Our family took a trip to Maggie Valley, NC in the spring of 1995.  We did most of the tourist type things.  While heading up toward the Blue Ridge Parkway, I saw a log cabin on the side of the road.  On the sign it said " Balsam Gallery Dulcimers."  We stopped in and met Mr. Jack Lyle and his daughter-in-law Karin.  It was a typical music shop but it  featured dulcimers.  My only experience with dulcimers was listening to the theme song of the Victory Garden PBS shows back in the 70's.  As we looked around the shop, Karin asked me if I wanted to learn to play the mountain dulcimer.  I said sure. She then proceeded to give the typical demo of the mountain dulcimer.  She asked if I wanted to try it.  I said sure.  I had played music by ear my entire life.  So I started picking out a song.  I was thinking to myself that this was a very simplistic instrument.  Karin was very enthusiastic about how well I picked it up.  I also thought this must be the reaction everyone gets so that they would purchase an instrument.  Knowing Karin as I do today, I know she is just a very sincere person, genuine and a good judge of talent!.  We were on a tight budget and an instrument was not something I could do at that time.  I did purchase a cassette of noted dulcimer artist, Bob Thomason.  I listened to sounds of the dulcimer all the way home.  I was hooked and knew that a dulcimer would be in my future.

Music had always been a large part of my life when I was young. After High School, I played in a beach and soul band for about four years.  I played trumpet and Sax and did vocals. After I left the band, Disco was the new thing.  With my experience with sound systems and lighting, I moved into the world of a disco DJ.  It was called, "Mike's Music Machine" with all sorts of special effect lighting.  I did that part time for almost 20 years.  I did very little singing and playing on my guitar during that time period.  I always had a competitive spirit in what ever I did.  My discovering the mountain dulcimer in the spring of 1995 was a life changing event for me.  The dulcimer, which comes from the Zither catagory of instruments, completely fascinated me from the first day. I will explain that special first day in my next post.