Futch: So much more than ‘Bob Marley with a dulcimer’

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

Bing Futch doesn’t exactly fit the stereotype of a rocking chair-sitting, overalls-clad mountain man, strumming a dulcimer on the porch of some backwoods cabin.

In fact, when the dreadlocked African-American from Orlando, Fla., hauls out his instrument on Saturday night at “The Pickin’ Porch” in Townsend, it’s apt to cause a little head-scratching. He’s come to expect it, however — as well as the satisfied smiles that follow when he starts to play.

“I get plenty of looks, even without a dulcimer in my hands,” Futch told The Daily Times this week. “People don’t know what to expect when I start playing. They’re thinking, ‘What’s going to happen? It’s Bob Marley with a dulcimer.’ But except for maybe one or two tunes that are Caribbean, I’ll open up with something really Old time, because that lets them know I really respect the roots of the music and the instrument.

“I’ll do ‘Flowers on the Wall’ by the Statler Brothers, some Johnny Cash and my originals, which are not too far from the base, because I love Americana and folk music.”

Futch hails from California, where he was working at Knotts Berry Farm theme park in 1985, a year out of high school, when he first discovered the dulcimer. At that point, he was already a musician — but playing keyboards left him feeling less than satisfied.

“Nothing was really speaking to me until I was walking through Ghost Town, on my break from parking patrol, and I heard someone playing this instrument,” Futch said. “What grabbed me immediately was how ethereal-sounding it was. It was so organic, and it spoke to me — I was instantly captivated. I asked the lady who was playing it what it was, and she told me that it was a dulcimer.”

Within five minutes, she had coaxed him into giving it a try; a week later, he spent his paycheck on a dulcimer of his own — a Cripple Creek teardrop flywood. Shortly thereafter, he was playing full-time, and since then, he’s never looked back. In 1986, he founded the Christian techno-punk band Crazed Bunnyz, a trio that found popularity in the international underground college radio scene. Around the same time, he started a solo career that would eventually lead to success as a composer of music for film, television, theater and various commercial and theme-park attractions.

In 1993, he left California for Florida. Eventually, he formed the Americana band Mohave, which traveled across Florida performing at such venues as the Walt Disney World House of Blues, Hard Rock Cafe Orlando and more, opening for acts like Molly Hatchet, Subject to Change and The Crests. In 1994, he named his first dulcimer — Jolene, after the Dolly Parton song — and, ever since, he’s christened them all.

“I don’t know why I named her that; I guess I thought she was a bad influence on me because I was spending all my time with that instrument,” he said with a chuckle. “So I went back and named all the ones I had bought before. Mostly, they’re all girls, although I have named a couple of them after guys because of their characteristics.”

Helen is the name of the dulcimer that brings him to Townsend. It’s a product of dulcimer maker Mike Clemmer, whose family owns Wood-N-Strings Dulcimer Shop in Townsend, and an instrument of which Futch is quite fond.

“A couple of ladies in my dulcimer group in Orlando had some of his instruments, and I saw they had a very interesting design,” he said. “I’m constantly switching tunings, so I wanted one with two fretboards, and somebody told me that Mike could make me one. So I went to his Web site, talked to him about customizing one for me. It gives me the ability to play in two different keys simultaneously without stopping the show, and it’s just a beautiful instrument with a fantastic sound.

“Mike gave it to me at the Unicoi Festival in Helen, Ga., so that’s why I named her Helen. No matter where I go, she gets stares.”

When the Clemmer family started booking acts for this year’s “Pickin’ Porch” — a Saturday night concert series showcasing dulcimer and Old Time artists — Futch immediately jumped at the chance to play one of the shows. It gives him the opportunity to “see where Helen was ‘born,’” he said, as well as to share his talent with appreciative fans.

“I like to give them a little tour of what the instrument can do,” he said. “I’m play some old chestnuts that people will be familiar with, living in the Appalachian region, and I’ll play some covers, and I’ll be doing some of my original tunes, which range from being kind of rhythmic and groovy to doing some straight-up country and bluegrass tunes I’ve written.

“It’s just a little tour around what the dulcimer can do — blues and Irish music and lots of the soft stuff, too, because I like playing sweet and low, where it sounds really great. It’ll run the gamut.”