Spring (May) 2024
Publisher
Dulcimer Players News
505 Cornhusker Rd.
Ste 105 PMB 265
Bellevue, NE 68005
Editor
Fiona Potts
editor@dpnews.com
Sales
Bill Wake
staff@dpnews.com
Print Graphic Designer
Morgan Seibel
morganbseibel@yahoo.com
Special thanks go to this issue’s many contributors:
Columnists
Collector’s Corner
Carilyn Vice
DPN Restrung
Butch Ross
Dulci-lore Corner
Lil Rev
Possibility Box
Jerry Rockwell
TablEdit Tips
Melanie Johnston
Features:
Steve Carney
Terry Conners
Lorraine Lee Hammond
Peter Irvine
Linda Paulus
Remembrances and photos:
Nick Blanton
Jesse Chappell
Bill Collins
John, Paul, and Kate Crocker
Vincent Farsetta
Ken Longfield
Jim Miller
Ray Mooers
Don Pedi
Ben Seymour
Archival materials:
Hank Arbaugh
Glenn Branham
Bonnie Carol
LaRaye Cunningham
Nick Engler
Bob Everhart
Rick Freimuth
Sue Ford
R. P. Hale
Willie Jaeger
Rick Knocks
Michel Legare
John Lomax III
Madeline “Maddie” MacNeil
Dorothy May
Randy Mohr
Missy Monahan
Masahiro Nogami
Gerry Norris
Eileen Rains
Sam Rizzetta
Cathy Sabol
Jean and Lee Schilling
Ralph Lee Smith
Jon Stephenson
Betty Stuedley
Linda Lowe Thompson
David Young
Contents
Editor’s Letter: Madeline MacNeil
By Fiona Potts | Tracing the history and highlights of Dulcimer Players News through the years, featuring the words of Madeline “Maddie” MacNeil in her Editor’s Letters.
Collector’s Corner: Memory Garland
By Carilyn Vice | Instead of her regular column, Carilyn Vice has shared a collection of photos in memory of the dulcimer players featured in this issue. Her regular column will return in November.
Letters to the Editor: Memories of Maddie and DPN
Bill Collins, Ken Longfield, and Paul Crocker share their thoughts, memories, and images.
Gatherings: Jean and Lee Schilling
Jean and Lee Schilling, who ran the Folk Life Center of the Smokies and hosted the Cosby Dulcimer Convention, were featured on the cover of Maddie MacNeil’s first issue as the sole editor. She wrote a short piece about them and included the arrangement “Mountain Sky” from Jean. I am reprinting them here, followed by some festival reports and a few of my favorite vintage ads.
DPN Restrung: The Doubleback
By Butch Ross | Highlighting and examining the story “The Doubleback” by Nick Engler, from DPN Vol. 2 No. 3 (1976).
Profile: Vincent Farsetta
By Linda Paulus | Vincent Farsetta didn’t start life in the mountain places that eventually would infuse his soul. He was born just thirty miles from New York City while Jean Richie and Alan Lomax were jumpstarting urban interest in the Appalachian dulcimer, and where folk music waves were washing over, around, and through Greenwich Village…
Sam Rizzetta: Showing you the tools
Compiled by Fiona Potts | I wanted to share Sam Rizzetta’s story in his own words – first with excerpts from Maddie MacNeil’s interview of him in Vol. 9 No. 1 (1983) (we adapted the cover of that issue for this anniversary issue), followed by selections from his “The Answer Column” and “Technical Dulcimer” columns through the years….
Ralph Lee Smith
By Cathy Sabol, from the DPN Archives Vol. 8 No. 3 (1982) | McDougal Street, Greenwich Village, New York, 1956. The folk music revival was in full swing, and the Folklore Center was selling dulcimers ‘imported’ from North Carolina for $30.00 a piece. Ralph Lee Smith, freelance writer and player of the harmonica, guitar, banjo, and bones, decided to invest in this strange instrument. Fortunately it came tuned. …
Shape Notes: Finding ‘do’ on the Fretted Dulcimer
Compiled by Fiona Potts | This feature is an assortment of articles from the DPN Archives, all centered around fretboards, shape notes, and tunings. Though not originally connected in any way, together they illustrate both the interconnectedness of the people and events during the decades that Maddie MacNeil was the editor of DPN…
Shape Notes: Lorraine Lee Hammond
By Lorraine Lee Hammond | An update on Lorraine Lee Hammond and information about her arrangement of William Billings’ shape note hymn “When Jesus Wept”
Shape Notes: Lewis and Clark (‘Beach Spring’)
Arranged by Peter Irvine, Words by Dick Dunagan | The shape note tune “Beach Spring” arranged for mountain dulcimer.
Tales & Traditions: Samuel F. Russell
By Ralph Lee Smith, from the DPN Archives Vol. 25 No. 2 (1999) | I have been remiss in not paying tribute to old-time Virginia dulcimer maker Samuel F. Russell of Marion, Virginia in this column. Russell is the only person who produced a significant number of Virginia-style dulcimers for sale prior to the post-World-War II folk revival. …
Geordie
Traditional, arranged by Fiona Potts | The song “Geordie,” also known as “As I Walked Over London Bridge.”
Creed Russell, Dulcimer Maker
By Steve Carney and Terry Conners | A previously unseen Virginia dulcimer, obviously old, showed up at a Georgia auction in 2022, where it was purchased by a woman who thought “it was something special!” This dulcimer is a teardrop-shaped instrument with four equidistant strings, an open “D” tailpiece, …
Possibility Box: The Safe Passage Project – Another 4-Chord Loop
By Jerry Rockwell | This A Mixolydian 4-chord loop is one of my favorites, and it is very popular with my Patreon subscribers. It has a dark, foreboding Celtic vibe …
Profile: Randy Marchany
By Fiona Potts | No Strings Attached legend still looking to the future. The band No Strings Attached (NSA) first appeared on the cover of DPN in 1986. Hammered dulcimer player Randy Marchany is there on the right. …
Roots and Branches: The Bird Song
By Fiona Potts | Trace the origins of the words and tunes of “The Bird Song,” also known as “Leatherwing Bat,” featuring Margaret MacArthur.
Album Review: Dan Evans’ ‘A Waltz Through The Woods’
By Linda Paulus | Dan Evans’ new album “A Waltz Through The Woods” flows like a brook that sparkles and dances across ancient, polished stones. The cross-cultural, multi-era, and diverse genres that comprise the album … With Dan Evans’ arrangement of “The Banks of the Lee” for mountain dulcimer.
TablEdit Tips: Working with modules
By Melanie Johnston | Using TablEdit for arrangements with multiple staves.
Our Supporters
A special thanks to the following people and businesses who advertised in the print edition:
- American Folk Music School
- Karen Ashbrook
- Atwater-Donnelly
- Backyard Music
- Janita Baker (Blue Lion Dulcimer)
- Black Mountain Music Festival
- Phyllis Woods Brown
- Joe Collins
- Colorado Dulcimer Festival
- Larry and Elaine Conger
- Ron Cook
- DulcimerCrossing.com
- DulcimerDownloads.com
- Dulcimoon
- Dusty Strings
- Erin Mae Music
- Steve Eulberg
- Ron Ewing
- First National Dulcimer Orchestra
- Folkcraft
- Robin Freed
- Bing Futch
- Gateway Dulcimer Society Music Festival
- Gebhard Woods Dulcimer Festival
- Tull Glazener
- Deborah Hamouris
- Kirk and Judy House
- Stephen Humphries
- Melanie Johnston
- Lorinda Jones
- June Apple Dulcimers
- Kentucky Music Week
- Lapidus Music
- Thomasina Levy
- Lil Rev
- Master Works
- McSpadden/The Dulcimer Shoppe
- Ilace Mears
- Jim Miller
- Karen Mueller
- Music for Healing and Transition
- Northeat Ohio HD Festival
- Original Dulcimer Players Club
- Don Pedi
- Quarantune Virtual Dulcimer Festival
- Jerry Rockwell
- Sandbridge Hammered Dulcimer Retreat/HD Homeland
- Shindig on the Green
- Songbird
- Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamps
- Linda Thomas
- Doug Thomson
- Mark Alan Wade
- Carol Walker
- Wolf Hill Woodworking
© 2024 All Rights Reserved
ISSN Print: 0098-3527
ISSN Online: TBD
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