Rolling Thread for American Roots Music discussion and recommendation

sounds like a hammer dulcimer maybe?

From Wiki:

"A photograph in The Louisiana Weekly of January 14, 1928 shows Phillips holding two fretless zither-like instruments. That date lies between the second and third of his five recording sessions. The instrument in his right hand has been identified as a celestaphone and that in his left as a phonoharp, both manufactured by the Phonoharp Company; in both cases with the hammer attachment missing (the instruments as sold were a type of hammered dulcimer).[4]

In the 1960s, Frank B. Walker identified Phillips’ instrument to musicologist and author Paul Oliver as a “dulceola”, saying that “nobody else on earth could use it except him”. Before a recording session, Phillips would spend half an hour or more assembling it.[1] It has often been assumed that Walker meant a dolceola, but that cannot be so: the dolceola was manufactured, sold, and recorded commercially, and did not need assembly before use. It seems more likely that the name “dulceola” was coined specifically for unusual instruments made by Phillips himself from broken discarded ones.

The aural evidence suggests Phillips strummed and plucked the strings of his instrument, and did not hammer them. Some listeners have claimed to discern differences between the instruments he used in different songs.[5]"

I think it makes a magical sound whatever it is!

scene. I’ve got a track on a vinyl compilation at home of someone playing some ragtime number on hammer dulcimer - it’s quite mental, sounds like someone going hell for leather on a piano with their foot on the sustain pedal the whole time.

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Oh cool, what’s the compilation called?

was just trying to remember. something generic like Old Time String Band Music, looks really old, picked it up in a chazza. Will check details and post some more info later if I remember :slight_smile:

Now that’s what I call Old Time String Band Music, perhaps?

Either way, I’ll be interested in giving it a listen. Cheers :slight_smile:

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Quite like listening to old blues records now and again. I don’t know as much about it as I would like to though. There’s quite a lot to learn.

Really like listening to Mississippi Fred McDowell at the moment-

The Alan Lomax Archive on YouTube has loads of great old recordings as well-