900 Miles - Presnell Dulcimer

One of my favourite tunes by I. D. Stamper is 900 Miles. Ike had a long VSL dulcimer that he built himself and then slack tuned it in Aeolian so he could get his noter really whistling on the frets (slack melody strings give more 'whistle'). Also from this tuning he could switch from minor to major by noting across melody and middle strings - he used the technique to great effect on 900 Miles to give the train whistle. Ike created bags of energy in his playing by rolling the bass string to give a rhythmic drone. He was one of the fewpre-revival noter droneplayers I have heard who used a guitar plectrum and an out strum lead.

Here I'm using an Ed Presnell dulcimer with a VSL of over 33 inches. When John McCutcheon recorded I. D. Stamper in 1977 for the Red Wing album he added a liberal dose of reverb to Stampers dulcimer and voice.In thisinterpretation of the tune in a similar style to Ike'sI've gone for tape echo.