Dulcimer

Dulcimer were one of the more enigmatic folk-based progressive rock outfits of the early '70s, fitting into an odd coterie of British-spawned bands that ranged from Amazing Blondel on the cult side of the field to Jethro Tull at the arena scale of things — Dulcimer were closer to the former than the latter. Cotswold-born Peter Hodge (vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, harmonica, keyboards) had been on the English folk revival scene of the early to mid-'60s, and in 1967 formed his first group, a duo christened Kelpie, in tandem with Dave Eaves (guitars, vocals, harmonium, Jew's harp, glockenspiel, piano), who had originally taken up the guitar in the wake of England's first rock & roll boom, and the rise of Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The trio fell into place with the arrival of bassist Jem North, who was also Hodge's cousin. Their interests were all rooted in English folk music, but they also had sufficient awareness of popular music — and enough of a sense of what they could incorporate of it into their sound — that their music ended up being far more than the sum of its parts.

They also came to the attention of producer and manager Larry Page (of Troggs renown), who signed them to his own newly founded Nepentha Records — they recorded their debut album, And I Turned as I Had as a Boy, at Landsdowne Studios in London with Page producing. Mercury Records picked up the American distribution rights to the LP. The trio's sound was a strangely haunting mix of acoustic, very traditional-sounding folk-inspired originals, which were often set as more ambitious (and dramatic) suite-like pieces. The melodies were stunning, and the playing and timbre of their music were as well, while their lyrics were steeped in antiquity and fantasy — somewhere midway between Amazing Blondel and Renaissance. The U.K. rock press of the period, enamored as it was by folk music and progressive rock, gave it enthusiastic reviews, praising their harmony singing as well as their ambitious musical structures, and the trio seemed to be on its way.

Unfortunately, Page seemed to run out of interest or money, as a second, somewhat more rock-oriented (and amplified) album was completed and designed, but never released. Neither that record, nor a third done around 1980, entitled A Land Fit for Heroes, was released until decades later. In the meantime, Dulcimer continued as a part-time, semi-professional outfit, lasting until the early '80s. With the reissue of their work on CD in the 1990s, Hodge and Eaves reunited and recorded two subsequent albums, When a Child... and Rob's Garden. Eaves and North left the music business, and since the 1980s Peter Hodge has been best known as a landscape artist, specializing in England's countryside, especially the Cotswolds and Vale of Evesham.