Glen Schmidt plays Hammer Dulcimer, tenor banjo and bouzouki (octave mandolin) with Kilkenny Road. Glen has played music with the other guys in the band for close to ten years, however, he only recently joined Kilkenny Road as a full time member of the band.
Glen says: "I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old. My parents were starting a church when I was 14 or 15, and I had my first exposure to leading songs while playing guitar. I later played guitar in the High School Jazz Band. My freshman year of college, as an engineering student, I actually got a jazz scholarship to play guitar. I did that until my engineering studies consumed all my time. So for a time, I kind of fell out of music. When I was in my 20's, I decided that I wanted to learn to fiddle. I took lessons from Kelly Werts of the Plaid Family Kelly taught me numerous fiddle tunes, like Whiskey Before Breakfast, Liberty, Saint Anne's Reel to name a few. It was my first exposure to old time traditional and Irish music. Kelly had told me about an acoustic music festival and a short time later, I started going to the
Walnut Valley Festival
in Winfield, KS, and I think I have only missed one year since then. The National Hammer Dulcimer Contest is held at Winfield. For that reason, I met a lot of dulcimer players. In 1995, I bought my first hammer dulcimer at the festival, and I was hooked. I found that all the fiddle tunes that Kelly had taught me were very fun and easy to play on the Hammer Dulcimer. I started to hang out at Winfield's Carp Camp where they play all kinds of crazy tunes with a dozen dulcimers, mandolins, guitars, fiddles, and just about anything else."
Glen plays a James Jones custom hammer dulcimer. See more about Glen's custom instrument at Glen Schmidt's Hammer Dulcimer