| Bradley Ellis... Cleveland County's National Champion! |
M.A. Andrews
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 Bradley and Paw Ray show off his handmade dulcimer.
For those of you who are not very knowledgeable of this instrument, the Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to our region of the United States. The Appalachian dulcimer achieved a renaissance in the 1950’s urban folk music revival. It was mostly through the work of Jean Ritchie from Kentucky, who introduced the instrument to New York City. The folk movement adopted the dulcimer as their own and never looked back. Folk singer Joni Mitchell, is one of the most famous singers that uses the instrument, and Cyndi Lauper also uses it to compose her music.
At the age of seven, Bradley was in the living room with his grandfather, who he calls Paw Ray, and started strumming a dulcimer. Paw Ray Anthony makes dulcimers, so he asked Bradley if he wanted to learn how to play the instrument. He got on the floor with his grandson and the rest is history. Bradley took to the instrument and showed so much talent that Joe Collins, winner of the National Championship in 2007, was asked by Bradley’s family to be his coach and accompanied him to Kansas to compete in the National Championship.
After the championship’s first elimination, the contestants were whittled down to five. Bradley drew # 3. Remember, this was an open “any age” competition and the rules were very strict. All the judges were sequestered in another building. No vocals were allowed and no competing identities were disclosed. The contestants were allowed just five minutes. To go beyond the time limit meant disqualification. When # 3 was called to play, he played two selections. The first was “If I Only Had A Brain” (from The Wizard of Oz) and the second was “The Westphalia Waltz”. When the time came to announce the winners, Bradley thought a competitor from Georgia would be the winner. When his name was announced as National Championship he said: “I was shocked” and exclaimed “awesome”! Bradley was presented with a huge trophey and a $1200 dulcimer. He plans to be in a recording studio soon to produce his fist CD with his coach.
Cleveland County is proud to be home of this young National Champion and it’s all because a seven year old started strumming one of his grandfather’s dulcimer five years ago. By the way, Bradley won the competition playing one of Paw Ray’s dulcimers.
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