Forum Activity for @benjamin-w-barr-jr

Yeah, Ken and I having a great time learning some stuff, connecting, and seeing friends old and new.  (okay, yeah, we may be old but we're still making music. 

Ken, the thought occurred to me as well, but I've had a really awful flu this past week and so I would definitely not want to get you sick! 

Lisa, I think you are on the wrong side of the river for me way as I go by. I'm planning to head down 9W to see my cousin in Bergen County, NJ. Thought I'd take the old route instead of the big highway and relive some memories of driving up the Hudson River when I was young.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song,"

You two rascals!  What fun!  

Here is a photo to show that we are at the Dulcimer Association of Albany's festival in Latham , NY. We met up with each other yesterday and reconnected with many other friends here. Here is photo of us together at the Saturday evening concert.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

 IMG_0922.jpeg - 288KB

DPN is still in business.  I got a magazine in the post not long ago.  

I haven't seen any activity on the DPN website or Facebook page since November of last year. Is Dulcimer Player News out of business?

I owned one of his dulcimers and had a nice conversation with him not too long ago.  May his memory be a blessing!

This is indeed sad news.  I visited John at his home many years ago when I started building Thomas dulcimores.  He showed me his shop and his drawings of the Thomas he had measured.  He had a lot of stories to tell, all interesting.

There is an article by him in Foxfire 12.

Sad news, thank you for letting us know Ken.
John Huron was quite a Renaissance man when it came to early folk instruments. He made traditional mountain and gourd banjos, limberjacks, dulcimers, rhythm bones, and other early American instruments. I have two mouth bows made by him. One of his mountain banjos resides in the Smithsonian Museum.
His talent, skill, and knowledge is a great loss, but he left behind a great many gifts in preserving our heritage!

https://tnartscommission.org/permanentcollection/john-huron/

Thank you for sharing this sad news, Ken.  Though I never met Mr. Huron, his name is, indeed, part of current mountain dulcimer history. 

I just learned today that John Huron who led many in the building of Thomas type dulcimers died on the morning of March 6, 2026. His obituary can be found here:  John Huron . I met John when I attended Dulcimerville in Black Mountain, NC. He restored my J.E. Thomas dulcimer to playing condition and gave me the inside mold in case I decided to build one. He was a part of current mountain dulcimer history. Rest in peace, John.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Indeed, Val, time is flying and a day in which we highlight the spread of the Appalachian dulcimer around the world is fast approaching.    

As you already know, I'm a fan of your tunes and the wonderful-sounding mountain dulcimer(s) you've built there in your home country-- I look forward to your recordings!   

Good on you Robin, one of the most important days in the year, time is flying.

I, too, am sorry to hear this.  

Sorry to hear.

Never ever spray or drip any cleaner, liquid, or polish directly onto the fret board. Thanks Ms. Strumelia

That's exactly what I was going to do , Good to know.   I can just see me repeating that over and over again till the Frets start to get loose and then I'd be scratching the top of my head trying to figure out what the heck's going on 

It can be a little overwhelming trying to weed through all the information that's on the internet. Clean the front board with lighter fluid and a  toothbrush, don't use lighter fluid use alcohol wipes don't use alcohol wipes use a toothbrush and household cleaners don't use household cleaners use this product no use that product and so on can drive one nuts 

According to Doug Naselroad there will not be one this year. They were unable to secure funding to continue the homecoming. Funding primarily used to pay the workshop leaders and provide meals and housing for them. Other participants paid their own housing and meal costs. 

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Fess Parker played a dulcimer in one of his old TV series, either "Daniel Boone" or "Davy Crockett".  John Boy Walton played one in "The Waltons", too.  Jim Varney ("Ernest") once showed Chevy Chase how to play it on Chevy's show.

Does anyone know when the Hindman Homecoming event is going to occur this year? Will it be recorded as in the past?

It's me bumping this thread again!  

Saturday 28 March 2026 is the day.  

In 1976, Appalshop made a movie entitled "Sourwood Mountain" which is about I.D. Stamper. He plays the mountain dulcimer in it.

There is also the "Hearts of the Dulcimer" video about the West Coast dulcimer community.

I have a VHS tape which Lynn McSpadden gave me. It told how they make dulcimers at the Dulcimer Shoppe. I don't if there are other copies floating around. He told me he send it to his dealers.

Jean Ritchie plays a mountain dulcimer on an episode of Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" TV show. 

You can find many videos with the dulcimer on YouTube. Some are clips from movies and TV shows.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I used F-One Fretboard oil on a used dulcimer i bought that needed some TLC. It worked very well to restore the fretboard.        In the blurb that accompanies the product on the Blue Lion website, it explains why the company doesn't use lemon oil in their products, though that could just be a marketing ploy to distinguish their product from competitors  

Jay (olddog75)

PS: You seem like you don't want to make an early misstep on your dulcimer journey, so I'd go with the F-One, then you won't have to worry about the fretbooard "dryin out" since there won't be any lemon oil on it in the first place...

The first episode of the old "Christy" TV series shows Fairlight Spencer playing a dulcimer to soothe her children at a stressful time.

I've used GHS Fast Fret to clean my fretboards and clean/wipe down the strings which get grimy too. It leaves things nice and feels easy to then to slide up and down the fretboard.
I also admit (confess?) I have used Lemon Pledge as well to clean/polish the fretboard (with strings in place) and it seems to work well for me too.
BUT... and this is important-  Never ever spray or drip any cleaner, liquid, or polish directly onto the fretboard unless it's a fretless one. Instead, just put a very small amount on a soft cloth and then apply the cloth to the fretboard. You don't want any liquid at all to seep into the fret slots!- it can cause them to swell and the frets to loosen. This applies to seams on the instrument as well. Always use a soft cloth, do not apply products directly to the instrument .

One movie I've always liked was the 1984 "The Dollmaker" starring Jane Fonda as the wife of a Kentucky coal miner during WWII, and their struggles. It's a heart rending story of how she fought through hardship and social restraints in order to help her family. No dulcimer, but there is some wonderful Appalachian music and song woven into the movie. It's a good one. Be sure to have some tissues handy. You can watch it in full for free on youtube, or maybe order it from your library.

Hi everyone,

Lately I’ve been thinking about films (and a few documentaries) that feature the mountain dulcimer or, more broadly, the Appalachian/old-time folk world where the dulcimer feels at home. It’s a niche corner of music on screen, and the instrument often appears only briefly, but when it does, it can really set a mood - intimate, homemade, and quietly powerful.

I don’t expect movies to be music history lessons, but I do appreciate scenes that capture the atmosphere around traditional instruments: front-porch playing, community music, simple arrangements, and that “passed down by ear” feeling.

Here are a few dulcimer / Appalachian-flavored titles I’ve watched (or revisited) recently:

Songcatcher (2000)

Matewan (1987)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

The Dolly Parton Story: From Coal Miner’s Daughter to Legend (doc)

The Appalachians (PBS series)

Some of these are more about the culture than the instrument itself, but they all helped shape (or reflect) how people picture Appalachian music and the traditions around it.

I also came across a couple of lists while browsing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Documentary_films_about_Appalachia

https://bestsimilar.com/tag/20375-appalachia

It’s hard to tell from lists alone which films are actually orth wwatching from a dulcimer/old-time interest perspective, especially when the mountain dulcimer might only show up in a scene or two.

I’m curious what folks here think:
Are there any films, TV episodes, or documentaries that feature the mountain dulcimer (even briefly) that you enjoyed - or ones that made you cringe? Obscure finds and “blink-and-you-miss-it” appearances are totally welcome. Bonus points if you remember the specific scene or performer.

“WoW, A fret eraser”  I'll Google that I've never heard of such a thing. Cool thanks I'll give it a try sounds better than using steel wool that someone said to use. I don't want to screw things up by doing it the wrong way thanks again for the info 

In my opinion, mineral oil is good. I also like mineral oil with orange oil, and from what I understand, lemon oil is usually mineral oil with a bit of lemon oil in it.
I like to take mineral oil on a rag and just dab the tip of the rag in the mineral oil, then vigorously rub it into the fretboard, wipe away any excess, and let it saturate then dry. It will dissolve all the grime and replenish the moisture of the wood. I can't imagine the brand of rag or mineral oil makes a big difference. I would just get a bottle of mineral oil, personally.
 
If the rag is meant to polish the frets, I recommend a "fret eraser" which is a soft abrasive pad that easily polishes the frets. 

Blue Lion still shows they offer the MusicNomad fretboard oil: https://www.bluelioninstruments.com/accessories.html#instrument_cleaner_polish

I like this group's music!  

Thats running parallel to the top of the capo not cable

Has anyone out there used MusicNomad F-ONE Oil Fretboard Cleaner & Conditioner? 

Someone said that I should use gorgomyte fretboard conditioning cloth,

But it looks like this product is no longer available And that I should stay away from anything that has lemon oil in it. I don't know why but.   any recommendations out there 

Oh by the way if anybody out there that has a Dudley Quick-Release capo that doesn't seem to be holding on correctly and having a tendency to pop off the fret-board do not Bend the arm. the cam has one or two little adjustment screws that you can loosen and rotate the cam to the correct orientation the screws on the cam should be running parallel to the top of the cable just thought I'd throw that out there 

Still waiting for my February DPN. I do have a First Class Mail subscription. Can't wait to read it.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

It's come to my attention that orders for custom fret templates are not being sent to me from my order form at the Bear Meadow website.

If you've ordered a template and not gotten an email response, please forgive, and contact me. You can either do so here or using the bearmeadow.com ContactUs page or sending  me a private message via FOTMD.

Some new developments with these fret templates, along with original specs:

• I'm now able to cut any scale length from ukulele or mandolin to bass guitar.
• Scale length can be specified in inch or millimeter 
• Template widths are available from 1-1/2" to 2-1/2" 
• Template stock is structural Aluminum 6061 1/8" thick
• Scales are cut to begin at either nut or zero fret (a small but telling difference!)
• Templates can carry scales along one or both edges
• Along with different scale length, each scale on the template can be uniquely specified (varying diatonic/chromatic, extra fret designations for diatonic, either inch or millimeter system, etc.)
• I'm now certifying directly: by using the template to cut a fingerboard and monting that on a single-string music instrument (a monochord) that I designed to accommodate any scale length.
• I'm now certifying every fret position to ± 2 cents (2 hundreds of a semi-tone, or half-step). In practice I repair any slot that doesn't certify at or below 1.5 cents

The website is built using a design tool that requires an old Macbook. I've not been able to edit it for a few years, so these matters haven't been updated. Hope to do that soon!

I am very sorry to hear of the loss of Ron. He was always very generous with other builders, and I enjoyed visiting him at festivals. 

Ron went to astonishing lengths to appear, teach and sell his dulcimers! I last saw him at the Nutmeg Festival, in Milford Connecticut, a few years ago. We had a good conversation about building, and I gave him one of my miniature clamps that I made, back in my ship modeling days.

And I depended on him for his dulcimer capos.

His presence and talents will be missed. A generation is passing the torch to younger folks. I've had to limit my travels to festivals to one or two a year.  

@razyn, I have my copy of February's DPN open to your article right now. I'll be reading it as soon as I get a break from work.  Congrats!

If you haven't looked through Charles Seeger's article recently (I sure hadn't, though I had read it sometime in the 1970s), the "Clan Campbell" dulcimer (that he illustrates in Plate VI, but mostly dismisses as non-Scottish) appears to be the 1832 one, now in the Tennessee State Museum, that was the subject of Ralph Lee Smith's article in DPN, 37:1, Winter 2011, 71-72.  It did indeed come down in the Campbell family of California, though their specific ancestor who had made it (in Sneedville, TN) was named Neal McNeal.

@razyn , it's wonderful that your article was published in Dulcimer Players News. I'm sure many many people will enjoy and benefit from the information you put into your article.

Just a followup to this older post:  After looking at my wall display for a year or so, last summer I wrote up my notes on each of the five displayed instruments.  Having discussed this with Fiona Potts for most of a year, we decided that it could be a new article for DPN.  That took a while longer; although I finished my work on it last October, it took a while longer to get in the queue for publication.  And I decided it's really "The Story of the Zitter," so that was the title I submitted.  It has just come out, in the Feb. 2026 issue of DPN.

Most, maybe all, such studies so far have begun in the present and looked back:  what are the roots of this lovely little box?  I thought it might be more sympathetic to start with a lovely little example from those roots, and take it forward.  I'm almost, but not quite, tempted to use the recently made-up term "proactive" for my approach: let an old zitter tell its gr-gr-grandchildren the bittersweet tale of its gradual Americanization.