How would you describe the style of Steffey? Counterpoints

[9lbShellhamer]

I've been trying to listen and study the major players...from Monroe to Thile, Steffey, McCoury, Benson, Bibey, Compton Etc.

I know a lot of you have strong opinions of the styles you prefer...some love Steffey and Thile and "speed", others love Compton and Monroe, with their more open interpretation of the melody paired with great rhythms.

I am very curious to hear your take on defining the styles with which these players made their mark. Who were the influences to these more modern players?

What defines THEIR sounds to you?

THANKS!

[Eddie Sheehy]

In Adam's own words he has built up a phenomenal number of licks he likes and when he plays they just flow together... Makes it sound so easy.

[roysboy]

What Steffey says makes perfect sense to me . As a longtime guitar player I've mentally catalogued oodles of licks, riffs , intros , outros, melody and harmony lines to countless tunes . Now they just seem to seep out depending on the groove or chord progression that triggers them . No way around it ....you've got to do a ton of picking to get to that place .

[Ivan Kelsall]

Eddie & roysboy are spot on. Adam Steffey has most likely done years of break & phrase building on mandolin,apart from actually 'playing'. His tuition DVD is well worth having to gain an insight regarding his method. One of his most famous intros.is that to the song "Every Time You Say Goodbye" sung by Alison Krauss. He describes how he put it together. It's exactly the same way we'd do it,except that he has a whole lot more 'tools' in his tool box than most of us.
Style wise,i call Adam's style & that of other players who play in a similar manner,as a 'modern' ie. not Monroe based style.
There are many others John Reischman,Alan Bibey & even one 'old timer' Herschel Sizemore who play in a similar manner. Herschel Sizemore in his own tuition DVD, says he didn't have the wrist power to play all the tremolo stuff that Bill Monroe did,so he specialized in what he says Bill Monroe called his 'Violin Style' - so,the style of AS & others 'could' conceivably be called ''Violin style'',
Ivan

[TonyP]

A good friend of mine who was always the fiddle player in the bands we were in decided to become a mandolin player, and especially play like AS.

This was instructive to me because he was playing all these fast triplet runs, more like Thile than what I think of as AS. When I think of AS I think of mostly great 8th note takes of the melody peppered with his slides and licks, not super flashy speed runs. When I hear AS I hear strong clean, hardly ever tremolo or speed runs. But most of the stuff I have of him is AKUS and that is about groove and the pocket.

I guess we all hear something different. And this is not to say he can't play fast, but the example that comes to mind is off the old Jerry Douglas album I think called Ride the Wild Turkey and it was insanely fast but AS's break was all incredibley smooth tastefully executed 8th notes IIRC.

[AlanN]

Yes, Adam's solo on RTWT is perfect - melodic with his flourishes inside it. Another good one is Big Mon off Young Mando Monsters Vol1 - fast, clean and exciting. There are so many.

btw, that recording is very great, here's the track listing:

Dusty Miller (Ronnie McCoury)
Boston Boy (Adam Steffey)
Big Mon (Adam Steffey)
On The Hills, In The Valleys (Radim Zenkl)
Pale Rider (Emory Lester)
Around The Horn (Wayne Benson)
Flying High (Alan Bibey)
Sassafras (Dan Tyminski)
Puddle Jumper (Raymond Legere)
Ernest T. Grass (Dan Tyminski)
Spark Plug (Wayne Benson)
Gordon McGregor (Alan Bibey)
Neon Street (Emory Lester)
Cruisin' The Autobahn (Raymond Legere)
McCoury Blues (Ronnie McCoury)
I Am Not Married Yet (Radim Zenkl)

[Hudmister]

. No way around it ....you've got to do a ton of picking to get to that place .

Right on. Adam Steffey's clean, professional style and always tasteful interpretation are what I like about his playing.