Who plays a Rigel?

[Scott Tichenor]

Thought everyone might enjoy this picture Peter Mix has been telling me about. Michael Johnstone who plays an extra in the HBO series Deadwood (http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/) posing with his favorite piece of wood during a break in the filming.

[PCypert]

Nice,
It'd be too funny if that ended up on the show. They should get him an old bowlback and have him pick in a show.
Paul

[glauber]

One of Ted's!

[mandopete]

You know I was watching this show and on one episode there was a wedding and the Wedding March was being played on the mandolin as I recall.

[Pedal Steel Mike]

Mike Johnstone is an old friend of mamy years. In addition to mandolin, he also plays pedal steel, and in fact gave me lessons at one time. I mixed one of my CDs at his studio.

What you have to realize is that's not a Deadwood promo picture. That's what he looks like every day. (Just kidding)

He is one of those guys who can pick up some weird new instrument he's never seen before, and within 30 seconds, play it better that people who've been at it for 20 years.

Dontcha just hate poeple like that? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Welome to the Rigel family Mike.

[Ted Eschliman]

Mike was great to work with setting him up with this; my first chance to sell to a true Hollywood Star! Of course, he's got great taste (ahem...) in instruments, too!
It would be cool to see it on the show--wouldn't be the first time for a little revisionist Hollywood history.

[John Flynn]

I hope he takes his wedding ring off when the "Deadwood" camera is rolling. The practice of men wearing wedding rings did not start until the mid-20th centruy.

[Steve Baker]

Fellow Deadwood addicts may remember that the mandolin probably has made an appearance on the show. I didn't see the actual instrument, but the wedding processional in the last/next to last episode was played on a mandolin.
The trivia for the day...

[Pedal Steel Mike]

It would be cool to see it on the show--wouldn't be the first time for a little revisionist Hollywood history.
Some of the actors on the show are also musicians and have formed a band. Of course none of them are in Mike's league. (Neither am I BTW.) It is unlikely that the band will perform on the show, (especially since they play with amplification) but one never knows.

Mike brought the mandolin over to my house the day after he got it. Talk about a sweet sounding instrument-- This one is pure Vermont maple syrup with whipped cream on top.

[RichieK]

Michael is not the only mando fan in the cast...I know that Ian McSahane, who plays Al Swearingen, likes Bill Monroe and bluegrass a lot.

[mrt10x]

I posted on the wedding march show a while back.. I seem to recall it was a bowl back being played, but I could have just imagined it

[Tom C]

You guys are getting pretty good with that photoshop stuff. It's hard to tell what's real and isn't anymore. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[David M.]

Never heard of this show or this guy, but that's my lack of TV savvy. Looks like he could be Randy Owen's brother (Alabama's lead singer). http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Rhinestone]

Randy Owens' brother? That's a new one. Mike Johnstone here - First time poster,long time lurker. That mandolin player in the wedding scene last season was a real fine player named John Moore who used an old taterbug of some kind. I was featured as the bass player in the wedding scene band after my buddy Bill Bryson,who initially portrayed the bass player,had to bail off the set to attend his ailing brother. Byron Berline was also in the scene on fiddle along with a couple other guys I didn't know and whose names escape me at the moment.I do remember that scene took 3 or 4 days of shooting real late into the night,cold as hell up there in the Santa Clarita hills and there was no way I could have actually played any stringed instrument so I was glad we were only sidelining.

Yeah I'm really a steel player who's only been on mandolin a few years but it's my new passion. I practice it more than I've ever practiced any instrument - in part because it's so handy and portable compared to a guitar or pedal steel. I own a few mandos and have played a few Rigels but this particular Q-95 has an extremely bold,clean,well balanced tone,a nouveaux classic European look and what can I say - I'm real happy with it!

[PCypert]

That's sweet that Byron was on the show as well. Really cool guy. Congrats on the mando. Looks fun. What else do you play?
Paul

[Frank Russell]

I've met a couple of those guys from the wedding scene, especially the big Cajun fiddler, whose first name is Kevin. They play on a trail ride I go on each May. If you're talking about John Moore from Bluegrass Etc., he's a hell of a player, and a good horseman too, the best of both worlds. I am a huge Deadwood fan. Another fellow I know played Wild Bill Hickock's assasin's lawyer, a great storyteller and entertainer named Dave Ligon. Frank

[OdnamNool]

You guys are getting pretty good with that photoshop stuff. It's hard to tell what's real and isn't anymore. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

I agree. Check out those dimples... Do you think it's part Beimborn? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

C'mon, fellow sleuthers! Let's see a side-by-side comparison!

[David M.]

Michael, sorry. No offense intended. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif You just look very familiar to me and that's all I could come up with.

Berline would be great to fiddle with. That'd be something.

Maybe I should get HBO.