Dulcimer Players News

15/11/2024

Hi folks! I'm so excited to share this amazing dulcimer artwork with you! The silver dulcimer with snowflake sound holes was painted by Rebekah (age 16), and the dulcimer-playing snowman was painted by Alicia (age 10). They are both members of the Youth Dulcimer Club, hosted by Erin Mae Music.

They created these paintings to celebrate the club's upcoming virtual *Winter Concert*, which DPN will be co-hosting on Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. Eastern. The concert is free to attend, but donations are welcome, with all proceeds going directly to outreach programs for young people. For security purposes, you will need to register to attend this virtual event. Visit https://www.dpnews.com/youth-concert for details.

All kids, any age, any experience, any playing level, any acoustic instrument, are invited to perform at the concert. Priority will be given to club members, followed by additional applicants on a first-come-first-served basis. Register at https://forms.gle/r4uuSR87VoJxEbGp7 by November 30!

You can read about the club in the November 2024 issue of DPN which just came out! Postal times vary, so you may not have gotten yours yet, but it should be arriving soon! If you don't see yours by Nov. 30, or if it arrives damaged before then, please reach out to the DPN's editorial assistant Vicki at [email protected] and we'll send a replacement!

I'd like to share one more update. In August we announced that our family would soon be moving to Hawaii, courtesy of the US Navy. We passed the first major hurdle this week, and all of our household goods are now on their way to our new home. We have a few more things to wrap up here, then we'll be traveling and visiting in December. We'll finally arrive at Pearl Harbor in early January!

To save on shipping times and postage, however, the magazine's new address (which was printed in the November issue) is:
Dulcimer Players News
149 Weaver Blvd #174
Weaverville, NC 28787

Please direct all renewals by mail and other correspondence to this address! It will get to me via Bill Wake, my dad and DPN's tech (and other) support!

Finally, between finalizing the November issue and preparing for the move, I have fallen behind on correspondence. If you have reached out to me in the past few weeks and I haven't gotten back to you, please know I am thinking of you and I will be in touch soon! Thank you so much for your support, patience, and understanding!

- Fiona

26/10/2024

Hey folks! I can't believe we're already at the tail end of October. Here in Omaha, fall has been off to a slow start, but the leaves are changing colors now, and we finally hit "flannel weather" this morning.

I wanted to share a couple of reminders and announcements!

First, the November issue is in the final stages! We are proofing the pages with the graphic designer and should have it to the printers by Oct. 31. Shipping times vary, but it should start hitting doorsteps mid-November.

Second, Oct. 31 is the deadline registration for the upcoming NGFDA Virtual Festival, which takes place on Nov. 21-23. Many DPN friends, supporters, and contributors will be teaching at the festival! Be sure to checkout the awesome lineup: https://www.ngfda.com/register-for-2024-fall-festival

For a full list of upcoming events, check out the DPN Festival and Workshop Guide on our website: https://www.dpnews.com/festival

08/10/2024

The Dulcimer Players News archives are housed at the Internet Archive. I find the whole Internet Archive to be absolutely invaluable for research. From being able to borrow books digitally that would take weeks of waiting taking the traditional inter library loan path, to reading public domain books, to looking at liner notes for older albums that are not yet in the public domain but might otherwise be inaccessible. If you aren’t familiar with the current legal battles they are facing, I’m posting this article to get them on your radar!

The web’s collective memory is stored in the servers of the Internet Archive. Legal battles threaten to wipe it all away.

05/10/2024

Wildacres Retreat is another venue known and loved by many dulcimer players that was impacted by Helene.

02/10/2024

This is where Black Mountain Music Festival is held.

30/09/2024

Sharing from a trusted voice in the folk and traditional music community.

30/09/2024

So many people in our dulcimer family have been affected by Helene. Many small towns like Marshall have been absolutely devastated and/or cut off entirely from aid. Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Asheville, Little Switzerland, and more, in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

We have heard directly from many folks that they are okay, and through the grapevine for others, but many people are still without power or internet connection and haven’t been able to make contact.

If you are in the affected area, please feel free to leave a comment to let your dulcimer friends know how you are! If there is someone you are concerned about, leave a comment and maybe someone will be able to share an update. I can’t guarantee that anyone will reply, but I know some folks are looking for information and some folks are able to share!

I’m happy to report that my parents, who live about 30 minutes north of Marshall now have power, internet, and cell service restored, though it has been intermittent. They also have water and food.

28/09/2024

Unfortunately, due to the natural disaster impacting the area and ongoing rescue and recovery efforts, Black Mountain Music Festival has just announced that the 2024 festival, scheduled for Oct. 12 - 17, has been cancelled.

We are asking that you please help spread the word, since the festival's access to email communications with participants has also been impacted by the mass power outages in the area.

28/09/2024

Thinking of all of our friends and family in these affected areas.

Friends, this has been a horrible tragedy in the mountains of North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, upstate South Carolina, Eastern Kentucky, and SW Virginia. All these areas are devastated. I'm getting a lot of pleas to help reach out and try to reach people. All I can tell you is there is zero communication. Even local emergency crews cannot help right now. They are overwhelmed. Some of them are trapped, and 911 is not working, period. The only thing I can tell you tonight is to pray and hope that your family, friends, and colleagues are in a safe spot, and they have to wait it out tonight into tomorrow. The good news is that there's help on the way as local, state, & federal governments send help through rescue crews and communication trucks. These communication trucks are like mini cell towers and communication centers. They will help fill the gaps to hopefully get more connections out there, but I will tell you I have no way to help or reach out to these people. Just like they have no way to help and reach out to people right now. The best we can do is pray and hope everybody is safe. My worry is that we are going to see scenes of devastation like we've never seen before. This is going to be an all-time record flood event for many locations in the mountains. The best advice I can give you is if there is anything you can do to help organize a get-together to help these people; they will need our help. The one thing we don't need is people fighting, getting political, worrying about everything except helping these people. I, like you, am devastated by what I'm seeing in the mountains, places I love to visit, and friends I have that live up there losing everything. It is a horrible tragedy. The best thing we can do now is to pull together as fellow Americans and neighbors and try to help as many people as we can over the coming days. I will do my best to get information to people as best I can. I can't make any promises, but I'll do the best I can to use my reach, especially on social media, to try to get information out. If you have information, please post it on my page or share it with me. I'll try to amplify credible stuff the best I can, but right now. It's wait and see until tomorrow and until communications and abilities to reach these people open up over the next 24 to 36 hours.

22/09/2024

Congratulations Champions!

52nd Annual Walnut Valley Festival – Winfield, Kansas

Date: September 20, 2024 Time: 1 p.m.

Contest Name: 2024 National Mountain Dulcimer Championship

Champion: Matthew Hathaway
City/ Fort Worth, State/ TX

Prize Instrument Selected: McSpadden 4FHMgMg-E Custom Mountain Dulcimer, provided by The Dulcimer Shoppe, Mountain View, Arkansas
2nd Place: Allison O’Shea
City: Nashville State: IN
Prize Instrument Selected: McSpadden 4SGCC-E Scroll Head Cherry Ginger Mountain Dulcimer, provided by The Dulcimer Shoppe, Mountain View, Arkansas

3rd Place: Sarah Miner
City/ Post State/ TX

Prize Instrument Selected: McSpadden 6FHWWB-E TearDrop Baritone Mountain Dulcimer, provided by The Dulcimer Shoppe, Mountain View, Arkansas

Runners up: Steve Stubblefield, Eureka Springs, AR and David Kerwood, Arkansas City, Kansas.
21 contestants from 12 states.

Pictured L-R: Pictured L-R: Allison O’Shea, Nashville, IN (2nd Place), Matthew Hathaway, Fort Worth, TX (1st Place), and Sarah Miner, Post, TX (3rd Place)

22/09/2024

Congratulations to this year's National Champions!!

52nd Annual Walnut Valley Festival – Winfield, Kansas
Susan Baker, from Valley Park, MO took home the title of the National Hammered Dulcimer championship on Saturday at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS. The contest started with 14 contestants. Second place went to Jeff Mom from Kalamazoo, MI and Brian Eades from Statesville, NC rounded out the top three. The runners up were Robert Miller, Pittsburgh, PA and Katelyn Baas, McBain, MI.


Date: September 21, 2024 Time: 6:11 p.m.

Contest Name: 2024 National Hammered Dulcimer Championship

Champion: Susana Baker
City/State/ Valley Park, MO
Prize Instrument Selected: Rick Thum 17/17 Professional Chromatic Hammer Dulcimer – Rick Thum Dulcimers, 6710 Twin River Rd, Eureka, MO 63025 314-406-0690 rthum.com

2nd Place: Jeff Mom
Kalamazoo, MI
Prize Instrument Selected: Master Works 16/15 CBWXR7 Bantam Weight Chromatic Extended Range Hammer Dulcimer – Master Works, PO Box 167, 36613 US Hwy 70, Bennington, OK 74723 580-847-2273 masterworksok.com

3rd Place: Brian Eades
Statesville, NC
Prize Instrument Selected: Songbird 17/16/8 Finch Chromatic - Hammer Dulcimer - Songbird Hammer Dulcimers, 803 Whicher Street, Muscatine, IA 52761 563-571-5296 songbirdhd.com

Runners up: Robert Miller, Pittsburgh, PA and Katelyn Baas, McBain, MI

14 contestants from 10 states.

Pictured L-R: Nam Jeff Mom, Kalamazoo, MI (2nd Place), Susana Baker, Valley Park, MO (1st Place), and Steve Eades, Statesville, NC (3rd Place)

20/09/2024

Live right now! Watch the Mountain Dulcimer National Championships at Walnut Valley Festival!

🔗Check out ---- here: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------👕Get Your TAS Merch!: https://bit.ly/TASMerch?...

18/09/2024

We are on our way to Winfield! Please say hi if you see us!
I’ll be in my DPN t-shirt!
Walnut Valley Festival

17/08/2024

Did you know that we curate YouTube playlists to go with many of the stories in every issue? These playlists are free and available for everyone to enjoy!

Here's the link to the playlist for "Adventures with Betty Smith" by Sharyn McCrumb: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPN0sRkcnXivBpcrL2f0_QzbBXq3Y3w8G

You can find additional playlists and other supplementary materials here: dpnews.com/sampler

Additional playlists, organized by issue, are available on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/

Sharyn McCrumb remembers dulcimer player Betty Smith, who passed away in Dec. 2023, in this issue of DPN.

17/11/2023

Hi folks! It's almost Thanksgiving!

We all know a lot of Christmas carols, but what's the best Thanksgiving song?

Tell me your favorite in a comment - it can be a fun song about turkey, pie, biscuits, etc. or a more reverent harvest song. I've listed a few to get you started. If you can share a link to music or tab, even better!

Be sure to check out Tull Glazener's monthly free arrangement of "We Plow the Field and Scatter" at https://www.tullglazener.com/tab-of-the-month/november-2023-we-plow-the-fields

31/10/2023

Hi folks! The next issue of the magazine will be going to the printers by the end of the week and should start making its way into mailboxes by mid-November.

For a sneak peek of the articles included, check out the latest playlists: https://www.youtube.com//featured

They are also embedded on the DPN website at www.dpnews.com/sampler

This is a really fun issue with an international twist! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think!

Subscribe or renew today: dpnews.com/subscribe

28/09/2023

Catch me live online today (9/28/23)!

First, tune into to the Dulcimoon Virtual Dulcimer Festival YouTube channel at noon EDT. I'll be interviewed by Deborah "DJ" Hamouris, Musician & Teacher, with Erin Mae Music providing tech support. https://youtube.com/live/hwwGQq1eDes?feature=share

Second, I'll be in a Zoom room as part of the The QuaranTUNE Dulcimer Festival Virtual Vending event, from 4 - 6 p.m. EDT. To find me, visit https://www.virtualdulcimerfest.com/vending and click on the DPN image. Be sure to check out all the QDF vendors while you're there!

27/08/2023

Registration is now open for the QuaranTUNE Dulcimer Festival, taking place virtually Sept. 28 - Oct. 1!

DPN is now an official sponsor of these awesome online events, and I just finished signing up for a couple of classes myself!

Reminder: Registration Opens Sunday
Schedules are out now so you can plan ahead!
https://www.virtualdulcimerfest.com/workshop-info