Ralph Lee Smith

Keeper of a Tradition

By Cathy Sabol, DPN Archives Vol. 8 No. 3 (1982)

Editor’s Note: Ralph Lee Smith was one of DPN’s most prolific contributors. He began writing the column “Mountain Dulcimer Tales & Traditions” at Maddie MacNeil’s invitation in 1993, and continued writing for almost 30 years, with only the occasional missed issue, until his death on Dec. 30, 2020. His last article ran posthumously in Vol. 47 No. 1, and his obituary in Vol. 47 No. 2.

To try to capture the enormity of his influence and impact as a player and historian, I am reprinting the first profile of him in Vol. 8 No. 3, when he appeared on the cover, followed by two collections of articles that illustrate his ongoing influence and impact: shape notes and Russell family dulcimers. For more on Ralph’s early days with the dulcimer, read “Greenwich Village Dulcimer: A Reminiscence” by Ralph Lee Smith, Vol. 10 No. 3 (1984).

“When it comes to discovering the history of the dulcimer, we can all play the game.”  

Ralph Lee Smith

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. 

A good deal of Ralph’s time and energy was spent experimenting with his new dulcimer before he fully understood it. When the strings broke, he replaced them with guitar strings which caused all three pegs to break and to be replaced with viola pegs. Since the instrument did not sound very good then, Ralph took it to a guitar maker who fretted it with short frets and hollowed out the finger board, with no improvement to the sound.

Despite his tribulations with his new instrument, Ralph developed a simple playing style, using a popsicle stick as a noter. Since he was one of the few dulcimer players in New York City at that time, Ralph was often called to fill in with his instrument when luminaries such as Jean Ritchie were unavailable. He performed as a musician on two or three cuts of “Old Time Banjo Music” and other recordings, such as Judy Collins’ 1970 album “Whales and Nightingales.” Subsequently, Ralph has cut a few albums of his own including “Dulcimer: Old Time and Traditional Music.”

Over a decade after his initiation to the dulcimer, Ralph’s budding interest in its history prompted him to research the background of his abused instrument in an effort to restore it to its original splendor. Roger Abrahams, a professor of English at the University of Texas, had brought the dulcimer from North Carolina but could not remember from where or whom. Ralph finally traced it to Frank Glenn, a farmer in Beech Creek, North Carolina, who was now dead. Ralph succeeded in securing the pattern of the original pegs from Frank’s widow and took this to Leonard and Clifford Glenn (no relation to Frank) to have replacements made.

From this time on, Ralph became fascinated by the question “Where did this instrument come from?” A collector of antiques (his mother was an antiques dealer), Ralph was intrigued by the dulcimer as a handmade American artifact. The actual source of the dulcimer is almost archaeological because of its absence in written records and human memory, but Ralph maintains it probably evolved from the scheitholt, introduced into Pennsylvania by the early German settlers. 

Their migration into the Appalachian Mountains and the Scotch-Irish settlement of the Shenandoah Valley established the American origins of the dulcimer. Yet research on the history of the dulcimer has remained at about the same stage as when settlement schools, such as Pine Mountain in Kentucky, brought the instrument to the attention of people outside Appalachia in the early 1900s. Therefore, in the 1970s, Ralph traveled into the Southern mountains to photograph the instruments, purchase a few (he owns about 20 dulcimers), and talk to the locals about them. The material gathered has resulted in a history of the instrument (in publication now).

Ralph advises, “When it comes to discovering the history of the dulcimer, we can all play the game. We’re still just finding physical evidence. Sometimes a new discovery can change our entire view.” For this reason (as well as for amusement) he always carries a dulcimer when he travels. During one trip to New York City on business as a communications consultant, Ralphs showed his dulcimer to curious members of an organization whose president stroked his chin and said, “That’s something like we’ve got in the closet at home. We’ve always wondered what it was.” The next day he brought to Ralph three pieces wrapped in a towel which when assembled resembled a transitional instrument, having the scroll, foot, and vertical tuning pegs of a scheitholt but dulcimer features as well.”

Similarly, when traveling in the mountains, Ralph always keeps a dulcimer exposed to view in the backseat of his car. On one occasion he had lost his way and stopped to seek directions from two woodcutters. Looking into the car, one man exclaimed, “There’s something like that back home!” This discovery led Ralph to the only child’s dulcimer he had ever seen.

What are Ralph’s future plans? His ambition is to own a large number of old instruments, to show them in exhibitions, and to explain the history of the dulcimer as it relates to the two great migrations into the Appalachian frontier. Ralph insists on leaving the development of modern playing techniques and adaptations to friend/performers like Jean Ritchie and Madeline MacNeil (whom he coerced into first playing the dulcimer in 1973). 

His own simple chording style (which he swears hasn’t progressed since the spring of 1968) will have to suffice in demonstrating how the dulcimer and the Anglo-American ballads played on it have contributed to American tradition and culture.

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