How do I tell someone who Rick Stone was? I remember him first as a musical companion - the man with the radiant smile under his rather magnificent mustache. I met Rick Stone because of Cecil Gurganus. Cecil and Rick had been playing together in the Laurel Creek String Band for a few years before I joined the group. Cecil's wife, Julie, had been the band's regular guitar player from the beginning. But when Cecil and Julie started having their children, the dual role of mother and guitarist became difficult to manage. So I was privileged to step in to fill in the spot. Rick was a soft-spoken man with such a kind personality. He was making instruments in a tiny workroom of a small house that he shared with his lovely wife Anne when I first met him. Then later I asked him to build a mountain dulcimer for me. I think by that time he had a larger workshop in the basement of his new home. I requested an especially loud instrument because I had been playing duets with Cecil's fiddling and my traditional dulcimer just didn't have enough volume. Rick took me into his shop and he, and then I, tapped various pieces of thin wood to check the volume potential! We picked what seemed to be the loudest ringing piece of wood as the back of the dulcimer. Then he used a "floating bridge" design to add more oumph to the instrument's sound. Rick warned me that I would loose some of the instrument's sustain in exchange for the volume. I ended up with a beautifully handcrafted instrument custom made for my small hands. This instrument went with me to concerts, fiddler conventions, and various events. It has become well worn over time. This custom instrument became the one that won some fiddler's convention contests for me. I always said the wins were because of the combination of the horse and rider. By that I meant that I was playing a particularly fine instrument and we had become so intertwined over time that the musical potential of the instrument had challenged me to become a better player. But it was really the fact that Rick had built an instrument that could be played four strings equidistant. What that means is I had greater volume, chord potential, plus harmony options while maintaining the characteristic drone sound of the dulcimer. That instrument pushed out a lush, resonant dark sound that was so uncharacteristic of dulcimers! One time a judge practically ran to speak to me after I played at a contest. I hadn't even had time to put the instrument back in the case! He said, "Who made that dulcimer? I have never heard one sound like that!" I was pleased to show him Rick's dulcimer and got 1st place that year at the Grayson Old Time Fiddler's Convention in 2013. That dulcimer also won a 1st place for me in 1994 at Union Grove. I never did compete much at Fiddler's Conventions but with that dulcimer I never placed below 2nd place! Yep, it's that horse and rider thing!
Rick's friend Rick Stone, who always knew him as J.R., created a video about their friendship on YouTube. You can find it on Rick Stone's channel that is named Rick Scott Dulcimer My Way. The specific video is titled 25 JR Stone Dulcimers. Rick Stone and Rick Scott met Joni Mitchell while they were in Vancouver, Canada. Rick Stone built Joni Mitchell a dulcimer - something I never tired of telling people about and that Rick found a bit embarrassing when I did that. Over the years since his death I have been able to acquire two more Rick Stone dulcimers. Some of our friends leave this life too early but Rick left behind so many beautiful dulcimers, guitars, and mandolins. He also built a few unique inventions that he called the "Aho", a small string instrument named for the community he lived in. Rick passed away too young but his instruments sing on in the hands of many grateful players who can never forget this special man and friend.
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