Steve Smith of Western North Carolina plays both the mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer. He and his wife perform regularly throughout the region, and Steve also puts together the newsletter and music for the Western North Carolina Dulcimer Collective.
Steve and Jean have performed in at least nineteen states and two other countries, as well as on radio and on television. They have taught workshops on both instruments at festivals in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Georgia and North Carolina, as well as at specially-scheduled workshops in several states. Steve has also taught courses in Mountain Dulcimer at Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Steve won the 1984 National Hammered Dulcimer Championships at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. He returned to win the 1985 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships at Winfield, only the second person to win both of these Championships. He has also won regional titles in both instruments. Jean has also placed in regional championships in the hammered dulcimer and in ensembles, besides playing the guitar and singing for over fifty years.
Steve has been arranging music for the Western North Carolina Dulcimer Collective since 1990. The Club has been around since at least 1983, but started putting music in the newsletter in 1990. All of the tunes are available in pdf and audio formats on the Club's website. The newsletter tunes are each played slowly on just the melody string on one mp3 file, and then at a more normal playing speed with chords on a second. Some also include a third version, either fingerpicked or played up to full speed in the case of faster tunes.
The Western North Carolina Dulcimer Collective welcomes all players from beginners to professionals, and listeners as well! We meet on the second Sunday of each month in Asheville from 2:30-5:00 at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Please join us! (For more information, check out the Club's website.)
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