I think my Folk Epiphany was a very much a Dulcimer thing. I first heard them on Strawbs albums when I was a kid without realising what they were - on songs like Dragonfly, Witchwood, Benedictus. I used to play the guitar with a drone to get the sound! Then I saw the late Phil Ranson doing a gig in Whitley Bay library, and for Xmas 1976 my brother bought me a Camac Appalachian Dulcimer and a copy of Times and Traditions for Dulcimer by Roger Nicholson & Jake Walton (which I've played every Xmas day since, and other days too...).

I sold my old Camac for a better one in 1981, but I didn't like half as much, so I sold that and bought a Swedish Hummel instead, though what I really wanted was a Hungarian Citera. This dream wasn't realised until 2005, when I found a very old one in Pamela's Music, and then bought another from Budpest (made from solid mahogany - see HERE). Round this time too (when the exchange rate was in UK favour) my wife bought a cheap Applecreek Dulcimer from USA and very nice it is too, though she hasn't played it much since getting into the banjo.

What goes around come around.