It’s been a long time coming.

For more than 40 years, longtime Port Townsend resident Robert Force has been a part of the American folk music scene, sometimes even when he was not aware of it. Now that he fully understands his legacy, he has something to celebrate: a new 44-track CD titled Robert Force & Albert d’Ossché: The Complete Recordings.

The public is invited to a party that will honor this work at the Upstage on Saturday, July 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the restaurant’s outdoor courtyard. Admission is free.

As a young man, between 1968 and 1974, before meeting his wife, Janette, Force lived the life of a wandering minstrel, hitchhiking more than 300,000 miles throughout the United States and Europe, performing primarily in college coffeehouses and making radio appearances. During this period, he unwittingly set in motion what was to become the seeds for a revival of the Appalachian, or mountain, dulcimer.

“I was attending college in Bellingham in 1966, and everybody around me was learning to play musical instruments,” remembered Force. “I’d heard the recording of Richard Fariña, and I was attracted to the sound and the poetics of his music. Then I took a picture of the album cover and took the picture to a local violinmaker and asked him if he could make an instrument that looked like that.”

It turned out that the luthier had already started building a dulcimer from a plan in a 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics.

“That’s how I got my first dulcimer. That was my only introduction to the instrument,” said Force.

During his career Force, along with his musical partner, Albert d’Ossché, released several albums and songbooks, and toured heavily when they shared the bill with such diverse performers as Doc Watson, Robin Williamson, Alex DeGrassi and even Zsa Zsa Gabor. Later, both became producers. D’Ossché went into television and worked on several hit series, including “The Wonder Years” and “Crime Story.” Force stayed in music and produced more than 30 albums, including one that was nominated for a Grammy for best gospel album.

When d’Ossché died tragically in 1990, Force retired from the music business and took up a career in education, first working for Chimacum schools and later for Washington State University. Ten years ago he returned to performing part-time. During his absence from the dulcimer folk scene, he discovered that not only had dozens of festivals dedicated to the instrument sprung up across the country, but that he and d’Ossché had become folk legends. In the true folk process, people were playing their songs, but had no idea where the tunes came from or who had written them.

Force began tracking down and negotiating to get back his artist’s rights. This year he finally accomplished that, but the problem still remained about how to transfer old analog tape to digital. He had copies of the master recordings, but they were very fragile. The best – and scariest – process was to bake the tapes in an oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. They could then be played only once before they shed their flux coating and were ruined forever. Local engineer Neville Pearsall at Synergy Sound successfully undertook the harrowing process.

Force says his next step will be to post pictures and information honoring the people who took part in his career, plus the times and the tunes, on his websites at

robertforce.com and

wilddulcimer.com.

The Upstage is located at 923 Washington St. For more information, call Force at 774-6117 or the Upstage, 385-2216.