Bill Collins
Wilmington, Delaware
Dear Fiona,
Welcome, and tremendous thanks for taking the helm at DPN!
I see that I have some articles and tab that I kept from issues going back to 1991, so I guess that means I’ve been a subscriber for at least 32 years.
Personal highlights with the magazine of course have to include seeing a profile on myself in the Vol. 29 No. 2 issue (“Look, Ma, I’ve officially made it in the dulcimer world!”) and my article on Shaker music for dulcimer (Vol. 37 No. 3).
But when I look back on my early experience with the magazine, I think what I remember most often and most fondly is being exposed for the first time to the names and faces of mountain dulcimer icons that I would later get to meet and befriend through shared experiences at a host of dulcimer festivals: the great David Schnaufer, whom I was blessed to study with on two separate occasions at Augusta Spring Dulcimer Week; Janita Baker; Jerry Rockwell; Margaret MacArthur; Tull Glazener; Ralph Lee Smith; Susan Trump; Bill Taylor; and so many others.
And of course Maddie MacNeil herself, who graciously invited me to teach at her week-long festivals at Elkins, West Virginia, and Winchester, Virginia, and who always welcomed me as if I were an old friend.
Ken Longfield
Reedsville, Pennsylvania
I first met Maddie MacNeil in 1971 when we both worked for the concession company in Shenandoah National Park. Maddie worked at Skyland Lodge doing children’s programs during the day and playing folk music in the lounge in the evenings. My wife and I would occasionally travel from our job at the Loft Mountain camp store and wayside on our evenings off to watch Maddie perform. It was a distance of 37 miles along Skyline Drive and took about an hour to get there.
We did not return to the park in the summer of 1972, but in 1973 we returned and continued our acquaintance. By then she added the mountain dulcimer to her guitar and hammered dulcimer playing. After that summer we lost contact for almost a decade.
Visiting a music store that specialized in folk I discovered that Maddie and Phil Mason were publishing a newsletter for hammered and mountain dulcimer players. I subscribed and we renewed our acquaintance.
When my wife and I moved to Pennsylvania in 1982 I met a dulcimer builder and asked Maddie if I could write about him for Dulcimer Players News. She accepted the article and published it. Then she asked me if I’d be interested in doing interviews with dulcimer makers and writing articles about them. I agreed. While I was doing this she also had me compiling information for News and Notes. During this time our friendship consisted mostly of mail correspondence and the occasional visit at a festival.
Later when she and Ralph Lee Smith started a week long dulcimer festival at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, they recruited me to help provide technical support for the festival. Over the next several years we spoke frequently about DPN and its future, the growth of interest in both types of dulcimers, and the fun we had in introducing people to playing these instruments. Although we lived in different states, we kept in touch by email and phone. Maddie and I spent a good deal of time talking about our spiritual journeys.
Maddie was a great ambassador for both types of dulcimers, a delightful performer, and an excellent teacher.
Paul Crocker
Bath, United Kingdom
Hi Fiona,
Wow that was quick, all the way to the U.K.
Congratulations. A wonderful commemorative issue. A fascinating history.
I was fortunate to meet Roger Nicholson several times at gatherings of the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club. A genius player but so modest and encouraging. He played my dulcimer, made for me by my Dad. Still using it today.
We also met Jean Ritchie on a visit to the U.K. A lovely lady. She played some lovely songs for us. I have a signed CD as a souvenir of that day.
I will enjoy reading DPN cover to cover and sharing it with my 90 year old Dad, maker and player John Crocker. A previous cover star of DPN!
Thank you.
Best wishes.
