Editor’s Note: Included are the piece Maddie MacNeil wrote about Jean and Lee Schilling in her first issue as sole editor, Vol. 5 No. 1 (1979), which was followed by the arrangement “Mountain Sky” from Jean, as well as two festival reports and select vintage ads through the years.
Jean and Lee Schilling
By Madeline MacNeil, DPN Archives, Vol. 5 No. 1 (1979)
I’ve spent many a good moment with Jean and Lee Schilling. We’ve talked, laughed, told stories and generally enjoyed the music that has brought us together as friends. The Schillings are doing interesting things worth sharing with DPN readers who possibly have not yet had the opportunity to meet them.
Their home is in a beautiful area – the Great Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee in the town of Cosby. A dulcimer enthusiast visiting Cosby would not want to miss Jean’s Dulcimer Shop and its enticing merchandise relating to dulcimers, folk music in general and mountain crafts. But there’s more.
An interesting climb up a steep hill behind the Schilling’s shop and home leads to the workshop/performing/gathering area of the Folklife Center of the Smokies which began as a dream for the Schillings and now is a working reality. The yearly Dulcimer Gatherings are held here as an activity of the Center. Primitive camping sites are tucked into the woods and music can be heard drifting through the trees at almost any hour as festival friends old and new share tunes and playing styles. The stage was built by many hands several years ago and does not have spot lights or microphones. Interestingly, mikes are not needed or desired by most folks playing on stage. At the dulcimer gatherings some lovely, quiet melodies were played at the evening performances – yet folks sitting on the ground far away from the stage could hear.
The Dulcimer Gathering each June is by no means the only activity at the Folklife Center of the Smokies. There are music and crafts gatherings annually and workshop/seminars for people studying some aspect of the Southern Appalachian heritage. (For information on what happens each year or for membership application, write to the Folklife Center at P.O. Box 8, Cosby, Tennessee 37722). As the center grows, it will be a research area for collecting and preserving Appalachian culture. Scholarships in crafts and music are an important aspect of the center, enabling deserving students an opportunity for growth.
The Folklife Center is an imaginative, ambitious project and Jean and Lee are sensitive, giving people. Lee was born in Kentucky and grew up in West Virginia. Before marrying Jean, he spent eight years as a physicist with NASA. Now his days are filled with wood and marble sculpturing, dulcimer building, music playing and story telling. (Have you ever heard the one about Lee’s little brother and the pig?) He also spearheads the dulcimer shop, a publishing company and a record company.
Jean, a descendant of Scottish settlers in the Cosby area, was born and raised in East Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains. Her instruments are the dulcimer and the autoharp. Her gentleness, charm and humor spring forth as she shares her music with audiences large and small. Jean’s artistry is also reflected in her drawings – pen and ink sketches of mountain scenes and native birds, and marvelously detailed paintings of birds on wood.
For eight years Lee and Jean have served as Volunteers in Parks (VIPs) for the National Park Service presenting interpretive heritage programs. Their program was the first incorporating local folks in interpretation. Now parks all over the country are doing similar programs attracting much visitor interest – sometimes even outshining the bears!
If you’re in the Smokey Mountains area, you should visit Jean’s Dulcimer Shop and the Folklife Center. Stop on the foot bridge leading to the shop and listen to Crying Creek. Talk with the Schillings, for they are open and sharing. And don’t forget to scratch Puppy behind the ears. Yes, he’s a dog, but he’s at least three times bigger than his name implies.
You’ll probably be interested to know that the 1979 Dulcimer Gathering at Cosby will be held June 15th – 17th. Be sure to note it on your calendar.
About the arrangement
Dear Maddie:
We were very interested to read Keith Young’s review in the Autumn 1978 DPN of the 43rd Old Fiddlers Convention at Galax, Virginia. In it, he gives a list of the dulcimer contest winners and mentions that Sharon Shelbourne from Colonial Heights, Virginia had placed by playing a song called “Mountain Sky”.
I am wondering if this is the same “Mountain Sky” I wrote and recorded in my album OLD TRADITIONS several years ago. (Ed. Note: Yes, it is.) If so, it’s not only a very flattering compliment that someone is hearing and playing my music, but a great thrill that it has been used with some success in a contest. I feel any composer would feel the same, to find compositions getting some public acceptance.
If the “Mountain Sky” Sharon Shelbourne played is, indeed, my song, I’d like to express my gratitude and thanks to her for using it. In case some of your readers might be interested, here is a copy of “Mountain Sky” for you to share.
Jean Schilling
Cosby ~ 1978
The Second Annual Cosby, Tennessee Dulcimer Festival attracted a small but terrifically interesting and entertaining crowd this year. Dulcimaniacs from many parts of the country came to the gathering set in the beautiful Smokey Mountains at the Folklife Center of the Smokies. Workshops were ably led by such dulcimer folks as Lois Hornbostel, Hank Arbaugh, Dick Tracy, Bonnie Carol, David Schnaufer and others.
The wild man of the festival, Bill “Lizard” Wallace of Washington, D.C., led a workshop in the seldom used NBC tuning of which he is quite an expert. During the evenings when all of the workshops were still spinning through people’s minds, came the chance to show one’s skill on the open air stage unaccompanied by microphones and amplification.
The June 9th through 11th gathering would never have occurred without the uniting work and support of Jean and Lee Schilling and our special thanks go to them. We encourage dulcimer folks to put this festival on their itinerary for 1979. It should not be missed.
Rick Freimuth & David Young, DPN Archives Vol. 4 No. 4 (1978)
Cosby Convention 1983
For those of you who missed the Cosby Dulcimer and Harp Convention June 10-13, 1983, please think twice about next year when you’re making out your 1984 festival agenda. The weather was comfortable and no rain was in sight. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly during the day and at night, WATCH OUT! These folks came ready to pick, and pick they did till all hours; and talk about some great jamming!
This was the first year that harps of all kinds were added to the other scheduled events. The evening concerts gave the audience many performers from all walks of the dulcimer experience including other instruments like Betty Smith’s psaltery and even an African Guitar.
By the time festival season comes around, I could use a big shot in the arm to get me out of my slump. Since the dulcimer experience is a never-ending one willed with different styles, methods, and moods, we could all use some help from time to time no matter how advanced we think we are. Cosby came just in time to motivate me. Workshops were presented for fretted and hammer dulcimer, autoharp, folk harp, cornstalk fiddles, limber toys, Chroma-harp, jaw harp, rhythm bones, and plucked and bowed psaltery.
This year was also the first year for the World’s Championship for the Faster Changer of a Broken Fretted Dulcimer String. Each contestant’s bass string was cut and a new string, to be tuned to a given pitch, was supplied. Contestants started with hands on heads, but tools were allowed. Prizes were awarded as follows: First Place and $25 went to Ed Ireton from New Carlisle, OH, in an amazing time of 48 seconds. Second place and $15 went to Audrey Hines from Franklington, NC, with a time of 2:55, and Third Place and $5 went to 12-year-old Libby Hale of Knoxville, TN, with a time of 3:05.
Come join us next year and we’ll try to top 1983.
LaRaye Cunningham, DPN Archives Vol. 9 No. 4 (1983)
