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Since posting this a few years ago we've also added a video tutorial on how to subscribe to the podcast which some of you might find easier.

Got a copy from my library. A page turner! I keep telling friends what a good read it was. Thanks for the recommendation!

a mandolin mandolin from Bed Bath and Beyond: chops, slices, de-scales, settings for 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, "no-fret design, saves all the hassle", perfect for next 4-course meal, buy today with no strings attached, etc. etc...

Range Rover just announced their Bluegrass Limited Edition - a run of 5, each including a Loar F5!

Ready to assemble mandolins from Ikea.

I read a glowing review of this book in either The New York Times or The New Yorker, two publications I don't normally associate with country music or that I would expect to show any sensitivity towards or understanding of "Southern culture." I thought that was odd. I thought it might be an "outsider's" discovery of something different which otherwise might never come to the attention of that demographic. It may be that, but it also appears to be a good read and nobody has panned it as a hack job written for sensationalistic book sales. Guess I'll be going to Amazon next. Thanks for a good review!








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Great retrospective. I'm struck by how many people were lost and how quickly the year passed.

One word: Doc.

Originally Posted by Ryk

Brilliant!
Why doesn't somebody put out a book: The Gospel According to Jethro?

Ryk

Almost been done. In Mandolin World News there was a column called "Jethro Speaks" that regularly featured the wit and wisdom of Mr. Burns.

This is awesome. Thanks for the instructions.

I will so miss that show!

I'm with you all the way on this one.

Scott

New location does have food and my experience was good. Since they have moved to the new location you can get tickets in advance - just checked the venue's web site as well as the Time Jumpers' site and that appears to still be true. Show up plenty early because the band occasionally wanders around before the show. Have a good time. I am envious !!!

How hard is it to get into a show? I could call them I suppose but if anyone has been to one be nice to hear the experience. The 3rd and Lindsley location is bigger than the Station Inn I hear but they still sell out every show. So, how early should one show up (and do they have food?) in case I'm sitting for a long time.

A personal fave... and the reason all trips to Nashville include a monday night stay!

The Time Jumpers. Yes, yes.

Love these musicians. First time I heard them at the Station Inn I was hooked. That was long enough ago that Doug Green wasn't a member yet, although (of course) he got invited up on stage to play that night.
Remember watching the DVD with Dick Barrett. As he put it "They've got it." When Larry Franklin joined up, Dick made sure to give me a history lesson about Larry, Louis and Major Franklin since he had played music with all those fiddlers. Great musicians, wonderful people !! You will definitely enjoy seeing and hearing them in person.

Man, now I gotta spend more money on music. Thanks a lot, Scott. Jeez.

Great blog...and a great band well worth going out of your way to see.

Just an fyi...the Time Jumpers are not playing Monday nights at the Station Inn any more. It looks like they moved to 3rd and Lindsley. I went down there to see them one Monday at the Station Inn, and Vince Gill was with them and he was playing electric mandolin on a few songs...right when he started joining them regularly. I think Dawn Sears is his back up singer...and she is amazing.

Not sure the reason they left the Station Inn (I think they played there for over 20 years), but it is so cool to see talent like this playing for fun. It is also a chance to see the real talent in Nashville, the guys that make the music happen in the studio and on the stage for country superstars. Plus, any chance to see Ranger Doug is totally worth it...legend in of himself!

This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin explains, in scientific terms, why music affects us the way it does. The author is currently a professor of Psychology, Behavioural Neuroscience and Music at McGill University in Montreal. Musically speaking he's done everything from being a musician to serving as audio consultant for several prominent rock bands to a time as a recording engineer. He uses specific songs in his book to reinforce his scientific theories and provides audio samples of those songs on his website. Great book! When you're done that one, read his other related book The World In Six Songs.

One of the most intriguing music related books I have recently read is "Music and the Making of the New South", by Gavin James Campbell. It is a history of Atlanta from about 1890 to 1925, through the music, especially the significance of Opera, spirituals and the Colored Music Festival, and fiddling and the Georgia Old-Time Fiddlers' Convention.

Outside of music, if you like dogs, you will like "In Defense of Dogs" by John Bradshaw. Dogs are so much more than tame wolves, if they are even that.

For fiction I content myself with Elmore Leonard cowboy stories. I scarf them down like tater tots.

Just received mine this week. What a wonderful read. Even if you are not a Louvin Bros. fan or even a music fan, this book is a fun read.

The Steve Jobs biography is incredibly worthwhile. An unflinching look at a complicated man, who like musicians, followed his instincts.

Cycling is one of my favorite activities and this time of year, the season is really getting going. One of my favorite fun reads is a book called "The Rider" by Tim Krabbe. If you ride bikes you will probably resonate with it. If you don't and can't understand those who do, this book may give you an entertaining insight into the mind of a bicycle racer.

I second your Satan Is Real recommendation. Great book.
I suggest Anvil!; The Story of Anvil, the true tale of a Canadian heavy metal band who influenced groups like Anthrax and Metallica, and yet never got the recognition they truly deserve. A story of missed opportunities, bad decisions, and the power of friendship and optomism.

Blink was good read - willl have to tackle Outliers - I've started a long term, multi-year reading goal - read all the fiction Putlizer Prize winners starting with the first, the 1910, "His Family", 1 down, over 100 to go - gonna take awhile - the second one, "The Magnificant Ambersons" is a blast so far. I'm really looking forward to see how the 20th century unfolds through the eyes of these authors.

Gladwell's Blink was good but Outliers was a real eye-opener. Was discussing it yesterday in the forum -- 10,000 hours to master an instrument.

I ordered this sucker on your recommendation, and now it is one of my favourite musician autobiographies (and I've read a lot of them). A fantastic read! I knew it was gonna be good when Charlie "beat the sh*t" out of Ira on their mom's front lawn on page two!
Thanx for bringing this to our attention.

Just finished the Kindle version. What a great story. Charles Louvin's story is clearly told in his own voice. (If you weren't raised within a family that included Southern, subsistence farmers, you may be surprised at the color of some of the language here, especially if you are familiar with the gospel part of the Louvin Brothers work.)

Like many stories of talented musicians, it's filled with memorable anecdotes, and contains a life (Ira's) whose arc is predestined to end tragically. Whether you know a little or a lot about the Louvins, you'll appreciate this book.

So where's the "random factor" in downloadable music? I've discovered some of my favourite albums by flipping through used vinyl at second-hand stores and picking up whatever looked interesting. I don't like to think of how much great music I would have missed without the ability to check out a random box full of old LPs.
But what do I know? I still think we should all go back to 78 rpm...

Just found this Charlie Louvin trailer on Milk Products Media web site.

i read it on kindle....thouroughly enjoyed it....

You tell me if I'm wrong. This is a great read.

I picked it up tonight. It looks like a cool pulp fiction novel.

Larry

On your recommendation I just ordered it.

I have many Louvin Brothers songs on my CD and on a trip last summer through Virginia I played all of them. The cumulative effect became evident in my mandolin playing that evening.

Most of what I know (not much) about them came from that excerpt of a documentary on brother groups in country music, for which there is a youtube, and random things picked up in conversations. I look forward to reading the book and getting the whole story.

Hello Scott,
Thank you for making this available.
I have tried all the steps above and I am still not able to find the "Get All" button, It doesn't seem to appear. I have a fairly up to date version of iTunes. Could that be the problem?
I can get them to download individually by double clicking on the individual tunes, abut I cannot find the Get All button.
Thank you in advance for your help!

I worry about how easy it could be to loose everything you've paid for if you only had it in digital format. This week was the first time i ever downloaded a album from iTunes. I feel the same about buying ebooks for my kobo reader.
With a hard copy on CD, at least i know if something goes wrong with my computer, I'll always have it on disk. I guess I should suck it up and buy some extra hard drives strictly for backups.

Gloria Estefan was a keynote speaker at a teacher's conference at Berklee yesterday. She has a lot of experience as a businesswoman in the music biz.

Her latest hit song hit the Latin Billboard charts at #1, a first for a female artist. She mentioned that even 10 years ago, this would have yielded something around 4 million units total sales. Actual CD sale numbers? 20,000.

Even for a mega-selling artist like her, financial times are ridiculously tough in the "record zone", and she emphasized a huge return to live music.

I like that she also mentioned that record labels had no business charging upwards of $20 for a CD in the first place, and that some foresight in place of greed might have meant $8 new releases and an industry that wasn't brought to it's knees, where it is receiving a very slow, but sharp axe.

It means that I can now afford to buy massive boxed CD sets such as the complete works of Bach and of Beethoven at an astoundingly low price.

It means, among the many other things listed above, that recorded music has become more disposable (and expendable?) than ever. Who is going to treasure going through his or her parents' music files? I guess the same folks who will enjoy sifting through the e-mails grandma and grandpa sent when they were courting.
Funny that something can be so "green" and so disposable at the same time.

Regarding the insider reports regarding the majors discontinuing putting music out on the CD format, here's another article:
http://trustmeimascientist.com/2011/...y-exaggerated/

But, to refer back to the title of this op ed, it means that fewer people, including the artists, will be making money. Your favorite bluegrass, gypsy jazz, Brazilian, (insert preferred genres here) performers will be making even less money than they currently enjoy, and you can therefore expect fewer live performances and recordings from them. Many of the recordings you will get may well be of lower quality than what you are used to, because, at least in my meager recording experiences from 30+ years of playing music, a good studio with good microphones and equipment, a good engineer and a good producer make a big difference.
You may choose to view the "triumph" of downloading as a poke at the music industry fatcats, which it most certainly has been, but it also hurts all the ordinary schmoes you know. One of my bands played a gig last year where, in front of a table full of our CDs (priced at $10/ea, way less than a dime per song), not even a teenager but a middle aged lady asked how she could "get" some of our music. We indicated the actual, reasonably priced CDs which were easily within her reach, but that was not what she meant. In spite of the easy download, involving only the transfer of a ten dollar bill and a movement of a compact disc from the table into her hands, no recorded music was transferred that night.

Sadly, I've read two insider reports saying after this holiday season, the physical cd will stop production with most labels. Target and Walmart have both told the major labels that after the 2012 holiday season, they will be reducing their floor space by 90%. Bad news for cd fans..............

The downside is that fewer musicians can make a living playing and recording, and those of us who also record other musicians can't make ends meet on the new budgets musicians bring to us. I could make a living, almost, when folk album budgets were $15k or so. I sure can't when the budget is $3k.

Spencer

I almost never buy digital downloads. I prefer to get CDs, but really, really prefer to buy vinyl records. For the simple reason that the sound quality is so much better - I have a very nice turntable, cd player, amp and speakers. My ipod sounds fine through it, but the CD player and turntable sound much better. And I love physical liner notes and I'm a tactile kind of person. However, I do see the environmental advantage of mp3s, but I do worry about artists earning a living and all this file sharing etc. must be cutting into their income. And in the case of the acoustic music we all love, these artists are generally not the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartneys of this world (in terms of earnings). The other thing is - re: cds or mp3s vs. vinyl, I know it's possible to play a vinyl record without electricity (think: wind-up gramophone) imagine what will happen if all goes to pot and we are unable to generate any more electricity... (though of course that's what we've got mandolins for).

Don't have an Ipod, and don't really want one. I've also never downloaded anything. Call me old fashioned, a dinosaur, a luddite or anything else you like, but I prefer having a CD- or vinyl or tape( yep, still got plenty of both). I'm not convinced all technology is good. I'm even a late comer to this internet deal. Also, don't have a cell phone, or want one. In the words of Betty White, "It all seems like such a waste of time to me".

The digital download thing is convenient, but it's harder to do at live shows. One guy I know gets around that by selling an access code and URL to his downloads attached on a little handmade keychain or pendant.
It's also gotten cheaper to make your own CDs and sell them, I sell my older album with cheap packaging for $5 to a lot of people who admit right away they're just going to rip it to their computer and toss the physical CD on a shelf or in the closet and never touch it again.

I still like real hard copy CDs, often the labor of love on a small label with real tactile comfort; real books are in the same vein. I try to maximize the profits for artists, bands and local musicstores. Without them we will all the poorer. Doug in Vermont

Something to be said for "tangibility," liner notes, and WAV formats. Concern about compensation to the artist seems valid too. Apple is now what the record label used to be only with a smaller cut to the artist. I believe smaller (non-Lady Gaga) artists are realizing they can't make much direct money at all off of electronic sales and tend to use them to generate awareness and concert revenue.

Technology = ubiquity. Good for consumerism. I will be all but forced to buy an I-Pod type of device and a plug-in to my car sometime in the near future. I will find that convenient even if I get a little bit less from each electronic purchase. Given the ubiquity, I will also probably listen to each recording and each artist less. Eventually they'll charge more money for better electronic packages.

I like holding something in my hand be it a book or a CD. I like how the physical CD
"steers" me towards listening to the album as a whole or at least chunks of it. I hate how IPods or other devices in shuffle mode spit out the tunes in varying volumes due to differences in mastering. I like having a physical CD to sell at our shows. We've made several hundreds of dollars that way instead of one or two hundred dollars in digital sales. It's easier for the big cats to sell digitally...us little cats need to hawk tangible product at shows.

I miss linear notes as well. I miss record stores as well. I enjoyed spending hours sifting through bins and finding interesting things. Getting an album in minutes from a download is great though. I just wish that browsing would be easier, but that applies to all online shopping.

As far as costs and the division of profits don't know the split these days. I do know that in the 90's when I worked for Sony Disc Manufacturing that CDs cost $.20 to manufacture, all included. So not much production cost has been lost going digital.
Another plus is the decrease in all the nasty chemicals and waste from the production of discs. The decrease started about 12 years ago when that plant, which was only about 7 years old closed down.

I still like the whole music experience. I like liner notes and pictures while listening to an album. I'll sometimes buy the digital version, and if I like it, I'll by the real thing. So the digital version is something to listen to while I feel you experience it with the hard copy. I still prefer to buy my music on LP if at all possible. Which according to stats just released by Nielsen Soundscan, vinyl sales in the US topped 3.9 million in 2011, a 39.3 percent gain over 2010. THAT IS GREAT NEWS!!!!!