Dave Rankine is the creative driving force behind the progressive rock outfit Dulcimerhead. 

   Although a devoted player of the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer (a zither like 4 stringed modal instrument) Dave has never let his playing style be restricted by traditional modes or idioms. Composing all of his own material, his playing is eclectic and diversified...mixing the dynamics of bagpipes (his first instrument) and hard rock, with riffs and scales influenced by Indo Persian and Medieval music.

    Dave's compositions run the range from exquisitely sweet balads (The Knot, May Day, Forsaken) to trance grooves like  "Ullalume's Return" to driving poly-rhythmic stomps like "Circles", "The Crucible" and "Axis of Love".

   No matter what the tune is, audiences and listeners always comment on how trance-inducing the music is. This may be a result of his playing style which breaks all beats into three note triplets and then taking that and layering it and interspersng it with rhythm and bass lines. Often he finds himself playing bass, rhythm and lead all at the same time. It is a style of playing that draws heavily from Scottish Bagpipe classical music (Ceol Mhor) and also Indian Ragas.

   Dave's first dulcimer focused band was East by West (with Billy Fairley - formerly of String Driven Thing)). This is the band in which Eastern music styles melded with Western Rock idioms-  a rock/folk synthesis that used acoustic instruments (Dave's Duclimer and Billy's panalopy of hand percussion.) They recorded one CD - "Trance Mhor" ( 2006) - an album which amazed listeners by its freshness. One fellow dulcimer player described it as " the best Mountain Dulcimer recording yet - anywhere".

In early 2007, Dave went on to to form Dulcimerhead and record two solo CDs under that band name (All That Is and Gnosis- both Arathusa Records ,2007) and also a meditation CD (Revealed Structure). After a number of personel changes, Duclimerhead is now formed by the core of Dave and percussionist Fernando Villalobos (of Skorched - formerly of Karakatoa and Heavily Medicated).  A new CD (Sacred Sound) was recorded and released in September 2008.

David also recorded a CD with Tara Mae Hillyer- under the band name Anam Ranaich (Cries for Calliach, 2007).

New personel are being added to Dulcimerhead at this moment and a new CDis in the works.  There is also another new CD in process- a collaboration with Chantal Garneau. This CD will feature a more introspective sound and also spoken word and guided meditation elements.

stay tuned!