photo: Mary Anne McDonald

Leonard Glenn

Art Form: Folk/Traditional Crafts and Visual Arts

Sugar Grove, NC

 

About Leonard Glenn

The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina have nurtured many great folk musicians over the years, including Doc Watson and Frank Proffitt. Less well known are the folk craftsmen, who built the instruments used by many of the fine singers and players since the area was first settled. One of the region's most respected instrument makers was Leonard Lucky Glenn, a resident of Watauga County's Laurel Creek community, near Beech Mountain.

Mr. Glenn began building the traditional mountain banjo as a young man. His banjos differed significantly in design and construction from the modern instruments used by bluegrass musicians. They were made almost entirely of wood--maple, walnut, and cherry mainly--and featured a small head of animal hide. And they were built without frets, which are used on most banjos to regulate the noting. In fact, this style of banjo bears kinship to the instrument's closest antecedent, which originated in Africa and was made with hollowed gourds.

Many traditional banjo players prefer the softer sound of Mr. Glenn's instruments to the ringing-out of the heavy, metallic bluegrass-style banjo. The wood and skin instruments provide perfect accompaniment for singing with family and friends. And the absence of frets allows for the sliding and shading of notes--qualities that also fit the local singing style.

Mr. Glenn's father made banjos and undoubtedly influenced his son in this direction. However, Leonard Glenn's instrument-making skills were largely self-taught. He began building dulcimers in the 1950s, when the instrument's popularity was boosted by post-war folk music and craft revivals. "I just decided," he said, "to get me some wood and go in on the dulcimer business and the first dulcimer I ever made I just studied it out for myself and made it." As noted by his son Clifford, who has also taken up the instrument-making craft with great success, "I think we were sort of pioneers. There weren't many making the dulcimer back then."

The origins of the Appalachian dulcimer are not well documented, but it is believed to be adapted from a German instrument that made its way down the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia in the middle of the 18th century. Its use was never widespread, but it nonetheless became something of a symbol of mountain culture. It's a beautiful handcrafted wooden instrument that can be made in a variety of pleasing shapes, and it is relatively easy to play. Mr. Glenn spoke of Grandpa Eli Presnell getting a dulcimer pattern from a Kentuckian who passed through in the mid1800s. He made one for his son Ninevah, which was later copied by Mr. Glenn's father.

The Glenns were expert players of the instruments they made and were regularly asked by visitors to pick a tune. Leonard Glenn recalled playing the banjo for dances as a young man, often without the accompaniment of other musicians.

For years, Leonard and his wife Clara, and Clifford and his wife Maybelle, taught and entertained a steady stream of musicians and school children, who came looking for a taste of the old-time mountain culture. They were unfailingly generous with their time and as friendly as could be. While crafting instruments that were prized for their superior sound, they were credited with preserving some old and wonderful Appalachian folk arts.