Looking for some good Mandolin music recommendations

[Fretsman]

I was hoping for some advice on some done right mandolin blues rock music. I recently saw the South Memphis String Band and they did a song by the Mississippi Sheiks "Bootlegger Blues", I bought the Sheiks Greatest hits and it's getting shipped my way. They from a ways back originating in the 30's and may not focus on the mandolin.
I was hoping to get some nice jumping tunes where a mandolin is involved on a fairly regular basis within the tunes, Can anyone offer some worthwhile chases, Thanx Much

[Jim MacDaniel]

Bonepony, especially their early CD's (Stomp Revival (http://www.amazon.com/Stomp-Revival-Bonepony/dp/B000002TTW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1243028510&sr=1-1), Jubilee (http://www.amazon.com/Jubilee-Bonepony/dp/B00009EIQT/ref=pd_sim_m_1), and Travellers Companion (http://www.amazon.com/Travelers-Companion-Bonepony/dp/B00000IXL2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1243028510&sr=1-3)) have a lot of mandolin-driven songs in an acoustic blues-rock vein. My favorite CD of their's is Stomp Revival, and my favorite song on it is Poor By Blues. (Here (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QPCYTE/ref=dm_dp_trk6?ie=UTF8&qid=1243028691&sr=8-5) is an MP3 of this song at Amazon, live, from a Live at Mountain Stage compilation.)

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've just been reading Eric Clapton's autobiography in which he mentions a guy i've heard 'of' but never heard - J.J.Cale. So,i looked up a few clips on YouTube & came across this great song "Call Me The Breeze". Personally this is the stuff other than Bluegrass i'd love to play,
Ivan ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8uk7vlk0sE

[barney 59]

Rich Del Grosso has on his website a pretty comprehensive discography of early mandolin blues and stringband recordings.

[Fretsman]

Thanx All, I got the Stomp Revival disc. J.J. Cale's not mandolin heavy and while Cream's version of Crossroads is great I think the definitive version for me is Skynyrd's (I love their piano/guitar fills). Speaking of Skynyrd, Mississippi Kid is a cool lil mando tune, One of the bands I like did a live cover, Sweet stuff.

I have to get some Degrosso, I like the video samplers on his site. It's a short page on his site that has the little history blurbs, but It mentions some names to track down and check out (Vol Stevens, Will Weldon, Eddie Dimmitt, Charlie McCoy, the Son Simms Four, W.Howard Armstrong and Carl Martin and their Tennessee Chocolate Drops, Yank Rachell, Carl Martin and Johnny Young, Steve James, Andra Fay, Billy Flynn), I should find a couple gems in there, Good stuff.

[Fretsman]

I'm at work today and brought in Bill Monroes 16 Gems and the vocals are dated, but the pickin' is timeless!

I also brought Hank Sr.'s greatest hits for a revisit and I forgot how lap steel heavy it is, while the vocals are also dated, the sorrowful drawl of his is eternal.

[Fiddler3]

You might try Lynyrd Skynrd's "Endangered Species". All acoustic and Ed King plays a mean Monteleone mandolin! From 1994.

[Alex Orr]

I'm at work today and brought in Bill Monroes 16 Gems and the vocals are dated, but the pickin' is timeless!
Wow! I think that's some excellent bluegrass singing. I guess one person's timeless is another person's dated :confused:

[Fretsman]

I love the Ed King era, I'll check it out.

I didn't mean it to be negative about the vocals with that dated comment, maybe even at 45 I'm still a youngin', I made an all genre christmas music compilation and one of my fav's was Bill's Christmas Time's A Comin', maybe it's me who's dated?

I'm just digging deeper into the whole bluegrass sound, where it's never been my bag. I've collected loads from all musical genre's, some for library purposes and get out of it what I can. My step father was a big Johnny Cash & Hank Sr. fan not to mention the bar juke box with the country standards.

I'm a classic rock and all area's of blues fan, I mainly go for anything guitar from Croce to Cream, I'm attemptig to educate myself with some mandolin bluegrass stuff, but some things I can't listen to on a regular basis.

I love the renewing of some of this stuff by todays bands, in comparison to some of the stuff that has me chasing I considered those vocals to be dated.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Get Rich Del Grosso Mandolin Blues from Memphis to Maxwell Streat is has History, It das History an d Lessons,with a CD.

[Charley wild]

Get Rich Del Grosso Mandolin Blues from Memphis to Maxwell Streat is has History, It das History an d Lessons,with a CD.

I agree with Tonemonster's recommendation! Del Grosso's book/CD is great fun! Not only Blues but some Stomps, Rags and Drags. I've had so much fun with it! You can't help but get your money's worth in my opinion.:)

[Charley wild]

I'm at work today and brought in Bill Monroes 16 Gems and the vocals are dated, but the pickin' is timeless!

I also brought Hank Sr.'s greatest hits for a revisit and I forgot how lap steel heavy it is, while the vocals are also dated, the sorrowful drawl of his is eternal.
Fretsman, the words may seem dated to you but emotion is never dated. It never changes, it's always the same.:) The "lap steel" would be either Jerry Byrd or Don Helms. Both legends!
Just having fun with you. I also happen to play lapsteel as well as mandolin.;)

[Fretsman]

Fretsman, the words may seem dated to you but emotion is never dated. It never changes, it's always the same.:) The "lap steel" would be either Jerry Byrd or Don Helms. Both legends!
Just having fun with you. I also happen to play lapsteel as well as mandolin.;)

Music is emotional, Ya need the heart and soul, True, True. You can have the most technical player sound boring over someone who bleeds the song.

I grabbed a few things, I have book/CD, the Mississppi Sheiks, & the Stompin Revival CD heading my way. I tried to check for some things at a local Mom/Pop record store and I was looking to check out Yank Rachell.

I had my friend bring up some order options and it seemed most stuff is MP3 order only, I have his Greatest hits Volume 2 coming my way via the store.

I saw he had something I would have jumped all over, a CD of him and Sonny Boy Williamson one of my favorite harp players, but I'm old school and don't have access to that downloading stuff, I don't even have a computer, my 2 kids have one in each of their rooms and I will get one, but it's not my priority.

Thanx for all the info, I'll check out the recommendations and appreciate the suggestions.

[Charley wild]

I really new to this area of the mandolin also! I played Blues on electric guitar so I love the music and have a halfway idea of what's going on. Plus with my medical issue this style would be easier to play for me. I'm getting pumped on this stuff, man. I need to get some listening material like you're doing. Del Grosso's course book mentions these cats and he has a tabbed tune like Yank would play also Johnny Young, Harold Armstrong, Charlie McCoy, and more. All the tunes are on a CD that comes with the course also. Pictures and info. And he has a little discography. I'm going to pick up a few CDs of these guys and start getting into it!

[mandocrucian]

like Yank would play also Johnny Young, Harold Armstrong, Charlie McCoy, and more. All the tunes are on a CD that comes with the course also. Pictures and info. And he has a little discography. I'm going to pick up a few CDs of these guys and start getting into it!

I played Blues on electric guitar so I love the music and have a halfway idea of what's going on.

Those guys are good to have some familiarity with - you'll hear some of the stylistic sources that folks like Ry Cooder or David Lindley have taken to the next level (probably a lot more than one level).

If you have played electric blues guitar - why don't you just transfer that stuff onto your mando? And play electric blues guitar on a mando neck?

The old blues mando guys really can't compete with the guitar players. It's no contest who outplays who. (Johnny Young also played electric guitar, btw). Take your pick: BB King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Hendrix, Peter Green, Clapton, Santana, Johnny Winter (also played mandolin), Rory Gallagher (also played mandolin), SRV, Derek Trucks, Duane Allman, Ry Cooder, Duke Levine (also plays mandolin), Roy Buchannan, Danny Gatton (sometimes played mando). There are dozens and dozens more......

I've occasionally had a electric guitar player come to me for some mando instruction. And some were decent lead guitarists - I gave them my opinion - "If you want "mandolin vocabulary", that's fine, but otherwise, why do you want to sound like hundreds of mando players who play those same licks, when you've got all that blues/rock/country stuff already in your head? Just treat the mando as if it's a short neck guitar in an alternate tuning, and treat it as an extension of your guitarslinging instead of something separate." (Yeah, most "teachers" wouldn't have said anything remotely along those lines - not a good "business strategy" for roping someone into ongoing lessons for as long and as much $ as possible.)

Niles H.

[Fretsman]

I got the Bonepony Stomp Revival CD and it’s nice, It has it’s moments and I’ll follow up with the other discs mentioned, but I’m really digging a disc that came the same day.

"The Chicago String Band" (09/27/1994) Testament Records: John Lee Granderson (vocals, guitar), Johnny Young (mandolin, guitar, vocals), Carl Martin (violin, vocals), John Wrencher (harmonica). Recorded Chicago, Illinois, June 18, 1966. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.

http://i42.tinypic.com/63u9mo.jpg

Outstanding stuff, rich with mandolin fills teamed with violin, harp, & acoustic solos, rotating vocals by the Gents, I’m on my 3rd listen and It’s a great piece, It’s one to check out if you haven’t already.

[Charley wild]

Thanks for the tip, Fretsman. I'm about to leave for a couple months vacation and will order that one when I get there. Young is one of the legends and I certainly want some of his material! Does Johnny do any soloing?
By the way along with some rhythm tracks, the Del Grosso course is the only learning material I'm taking along! Should be fun!

[Fretsman]

Johnny does some solos, It's a well blended mix of strings, some mando fills between the verses, some very nice rhythm strumming similar to Stevie Ray's work on Dirty Pool on a couple tunes. They all rotate on vocals and Johnny seems to have a B.B. King sweetness in his vocals, but not that growling vocal attack that B.B. beautified, It's old school blues, but with a clean crisp recording, not too busy and certainly not dry.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Thanks for the tip" "The Chicago String Band" is avaialble for download at Amazon, so I just downloaded it and am digging it -- good stuff.

[Rick Schmidlin]

I really new to this area of the mandolin also! I played Blues on electric guitar so I love the music and have a halfway idea of what's going on. Plus with my medical issue this style would be easier to play for me. I'm getting pumped on this stuff, man. I need to get some listening material like you're doing. Del Grosso's course book mentions these cats and he has a tabbed tune like Yank would play also Johnny Young, Harold Armstrong, Charlie McCoy, and more. All the tunes are on a CD that comes with the course also. Pictures and info. And he has a little discography. I'm going to pick up a few CDs of these guys and start getting into it!

have the time of your life:mandosmiley::mandosmiley::mandosmiley:

[JimRichter]

Niles:

You're dead on. There is no sense to reinvent the wheel. If Magic Sam picked up a mandolin, he was going to play it like Magic Sam. He wasn't going to worry about how Johnny Young or Yank played it. And frankly, Johnny Young's mandolin playing is very much guitar derived. He's playing guitar licks--he sounds like Dave Meyers or Robert Jr. Lockwood.

That's been my approach to playing blues or rock on the mandolin. I wouldn't say I treat it like a short necked guitar because the two instruments are very different; however, no one says that you have to forget everything you learned and start practicing on St. Anne's Reel before you do anything else.

I have repeatedly reviewed how I play things on electric guitar and have arranged them for mandolin, taking into mind, of course, peculiarities of the mandolin. But, much like transcribing something like Ian Anderson's flute solos for guitar, it puts you into positions/note choices you wouldn't encounter on your chosen instrument.

Excellent post.

Jim

[Charley wild]

Niles, I apologise for not answering your post! You and Jim are correct, of course. It's the Blues that counts not especially as it's played on a certain instrument. I most certainly am going to use my stuff gathered on electric guitar as well as dobro and lap steel. I love B.B., Albert, and Freddie! But I also love Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred, Son House, Tampa Red, etc. I'm familiar with the Blues it's just I'm not familiar with the Blues played on the mandolin. So certainly I'm going to listen to it played on the instrument that I'm attempting to play it on. The same as when I tryed to copy B.B. on the electric guitar. I did a LOT of listening! But while the intervals are the same the techniques are different on the electric, and the lap steel. And certainly on the mandolin. And also a lot of listening will be just that. Listening and enjoying the Blues on an instrument that I'm not familiar with hearing the Blues on. And I'm going to learn the solos in Rich's course. But not to be somebody's clone. They are just more tracks for the train to run on!

[Santiago]

Jim,

I find that I pick my guitar differently too now.

[Fretsman]

I've been digging out some good ol' music from my CD boot collection and have been digging a Chris Hillman/Bernie Leadon/Al Perkins show from 12/1/84 @ Rockefeller's, Houston, Texas, It's great stuff I've overlooked, Anyone familiar with some of their stuff, It's string laden w/mando's +, Very much in the vein of the South Memphis String Band, but 25 years prior. Any recommendations?

[Fretsman]

Talking about the mandolin content on the new Black Crowes album reminded me to update this thread with a CD I’ve been digging, “Johnny Young And His Friends”

http://i31.tinypic.com/34hi9on.jpg

There’s 7 tunes that are mando heavy, Sugar Farm Blues, Blues For Big Time, I’m Leaving Baby, Bumble Bee, You Made Me Feel So Good, Kid Man Blues, & the Instrumental track (#16).

Great stuff, Even the other tunes are nice blues with quality players, I’ll be following up with more “Johnny”! Here’s a little review I dug up…..

“Recorded in informal settings between 1962 and 1966, this presents Young with various configurations, with major Chicago blues talents like Otis Spann, Robert Nighthawk, Little Walter, and Walter Horton lending a hand at different points (Young also plays solo on a couple of numbers). Only three cuts feature drums, so this is usually at the midpoint between Delta blues and the electric Chicago sound; Young usually plays guitar, but also brings out his mandolin for a couple of songs. Warm performances. The CD reissue adds four previously unreleased bonus cuts.