John Hernden Mercer (1909 – 1976) was one of America’s best known composers and lyricists of popular music, with a career spanning over 40 years.  He is credited with writing the lyrics and/or music for over 1500 songs.  He collaborated with many of the greats of his time, including Hoagy Carmichael, Paul Whiteman, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, and Henry Mancini.  He won four Academy Awards for best song, including “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses”.   He wrote both the words and music for “Dream” in 1944, and it has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, and Chet Atkins. 

The mountain dulcimer arrangement presented here is in D-A-d tuning, in the key of D, but is played using a capo at the 4th fret.  This facilitates the use of both the 6 and 6+ frets, in order to get some of those "color chords" that Mercer's music is famous for.