Patch Performers: Cos Cob's Sam Edelston Plays "Whole Lotta Love" on the Dulcimer

Sam Edelston was a self-proclaimed hammered dulcimer groupie in the ‘70s. The Cos Cob resident started a love affair with the Appalachian dulcimer quite by accident, and it all started with the hammered dulcimer.

“Back in the ‘70s, when I was a teenager playing guitar and banjo, I was at a folk music concert and fell in love with the sound of an instrument called the hammered dulcimer,” he told Patch. “It’s totally unrelated to the mountain dulcimer [another term for the Appalachian dulcimer]. The only things they have in common are wood, strings, and the same last name.”

From the 1970s until 2004, Edelston wracked up a great deal with experience with the hammered dulcimer, both first- and second-hand.

“I became a hammered dulcimer groupie — going to dulcimer festivals as the token guitar player, and jamming with a lot of top-notch hammered dulcimer players,” he said. It was the hammered dulcimer that I took up first, and I got quite good at that.”

The Appalachian dulcimer crossed his path in the ‘70s too, but failed to catch his eye at the time.

See Edelston play Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” on the Appalachian dulcimer at the bottom of the article.

“... Because it had so few strings — and, in fact, it doesn’t even have all of the notes in a musical scale — I didn’t take it seriously,” Edelston said. “But I discovered that those ‘weaknesses’ were actually huge strengths. Because it has fewer notes and fewer strings, it’s easier to play. And I can do more with each string.”

The Appalachian dulcimer typically has three or four strings and are strummed or fingerpicked, while the hammered dulcimer has dozens, he said. Edelston’s hammered dulcimer has a total of 95 strings, played by hitting the strings with pencil-sized ‘hammers.’

“It’s like playing the inside of a piano with drumsticks,” he explained.

The Creation of Connecticut’s Dulcimer Festival

In 2004, Edelston and a group of musicians decided to form the Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival in Connecticut, featuring hammered and Appalachian dulcimers. The 2015 festival will take place on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 and 24, at Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in Milford.

“As chair, I felt I should get more familiar with ‘the other side of the family,’ so I bought a good mountain dulcimer and started learning how to play it,” he said.

Familiar he is — Edelston had an electric dulcimer custom built and shares his musical talent on his YouTube channel, Contempory Dulcimer. He still plays the hammered dulcimer, the guitar and the banjo. A few years ago, he was an accompanist, on hammered dulcimer and banjo, for the Greenwich Public Schools Honor Choir.

Embrace the Unexpected

The biggest challenge is making time to get out and perform more, Edelston said. The most rewarding aspect of his foray into music is delving into the unexpected.

“Most rewarding aspects of being a musician? People’s reactions,” he said. “Playing things that people never expected to hear. Having people halfway around the world tell me that my music videos wowed them. Causing eureka moments in the minds of other dulcimer players and, hopefully, future dulcimer players.”

The beauty of the Appalachian dulcimer is that it doesn’t just amaze fans or fellow musicians. It astounds its player too.

“I still surprise myself with some of the songs, and some of the kinds of music, that the mountain dulcimer lets me play,” Edelston said.

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