Songs and Tunes of the Wilderness Road

This collection of traditional music for the mountain dulcimer seeks to reunite this beautiful instrument with the people, the music, and the world from which it came.

It tells the story of the Wilderness Road, a trail through the Appalachian Mountains from Gate City, Virginia, to Fort Boonesboro, Kentucky, blazed by Daniel Boone, and links it to the history and heritage of the mountain dulcimer. Numerous photographs and maps help tell the story, and each tune in the book includes a historical anecdote describing its origin.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of the Appalachian Mountain region and its music. The sixteen tunes in this book are written intonation and tablature for the standard three-course mountain dulcimer (without the 6 1/2 or 1 1/2 fret in the fretboard), with chord symbols and complete lyrics. A knowledge of simple chording techniques is all that is needed to play the tunes. The tunings used are Ionian (DAA), Aeolian (DAC), and Dorian (DAG).