Niles played a multi-stringed instrument that was roughly based on the mountain dulcimer, but actually there was only a slight resemblance to the traditional instrument. Andrew Rowan Summers recorded a number of ballads from the Sharp collection with the dulcimer for Folkways, but that was probably in the 50s, not as early as the 40s. Jean Ritchie's lovely 10-inch album on Elektra came out in -- well, she tells us it was 1955, but Caroline thought she first heard it in 1954. Trust KYTRAD, of course, not our memories.

Sandy