Paul Imholte performs traditional and original music on folk instruments. Raised on a small farm in Minnesota, the music he makes is greatly influenced by his family and life on a farm. His grandfather, farmed in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and fiddled at barn dances. Paul inherited his grandfather’s fiddle and the music that was played on it.

While touring at schools throughout the Midwest, Paul began writing songs about farms, small towns, and the people that make their living on the land. In concert, he sings about spring planting, barn raising, tiny towns, and a love relationship between a farmer and his tractor.

Along with composing and playing fiddle, Paul plays a dozen other folk instruments. One of those instruments is the hammered dulcimer. The hammered dulcimer is a trapezoid-shaped instrument that is struck with light hammers and is a forerunner to the modern piano.

He also plays banjo, guitar, mandolin, autoharp, bouzouki, viola, cello, harmonica, jaw harp and spoons. He has released twelve CDs of hammered dulcimer instrumentals, children’s music, and his farm songs. Paul performs at festivals, concerts, and schools and makes his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

The NMM Live! Series is made possible by the USD Student Government Association and the South Dakota Arts Council through the Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This program is in memory of Maud and Mary Adams.