Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: harpgirl
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 11:37 AM

...Dick, your question has me flummoxed! I keep thinking I've heard some. Surely, anyone doing field recordings in Arkansas or Tennessee, (in addition to the one by I.G. Greer from ASU in NC) in the 40's would have made some.

Developing such a collection would be such fun. Someone must have one!

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 17 Jul 01 - 11:19 AM

Ther is a book titled Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers that might be of help regarding questions of the evolution of the dulcimer. My understanding is that the instrument has always had some fret structure. Ralph Lee Smith has written an excellent book on the sweet little instrument. I forget the name. I have it at home and I'll check it and post the title. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, again check university LIBRARY web sites as their holdings might be more extensive than a public library. Some universities that come to mind are Berea College, West Virginia University, University of Kentucky, Ohio University, Ohio State University etc., you get the picture. Go to their main web sites, choose their library catalogues and do a ranked key word search and have at it. You can find titles at least and then can request books through your public library Inter Library Loan service, or you can check for any interesting books you may want to buy through Amazon or ABBooks online.

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: GUEST,dick greenhaus
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 10:15 PM

I guess I should clarify my question. Has anyone encountered any field recordings using a lap dulcimer the pre-dated Jean Ritchie's introduction of the instrument to urban audiences?

And as a secondary question, does anyone know when the dulcimer got its frets? Seems to me that old-style noting (with a noter) would have worked just fine without frets.

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 04:09 PM

Hooray! Caroline is vindicated! She was certain she had gotten that record in 1954 (one of the several hundred who were so fortunate!), but she told me you had thought it came out later than that. I must learn to trust the memory of my old dutch. When she takes it in, she prints it! Good thing, too, since my own printer seems to be running low on toner.

Thought you were off at the Kentucky cabin, Jean. Having a nice rest from the outside world? Probably not, since I saw new stories of "black water" disasters in southern West Virginia, and a long story on "Portside" about the spills into the Tug Fork and the Big Sandy last winter. Folks being poisoned by arsenic in the sludge, water supplies destroyed at Louisa, etc. "Act of God," says the coal company. Time to sing out again!

Sandy Sandy

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 16 Jul 01 - 12:40 AM

Actually, Sandy, the year was more like 1951 or '52...I remember being in London, beginning my Fulbright year (l952), and getting a statement from Jac Holzman of Elektra- my first statement ever- saying with great enthusiasm that the record had come out and had sold over one hundred!!! Such wild enthusiasm- I thought that my fortune was made. The reality is that a few more hundred were sold- not really a fortune. Jac and I began the recording in a nearby church basement, as he had no studio, then was finished in the Greenwich Village apartment of Ed Canby over many months. So, work on it was probably begun on it as early as 1949...things moved very slowly in those days, especially as none of us had any extra money for the project. Jean

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 09:29 PM

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

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 07:59 PM

There would be recordings by Hermes Nye (some on guitar, some dulcimer) and Sonia Savik on a Nordic (type) dulcimer. Gotta run, I'll hunt these down later if anyone wants.

Rick

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 06:04 PM

I think Andrew Rowan Summers had an early record with dulcimer...I have a tape of him somewhere.

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:46 PM

Or even, third time lucky: here

Sorry...

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:45 PM

Ooops, sorry, my links ran together - the second one should have pointed here

Ed

any joeclones in the area?

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:42 PM

Dick,

I'm certainly no expert, but the photo on looks like a Lap Dulcimer to me.

The information about the above mentioned recording on this page notes that the songs are dulcimer accompanied.

But, as I say, I'm no expert...

Regards

Ed

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:25 PM

Ed- I'm not sure that what JJ Niles played was a dulcimer, at least in the sense of the instrument played by the likes of Jean Ritche and Howie Mitchell. I'll have to go back and listen.

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 05:15 PM

Jean and Pam Simmons also recorded, in addition to the ones mentioned by Harpgirl, Stone County Dulcimer and Ozark Mountain Dulcimer. These were from early 1970s I think. Howie Mitchell recorded an influential dulcimer album on Folk Legacy in the 60s, if memory serves correctly. Frank Proffit also recorded for Folk Legacy using the dulcimer. Paul Clayton had an early dulcimer album on Folkways. The Russell Family recorded a dulcimer album for County sometime in the 60s as well. There are some Library of Congress recordings with dulcimer that may predate 1940, but the only one I can remember, at the moment, is I.G. Greer and his wife. Greer was a professor at Appalachian State in North Carolina. I think he was on several Folkways anthologies. There was also another album from the early 70s from National Geographic with a dulcimer selection from none other than ole Arkie.

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: harpgirl
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 02:17 PM

Here's what comes out of my pine closet...

Ralph Lee Smith, "More Old-Time and Dulcimer Traditional Music,Skyline DD106, 1975

The Simmons Family, "Wanderin Through The Rackensack", Rodney Peppenhorst Productions, Memphis Tenn. (no date)

Lynne Young, Buddy Lancaster and the Simmons Family, "Little Pine Log Cabin" (whoops mostly autoharp)

"Kevin Roth Sings and Plays Dulcimer" Folkways

Leo Kretzner and Jay Lebowitz, "Dulcimer Fair", Michigan Archives Records,1975

Oscar Brand and Jean Ritchie" Archive of Folkmusic

"The Appalachian Dulcimer, Jean Ritchie, Folkways

Hey didn't Neil Morris or one of his contemporaries record some????

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 02:08 PM

John Jacob Niles - Early American Ballads (1938)?

Ed

Subject: RE: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: harpgirl
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:51 PM

Good question, Dick....

The first recordings I heard were Mimi & Dick Farina and Jean Ritchie. I have some others from early Mountain View recordings.But not from the forties.

Dale Rose or Arkie would know. I wish Dale was still looking in...I'll look on my Ozark rereleases, too... hg

Subject: Early Lap Dulcimer Recordings
From: Susan of DT
Date: 15 Jul 01 - 01:36 PM

(this is dick greenhaus)

THinking about old recordings (pre-1940), I suddenly realized that I couldn't think of any that included a mountain, or lap dulcimer. In faact the first dulcimer I can remember hearing was in the capable hands of Jean Ritchie.

Does anyone recall an earlier instance of dulcimer playing?