When I use the term, it is a way to honor the person I am recognizing at the moment. I've done it for the last fifty years. I'm saying THANK YOU to a person who showed me the way. I made my own path after that, but I was always continuing a line that started, for me, possibly, with that inspiring personification of one who was a keeper of the flame.

Jean Ritchie (Kentucky Trad here on Mudcat) and her family were always incandescent holders of the traditional songs and ways of playing the mountain dulcimer. Before that, who of us would've ever thought to use a goose quill as a pick!!!!! Every time I played my dulcimer I took note of her impact on me---and I thanked her for showing me what she and her family knew. Her Father, Balis Ritchie, singing the song I think was "Joe Bowers" has always been a favorite of mine. And I always smile when I think of the time Jean "had red hair". ;-)

Jean, herself, was the one who, just about, single-handedly, brought the lap dulcimer out of Viper, Kentucky and to the attention of the American folk revival---and then, the world!

She, and hundreds of other "source singers", magically transported me to their own special folkloristic pockets of this world we're in. Ms. Jean, thanks again!

Love,

Art Thieme