Madison Dulcimers turn 25; event slated for Sep. 22 in Richmond

Submitted by Marie Mitchell

In 1999, two years before the Appalachian Mountain Lap Dulcimer was declared the state instru­ment of Kentucky, Merwyn Jackson formed the Madison Dulcimers in Richmond.

That was 25 years ago, a mile­stone worth cel­e­brat­ing since the group has grown from the orig­i­nal four play­ers to hun­dreds of past and present play­ers in Richmond and sur­round­ing towns who per­form, for free, at area events.

So, we’re throw­ing a par­ty and we’d like you to join us, Sunday, September 22^nd at the Madison County Public Library in Richmond. The pro­gram starts at 2 p.m.

There will be music—dulcimer music, of course—a slide show of group mem­bers per­form­ing at var­i­ous events, plus sto­ries about this plucky group that has strummed togeth­er all these years.

Although I’ve been a mem­ber for more than 20 years, I wasn’t there at the very begin­ning when Merwyn appar­ent­ly removed a dul­cimer hang­ing on the wall as a dec­o­ra­tion at his sister’s house, and taught him­self to play it.

Merwyn wasn’t a pro­fes­sion­al musi­cian, although he learned to play like one. He’d already had an out­stand­ing career in the mil­i­tary, as a teacher and school admin­is­tra­tor in Richmond and head of Madison County’s Emergency Preparedness Program.

He was also a sup­port­er of the arts and shared his love of the dul­cimer with every­one he met.

Given Merwyn’s mag­net­ic per­son­al­i­ty, his gen­eros­i­ty in sup­ply­ing card­board dul­cimers to any poten­tial play­er who need­ed one, and his infi­nite patience in teach­ing hun­dreds of folks of all ages and musi­cal back­grounds to play, it’s no won­der our num­ber grew, and drew play­ers from Richmond, Berea, Winchester, Danville, Lexington and places in between.

So, what exact­ly have we been doing since 1999? One of our favorite activ­i­ties is per­form­ing con­certs and work­shops at area schools—letting stu­dents hold a dul­cimer in their lap and strum the three (some­times four) strings to sim­ple songs they know. And, to grow a new gen­er­a­tion of play­ers, Merwyn donat­ed card­board dul­cimers to sev­er­al local schools and vol­un­teered his time to teach stu­dents how to play them.

Collaboratively, our mem­bers have taught begin­ner lessons for free. We start with sim­ple strum­ming and grad­u­al­ly ease into fin­ger­pick­ing and har­monies. Many of those begin­ners have grad­u­at­ed to become active members.

To keep chal­leng­ing our­selves, we spon­sor work­shops by pro­fes­sion­al play­ers and advanced play­ers from oth­er dul­cimer groups. Our mem­bers also attend week­long and week­end dul­cimer gath­er­ings around the state.

Those self-improve­ment efforts paid off in 2010 when we were select­ed as one of the few acts to per­form at the World Equestrian Games held at the Kentucky Horse Park. Also inter­na­tion­al­ly, we’ve played for del­e­ga­tions from Japan while they were vis­it­ing their sis­ter cities in Richmond and Berea.

We’ve pro­duced three CDs, includ­ing a Christmas one ded­i­cat­ed to Merwyn’s wife, Sue. We’ve also record­ed sev­er­al cow­boy songs for a tourism cam­paign in Texas. And, some of the Civil War-era songs we per­formed at this year’s Battle of Richmond reen­act­ment might be used in a doc­u­men­tary about the battle.

Mostly, though, we play at fes­ti­vals, fairs and fundrais­ers like Empty Bowls which helps sup­ply food banks. You can also find us enter­tain­ing patrons at pub­lic libraries, and res­i­dents at retire­ment and nurs­ing homes.

Although we enjoy play­ing old-timey songs and fid­dle tunes, our reper­toire goes beyond that. You’d be sur­prised at how good “Rock Around the Clock,” can sound on the dul­cimer, com­bined with some march­es, coun­try and gospel songs.

The group is com­prised most­ly of dul­cimer play­ers right now, with one gui­tarist. But in the past, we’ve had mem­bers who’ve played the ham­mered dul­cimer, upright bass, recorder, bowed psaltery, fid­dle, ukelele, auto­harp and even the trum­pet. So, all instru­ments are wel­come and blend well together.

Of course, Madison Dulcimers reluc­tant­ly took time off dur­ing COVID in 2020. Fortunately, we had a col­lec­tion of music accu­mu­lat­ed over the years that we could prac­tice in lock­down to hone our skills. During the long hia­tus, we also checked in peri­od­i­cal­ly to see how every­one was doing. Some even felt com­fort­able meet­ing in small­er groups. Others took vir­tu­al class­es. But we all kept on strumming.

One rea­son for the group’s longevi­ty is that before Merwyn’s health failed and he passed away in 2019, he had the fore­sight to cre­ate a gov­ern­ing body called “The Fret Board,” to keep the group togeth­er. Two ded­i­cat­ed women, Diane Peacock and Marilyn Roberts, are Fret Board mem­bers who also lead the group in prac­tice and in con­certs, choos­ing the music and mak­ing sure we play it at peak per­for­mance. We’re lucky to have them at the helm.

So, why do Madison Dulcimers play­ers do this—give their time and tal­ents to this par­tic­u­lar instru­ment and group? I think I can speak for us all. It’s because we love to share our pas­sion with others.

Following in the foot­steps of our founder, Merwyn Jackson, who was dubbed “the Johnny Appleseed of dul­cimer play­ers,” we plan to con­tin­ue what he started—for at least anoth­er 25 years.

So, join us in cel­e­brat­ing this momen­tous occa­sion on Sunday, September 22^nd, at Richmond’s Madison County Public Library, start­ing at 2 p.m. Try your hand at strum­ming along with us. Or just kick back and enjoy the music.