Amy's Rear View Mirror

Southwest Dulcimer and Acoustic Music Festival

September 2003

I attended the Southwest Dulcimer and Acoustic Music Festival which takes place at the BeanTree Barn in Dewey, Arizona on 12 acres. It has been owned since the mid-seventies by Stan and Jennie Young, located adjacent to a family business known as Young's Farm.

The BeanTree Barn was a chicken coop that has been converted into a craft/music barn complete with stage, kitchen, green room, conference room, a greenhouse and arbor.

There were many workshops for various instruments ... hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, guitar, folk harp, mandolin, autoharp, and fiddle. The festival also featured performer spotlights, concert performances, a late night contra dance and plenty of jamming!! The festival is designed like a music seminar, with workshops during the day and concerts in the evening.

The festival featured some of the best folk musicians from around the country ...  Kerry Anderson, Alan Darveaux, Neal Hellman, Stephen Seifert, Lois Hornbostel, Robert Force, Rick Thum, Randy Marchany & Wes Chappell from No Strings Attached, Ken Kolodner, Karen Ashbrook & Paul Oorts, Jeanne Page, Barbara Giamalvo, Dave Firestine, Jorge Pastrana & Anna Duff, Philip & Laurel StrongMuehl known as Romanza, Tina Gugeler, and Claire Zucker.

This was the best musical weekend!!! Well worth the money. Not only did I get to see some of the best musicians, I got some great sheet music & CDs, but most of all I got to jam and study with those musicians to help my playing.

The word dulcimer comes from the Latin word “dulcis” meaning sweet, and the Greek  word “melos” meaning sound, leaving us to assume that the instrument was named for the sounds that it produces: “sweet sounds”.  

The mountain dulcimer is the favorite instrument of the hill folk in the Ozarks and Appalachia. Resembling an elongated guitar without the neck, the mountain dulcimer is a true American folk instrument, having no counterpart anywhere else.

It is sometimes referred to as an Appalachian dulcimer, lap dulcimer, fretted dulcimer, hog fiddle or music box. Instead of being a standard shaped instrument, it is shaped by the creativity of its builder. Most have three strings, but some have four. Because it has no neck and the frets are over the body, it is classified as a fretted zither.

The delicate, droning sounds of this hand-crafted instrument have been heard in the hills and mountains of the South for over 200 years, though its exact origin still remains unknown. Having been discovered by folk musicians, the dulcimer has now attracted attention from musicians playing early music, jazz, blues, and ensemble music.

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