Bill Spence (August 12, 1940 - February 7, 2019) was a
hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
player from
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
Music
Spence began playing the hammered dulcimer after hearing
Howie Mitchell at the 1969
Fox Hollow Festival The Fox Hollow Festival or Fox Hollow Festival of Traditional Music and Arts was a folk festival held on the estate of folksingers Bob and Evelyne Beers in Petersburgh, New York
Petersburgh is a town located in the northeast section of Rensselaer ...
in
Petersburgh, New York. He made his first dulcimer following a plan in Mitchell's book. The only hammered dulcimer recordings available at the time were by Mitchell and another player,
Chet Parker on the
Folkways label. Spence developed his own style, working out tunes he heard on recordings of other instruments.
In 1970, Spence helped form Fennig's All-Stars, which featured his hammered dulcimer as the lead instrument. The group made its first recording, ''The Hammered Dulcimer'' in 1973, using a
two-track recorder in Spence's living room. The album was widely distributed (over 60,000 copies have been sold), and became very influential in the early part of the hammered dulcimer revival. One of the cuts from the record (''Gaspé Reel'' and ''Fiddle Head Reel'') was used as the theme for the popular
PBS series ''
Crockett's Victory Garden''. The album was also designated as a "Recording of Special Merit" by ''
Stereo Review'' magazine.
''The Hammered Dulcimer'' marked the beginning of Spence's own record label, Front Hall Records. In addition to several further albums by Spence and Fennig's All-Stars, the label released albums by other folk performers, including
John McCutcheon,
Walt Michael and Company,
Louis Killen, and
Alistair Anderson. Spence and his wife, Andy, also operated Andy's Front Hall, a mail-order business selling instruments, recordings, instructional materials, and related items. In 2005, the business was scaled down from a full-service operation.
Biography
Born in
Iowa City, Iowa, on August 12, 1940, Spence graduated from the
University of Iowa in 1962 with a degree in communications. He worked for the
Army Security Agency until 1965, and then at the
State University of New York at Albany as an audio-visual and computer graphics specialist until retiring in 1998. He lived in
Voorheesville, New York, until his death on February 7, 2019, in
Albany, New York.
Discography
* ''The Hammered Dulcimer'', Front Hall Records FHR-01, 1973
* ''Saturday Night In The Provinces'', Front Hall Records FHR-05, 1975
* ''The Hammered Dulcimer Strikes Again'', Front Hall Records FHR-010, 1977
* ''Fennigmania'', Front Hall Records FHR-024, 1981
* ''The Hammered Dulcimer Returns!'', Front Hall Records FHR041CD, 1992
* ''The Hammered Dulcimer'', Front Hall Records FHR-302CD (compilation of FHR-01 and FHR-05), 1990
* ''The Hammered Dulcimer Strikes Again & Fennigmania'', Front Hall Records FHR-303CD (compilation of FHR-010 and FHR-024), 2000
References
External links
Official web site
1940 births
2019 deaths
American folk musicians
American hammered dulcimer players
People from Iowa City, Iowa
People from Voorheesville, New York
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