Crooked Ridge: A Song History
"Crooked Ridge" is not an old traditional tune but a modern mountain dulcimer piece by Pam Setser, who took the title from Crooked Ridge, the road her family lived on.[1] Setser grew up in Mountain View, Arkansas, and from the age of five performed alongside her parents in The Simmons Family. She has played at the Ozark Folk Center since its opening in 1973, recorded several dulcimer albums with her mother, and has also put out solo albums, one of them titled Crooked Ridge.[1][2]
Arthur Rothstein, “View of Ozark Mountains, Arkansas,” photograph, August 1935. Library of Congress. No known restrictions.
Speaking with Joellen Lapidus for FolkWorks in 2017, Setser said the tune is heard at big jam sessions at dulcimer festivals. A couple of people have set lyrics to it, she noted, but for her it has "always been an instrumental."[1] Her tune is one of the arrangements in Stephen Seifert's mountain dulcimer collection Join the Jam II.[3]
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