[BobbyB]

Music in his hands
Exhibit honors master instrument maker Homer Ledford

By Diane Heilenman
dheilenman@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal



It is a standard joke in the art world that artists have to die to have their work increase in value. Occasionally that's not true. Homer Ledford's musical acumen and his handmade instruments rang a pretty loud bell during his life.

It's too soon to call for a museum collection of works by the Winchester, Ky., artisan and inventor. Most of the 6,585 instruments he made are likely still being played.



Ledford, who died Dec. 11, 2006, at age 79, easily crossed the line between craft and art, and that is the point of an exhibition -- "Music and Innovation: The Art of Homer Ledford" -- that opens Tuesday at the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort. The exhibit will feature his instruments and carvings and the tools Ledford made or used. He often maintained that his primary tool was his pocket knife.

Ledford was America's premier dulcimer maker. He and his still-active Cabin Creek Band were important stars in playing and maintaining traditional, indigenous music. He was a master at perfecting the dulcimer, which originated in the Appalachians.

He was also an inventor. His work, collected by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., includes a fretless banjo, an Appalachian dulcimer and his patented dulcitar (dulcimer plus guitar). He also invented the dulcijo and dulcibro, hybrids of the dulcimer with the banjo and dobro, respectively.

Ledford kept records too. He completed 6,014 dulcimers, 476 banjos, 27 mandolins, 26 guitars, 18 ukuleles, 13 dulcitars, four violins, three dulcijos, three dulcibros and one bowed dulcimer.

Handmade is not enough to earn museum status. However, some Ledford works, with his tweaks and twists of innovation in sound boxes or inlay or fret holes, do represent the kind of technical importance and historical significance that are criteria for inclusion in musical instrument collections. Such collections are housed at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Stockholm (Sweden) Music Museum; and at universities including Yale in this country and Oxford in England.

Personal history
Born in 1927 in Tennessee, Ledford went on scholarship to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C., at age 18 to recuperate from rheumatic fever. There he made his first dulcimer by taking apart one that likely had been left to the school by renowned Kentucky folk singer John Jacob Niles.

Ledford later attended Berea College, where he met his wife, Colista. He graduated from what is now Eastern Kentucky University in 1954 and worked as a high school industrial arts teacher before becoming a full-time, world-famous instrument maker. His widow still lives in Winchester.

Ledford is a member of the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. He played solo concerts on a 10-day tour of Japan, performed for photographs in a Lands' End catalog and was among the first group of Kentuckians, including Loretta Lynn, Rosemary Clooney, Bobbie Ann Mason and Patricia Neal, to be honored with sidewalk stars in front of the Kentucky Theatre on Main Street in Lexington.

He performed for five Kentucky governors, including playing the saw for Gov. Paul Patton in 1997.

The University Press of Kentucky published his biography, "Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford" by R. Gerald Alvey, in 1984 and reissued it in 2003.

KET did a feature film on him, and Ledford produced his own story, too, an autobiography and CD set, "See Ya Further Up the Creek," in 2004.

He helped restore an 1850 Martin parlor guitar played by Henry Clay's granddaughter, Anne Clay McDowell, in 2005 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from Eastern Kentucky University just days after he died of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in December.

Critic Diane Heilenman can be reached at (502) 582-4682.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...NE05/708120322

[BobbyB]

Van Horn gets Nussdorfer honor


Van Horn


Phyllis Van Horn of New Philadelphia decided families whose loved ones have Lou Gehrig’s Disease needed a support system, so almost four years ago she established the ALS Family Support Group.

Her hard work in raising awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis plus her other volunteer activities helped her win the first Lucille Nussdorfer Woman of the Year Award sponsored by the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum. She received the honor at an awards dinner in the K. of C. Hall at Dennison Thursday night to kick off the American Soldiers Homecoming Tribute.

Nussdorfer established the World War II serviceman’s canteen that served more than 1.3 million with refreshments on stops at Dennison, known to the military visitors as “Dreamsville.” The award is designed to recognize women who have made a big impact on the quality of lives in the area.

Van Horn was nominated for the award by Linda Harig of New Cumberland, whose nomination stated “I feel that her dedication to the mission of the ALS Family Support Group of Ohio and her determination to help others is very significant and will have a lasting impact on Tuscarawas County.”

The non-profit ALS Family Support Group, which meets the third Thursday of every month, has its own Web site, www.alsfamilysupportgroup.com and offers information and support.

After Van Horn’s twin brother, and then a sister, became afflicted with ALS and she discovered there no support groups or information available locally. Both of her siblings died, but Van Horn, one of 14 children, understood the meaning of family support, she said, and the idea evolved for an ALS support group for people with Lou Gehrig’s and other neuromuscular disorders, their families and caregivers.

“Because raising public awareness of ALS is part of our mission, I speak at civic organizations and places such as the Senior Center and Claymont Community Center,” Van Horn stated. “I participate in every event and fundraiser we hold ... I have worked with a group in setting up an ALS Family Support Group in Coshocton County.”

She also is secretary of the board of Mainstreet New Philadelphia and volunteers six hours a week in the office, has been a two-year member of a Relay for Life team and also volunteers at the Reeves Home & Museum in Dover. She has helped research the home of Cathie Hiltbrand in Dover, which received a Heritage Home Assn. plaque and was featured on HGTV’s “If Walls Could Talk.”

Dominion East Ohio served as the lead corporate sponsor for the event.

Van Horn’s award was sponsored by The Times-Reporter.

The other semi-finalists and their award sponsors were Sharon Kohler of Dennison, First National Bank of Dennison; Barbara Scott of Newcomerstown, the Tuscarawas County Convention & Visitors Bureau; Martha Campbell of Uhrichsville, Prestige Creative Marketing; and the late Lulu Benedetto of Dennison, Bloom’s Printing
http://www.timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=71296