Dave’s
Psaltery:
The Psaltery is a musical instrument with origins that date back at least 4000 years. It is recorded in the Bible in both the Book of Psalms and the Book of Daniel. The psaltery is played by holding the instrument in the bend of your arm and pulling a bow across the individual strings.
Dave started making bowed psalteries several years ago after his wife bought one and fell in love with the instrument. He has now made over 3000 and a special collector’s psaltery is made each time he reaches a thousandth mark. The bowed psalteries that Dave makes is a 24 note and a 36 note fully chromatic stringed instruments that are extremely easy to learn to play. Paulette has written an instructional music book that comes with the psalteries so that anyone, regardless of their musical background, is able to play it right away.
Dave makes all of his psalteries by hand from scratch. He uses various woods such as walnut, birch, oak, cherry, maple and mahogany. Each psaltery is unique and no two psalteries are exactly alike. Dave’s psalteries can be easily identified by the individualism that he gives each psaltery from decorative scrollwork applied above or around the sound hole; a specially craved sound hole or an intricately carved inlaid sound hole.
Paulette hosts a Down Home Psaltery Festival each year on the second weekend of June at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. As far as we are aware, this psaltery festival is the only existing psaltery festival of its kind in the U.S. The festival was born out of Paulette’s desire for psaltery players to have an opportunity to share their knowledge and different techniques with each other and to demonstrate to others just how easy the psaltery is to play. The festival started in 1996 and has grown steadily each year to approximately 100 psaltery players plus additional interested persons attending.
The festival is designed to provide workshops on the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. A “Showcase” and a Juried National Competition are the highlights of the festival and demonstrates the variety of music that can be played from classical to country to gospel. At this point 95% of the participants are individuals who have bought a psaltery from Dave but all psaltery players are invited and encouraged to attend. From jammin’ to learning, to sharing, it’s full of fun and you are guaranteed of a “Down Home Feeling”. Dave also makes hand made dulcimers, hammer dulcimers and walk-about dulcimers as time allows.
Dave and Paulette Lucas are the resident instrument makers at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park where they can be found each weekend from March through November demonstrating and selling their instruments. Visitors are welcome anytime in their craft cabin to view their instruments and sit a spell while listening to live demonstrations of the bowed psaltery. The craft cabin is open on the weekends from March – November. (Saturday and Sunday 10:00am – 4:00pm). Twice a month, Dave and Paulette attend juried Arts & Craft shows at various locations in the southeast. Click here for a list of the Arts and Craft Shows that Dave and Paulette will attend this year.
