp’s box had “The Wonderful Harmonica” lettered on it. (note 3)

Source: https://dulcimerarchive.omeka.net/histtnmusicbox

Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4