David Massengill

David Massengill (born 1951, Bristol, Tennessee) is an American folk singer/songwriter, guitar and appalachian dulcimer player. His best-known songs include "On The Road to Fairfax County," recorded by The Roches and by Joan Baez, "The Great American Dream," and "My Name Joe," about an illegal immigrant restaurant worker. For some years after he began recording, Massengill maintained a day job as a restaurant dishwasher. He also contributed his poignant dulcimer-centered version of "The Crucifixion" to 2001's multi-artist double-disc tribute to Phil Ochs, What's That I Hear. In addition to his skills as a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and both virtuoso and educator on the appalachian dulcimer, he is also a prolific author-illustrator of pocket-sized children's books and has performed and recorded children's music. Massengill toured frequently with long-time friend and fellow songwriter Jack Hardy as a duo called the Folk Brothers, until Hardy's death in 2011. As a music educator, Massengill is famed for presenting his "Taking the Dull out of Dulcimer" workshops at festivals and music gatherings around North America, and is one of the instrument's prime proponents in the field of melding traditional and contemporary music styles (including alternate tunings); and is a mentor to many in the dulcimer and folk community in general.