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Dulcimers

 
Some of the music we heard at the Museum of Appalachia's Homecoming came from dulcimers.  They are always associated with Appalachian music, although it is unclear how widely used they were in the last century. 


There are dulcimer groups all over the Southeast now, and dulcimer festivals are popular in our area. 


I have several friends who are master dulcimer players, and I wished they were there with me last Sunday.  One of them is in her nineties and plays by memory.  She started playing when she was seventy-six.  What a shame it would have been if she had thought she was too old to learn something new!  She has brought a lot of joy to a lot of people with her dulcimer playing.

 
These dulcimers were made by a craftsman from Seymour, Tennessee.  He had brought several to the festival to sell, and by Sunday afternoon, this was all he had left.


There was a booth that had one-stringed instruments for sale.  They were made using recycled tin cans and were called "Canjos".  They were selling a lot of them; might have been for people who already had everything else in their collection!
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