Seventy-four-year-old Agene Parsons’ love affair with the hammered dulcimer may not have been a lifelong one, but playing the mountain instrument is certainly the love of her life now.
“It has such a beautiful sound,” said Parsons, who began playing in 1998. “It just kind of rings and it makes you think of a harp. For one thing, it’s intriguing. You can do so much with it. You’ll never get bored with it.”
The Ooltewah resident has worked out her niche in Chattanooga’s teeming hammered dulcimer community, playing weekly at the Red Bank Senior Center and at Graysville United Methodist Church with the Hilltoppers band, giving lessons at home and aiding instruction at the John C. Campbell Folk School near Murphy, N.C., where she first was a student.
Dulcimer musician Agene Parsons also plays the autoharp, which she says is better for her to sing along.Parsons said inquiries for lessons and appearances have skyrocketed within the last year, leading to a show at the Ooltewah-Collegedale branch of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library and at local assisted living residences.
“There’s music going on all over the place,” she said. “Chattanooga has a great wealth of hammered dulcimer players – nationally known – that live here.”