Fess Parker - dulcimer and Daniel Boone

I am sharing some dulcimer history I just discovered from the Athens Dulcimer Club with an article that I found absolutely fascinating. Hope you do too! You can locate Fess Parker playing a mountain dulcimer on YouTube. Look up Daniel Boone Season 1 Episode 1 to see him play a dulcimer and sing. In this episode, he sang, "Fare Thee Well, My Darling, Fare Thee Well." Later on another additional Daniel Boone in Season 5 Episode 26A titled, "A Pinch of Salt", he plays and sings again. Who knew?

He played the dulcimer with a noter and a turkey quill. This was Fess Parker's preferred instrument. He also played a guitar and a fiddle. David Bennet wrote about Fess Parker for the Athens Dulcimer Club. "On September 5, 1964 an article in the St. Petersburg Independent ran a newsletter article on Fess Parker entitled, "Boon in Boom, Kentucky in Malibu" in which they tell about Fess Parker using his personal dulcimer in the show. In the episode, Fess strums a dulcimer with a turkey bone." In the St. Petersburg Independent, Saturday, September 5, 1964 page 5-B BOONE IN BOOM, KENTUCKY IN MALIBU HOLLYWOOD- Daniel Boone tossing hatchets, flicking a giant bull whip and rolling on the forest tanbark wrestling Indians is NBC's early Thursday night hour taste treat for the kiddies, this fall beginning September 24. Daniel is none other than Fess Parker, the six-foot-five Texan, better known as Walt Disney's "Davy Crockett," the coonskin cap John Wayne of TV land… …Not much has been overlooked on the series. Fess even strums a dulcimer, an ancient guitar type instrument which he picks with a turkey bone. "I call it 'The Ole Sweet Talker,'" says Fess. "I use it when Mrs. Boone gets her dander up, or when I want to sing a lullaby to the kids." The dulcimer is Parker's idea and he brought the instrument out of the Smoky Mountains ten years ago. The dulcimer, coonskin caps, turkey bones, hatchets, bull whips, Boone T-shirts, Booneburgers, Boone every-thingyou-can-dream-of in the way of merchandise items are ready to go right now. Later on in Season 5, Episode 26A titled "A Pinch of Salt," he plays his dulcimer again. I highly recommend checking Fess Parker playing the mountain dulcimer on YouTube.

Your singing-and-picking vice president,

Denny