Texas Dulcimer Net

by Justin Marquez

_{Old-Time Music, Texas Style}

Old-time music is making a serious comeback in America today.  Once the music of the front porch and barn dance back in the hollows of the Ozarks and Appalachian mountains, the gentle genre is gaining a new following of flatlander city folks in search of their musical roots. 

So, exactly what IS “Old-Time” Music?  Perhaps the best place to start the defining process is by telling you what it isn’t! It isn’t really “Bluegrass”.  (But it is where bluegrass came from.)  It certainly isn’t Country Music in the sense of what you hear on commercial country radio stations.  It usually has no percussion instruments, although sometimes the occasional Irish or frame drum will be present. It has no electric guitars and absolutely, positively NO “effects” added in.  (Since most of the authentic traditional instruments are quietly gentle, concerts will have amplification, but not the kind that makes your ears hurt.)

Old-time music usually involves old fiddle tunes from the barn dances of way back when.  It frequently involves gentle old gospel music. (Think of old church gospel hymns such as “In the Garden”, “On the Wings of a Dove”, “Angel Band”.)  There will be a few good Celtic tunes and the occasional O’Carolan harp tune converted over for dulcimers.

One of the simplest of all the stringed instruments is heading the charge, too.  The lowly mountain dulcimer is finding a new home in suburbia!  The mountain dulcimer is probably the easiest string instrument to learn to play because the instrument is “diatonic”. For you non-musicologists, that means that it’s frets spell out the familiar do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do scale.  Think of a piano with only the white keys.  I tell people that the mountain dulcimer has half the strings and half the frets of a guitar.  That makes it only one fourth as hard to play as a guitar. That’s not just a stage joke - it really is very easy to play. 

Most folks struggle hard to learn to play the guitar and can only get a recognizable tune out of one after a few weeks of frustration and fingertip agony.  I have seen my good friend Jerry Wright teach folks to play a simple tune on the mountain dulcimer in just 5 minutes.  He does this regularly with people who walk up at pioneer festivals where he and his friends are playing to the walk-by crowds.  And, as a plus, the mountain dulcimer doesn’t make your fingers sore!  Near-instant gratification and no pain - it doesn’t get much better than that !

It is this kind of accessibility which draws people into the new/old folk music scene. Simple tunes played on simple instruments by some of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet anywhere.  That’s the old-time music scene in America today.

OK - by now you are probably asking yourself “That sounds like fun! Where can I check out some of this music?”  Well, it is fun!  There are many “festivals” all around the country where you may go and hear a lot of fine musicians play this old music.  There are also many folk music clubs around the country, too. Unfortunately, they can be hard to find unless you know how to look for them.  Most of the festivals are labors of love put on by people who love the music and fellowship which happens at these events.  Since they are either non-profit or budget events, there isn’t much publicity for them.  Most dulcimer and folk music clubs are not listed as such in the phone book and rely on word-of-mouth for publicity.

To find these festivals, clubs, and venues you can effectively use the search capabilities of the Internet.  My favorite search engine is http://www.google.com but most of them will find you some helpful links if you simply search for “Dulcimer Clubs Music Festivals”. Here are some helpful links, too:

Texas Dulcimer Net (a links-only site dedicated to this type of music!) http://www.texasdulcimer.net

Dulcimer Player News Magazine’s Website  http://www.dpnews.com has info on many old-time music clubs and festivals all across the country.

Some of the upcoming premier Texas old-time music festivals this spring and summer are:

Sam Houston Folklife Festival - Huntsville, TX, April 27^th & 28th

Lone Star Dulcimer Festival - Glen Rose, TX,  May 11-13 on Mother’s Day weekend. http://users2.ev1.net/~dcturner/grfest.htm

SAMFest - Houston, TX,  July 27^th & 28th

Glen Rose, TX is located about 65 miles southwest from Fort Worth. Huntsville, TX is just about the same distance due north of Houston.

You can also search for these festival names. Most major festivals will have a website somewhere “out there” on the ‘Net.  Once you get “in the loop” and meet some of the old-time pickers in your area, they can keep you posted on events happening close to you.

These festivals normally include concerts in the evenings and workshops for multiple acoustic instruments during the day.  Typical costs for full access to all the workshops and concerts is about $35 to $65 per person.  Concert-only tickets are usually available at about half of the full workshop package price. 

One of the very best festivals (the Lone Star Dulcimer Festival, now in it’s 20^th year) is totally FREE, with expenses being covered by raffle tickets and donated merchandise sales and outright cash donations in a bucket passed around among the listeners.  Think about spending two whole days and nights of concerts at an outdoor sound stage, enjoying a spring breeze out under the trees, piled up in a lawn chair (of your own bringing) and listening to the mockingbirds sing between sweet 45-minute music sets.  That’s the Lone Star Dulcimer Festival in Glen Rose, TX.  During those two days you’ll hear bluegrass style music, Celtic, Cajun, fiddle tunes, a cappella Shape-Note Singing, good ol’ gospel music and the Texas State Liars’ Contest. (Yes - it really IS that laid back.)

The festivals may seem centered on dulcimers but in reality a wide variety of acoustic traditional instruments are involved.  Typically the concerts, workshops and jam sessions include will mountain dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, guitars, autoharps, pennywhistles and flutes, mandolins, banjos, and fiddles of various sizes.  There are some really good old-time string bands playing at these festival concerts.  Check’em out! Come hear authentic roots music played by some of the best pickers you’ve never heard of before!