Greatest Mandolin Moment

[LeoR]

For me it was Bill Napier playing 'Daybreak in Dixie' on mandolin. When I heard that it all clicked.

I met a mandolin player in Arizona in 1973 who could play like that. Played John Duffy & Curly Lambert style and knew all that Stanley influenced mandolin playing. He showed me a lot. His name was Tom Caldwell and he might still be in Arizona. He may have moved back to Tennessee. Anyone know him? He would be about 47 or so.

[JAK]

Grisman's early Dawg music.

[keymandoplyr]

It hasnt happened yet ! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[LeoR]

Ken - It was when you discovered Mandolin Cafe!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[SternART]

Grisman playing in Old & In The Way.......I was wonderin' who was this guy stealin' the show from Jerry!

[JEStanek]

For me it was a post party at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in August 2000 listening to Matt Glaser on fiddle, Sara Watkins sing, Sean Watkins on guitar and Chis Thile play mando for about 45 minutes. That got me to buy my first mando. Lately I've been inspired by lots of people but that night was the start of it.

It was the first jam session I ever watched and I figured, everyone plays guitar or banjo or fiddle... I don't see too many mandolins that must be for me. I've got some issues with conformity I guess. Now I hang out here with MASfits like myself.
Jamie

[Strange1]

For me it was when Donna Stoneman autographed my mandolin at a n outdoor concert that I happen to be playing at when the Stonemans were the headliners. BTW that was in about 1967. Her auto is long worn off.

Jack

[Nick Triesch]

When My wife bought me a new Givins A5 type mandolin at a father's day festival in grass valley Ca back in 1983 or there abouts from a guy named Randy Snoddy. What a thrill!!!! Nick:)

[Bostonboypicker]

I am a big Grateful Dead fan. So my friend lent me a copy of Grisman and Garcia's "Shady Grove" CD. Listened to it and I liked it. Then I heard there version of "Whiskey In The Jar"...

'I HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY MANDO!!!!!"

and i did...

[Arto]

Attending a mandolin symposium in Trossingen, Germany in the fall 2004. Nice intimate setting, excellent lectures and wonderful classical mandolin concerts every evening. Got to see, hear and talk with most of my classical mandolin heroes and heroines (not all... I still have to see Richard Walz, Alison Stephens and Carlo Aonzo). Best five days in my musical life, not only mandolin.

:-) Arto

[johnsmusic]

Watching Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas play Crossroads on the cabin stage at Merlefest.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #John

[John Flynn]

When I first heard Curtis Buckhannon play on an Ill-Mo Boys cassette tape album, no longer in print, titled "Timely Old-Time Tunes for the New Millenium and Beyond." As soon as I heard about three tracks, I said, "That's it! That's what I want to sound like."

[Katie]

I never had a moment. I wanted to pick up a new instrument because I wasn't playing trumpet anymore and cornetto was too essoteric and painful. I figured I was okay on the violin in my string pedagogy class but I wanted something with a little more instant gratification and the local music store had a guy that could give me mandolin lessons. I figured I'd take lessons for a couple of months to get started on chording and be done with it, but I totally fell in love and took lessons for over a year. I want to start lessons again.
No moment, just a gradual falling into.

[red7flag]

I was a banjo player. #Usually never even paid attention to mando breaks except to see what the banjo player was doing for backup. #I remember buying the first IIIrd Tyme Out CD and listening to it on the way back from IBMA in Owensboro. #I must have listened to Alan Bibey a thousand times on "Thanks a Lot" and "Miles of Texas". What he did simply blew me away. #I thought how amazing how he encorporates those wonderful triplets into his playing.
I was still twelve years from getting my first mando, but the seed was planted.
Tony

[Bill Van Liere]

I had been playing bluegrass guitar about ten years when I went to Louisville Kentucky to hear Hot Rize in about 1980. They played a workshop that was attended by a handful of people. Tim O'Brien kicked of Deep Elm Blues as I stood about six feet from Charles Sawtelle. Man could those guys ever make a cheap Kustom 'Tuck & Roll' PA sound great. I have never been the same since.

[Breakfast]

I was always a casual bluegrass fan until I listened to old & in the way on the beach outside of Ventura about nine years ago. Knowing next to nothing about the mandolin, I could tell that guy (D.G.) was on fire. On impulse, I spent just under $1k on my first mandolin, and I have not been able to leave the things alone. This is the moment!

[Dan Cohen]

Andy Statman playing Flatbush Waltz at Carnegie Hall with Itzhak Perlman. #

Seeing this performance my next step was over to Mandolin Brothers and bought a mandolin and teacher recommendation. #I've more or less not put it down since. #Funny thing is I never really liked the "plinky" sound of a mandolin. #My have things changed!

[stevem]

For me it was back in college. A guy on my floor said he wanted to show me something in his room and when we got there, he reached under his bed. At first I was thinking, "Jack Daniesl or dirty magazine?" Nope. Even better: it was a teens F2 his grandpa had owned for years and passed on to him. He picked a few tasty tunes and then passed it on to me. I can still remember that sweet musty smell. Then he lent me his Skaggs/Rice CD and I was done for. Adios Axel Rose and Bon Jovi. I had a new best friend. Ten years and 7 mandos later, here I am.

I was at Custom Pearl in Malone, NY dropping off a banjo to get some inlay work done when Dave Nichols said "I can teach you to play the mandolin in 20 minutes". I said BS then sat down for 20 minutes. I looked at it and said "I can do that" and much to my wife's dismay I bought the mandolin. He's either a great teacher or one heck of a salesman. It's been about 6 months and it has become my primary instrument. I've been a guitar player for years. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ira]

many mini moments, but when i listened to garcia-grisman grateful dawg- the thrill is gone and sitting in limbo, i had to get a mando!

[sgarrity]

This was back about 8 years ago when I was in college. A good friend and fraternity brother of mine was a music major. He played the guitar and trumpet and wanted a mandolin. So his parents got him some cheap $100 Johnson or some such brand. He handed it to me one night and told me its tuned just like a violin. (I played the violin in grade school.) So I started picking around on it and had Amazing Grace figured out by the end of the evening. I bought a Bill Monroe cd and never looked back. I was hooked like a trophy bass.

[jessboo]

i scored a washburn mandolin i had chased for years at a guitar show in cedar rapids one sunday afternoon. came home from work monday morning at 6 am and there was those chords that stanley had showed me. woke the wife up with it at 6:15 she was not a happy camper. I WAS HOOKED!!!!!!! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Keith Erickson]

I don't know if you could say I had a great mandolin moment. I practice and I learn quite a bit here at the Mandolin Cafe. So you could say every week has a mandolin moment for me in one form or another.

However back in February, my wife and I were visiting some of her family in Tucson. Our Bluegrass moment happened when we were having breakfast at a McDonalds up in Catalina when a fellow by the name of J.D. noticed my Bluegrass in the Desert T-shirt and asked if I was a picker. I smiled and shook my head yes and admitted that my ambition was far greater than my talents. It turns out that JD is also a fellow mandolin player that is now retired and living in Tucson.

Well the next thing you know, JD, his wife (an upright bass player) Mrs. 8-String and I were engaged in an hour long BG conversation. They were both two of the nicest people that we have met. We hope to touch base with them when we get back to Tucson this fall.

The point of the story; our conversation with JD and his wife pretty much was our Bluegrass moment. It confirmed to us that no matter who you are or where you are from, Bluegrass brings out the best in people, brings people together and creates friendships along the way.

[Jasper]

It was the first time I had ever seen a mandolin played...Chris Thile, unplugged, playing tremolo accents to "Be Thou My Vision" while Sarah sang. It was absolutely beatiful and inspiring...I had a mandolin in my hands within a month and that was the first song I learned to play.

[LeoR]

Thanks for all the responses. I am just fascinated that inspiration comes from so many places.

Remember there are a lot of diseases worse than MAS!!

[JasonN]

The closest thing I've had to a "moment" was at Wintergrass 2006 during a workshop with the legendary Wayne Benson. He played Leather Britches in what he called the Monroe style of playing. It was not unlike a fireworks display- absolutely awe inspiring! I thought to myself, OKAY, now that's how I want to play the mandolin, it was a like he was firing a few hundred notes off on a Tommy Gun! It was perfect.

[tree]

For me it was Bill Napier playing 'Daybreak in Dixie' on mandolin. #When I heard that it all clicked.
Wow - same for me, one of 'em, anyway. I always wondered if it was Pee Wee Lambert or just who it was that had the audacity to pick like that right out of the gate. (no info on personnell on the Time Life cd I have with that on it)

More moments: WSM's wicked mando breaks on Were You There, and his 2nd break on Lord Protect My Soul. Dick Fegy's picking on the David Bromberg Band's version of Roanoke. Grisman picking Rabbit In A Log with Doc. Skaggs picking Raw Hide, Get Up John, and Boston Boy.

[otterly2k]

combo for me... a friend (a mando player) in college who introduced me to Old Time music, and seeing Andy Irvine in concert-- which got me forever interested in the larger mando family instruments...

[glauber]

It hasnt happened yet ! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Same for me. It's more of a process. I've had a lingering interest on mandolin as one of the key instruments in Brazilian music (i'm Brazilian) and the memory of the pure sound that Jacob do Bandolim got out of his. Recently, realizing that most of the musicians i admire play multiple instruments, i decided to branch out from flute to something in the guitar family. There are already way too many great guitar players in the planet so, why not mandolin?

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hearing Ralph Rinzler with The Greenbriar Boys in 1964 playing the Mandolin intro.to the song 'I cried again' - it blew me away.It's only taken 42 years for me to get round to buying a Mandolin & trying for myself.He's still one of my favourite players & much under-rated IMHO,
Saska

[fatt-dad]

Several: In the early 70s I went to two bluegrass festivals in Culpeper, Virginia - great events! Monroe, Old and In the Way, Bluegrass 45, Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival, etc. Buddies of mine were learning guitars and banjos and I was really into jazz (listening). What really happened for me was when I realized the talent of Grisman and Bush. These guys (and the folks playing with them) were doing great improvisation. I left the East Coast for college in Colorado and took a volunteer job doing lighting at the college tavern (the good ol' days). This may have been the first show that NGR did in Fort Collins (1973). Again, I was blown away! At this time, I had basically been a listener. 10 years later, when I went to graduate school at Virginia Tech, I found a tavern where there was a weekly bluegrass jam. Luckly, I stumbled upon an Aria Pro II and Gibson A3 while in Blacksburg and using the Tottle Book learned a few tunes along with the chop chords. I'd have to say, just standing up with those folks playing chop chords and feeling the dynamic of the group really made a difference to me. My earlier exposure from the festivals kind of set the stage, but playing with a group of talented folks set the drive. From there I began lessons - and shortly thereafter begin my family (today's my 19 year anniversary). Now I just look for time and other folks to play with.

fatt now-that's-more-than-you-asked-for dad

[Spencer]

1972, 419 W Main came out and I heard Nate Bray's version of East Virginia Blues, never knew a mandolin could sound like that. It was the thing that got me interested in playing the mandolin. Years later I actually got to play that mandolin, really a sweet instrument and in Nate's hands it could really sing, though I only heard his recordings.


Spencer

[luckylarue]

Probably seeing Sam Bush w/ Strength In Numbers in Telluride around 1987. I had seen/heard the mandolin played before - but never like that! Bought a $200 Washburn soon after. Also Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage has to be some of the most fun I've had - playing and learning for 18-20 hours a day for a week.

[AlanN]

Years later I actually got to play that mandolin, really a sweet instrument and in Nate's hands it could really sing, though I only heard his recordings.


Spencer
Now, was that a 50's F-12?

[Paul Kotapish]

In the early 70s I went to two bluegrass festivals in Culpeper, Virginia - great events!
Interesting, fatt-dad.

That Culpepper festival is where I first got interested in mandolin (and fiddle, and banjo, and dobro), too. I had grown up with some exposure to bluegrass and mountain music but never really paid much attention until my college years when someone turned me on to Doc Watson. Shortly thereafter I sold my ES 335 and bought a D-28. That summer--1972--I went to my first weekend-long bluegrass event at the Culpepper festival, and it was a transformational experience in terms of appreciating all of the instruments and vocal styles. I can't remember the whole lineup, but as I recall, performers included Norman Blake playing with John Hartford, J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (I saw his New South band with Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice was there in subsequent years), the Seldom Scene in their original incarnation, the Osborne Brothers, Earl Scruggs Family Band, Grandpa Jones, the Dillards, and loads more.

There were only a few hundred people attending the thing, and there wasn't a bad seat in the little shady amphitheater there. And the musicians were all completely accessible, too. There was no separation between the attendees and the performers. Could be we rubbed shoulder there, no? I was one of those long-haired freaks sporting a dropped jaw that the old-timers found so amusing.

That festival--and the one at Watermelon Park in Berryville that Carlton Haney used to put on--really opened my ears and eyes and heart to bluegrass and old-time music, and led directly to me buying my first old Harmony mandolin a few years later.

Another big moment was hearing Jerry Mitchell play mando with the Gypsy Gyppo Stringband a few years later. Something about the way his percussive style intertwined with the fiddle and banjo really captured my imagination and made me focus on the mandoln in a new way.

Other big ear explosions occured the first time I heard Grisman with the Great Amercian Music Band and the first time I heard an nth-generation cassette tape of Jacob do Bandolim.

[jmcgann]

1) Hearing Andy Statman on Tony Trischka's records, 1975
2) Hearing the 1st DGQ album and two days later DGQ live at Berklee on their first tour, 1977
3) Hearing Sam Bush on "Sam and Alan Together Again" LP 1980
4) Hearing Andy Statman in duo w/ Marty Confurious on bass, Providence RI 1982

These events rearranged my DNA forever. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[LeoR]

Spencer - Randy Graham once told me that Nate Bray was his magic moment too!

I believe he did play a 50's F-12. He was one truly fine BG mandolin player.

Magic does have that effect of rearranging one's DNA doesn't it jm??

One really powerful moment for me was Curly Lambert playing "Bile em Cabbage Down"

He's just so RIGHT & so ON!!

[tnpathfinder]

I grew up around music and always loved Bluegrass however there are a few things....

I would say that Nickel Creek's First album had a huge impact on my renewed intrest in BG. Thanks, Chris
Then Oh Brother happened, Thanks Mike!

Not long after that my wife was with child and I learned to pick "Hush Little Baby"

After that I was done for...non-stop ever since...that's about 2.5 yrs ago and I still can't get enough.

[Neil L]

For me it was last Saturday...the FedEx man brought by first mando ever to me! Been having a blast the last few days even though I'm an extreme newbie-- haven't played an instrument in 20 years!

[allenhopkins]

Greatest moment? Cleaning out my grandfather's attic in Pike NY in the late '60's, and coming upon a Gibson A-1 that I never new existed, that had belonged to his second wife, the music teacher. Then deciding that, since fate had gifted me with a mandolin, I must be intended to be the mando player in the bluegrass trio I was starting with my brother and our b*njo-playing friend Bob.
I was terrible for many years, but the love for the instrument never wavered, and I picked it from bluegrass to klezmer to Celtic to whatever genre came along. I kept adding different kinds (see below) -- mandolas and octaves and a mandocello. Mandolin's taken me down hundreds of different roads, and it's been great scenery all the way.

[Moose]

"... we few, we happy few." - http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[kyblue]

1) #At a workshop at First Quality last year, hearing Sam Bush play, and sing -- accompanying himself on the mandolin with no backup!

2) #Hearing Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien do the mando/mandola duet Walk Beside Me on their Real Time CD.

3) #Getting a mandola and discovering I love it!

Had to edit to add 4 and 5 -

4) Getting a great deal on auction of a Paul Duff A5 2 pt that turned out to sound great.

5) A week or so after #4, finding a Fletcher Brock octave at IBMA that I couldn't really afford but couldn't put down. I still think it is an amazingly beautiful and powerful instrument.

Paula

[Spencer]

Yes, it was a 50's F-12, early 50's it think. He and a newer F-5 for D-tuning I was told, he sold it to Mike Melford.

I had a similar F-12 that I sold a long time ago, it was nowhere near the instrument that Nate's was, but of course I was nowhere near the player either, and never will be.

I have heard that about Randy Graham, though I have never met him. If you listen to the first Bluegrass Cardinals album you can sure hear the Nate Bray influence. Jesse Brock has also been influened by him.

[F5G WIZ]

Went to see Monroe play in Wilmington ohio at the Murphy theatre probably only a couple years before he passed. He asked for requests and of course there were plenty yelled out but from the top balcony I yelled out "Orange Blossom Special" and he played it for me! What an honor to be able to say "Bill Monroe played a request for me." That was a couple years before I ever even picked up a mandolin. If I had known more about his music at the time I think I would have asked for Raw Hide. But to think that just for that few minutes, something that I said had an effect however small on the great Bill Monroe. Corny yeah I know.

[fatt-dad]

I recall, performers included Norman Blake playing with John Hartford, J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (I saw his New South band with Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice was there in subsequent years), the Seldom Scene in their original incarnation, the Osborne Brothers, Earl Scruggs Family Band, Grandpa Jone, the Dillards, and loads more.
Don't forget Minnie Pearl. I will never forget Grandpa Jones - what a hoot!

fatt I-was-the-rail-thin-kid-with-the-62-volvo dad

[dunbarhamlin]

Gotta be in John Hullah's workshop when I first clapped eyes on my newly finished emando.

I hadn't knowingly heard anyone else play mandolin, this was for my music for an alternative register to my Hullah ezouk. I had previously had a very grot plywood semiacoustic mandolin.

The other wow moment was when I first strung up my self built acoustic 10 string ridgeback mando. And when I took delivery of the wood for it... and when... and...

Many times could fit the bill, all in different ways (though none of them are bg related - had I heard bg first, it may well have put me off for good - heresy maybe, but there it is. ) #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[JamesBryan]

Transcendent formative moments:

DGQ 1983 tour Bellingham, WA. Back when dapper David still wore that black blazer and white shirt.

1984 John Reischman / Paul Shelasky, Good Ol' Persons ANZA Club Vancouver, B.C. Front row center as they blazed -- BLAZED -- through "Grey Eagle"

1987 David Harvey w/ Larry Sparks, Council Bluffs Iowa. Tornado had knocked out power about one hour before the show. They played acoustically by candlelight. Bottled beer was in ice buckets. During the break David played "Over the Rainbow" chord melody. I was hooked.

1988 New Grass Revival, Winnipeg Folk Festival. Sam Bush jamming out in front of the stage w/ that long curly pickup cord. More energy than I'd ever heard from 8 strings.

Kinda fun to reflect on key moments like that.... Jim