National Dulcimer Champion
Kara Barnard~ by Chrissy Alspaugh
Kara Barnard, 2022 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion at the Walnut Valley Festival National Flat-Picking Championships.
46 Our Brown County Nov./ Dec. 2022 courtesy photo
Local music legend Kara Barnard is the 2022 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion, earning the title at the Walnut Valley Festival National Flat-Picking Championships in Winfield, Kansas.
It’ s about a decade past the peak of her vocal and instrumental career— recording albums, backing other recording artists, and touring. To celebrate turning 60 this year, Barnard decided it was time to recommit herself to the music, harmonizing, and timing that makes her feel connected to the world.
Having competed with various instruments at the championship festival throughout her life, Barnard knew exactly what it would take to win. For months, she spent four hours every weekday and six hours per day on the weekends dissecting songs and practicing a mere three or four lines at a time, to the pace of her metronome, until they were perfect.
That level of focused dedication, Barnard said, is meditative and comforting.“ I believe we all can do what we really want to do once we get rid of all the blocks we’ ve put in place,” she said.“ It’ s all about letting go of the walls we’ ve created that stand in our way.”
Barnard tore down wall after wall in arranging her four competition songs to suit a dulcimer, whose four strings limit the number of notes that can be played. She won the contest with original interpretations of“ The Arkansas Traveler,”“ Return to Pooh Corner,”“ And So It Goes,” and“ Jerusalem Ridge.”
On one of her many YouTube instructional videos, Barnard laughed that her dulcimer rode all the way to Kansas