Where Is Peggy Martin And What Is She Doing? It’s Full Circle!

by President David Hobson

Peggy Martin laughs a lot.  That may help to explain why she has held many offices and performed many jobs for the North Georgia Foothills Dulcimer Association – she’s fun to be around.  But that’s not the complete answer.  She reads people well and understands what kinds of roles they might be good at.  But that’s not the complete answer either.  She is thorough and carries through on her plans. 

Now retired, Peggy has volunteered for many organizations such as the Bartow County Board of Health and it’s that thoroughness that helps.  Even with that, it still doesn’t make for a complete answer.  She loves music and she loves NGFDA’s goal of helping mountain dulcimer players and those who play complementary instruments to enjoy their music and to learn more.

Martin’s Involvement with Music

Martin’s love of music comes naturally.  Peggy began playing the ukulele and guitar when she was a youth.  “Yes, I played the uke,” she said.  “Back in the early sixties, just on the cusp between the beatniks and the hippies.  I was in college in nursing school in ’63.” 

Hootenannies?  Did you take part in hootenannies?  Were you part of the folk music movement? 
“Yes, I was,” she laughed.  “I was in a folkie band called “Checkerboard Square” in high school.” 

Somewhere along the way you picked up the standup bass.  How did you do that? 

“I just wanted to learn; and I did.  That and the mandolin.  I eventually gave the mandolin to my son-in-law.  He plays it now.”  When asked what else she plays, she said, “The bowed bass, the cello, the bowed dulcimer, and the fiddle.  And the dulcimer and the dulcimette.”  Right now she’s traveling around to bowed dulcimer events, playing this instrument she calls a crossbreed between a viola da gamba and an upright teardrop dulcimer.  She has found playing her chromatic bowed dulcimers with their three strings similar to playing the bowed bass.  She keeps on learning. 

It seems as if she has never stopped playing in groups, either.  After taking dulcimer lessons from Les Scott, she first played with a band called “Flirting with Grace” that Les helped organize.  She then played with Gwen Caeli as a duet for four years.  And after that with Lynne Smith as “Whisperwood” for about four years.  For six or seven years she played with John and Laurie Simpson in a band called “Haggis and Hominy.” Now she plays in an ensemble that’s an offshoot of the Allatooners.  She also plays with a group in Washington, D.C., performing for children’s groups, flying north for that group’s engagements.

Martin’s Involvement with the NGFDA

Peggy has a long History with NGFDA.  In 1988 she joined NGFDA.  She chuckled, “Back then we kept records on scraps of paper.”  She became membership director in ’91, and starting in ’95 served as president for eight years.  She’s also led the Red Top Low Country Boil and the Peach Jam.  She helped write the NGFDA bylaws.  Many NGFDA members certainly remember her as director of the Fall Festival, which she did for eight years, along with being co-director one year. 

She talks excitedly about the satellite groups.  She played a role in starting the first two satellites, the In Town Down Home group and the Allatooners.  For a number of years the Allatooners met in her home on Lake Allatoona until they outgrew her house and moved elsewhere.  Now she’s come full circle with a new position in NGFDA. 

Liaison to Satellites 

When the NGFDA board decided to add a liaison to satellite groups and the membership approved the position, Peggy Martin took on that responsibility.  She said, “Even though many of our members don’t belong to satellite groups and a solid minority live out of state, we need to attend to one of the three important roots of the association:  our satellites, the newsletter, and the website are the backbone of our organization.  I do have a commitment to not dilute the strength and quality of NGFDA by assuming that all satellites will go on with no maintenance or help from the board.  So I’m working toward satellites being healthy for the sake of our membership and potential membership.

“I’m reviewing how satellites support our members and provide chances for them to play.  We’re going to have a meeting of satellite members at the Fall Festival this year.  I want to do what I can to make sure dulcimer playing is both fun and involving.  I’m visiting all the satellites, playing dulcimer with all of them before Fall Festival, and talking about how things are going.” 

So it’s full circle for Peggy.  There is some gray hair now, but no less energy, laughter, discernment, organization, and love of music.