Mountain Dulcimer (Detail)
"Songcatcher"

Original design in the traditional teardrop style of North Carolina and Virginia. The body is black walnut. The fingerboard is recycled pine with a black walnut fretboard lamination. Tuning pegs are hand-carved maple.

Many peoples of the Americas play the mountain dulcimer. Besides the traditional European descendants who live in the Appalachians, I know of a Hawaiian who does music of the Islands on a dulcimer, I saw an African-American play gospel and old slave-era songs on a dulcimer; I've heard of a Mexican-American who plays folk music on one; and, I know of one American Indian who played the dulcimer once in a while, Buffy Saint Marie. As I carved the head on this piece, and it started to become my Songcatcher, I tried to envision my own Indian ancestry, the tiny part of me that goes back around four or five generations to some Northwest or Northern Plains tribe. (I assume, since my family came from Northeastern Oregon.) This instrument has black walnut top, sides, back, head, tailpiece, and fingerboard laminate over recycled pine. The tuning pegs are maple carved into the shape of arrowheads.