1978 Jay Round & The Hammered Dulcimer - 3-Page Vintage Article

Description

1978 Jay Round & The Hammered Dulcimer - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
When Jay Round plays the hammered
dulcimer on the road with Grandpa
Jones, he doesn’t worry that a string will
snap or the instrument will get out of
tune. He strung the instrument himself
and the soundbox and pinblocks were
crafted by his father and brother in the
basement shop of their home in Jenison,
Michigan.
Jay credits the dulcimer with the fact
that at age 19 he has gone further down
the road than many country musicians
twice his age. He goes on road trips with
Grandpa and Ramona Jones and spent the
summer of 1977 traveling the festival
trail, appearing from Arkansas through
West Virginia, to Washington D.C. His
third album, “One Time Friend,” is now
out and selling well.
In this one, he sings the title song,
which he also wrote. In his two previous
albums, “Jay Round and Friends,” and
“Jay Round with the Williams Family,” he
was only featured instrumentally.
“Guess I’ve played around with a guitar
or banjo as long as I can remember,” he
says. "My mother’s side of the family,
their name is Korcal, are all musical. They
live north of here about 40 miles, in
Howard City. We used to go up there
seems like every Sunday afternoon for a
bluegrass session.”
A close friend of the family, an older
dulcimer player named Chet Parker, often
sat in on the sessions. Jay comments,
“Chet Parker was one of the finest
hammered dulcimer players ever lived.
He’s dead now, I was asked to play the
dulcimer at his funeral. I remember, when
I used to listen to him play the dulcimer on
Sunday afternoons, I made up my mind I
wanted to play just like him.”
There are no dulcimer factories as such,
music stores don’t stock them, and an
instrument young Jay could learn on was
hard to come by. Finally, he was able to
borrow one for a while, and learned how
to play good enough so he could perform
solos and play with country music bands.
Meanwhile, his father, Don Round, was
concerned that his son should have his
own dulcimer. Also, he had a brother-in-
law who wanted one but couldn’t find just
what he wanted. Finally, Don, one
brother and brother-in-law, and Don’s
oldest son Jim decided they would build
their own.
“Craft” is really a more descriptive
word than “build.” To start, the group
traveled around the state, visiting
museums where dulcimers were dis-
played, talking with anyone they could
find who had one. They read folk
magazines to learn all they could about
dulcimer construction. Finally, they
decided they had enough information and
it was time to start building.
“We went through some trial and error
at first,” Don says. “We learned what kind
of wood to use, and not to use too much.
Too much wood can lead to a tunkey
sound.”
The one Jay takes on tour is built of
birds-eye maple, but that is getting hard
to come by. They use walnut, cherry,
birch, white and red oak, sometimes
mahogany.
‘‘One time Dad used ebony,” Jay
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