Roxanne McDaniel, of Johnson City, Tennessee, is a highly respected mountain dulcimer player, teacher, and songwriter. Raised in Tazewell, Tennessee, McDaniel moved to Johnson City in 2015 to attend the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies program at East Tennessee State University. Already an accomplished guitarist, she became deeply interested in the mountain dulcimer shortly after enrolling. “After obtaining my first dulcimer,” she recalls, “I became obsessed and spent hours every day practicing in my dorm room.”
McDaniel soon began studying dulcimer with Jim Miller. A gifted educator with an inventive approach to the instrument, Miller was known for his enthusiasm, collection of unusual dulcimers, and creative teaching methods. Under his mentorship, McDaniel developed a strong foundation in music theory and built an extensive repertoire of traditional tunes.
Since completing her studies, McDaniel has continued to refine her musicianship through independent study, exploring the writings and recordings of accomplished dulcimer players to deepen her understanding of the instrument and its evolving traditions.
Today, she performs throughout East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina with her duo, Bratfolk. The group has appeared at venues and festivals including The Down Home, Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, the Jackson Theatre in Historic Jonesborough, and the Upper East Tennessee Celtic Festival. McDaniel also founded the Johnson City Dulcimer Festival and works with the nonprofit Art Transforms to provide after-school music instruction in Washington County centered on the mountain dulcimer and traditional Appalachian music. Most recently, she began hosting a weekly radio program at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, where she regularly features historic and contemporary dulcimer recordings.
“The dulcimer is interesting in that it’s an instrument with a strong cultural connection, but is also extremely accessible for beginners,” she explains. “Unfortunately, the dulcimer isn’t as well known in the general community as it used to be. Almost every time I perform, someone asks me what the instrument is. For the last several years, I have worked to expand awareness of the dulcimer in the Johnson City area and put more instruments in the hands of more people.”
As part of this year’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, McDaniel is teaching dulcimer to apprentice Lark Bookout. “Several years back I became interested in old-time and especially jug band music,” Lark says. “I started researching and learning to play DIY instruments, including making my own washtub bass. Dulcimer was the first ‘real’ instrument that I picked up in this regard. While I know of other people who play dulcimer locally, as this is the region where the instrument originated, I haven’t really met any of them. The mountain dulcimer was created here in Appalachia, yet when I speak to people locally about it, half of them have never even heard of it before. It is also very much a living tradition. The style of playing I first learned from decades-old instructional books is missing many of the techniques used today. There is no good online resource that captures the current state of the tradition, so learning directly from another player is the only way to preserve this knowledge.”
The apprenticeship will focus on developing clean, precise playing at faster tempos, performing with others, learning both melody and harmony parts, chordal accompaniment, and playing in a variety of tunings and capo positions. Instruction will also explore traditional techniques, including noter-style drone playing and fingerpicking. The study will emphasize Appalachian music and its connections to earlier British traditions.
