Jan Hammond

Jan Hammond is an Alabama-based mountain dulcimer player, performer, instructor and singer/songwriter. Her initial introduction to the dulcimer was from attending a workshop by Jean Ritchie at the Appalachian Folk Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio in the early ‘80’s. In 2006, Jan was honored to play on stage with Jean during a workshop that was part of the Kentucky Music Weekend Festival held each year in Louisville, Kentucky.

Jan has a distinctive style of contemporary folk that focuses on simple melodies and thoughtful lyrics. Just Me & My Dulcimer was her debut CD. The seventeen tracks are a mix of instrumentals and originals that pull from observations, memories of loved ones and a charming sense of humor. There are also a few pieces by some notable musicians like Pete Seeger, Jerry Holland and Pete Sutherland that Jan arranged for the dulcimer. Within several songs, you will see Jan’s love of nature and birds, in particular.

Jan has won numerous first place awards from dulcimer competitions, at the local, state, regional and national level of the United States. In 2005, she was a top five finalist at the national competition in Winfield, KS. She also placed first at the Kentucky State Mountain Dulcimer Championship in 2005 and 2006. She has been awarded first place at the Mid-Eastern Regional Competition an unprecedented four times. In 2008, Jan placed third at the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship in Winfield, KS. Most recently, Jan was awarded second place at the 2016 Tennessee Valley Fiddlers Convention Dulcimer Contest held each year in Athens, Alabama. Returning to the Fiddlers Convention, Jan took third place in 2017, fourth place in 2018, second place in 2019 and 2021, before winning first in 2022.

Besides doing solo gigs, Jan also performed with the phenomenal finger style guitar player, Tom Conner for several years. The two met at a coffee house open mic night and created a unique blend of acoustic music while performing throughout NE Ohio. They are very proud of their duet CD entitled Deep Sky that was released in August, 2006. Jan released a second solo CD entitled Man in the Moon, which was also produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Tom. He added some amazing guitar work to some of the tracks to make this eclectic mix of tunes even more enjoyable. Sadly, Tom passed away on June 4, 2021.

In January of 2009, Jan released In My Next Life, an all instrumental, all dulcimer CD project, also produced by Tom Conner. It contains original, traditional and classical tunes. This recording happened in conjunction with Jan’s graduation as a Certified Music Practitioner® from the Music for Healing & Transition Program, www.mhtp.org.

In March of 2010 Jan released Connected, a lyrical collection of 15 original songs. Each tune has been enriched by the contributions of some of Jan's wonderfully talented musician friends. Several of the lyrics were co-written with Paul Conrad, another dear friend and a wonderful dulcimer builder. The recording was creatively produced by Michael Grady. The artwork for Jan's CDs and jackets were all done by her.

Jan Hammond Mountain Dulcimer Arrangement

This tune is in honor of Jerry Holland who lost his battle with cancer at the age of 54 in 2009. He wrote it in 1988 for his father. The musical score can be found in Bill Matthiesen's The Waltz Book. Thanks to Tom Conner for recording this video. See more videos on Jan's Youtube channel, JHammondArtz