Appalachian Dulcimer - Amy Fabbri - The Mountain Traditions Project

From the mountains of Western Maryland and West Virginia comes a series of short films about Appalachian traditions in our changing world.
Shot over several months in the summer of 2011, the films follow the stories of a mountain dulcimer player, a metalworker, a quilter, a hammer dulcimer maker, a group of homesteaders and a group of kayakers. The music for the films was composed and performed by Appalachian musicians.
The Mountain Traditions Project is a collaboration between Appalachian Independent Newspaper, Mountain City Traditional Arts and Interdependent Pictures.
More information on the ongoing film project can be found at www.appindie.org

[@daisygene]

Thank you for all the kind words, everyone. I'm not very familiar with using KZbin, but have read all your comments. I enjoyed participating in this project and am glad to be able to share the music. ~Amy

[@MrSquekersUPSB]

Thank you for sharing Amy. 11 years later, can I ask you what pic you use? 😅

[@BeyondF1]

I'm originally from London, England now living in Central Kentucky. I am currently making my 6th dulcimer. The immigrant tradition continues.

[@MoonStar-fq6oy]

Thank ya for sharing only if we could go back in time,but the music of mountain folk it seems to relax with the sounds❤❤❤

[@edshift]

Greetings from rural Scotland. Sounds Fantastic. Luv an Peace.

[@BusterKitten]

I just hope these old tunes will continue to be passed down the generations. This is American history.

[@meredithwilliams4671]

They are being passed down. Check out Elizabeth Laprelle and Clifton Hicks.

[@dulcimerginny]

I started with the mtn. dulcimer 7 years ago, and have taken up fiddle, guitar and banjo, but my heart is still with the mountain dulcimer. The reasons are expressed in this presentation very well and I'm so glad the tradition is being carried on. Congratulations!

[@danielroberts2012]

my heart skipped a beat when I heard her say home❤️ thank you for keeping our culture alive

[@robertvalderaz7329]

💖, the more I watch these type of videos, makes me want to move there. I feel such a connection.

[@drillsargentadog]

my grandad is an appalachian native (before he moved out to California in the dustbowl) and he used to make dulcimers in his woodshop when I was a kid. My dad still has a bunch of the old dulcimers he built.

[@SHMAGEGIE]

could i buy one from u? i'd like to try to learn it 😃

[@curtbouterse315]

FreeD, Please contact me (curt.at.bouterse.dot.com) I research and collect old dulcimers & would like to find out more about your grandad & his instrs.

[@SaposJoint]

Fascinating piece! The first tune she sings is probably a thousand years old, and I'm in awe that it stays with the fine folks in the Eastern mountains. Thank you so much.

[@cocoloco285]

It seems very similar to Scarborough fair

[@Me2Lancer]

Thanks for sharing the background of the Appalachian dulcimer and taking us on a musical journey back to our roots.

[@rolobotoman]

wow, I was given one from tenants of an old house in Lower St-laurence region in Québec. No one knew what this instrument was, it has just been in the house forever. Can't wait to put some strings and make it sing again.

[@paulinemasonbrown8554]

Thanks so much for sharing. Love the music. God bless you all always

[@AngelicRaeven]

I'm in my 20's learning the mountain dulcimer as well. Blessed to have a musical and music-loving family. Keep promoting this rarity! :) it's beautiful!

[@-jank-willson]

I do the chordstick personally. Many people confuse it with the 'dulcitar' AKA walking dulcimer (which is a guitar-played version of the Appalachian mountain dulcimer), but they are technically 2 separate instruments with 2 separate origins. I love all the traditional mountain instruments, chordsticks, dulcimers, washboards, octo wood-top banjos, diddly bows/'canjos', Cigar Box (tenor) Guitars, autoharps, spoons, lap harps, psalteries, git-fiddles, etc. There are probably many more that I am not aware of or have been lost to history. The Appalachian people had very little and often had to make do with hybrid instruments made out of pre-made parts like cans, staple frets, fence wire, and wood boxes.

[@TheSteamtramman]

The whole tenor of your talk reflects the life in the Scottish Highlands until the coming of electricity in the 1950s. Local people would hold a ceilidh (various spellings) where they would meet once a month or more to sing and dance to the old folk songs; the people would walk for miles just to have company for one evening/night. Instruments were fiddles of various stles, someone would play one flat on the table.

[@The_Gallowglass]

Gàidheal gu bràth. ;)

[@michaelcraig9449]

Streamtramman, you are talking about Scotland, is it still like this, real old school? They did not get electricity till the 1950's? Is there still some real remote places in Scotland with no electricity, or at least places where people get together and do this kind of thing?

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

@@michaelcraig9449 I wouldn't be so surprised about that date. My father could remember the first house to get electricity in his street (his Aunt Jinny) and that was late 1940s/early 1950s. He was brought up in a street of one-up-one-down back-to-back houses in a northern industrial city in England, Bradford.

[@CuFhoirthe88]

Thing is, Appalachians tend to be descended from Ulster Scots, who originally came from the Lowlands. There wasn't a strong distinction to be sure until the Davidian Reforms and similar changes saw things like Gaelic disappear from the Lowlands. I'm not going to touch on the sectarianism. And more recently the industrial age saw many ruralites and Highlanders move to the big Lowland cities (Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, for jobs etc. Now, "after Sir Walter Scott, we are all Highlanders,"

[@fredoregan1455]

Hi Amy, I love your music. I was taught the Appalacian dulcimer by Ralph Lee Smith way back when

[@appflutes]

Beautiful music. I love building, and playing Mountain Dulcimers.

[@OKRhys]

And Wales came to the Carolinas too. My ancestors settled there. Reese or Rhys was who they were. Love you music.

[@SvartRavensEyez]

Interesting to hear you say that, because my family is from Eastern Tennessee and I grew up listening to my uncles sing and play like this. Today I have a strong love for Norwegian music including folk. Guess it makes sense :)

[@georgemacewan9674]

The sound reminds me of the bagpipes. Same deep drone sound. This must have brought back so many memories of home.

[@willow441000]

This music stirs my soul,very beautiful, thank you for sharing

[@BeTheUnicornTarot]

The music reminds me of the movie Songcatcher. Love it. Thank you.

[@jonathankennedy2635]

You speak so well and true about Trad Folk and I had a UK Aunt who travelled though out the mountains with Cecil Sharp on a peddle bike collecting songs using a phonograph (Wax cylinder) and lets hope another surge of Folk becomes strong again....as in the 1960/70!

[@johncarrick9611]

Amy is awesome. Love this.

[@robzamites3441]

Beautiful playing and a beautiful story, Amy.

[@chriswareham]

Reminds me of the Turkish baglama in the way it has three courses of strings, or a distant relative of the Finnish kantele. Sounds fantastic!

[@walteryoung2025]

I bought a Mountain Dulcimer at Silver Dollar City earlier this year and have loved learning to play it. I still have a long way to go but it's a blast to learn.

[@daisygene]

My mom bought her first dulcimer at Silver Dollar City, which I eventually inherited. Happy picking to you!

[@walteryoung2025]

And to you! My Ozark picking sister!

[@bricknboxer]

You covered a lot about the roots of appalachian music and tradition. Simply put and well said. I especially love the sean nos style singing and story telling. There's nothing more pure than that. Thank you!

[@knelson3484]

Cool instrument. She sounds like the real deal.

[@AzRavnGrl]

You play so well! I love those old folk songs, and I just ordered a dulcimer!.

[@michaelcraig9449]

AzRavngrl, where can one get a dulcimer, and how much does one cost?

[@sheilabarron4526]

Thank ya Amy LOVE the songs +story telling ✌💙

[@farnorthweaver7793]

That's how I feel about my trade. Keeping our history alive, to be strong in your culture, is so important for our children. My heritage is solid Scots from both parents....with a bit of Pict from my mothers side. Be well....

[@flamencoprof]

Keep on keeping on with the music. Just been reading about Daniel Boone and how some hunters ran across him laying on his back in the wilderness singing. I wonder what.

[@dathomestead3115]

Oooo this is my next instrument...so pretty! Love Jean Ritchie songs too.

[@danieljones3762]

Love this music 🥹🥰

[@dominiquedv]

Wonderful instrument! Your playing is awesome. I play also from an instrument like this but in the européan version : it is called épinette and comes from the french mountains Vosges.

[@coverchrg]

That's the coolest instrument I've ever seen. Love the way it sounds.

[@drahow]

love the way you play & sing. thanks.

[@Rascal77s]

So great that you're keeping this rich tradition alive.

[@TheLostMedici]

Great interview and wonderful playing/singing

[@MariUSukulele]

very interesting. thank you, Amy. keep this music alive!!!

[@flamencoprof]

26/06/96 Castle area in Budapest I heard a busker playing something I'd never seen before. I sketched it in my diary. It looked like half of this instrument, two bouts on one side only, I noted Frets, 4 strings treble melody. Frets 3 strings mids, 3 or 4 drones. The treble and mid courses were two different fret scales. It was another two decades before I found this Appalachian tradition.

[@cdesfusa]

So thoughtful and powerful. Thank you

[@ronblack2404]

I feel your music, I came to WA. state with my parents in 1963, my roots are still in Whitesburg KY and Wise VA.

[@PagoAoE2]

I have a dulcimer I got in Bar Harbor, ME. I wish that Sound of Music was still open. I am learning Aunt Rhodie and Clementine. I credit Pete Seeger for and his music for getting me in to folk music. I hope to spread my love of the dulcimer across my home state of NJ. I am 24 as of early 2018.

[@daisygene]

Yay! Keep playing and sharing!

[@TheTechPianoPlayerKid]

I know that band! At the very beginning. The person who is singing at the very beginning of that song, was my eighth grade and ninth grade English teacher. The song is called place by place. And the person who was my eighth grade and ninth grade English teacher and who sings at the very beginning of that song, is Mr. John Felton.

[@roger5322]

I grew up in the mountains of western north Carolina in the 60s and 70s. She is right, we are losing the old ways. We were poor, but we was mostly happy. I don't see much happiness these days. We used to look after each other, now we only look out for ourselves. We took care of ourselves, now we look to others to provide for us. What happened to us?

[@victorrodea7163]

😊All those things we let happen to us. Can I add greed, excessive comforts and needless electronics?

[@roger5322]

@@victorrodea7163 if we are making a list of things "we let happen" they is so much more to be added that we would need another sheet of paper. And change in its self isn't a bad thing. Life doesn't tarry with what was, because it is creating what is. However, just because we are moving forward doesn't mean we have to discard the past. The past is what roots us into the present.

[@victorrodea7163]

@@roger5322 thanks Roger never been analyzed for free. From your tome and statement you've been killed by all modern amenities. Enjoy.

[@roger5322]

@@victorrodea7163 only the dead know no amenities. To proclaim differently while using such amenities is a bit hypocritical. I'd suggest you change your tone before you get on a pedestal and preaching as to what another should do.

[@victorrodea7163]

@@roger5322 yes it is hypocritical. As to the pedestal no room you already take up a lot of room on that pedestal. Have a great life rig.

[@cw4karlschulte661]

God bless you! Wonderful voice, beautiful musical and folk treasures. Jean R. was the mother of dulcimer revival, and the folk awakening. Have most of her records and music book. Norwegian langstrike is a fancy dulcimer, only played in remote areas of Norway. Closest relative, but different music. You sing living history, or make it live, songs back to Elizabethan times, your ancestors would be so proud of you.

[@mikedavis2171]

Thanks for sharing this piece of musical history.

[@DouglasRoss1]

Thank you, So much wonderful information. And beautiful music!

[@daisygene]

I took a class of his on ballads. It was so good. He's a wealth of knowledge about the old-time ballads and songs.

[@daisygene]

Paul- I usually tune to DAD but change to DAC for a lot of the modal songs. Thank you!

[@marcobono33]

The dulcimo is a german instrument known from the middleages! Interesting to find it in Appalachians - didn´t know that.

[@terrygwilson9628]

Amy, I love your video, your playing and what you have to say, and your style.

[@daisygene]

Terry G Wilson Thank you so much!

[@terrygwilson9628]

You are very welcome.

[@josephwright8002]

buy the fox fire books.... vol1 to vol seven. folk music is a pioneer craft.

[@farnorthweaver7793]

Oh, Lovely! You have a gift! I'm so glad you're sharing it!! Bless You!

[@RickarooCarew]

SisStar...;;~} .. I was fortunate enough to meet Gene Ritchie at the San Diego folk festival several times in the early 70s... one of my best friends made one in 1969.. so I learned to love the dulcimer... lots of room on my back porch... ;;~} desde la Sierra Estrella de Arizona mi casa es su casa stop by... any Time

[@MarkMaysey]

Nice documentary here, i enjoyed it and love the dulcimer, this inspired me to play mine a little tonight.

[@madeleine8977]

My background is Scotch-Irish and these songs are so familiar. Love the dulcimer.

[@Catdore]

I got a Jean Ritchie dulcimer long ago, and good to hear her mentioned. Retune one or two strings and one can get a lot more chords out of it. Refreshing to see this video.

[@Tootufftocry]

thank you for sharing this

[@therealtoni]

beautiful sound!

[@LazlosPlane]

Remarkable how similar this music is to medieval European songs.

[@TheAdadadada]

I hope Jean got to see this video before she passed! I know she would have found it as charming as I! Very sweet!

[@daisygene]

Hi Ian. I don't know if she did, but I met her in Frostburg, MD, in 2009, when we both performed for the Frostburg State Appalachian Festival. I am so grateful I got to meet her before she passed. My mom had taught and performed with her, but I never had a chance to meet her before that. Are you a relative?

[@TheAdadadada]

My Grandparents were Jean's sister Edna and Floyd Baker Ritchie over in Winchester! Edna introduced me to Homer Ledford (Ledford Dulcimers) in Lexington and I got to perform with him in Louisville at Univ of Ky. I first met Jean in 1974 in Viper at the Ritchie family homestead. What great memories!

[@chucklucas8747]

When I lived in Clifton forge Virginia a lady played them in church was great sounds

[@Realist101100]

Beautiful!

[@birdsongvalley]

this is awesome! I want to learn how to play that thing!

[@lauren9004]

Love it!

[@sturdeehouse]

Very inspiring film!

[@crestadude4139]

Great stuff, stop the multi conglomerates from chopping the tops off mountains and stripping the land. Save the mountains and the music, respect the land and destroy government that does not care about real Americans.

[@Osckarre]

Cool sound, almost haunting.

[@seamus9305]

Thank for such beauty.

[@deborahleavelle3912]

love you performance...

[@Tootufftocry]

wow absolutely beautiful and amazing

[@lesleyr.4173]

Loved this video, hearing about her experience with music and the dulcimer. Very well done. I have a McSpadden, but this dulcimer has a nicer sound. Maker of this dulcimer?

[@daisygene]

Leslie- The dulcimer I played in this video was made by Bill Taylor out of Tennessee.

[@marcooros9103]

Hello. I am blind user of KZbin. I have a question. This dulcimer is played with capo, or no? Thank You.

[@morbanjo]

Beautiful Amy! Hope to see you at Pigtown Fling.

[@georgcantor7172]

What kinds of music did you like to listen to during your rebellious years? Was it Frank Sinatra? Elvis? Chubby Checkers? James Brown? the Beatles? Rolling Stones? the Monkees?

[@fayewiles2197]

It is no secret with oe

[@IIVVBlues]

The dulcimer is similar to the European epinette des Vosges, but missing a couple drone strings. With gut strings, it's almost inaudible. The sound box is too small. Steel strings don't become widely available in America until the 1890's and this is most likely the time when the Appalachian or Mountain dulcimer comes into its own, the early 20th century. I think it is particularly suited to solo voice and story telling. I've had one and been performing with it for over 50 years. I am not particularly fond of electrified modern ones, but there are some terrific dulcimer makers out there.

[@timwillis5663]

Amy, do you play Hammered Dulcimer? I moved from Appalachian Dulcimer to the Hammered Dulcimer, find it has such a sweeter sound.

[@9lontoonieful1]

Pretty song!

[@cacheteinflado1]

Nice culture saludos desde Costa Rica!

[@AMarin221]

I agree with this so hard. -Banjo

[@bradleytwilson99]

Wonderful video! if you're not already familiar with the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina then you should check it out. They'd be right up your ally, and you theirs. Thanks!

[@jaques611]

I love this !!

[@michaelcraig9449]

Does anyone still do this stuff and live old school like this, or is she just putting on a demonstration of how it was long ago?

[@angelaturner-cox3046]

Michael Craig -Yes people do still live like this and the Appalachian Dulcimer is actually making a big comeback. It is very well known in the Eastern part of the US. I play though not as well as her. Though with time I sure hope too.

[@michaelcraig9449]

I would sure like to meet some of these old school folks, and play some tunes with them.

[@timwillis5663]

Yes Michael, people still live like that to this present day. I came from those Eastern Kentucky mountains but now live in the North Georgia mountains. I play the Appalachian Dulcimer but, since moving to the Georgia Mountains got introduced to the Hammered Dulcimer, a lovely sounding instrument even older than the Mountain Dulcimer. So many of the old Scottish and Irish fiddle tunes fit so well on the Hammered Dulcimer.

[@SmarterNotHarder25]

@@michaelcraig9449 There's a dulcimer shop in Townsend, TN near Pigeon Forge that still hand makes Appalachian or Mountain Dulcimers and in the summer they do a porch pickin'. It's still very common in the Southeastern U.S. to see Dulcimers, both the Appalachian Dulcimer and the Hammer Dulcimer.

[@michaelcraig9449]

SmarterNotHarder25 And they are not just doing it as a "retro vintage" thing, like a bunch of bearded tattood fake hipsters kind of thing? They are old school for real people? I sure would like to meet them..so tired of fake people with no souls or substance.

[@azpunkydan]

I really enjoyed this video..

[@mdssdp]

what is the name of the song she played on the dulcimer? i love this music, thanks!

[@daisygene]

It's called "One I Love".

[@georgcantor7172]

This sounds great! It's too bad there aren't accompanying instruments like a washboard and a jug... :( I think it would really be awesome to have those in it to get that country feel.

[@meadeskelton3350]

@ 3:04 Sounds like the origins of Heavy Metal!

[@RavenMadd9]

Amy rocks!!!!!!

[@destra72]

Great......Keep flow'g........

[@claudiakramer4516]

Descendant of melungeon here. We only retained the concept of drones

[@LpsCrayon]

What is the Jean Ritchie tune called? I wanna learn how to play it

[@txdurk]

Wonderful stuff. Keep playing and singing but above all pass it down to the ext generation. It's a duty.

[@daisygene]

Yup. :)

[@robiniowoodstonewomenwitch5467]

Very Cool Folk Ballad Keening Of The Emerald Coast

[@zhukhov2]

Well cousin hang in there.

[@ukemampfi1]

Awesome! :-)