Mandolin/guitar duos

[Jim MacDaniel]

Lately I've been listening a lot to The Courtney Janes' (http://www.myspace.com/thecourtneyjanes) Keepin' it Reel. I love the simplicity of it, just two guys singing well crafted original songs, accompanied by mandolin & guitar. And I can imagine them sounding as good around a campfire as they do in the studio or at the Farmers Market (the latter is where my boy Aidan and I "discovered" them).

Do you all have any favorite CD's featuring just mandolin, guitar, and vocals?

[Tim F Thornton]

Good link. I'd love to hear some more great duos. I'm in one and like to hear how it's really done. :)

[Mark Marino]

Grisman and Garcia have a few out. Not for Kids only is full of campfire friendly stuff.

One of my favorites is actually on DVD- Jim Richter, who has lots of stuff on Youtube, and a guitar player/singer. Great Combo. For some odd reason it's titled Hootenany- but it's mostly bluesy. It's fun to watch and I learned a lot about accompanyment from it. http://www.jimrichter.com/?page_id=30

[FredR]

I, too, like the simplicity of just guitar and mandolin. A great old album is "Skaggs & Rice" with just Ricky and Tony playing and singing. It's great! On CD from Sugar Hill.

[wildpikr]

For more of a classical music feel, there's Duets for Mandolin & Guitar by Butch Baldassari and John Mock.

You can order a book/CD set for it, too.

[John Flynn]

I gotta recommend the Buckhannon Brothers' CDs. They do a wide range of tunes, all instrumental, mostly old-time, with some Celtic, South American and European folk music mixed in. The format is mostly duo, sometimes with a bass in the background. Curtis B. is a great "folk" mandolin player with a very unique and interesting approach to the instrument. Dennis B. is one of the most sophisticated folk guitar accompanists around. His stuff sounds simple, but really good. But if you see him play it, you realize it is not simple at all. He is moving constantly. They have a few tracks on the Cafe' MP3's.

[Miked]

Some of my favorites:

Doc & Dawg
The Kitchen Tapes - Frank Wakefield & Red Allen
Tone Poets
The Pizza Tapes - Garcia, Grisman & Rice

[gda(v)e]

Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett do some great duets with Fred on mandolin.

[David M.]

The Hunger Mountain Boys seem to do a good job with this:
http://www.hungermountainboys.com/

or at least they use to on their first or 2nd release.


So do these guys:
http://www.thebuckhannonbrothers.com/

[Bob_Blackman]

I always recommend Peter Ostroushko and Dean Magraw's album "Duo" on Red House Records. Dean was Peter's accompanist for many years and they developed an extraordinary level of communication on a very wide range of tunes. This CD is just the two of them (Peter plays mando on most tracks but fiddle on several; Dean's always on guitar), mostly instrumental but with a few vocals, and some stunning tunes ranging from Celtic fiddle tunes to a musette to a medley of Brazilian choro tunes. Gorgeous music, and an amazing example of duet playing.

[Chris Travers]

Daley And Vincent have a great one called "By the Mark"

[JimRichter]

Norman and Nancy Blake--any
Norman Blake and Peter Ostroushko--Meeting on Southern Soil--essential listening

And Richter/Bonham's Hootenanny! isn't too shabby either :)

[Hayduke]

Here's a couple of live shows from David Gans and Zac Matthews. They have a nice mix of tunes, originals, traditional, Grateful Dead, Beatles.

http://www.archive.org/details/dgzm2008-12-27.m300s.selleseth.flac16

http://www.archive.org/details/dgzm2009-01-24.mtx.selleseth.flac16

[R. Kane]

Lincoln Meyer and Joe Walsh (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQX25QBGumQ)

[MikeB]

How about the O'Kanes? Some of their stuff seems to be out of print, but there is plenty on iTunes. Great duo...Keiran Kane is still performing, I'm pretty sure, but I loved that duo.

[Plamen Ivanov]

Plenty of classical mandolin/guitar duos. As far as i'm not sure, whether somebody would be interested in classical duos, i'm not going to refer to them.

[Fliss]

I've been listening to the Tom Napper and Tom Bliss CD "Silverlode" - I really love their mix of instruments, and Tom Bliss's songwriting. It's very much in the English folk/roots tradition. I think the YouTube video of "The Silverlode of Sark" is a great example of what you're talking about - just voice, guitar, mandolin and great music.

http://napperbliss.co.uk/

Fliss

[Martin Jonas]

Show of Hands (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R71nW0yEq_c&feature=PlayList&p=E962E1CD5052A2FD&index=45)

They're one of the most entertaining live acts on the UK folk scene. Both of them are multi-instrumentalists, so while some of their songs have the mando/guitar line-up, Steve Knightley also switches from guitar to mandocello (in fact his main instrument) and quatro, and Phil Beer also plays fiddle and guitar as well as mandolin.

Another great duo are Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. Swarb is more known for his fiddle playing, but is a great mando player too; there are loads of mando/guitar duos on their albums. Not much on Youtube, though, except for this very untypical 1967 clip:

I haven't told her (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTzFWIBHFQM)

Of course, the guitar/mando line-up was the staple of the 1930s brother duets, so you get the Monroe Brothers and the Louvin Brothers, and in the 1960s the Doc Watson/Bill Monroe duo.

Martin

[Fliss]

I'll second the recommendation for Show of Hands - I had the extreme good fortune to see them live at the Wirral Folk Festival a few weeks ago, and they are outstanding. They're coming to Chester in October on the "county towns" tour, so I'm going to try and see them again then :)

Fliss

[mjohnston]

Here's a couple:Growling Old Men, John Lowell & Ben Winship; and The Singing Moon, John Reischman & John Miller.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Plenty of classical mandolin/guitar duos. As far as i'm not sure, whether somebody would be interested in classical duos, i'm not going to refer to them.

I am -- I've a few classical mandolin/guitar duo CD's that I really enjoy, which I think left me predisposed to appreciate mandolin/guitar duos in other genres, leading to this thread.

[mandopete]

I think some of Chris Thile's best work was that amazing stuff he did with David Grier.

I'll second The Growling Old Men (Ben Winship & John Lowell).

I'll second John Reischman and John Miller.

To me the mandolin and guitar is like bread and butter.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Nice analogy Pete -- I'm thinking the mandolin is the butter, since butter makes everything taste better. :mandosmiley:

[mandopete]

Lincoln Meyer and Joe Walsh (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQX25QBGumQ)

Man, that is a nice version of New Camptown Races. Lincoln Meyers really gets after it. I really like the descending bass line on the Gm chord too - think I'm gonna steal that one!

Five stars!

[Charley wild]

The Lilly Brothers did an album with just the two of them. I liked it a lot. It's not on CD or I can't find it. Sold my vinyl years ago. Probably a mistake.

[hank]

If you have a bend in your nature for an acoustic blues tune or two. Rich and Ernie get the job done.

http://www.mandolinblues.com/video/Bizness_1video.html

http://www.mandolinblues.com/video/HardToLiveWithacoustic.html

[hank]

I got that last post in the wrong Genre. The line is pretty hazy to me. I think I read somewhere Rock is a child of the Blues. I think junior's groove moves more quickly than old man blues.