Members of the Coshocton Mountain Dulcimer Gathering know how to draw a crowd. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, all they need to do is play their instrument of choice.
“Wherever a couple of dulcimer players gather, a concert is sure to ensue,” says Jackie Cichon of West Lafayette, who started the group in 2016. “We play for enjoyment and we are always looking for places to perform as a means of sharing our music and our story.”
Gathering members usually hold practices or jam sessions twice a month in the Coshocton County Public Library basement. There are eight active members, and several others who join them occasionally or for special events. Many in the group are members of The Frontier Power Company, the electric distribution cooperative based in Coshocton.
Members of the Coshocton Mountain Dulcimer Gathering turn their practice sessions at the town library into impromptu jam sessions.
Dan Thorson of Coshocton learned about the group in 2018. He already played guitar, but decided to learn the dulcimer when a friend showed him one that the friend had built from a kit.
“The members quickly brought me up to speed,” he says. “We played a few songs and had a lot of fun. I just kept coming back and I thoroughly enjoy every minute.”
Members spend the first hour or so of their bimonthly practices learning one or two new songs. The second hour then inevitably turns into a jam session featuring other tunes in their repertoire.
That infectious sound frequently lures other musicians. Once, a woman visiting Coshocton from Oklahoma heard about the Gathering and stopped by with her dulcimer in hand, and players from around the state will often simply drop in to join in the fun.
The group performs at various library and community events as well as at the annual Apple Butter Stirrin’ Festival and Christmas in Canal Town at nearby Roscoe Village. For years, Coshocton hosted what had been the longest-running dulcimer festival in the country, but the event has not returned since the advent of COVID-19.
The dulcimer is a member of the zither family of musical instruments. As such, it has strings stretched across a flat body, or soundbox. Unlike the guitar, which is held upright, the dulcimer is played sitting flat on the musician’s lap.
The mountain dulcimer, also known as the lap or Appalachian dulcimer, first appeared in the U.S. in the early 1800s, according to Cichon — though there’s some disagreement whether it came with Scots-Irish or German immigrants, who each brought similar instruments from their homelands when they arrived. There’s no question that the ease of design helped its spread in the New World.
“Due to a lack of tools, materials, and time, violin makers turned to crafting the dulcimer, which had less dramatic curves, so they weren’t as complicated,” Cichon says. “Most were made from what was available: wood, cardboard — even cigar boxes.”
When the Civil War started, some soldiers reportedly stowed dulcimers in their packs, and after a long day’s march or a difficult skirmish, they relaxed around the campfire and strummed favorite tunes learned during jam sessions in family parlors and on front porches.
After the war, the dulcimer’s popularity spread throughout Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and now dulcimer players can be found throughout the country — and dulcimers have been used by a diverse selection of popular performers ranging from Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton to Cyndi Lauper and even Coldplay.
“The dulcimer is an easy instrument to learn,” Thorson says. “You can play even if you don’t read music through the number-based system. It’s hard to hit a wrong note. And if you do, it doesn’t even sound bad.”
