When I first started the research two years, one of my goals was to find as much of David's published music as possible to listen to in order to study his development as a player and his musical taste over time. When I started, I only knew of him as a Nashville musician. Along the way and much to my wonder, I learned there was a heck of a lot more to his story and his music than his time in Music City or the music he published there.
Some of his published music was and is still easy to find. Some of it, not so easy; I had to find smaller music shops that cater to dulcimer players to find his CDs. Places like Mike Clemmer's Wood-n-Strings in Townsend, Tennessee, or the Sager's Prussia Valley Dulcimers in Ohio still sell some of David's music.
I'm sorry to say that it's getting harder and harder to find David's published recordings. This popped into my email box the other day; check out the price:
Even more unfortunate is the fact that so many historic recordings of the Dulcimer Boom players lie in shoeboxes tucked away in closets or garages scattered all across the country. Several of them have sent me unpublished recordings of David and other important players, and those will go to the Vanderbilt University Archives as I organize and close down my files. But, think of the hundreds and hundreds of cassette recordings that are primary
source artifacts from U.S. music history that would be of value to future music scholars.
If you are a Dulcimer Boomer who never considered the value of your "personal collection" and you happen to read this page, please look at the Society for American Music website's list of libraries, archives, and research centers for American Music, and give one near you a call. Tell them what you have. In case the rep isn't familiar with the dulcimer, tell him or her why your historic music is so valuable to their archive.