For Homer Ledford of Winchester, bluegrass music is more than an interest, more than just a sometime hobby. For Ledford, bluegrass music is a passion -- and then some.

Bluegrass music is as much a part of Ledford as his tall lanky frame because he cannot remember a time when he didn’t love music. Born in the Alpine Hills of Tennessee, Ledford’s early music memories revolve around traveling itinerant musicians and his own burning desire to someday make his own music.

"We didn’t have much, certainly not a radio, but those travelin’ musicians would stay with you and play for you as long as you would keep them," Ledford remembers.

Ledford remembers one traveling musician in particular.

"Bob Collins stayed with us for a while. He had a fiddle and he showed me how to play it some," Ledford said. "I just loved music so much. As long as I can remember I wanted a fiddle and there was no way we could afford one."

At the time Ledford could not imagine ever having the money to purchase his own fiddle, so at the age of 12 he decided he would do something about his lack of a musical instrument and set out to make a banjo from a lard can and unraveled wire screen.

Although he didn’t consider the banjo a success, he wasn’t ready to give up yet. He continued to study the problem and the next year decided to do something about his lack of a fiddle.

"I made one from wood out of the maple tree in my father’s hog lot using the picture and dimensions from the Sears and Roebuck catalog as my guide," he said. "It doesn’t play as well as I’d like it to, but it worked fine."

To prove that fact, he still uses the instrument on stage.

At the time, Ledford’s instrument-making was born out of need. He had no way of knowing he would later spend his life making musical instruments as well as the music he loved. He would make music in every sense of the word.

The first step

Ledford’s early musical training was spotty at best. He learned his first musical chords on a Montgomery Ward guitar under his uncle’s guidance.

"I kept hammering away at it until I got it right," he said. "You have to have a burning desire to work that hard."

Later he was able to buy his first guitar for $4 from Sears.

"I worked in the field to earn that money," he said. "I remember it cost 15 cents to ship it from Atlanta."

Ledford says his personal style was heavily influenced by the music of Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe and the Blue Sky Boys.

"Growing up I didn’t know anything but hillbilly music," he said. "When we got a radio we used to listen to the Renfro Valley Barn Dance and the Grand Ole Opry."

Soon, however, Ledford’s musical experience would broaden dramatically.

While recuperating from rheumatic fever at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, he met Jean and Edna Ritchie. The meeting was serendipitous. At that time Jean Ritchie was making the mountain dulcimer popular and it was that popularity that created a demand for the instrument. That demand in turn led to Ledford’s first dulcimer commissions.

After finishing school in North Carolina, he attended Berea College in 1949 and then transferred to Eastern Kentucky University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1954. He taught industrial arts in Jefferson County and Clark County for 10 years before resigning to become a full-time instrument maker.

Since 1949, he has been repairing, rebuilding and making dulcimers, guitars, banjoes, ukuleles, mandolins and fiddles, and to this day he still plays on instruments that he makes. He estimates he has completed 5,776 dulcimers, 475 banjos, 26 mandolins, 26 guitars, 18 ukuleles, 13 dulcitars, three dulcijos, three dulcibros, four violins and one bowed dulcimer.

Although dulcimer-making has been a great part of his life, Ledford wasn’t too impressed with the instrument at first.

"When I first saw them I didn’t like them," he said. "But I thought up some ways to change the design to make them easier to play. I wanted an instrument that played like a dulcimer and guitar both. "I wanted to be able to change keys like with a guitar."

In traditional Ledford fashion, he built an instrument to suit his needs. The result was his own patented instrument, the dulcitar.

"It’s the only new instrument developed in the 20th century," he said.

As such, the instrument is on display in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Two more of Ledford’s instruments, a handmade dulcimer and banjo, are also on display with the Smithsonian. All three instruments were part of a traveling exhibit of American crafts that was once displayed in American embassies around the world.

The dulcitar is not Ledford’s only invention. There is also the Fiddlefone, a curious instrument made of scrap wood from the shop, an old style spring-wound phonograph arm and two fiddle strings, which Ledford also uses on stage, although with more humor than music.

The music man

Ledford shows his talents in many ways. In addition to making music and instruments, he has been the subject of a book by Gerald Arvey, The Dulcimer Maker: Homer Ledford, and a documentary film produced by Eastern Kentucky University as well as being featured in many other books and articles.

He is an active member of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen and gained juried participant status in the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program in 1989.

He has also been the perennial favorite exhibitor of the Festival of Kentucky Folklife and was the 1996 Milner Award recipient for the Governor’s Awards in the Arts. This year the Craft Marketing Program and Craft Foundation presented Ledford with the Rude Osolnik Award for his contribution to the craft community, his preservation of craft traditions via teaching and sharing as well as his lifelong commitment to craft development.

Making music

Ledford calculates that he can play about 13 instruments including the guitar, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, dulcitar, jaw harp, harmonica, mandolin fiddle, autoharp, Dobro, piano and organ -- and don’t forget the Fiddlefone.

Ledford has no difficulty in choosing which instrument is his favorite, though.

"If I had to throw them all away and could only keep one it would be the guitar," he said. "It was my first love and it’s very basic. You can play anything on the guitar. I keep one on a rack in the family room just so I can play when the mood strikes."

In addition to playing by himself, Ledford has played with the Cabin Creek Band since 1976. Ledford claims the band’s music has been strongly influenced by the music of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Don Reno and Red Smiley. They get together to practice every week and perform every few weeks.

Ledford has traveled extensively for his music both in and out of the U.S. In 1989, the band performed in Ecuador and in 1991, 1992 and 1997 they performed in Ireland. He has also performed solo concerts in Japan.

Throughout his career, Ledford has shared the stage with many notables. Outstanding musicians have included Ricky Skaggs, Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys and Allison Krauss. In addition, he has performed before the last five governors and his concerts have also been presented on the Kentucky Educational Television network.

Ledford plays the mandolin with the band, but when he is by himself he most often plays the guitar or dulcimer. He plays every day and in fact, at the age of 71, recently took on a new musical adventure.

"I’m teaching my wife how to play the dulcimer," he said. "We work on it every night. I don’t let her get by with anything. If she’s doing to do it, she’s going to learn right."

Although Ledford splits his time between making instruments and making music, sometimes taking a break from the shop to play a little music for his own pleasure, he cannot always be sure which he prefers.

There is one benefit the instrument-making can offer over the music-making.

"When I make an instrument, I know it is going to be around for a long time, long after I’m gone," he said. "I’m making something lasting."

Deanna Mascle is a staff writer for The Lane Report.