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| Jean Ritchie with her dulcimer and her beautiful red hair 1922-2015 |
I loved Jean Ritchie. I "discovered" her and her mountain dulcimer in the seventies. Just as Pete Seeger inspired me to purchase a guitar, Jean Ritchie inspired me to make a dulcimer my own. You do not have to go through the bloody finger stage with the dulcimer because the strings are pressed with a "noter," for which some true Appalachians used many things, even a clothes pin. Usually, one string plays the same note, called a "drone," throughout a song, much like the droning sound always present in bagpipes. The cultural appeal of Ms. Ritchie and her music captured my heart and soul and never gave it back.
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| Traditional Mountain Dulcimer |
Jean Ritchie lived in Berea, Kentucky, home of the wonderful and unique Berea College. My first tenure-track job was at Eastern Kentucky University at Richmond, twenty miles or so north of the village of Berea. You could find me in Berea every week, always making a stop at the workshop where stunningly beautiful mountain dulcimers were made. You could watch the craftsmen at work. Ms. Ritchie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She lived in New York for a time, and her husband made and sold dulcimers in his shop beneath the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn. She was at her home in Berea when she passed away yesterday.
Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Newport Folk Festival were among her venues, and Doc Watson and Pete Seeger among the artists with whom she performed. I was blessed to see her at the very special Prism Coffeehouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, several times in the seventies and eighties. She literally changed my life, as I am sure she did for many others seeking to know Appalachia or seeking to know their mountain or Gaelic roots.
Jean Ritchie, savior of traditional Appalachian music, and her family could teach the world a thing or two not only about music, but also about the errors of folks' stereotypes about mountain cultures.
Jean Ritchie 1922-2015. Rest in Peace. You are already missed. We loved you.
Jean Ritchie "Careless Love"
The New York Times, June 2, 2015The New York Times, June 2, 2015, on the passing of Jean Ritchie June 1
A wonderful, loving story from the New York Times. After all, Ms Ritchie and her husband lived in New York for many years.
Jean and Doc Watson
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