TRENTON, OH — For Vickey Sasser, every dulcimer tells the story of Appalachia and America.
The mountain dulcimer, a string instrument popular in American folk music, first appeared in America in the early 19th century, brought by Scotch-Irish immigrants to the Appalachian Mountains.
The instrument then popped up in performances in the Northeast, incorporated into gospel, blues and minstrel show tunes. After the American Folk Revival in the 1940s, musicians like Joni Mitchell, Cyndi Lauper and renowned mountain dulcimer player Bing Futch brought the instrument into the mainstream.
“This is considered the first American instrument,” she said. “I think in the music world that should be history, that should be kept.”
In a former tattoo parlor in this Butler County city, she’s preserving that history, one dulcimer at a time. Over the past four decades, Sasser has collected over 140 dulcimers, each with its own unique story, and put them on display in the National Dulcimer Museum.
An obsession born at a theme park
Sasser’s collection has come a long way since she first discovered the instrument almost 45 years ago.
Sasser, a Sharonville native and Princeton High School graduate, was at a craft show in a Missouri theme park in 1981 when, from a distance, she heard someone plucking away. She followed the music to find a man making and playing dulcimers.
“I couldn’t buy one at the time because I was hauling around a 2-week-old baby,” she said. “I was 26… diapers and formula were more important than a dulcimer.”
Two years later, her father gifted her a dulcimer for her birthday, and she joined the Cincinnati Dulcimer Society to learn to play it. She picked it up quickly, and by 2005 she was teaching lessons and learning all she could about the history of the instrument.
Sasser said she hadn’t initially intended to create a museum. In 2022, someone gave her an oversized dulcimer that had a large case shaped like a coffin. Sasser showed it off to her friends, who encouraged her to leave it on display.
“Well, then I got to thinking, I got all these dulcimers hanging on the wall at home, and so I brought all my own in so they could see them,” she said. “Well, then the next thing I know, people started donating dulcimers, and that’s how this happened, it just sort of snowballed.”
She also has a dulcimer “Wall of Fame” with framed pictures of accomplished musicians, including a shot of actress Amanda Seyfried playing the dulcimer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
‘It’s never too late’ to learn the dulcimer
The museum is also connected to the American Folk Music School, where Sasser teaches the mountain dulcimer, ukulele and other folk instruments to a wide range of musicians − her youngest student was 4 years old and her oldest was 90.
Sasser said playing the dulcimer, which sits on the musician’s lap, is also more physically accessible than the guitar; she often teaches students with disabilities or older musicians with physical restrictions.
One of her students is Christe McKittrick, a communication and law professor at Miami University. McKittirck started playing the dulcimer almost three years ago after attending the Dayton Celtic Festival. Before then, she hadn’t known the dulcimer existed.
“I’m getting later in my life, thinking about retirement, and was saying to myself, ‘what is something that I really love that I want to make sure I have as a part of my life in my later years?'” McKittrick said. “And it’s music.”
She started taking lessons with Sasser two weeks later and has fallen in love with the instrument. When she was younger, she played the guitar but no longer had the dexterity needed to get her hand around the instrument’s neck.
“It’s never too late because it’s so easy, right?” McKittrick said. “The harder other instruments get to play as you get older, the easier it is really to step into the dulcimer.”
She even joined Buckeye Strings, a group of around 20 musicians, mostly dulcimer players, who perform at festivals, nursing homes and schools throughout the year. In January, Buckeye Strings is performing in a folk festival at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
McKittick thinks the community is one of her favorite parts.
“I love music in all ways and forms and all kinds of music,” she said. “Now I’m out performing and doing solos and things, which I never would have dreamed of.”
The museum and school recently moved to its location in Trenton last August. Sasser said she moved from the museum’s old location in Sharonville, which was demolished. She’s trying to get more attention for the school, museum and Buckeye strings − it’s part of her mission to preserve the history of folk music.
“I want to keep this alive, because if we don’t keep this alive, it will go by the wayside,” Sasser said.
If you go
Hours: The National Dulcimer Museum is open from 1-5 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month, but Sasser gives private tours by appointment on Tuesdays.
Where: 215 State St., Trenton, Ohio
Cost: Free
Performances: Buckeye Strings has at least three more performances this year, including at the Trenton Fourth of July Parade and Festival (on July 2).
Lessons: Those interested in dulcimer lessons with the American Folk Music School should reach out to Sasser at 513-207-5785 or vjsuc79@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: One woman’s passion transforms tattoo parlor into dulcimer museum
Reporting by Mia Hilkowitz, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mia Hilkowitz, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
