Old Time Altruism

A roving group of musicians travel around Mississippi promoting an old-time instrument that once was in danger of extinction. But as MPB's arts reporter Ron Brown tells us, there's more to the tradition than just music.

Forrest Smith, co-founder of the North Mississippi Dulcimer Association believes there are two types of people in this world; Those who can read music, and those who can’t. That’s why Smith developed a simple system of playing songs on the Appalachian dulcimer for people who can’t read music. People like Barbara Roth.

“The frets we number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and our music is written by numbers and the number of the fret corresponds to the music and we strum according to how many of that number there is…. We’re reading numbers.”

Forest Smith and his wife Eileen founded the dulcimer association eight years ago. Now they have a little over 400 members in 20 community based dulcimer clubs throughout North Misssissippi where they promote the instrument’s tradition, craftsmanship and unique history.

“A dulcimer is the oldest instrument developed in the United States. It was developed in the late 1700’s in the Appalachian mountains. A dulcimer from a distance looks like a steel guitar. It lays across your lap. A steel has more strings of course, but a dulcimer of course would have four strings. And it’s noted with the left hand and strummed with the right hand. It’s diatonic in nature, which means they can only play in one key at a time. If you want to change keys we have to retune. Most dulcimer players play in the key of D.”

The instrument was popular at one time in America’s rural history. But these days it’s traditionalists, like Forest Smith and his group who keep the haunting sound alive. The songs are old, sometimes ancient, stretching back to England five or six hundred years ago. The dulcimer association song list includes mournful folk tunes and inspiring hymns. And Smith says they never lack for an appreciative audience.

“We play over 400 play dates a year. My wife and I are on the road seven days a week. And some of those days we play as much as four times a day.”

It would appear to be a grueling non-stop schedule for an entertainment group. But not so for the North Mississippi Dulcimer Association. Eileen Smith and her husband the combination of players say they enjoy the workload because they go where they’re most needed - area nursing homes.

“It’s a lot of fun. Meeting all the people and seeing all the smiles, especially at the nursing homes, seeing the smiles on their faces and sometimes you think that they’re not responding but you’ll see their hands start moving and their toes start tapping. So it’s just a lot of satisfaction.”

And for all their travels, for all their entertainment of the area’s oldest generation, for all their appreciation of and advancement of the dulcimer as an American instrument, Forest Smith says the musicians receive in fees – absolutely zero.

“We don’t charge, we don’t accept payment. Our annual dues for a family is ten dollars.”

The North Mississippi Dulcimer Association not only carries on the tradition of old time music, but also the tradition of an earlier time in America when people believed that payment came in the idea of giving to the community, of taking care of the generation that came before. Forest Smith may believe that the world is divided up into two groups of people, those who read music and those who don’t, but in the North Mississippi Dulcimer Association, there’s only one kind of person… generous. For MPB News, I’m Ron Brown.