D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May 2008
Mogollon Mountain Dulcimer Players
Page: 2Spofford-Wallace jokes about something called "D.A.S."
"It's Dulcimer Acquisition Syndrome," she explains with a laugh. She counts off on her fingers, then says she has eight of the instruments.
In fact, seven of the women in the room own more than one dulcimer. Music teacher Mary Bourn says she owns "at least a dozen, and that's just the dulcimers," allowing that she has quite a collection, counting her guitars and other instruments.
"I keep them tuned in different keys," Spofford-Wallace says of her instruments. "There are reasons to have more than one dulcimer. . . and I guess there are just excuses, too," she adds with a laugh. Her most recent, well, acquisition is an instrument made for her by Gary Gallier. That one cost around $500, she says. Another she owns cost $1,500.
"They can be quite pricey," she allows. "Some can be several thousand dollars."
Other players in the room have interesting stories about their instruments. Barbara Gabioud has a dulcimer made by her father. Pat Sterling bought her dulcimer from a traveling builder named Gene Figg.
"I saw him playing it at the food co-op and I went home with that one," she says.
Judy Miller has a dulcimer made by the friend of an old boyfriend of hers. That instrument languished in a closet for 30 years before she started coming to the group and learned to play it.
That story is not uncommon, it turns out. Spofford-Wallace bought her first dulcimer in 1976, after hearing a concert in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. That one sat in a closet for years, she recounts. In 1998, she bought her second instrument, a "Blue Lion." It, too, sat idle. Then in 2004 she made a New Year's resolution to learn how to play her dulcimers, and took her first workshop that summer, followed by private lessons with Bourn in Reserve.
Spofford-Wallace says the group's goals are three-fold: playing their instruments, improving their musicianship and performing at local events and venues. Various ensembles of the members have played at Fort Bayard Days, in the Silco Theater lobby, at the Elks Club, at Penny Park and Gallery 400 in Silver City, as well as a St. Patrick's Day event at the Mimbres Senior Center.
Wrapping up their evening here in Silver City, the group plays a couple of related, bluesy tunes, "Simple Boogie" and the traditional, recognizable "Shortnin' Bread."
Heads bob and the strumming becomes animated as they progress through the familiar lines, "Mammy's li'l baby loves shortnin' shortnin'" but gets a little tricky on the final line. In place of the drawn-out syllables "Short-nin' bread," Parker sings out "I-am-lost!"
The group laughs and Spofford-Wallace suggests they close the evening with "Bride's Retreat," a tune that's somewhat new to the group.
"I sent the tablature sheets out to you all," she says. "The first notes are quarter notes and the rest are all eighths." She runs through the song to demonstrate, then looks up and notes some concerned expressions. "Okay, we'll go slower than that," she says, to relieved laughter.
Though it's just minutes to the group's ending time, the dedicated musicians go through the tune several times until Spofford-Wallace says, "Okay, that's the song!"
Sterling pipes up with a cheerful, "Now all we need is practice!"
The players begin gathering their materials, sheathing their instruments in their colorful, padded carriers that look a bit like golf bags.
Seeming satisfied with the group's accomplishments this evening, Spofford-Wallace reflects on the qualities that make the dulcimer special. "It's a simple instrument, really," she says. With three or four strings, six if it is double stringed, the dulcimer has melody, middle and bass lines. "Each instrument is hand-crafted. It's a piece of folk art, actually.
"And the sound! You can hear the mountains in that sound! I like that we are carrying on a tradition. The music written for the dulcimer is just so beautiful."
She notes that while the songs played this evening are quite old, musical innovators like Gary Gallier bring a quality of newness to the dulcimer, as well.
"Masters like that make it really come alive in a new way," she says. "And as long as there are people like us learning to play, that tradition can come forward and that musical heritage never dies."
The Mogollon Mountain Dulcimers group meets Wednesdays, 6:45-8 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 3846 N. Swan St., Silver City. 574-5698, tachysphex@cybermesa.com For private lessons and dulcimers for sale: Mary Bourn, (505) 956-8044, 533-6176, merrybee@gilanet.com
Donna Clayton Lawder is senior editor of Desert Exposure.