If I Could Only Listen To One Player.

**Bslot0622** · Mar-09-2017, 2:53pm

Mike Compton. He's so good at what he does and his interpretations of some of the older tunes are so very different than mine...for example the video of him, Sierra Hull, and Casey Campbell playing Soldier's Joy. Always play it closer to Hull's interpretation of the head, but his just BLEW me a way. I also really enjoy watching his left hand slide around the finger board.

**mandocrucian** · Mar-09-2017, 3:17pm

Re: If I Could Only Listen To One Player.....It would get OLD and IRRITATING a lot sooner than you can imagine.

Just think of hearing a favorite tune over and over and over....., and over and over....., and over and over, until it becomes torture and turns into your own "Knock Three Times" or "Tie A Golden Ribbon" or "Achy Breaky Heart" personal torment.

**Mike Stewart** · Mar-09-2017, 4:45pm

I figured this thread would be dominated by "which of the big name players do you like?". Me, I'm going with a Pacific Northwest local: Tim Connell. Seems like he can play anything: old-time and bluegrass (check out his album June Apple), Celtic (that was his major or minor at the NY Conservatory of Music), and he's apparently nationally-known for choro (I wouldn't recognize a choro song if I heard one). Love his stage presence, love his style, love his tone. Amazing player, and very accessible through the workshop he does once a month at Dusty Strings. Yeah, I'm a groupie. Though if he's all I get to listen to, he needs to record more to fatten up that catalog.

**Dave Bradford** · Mar-09-2017, 4:51pm

If I could only pick one player, it would have to be Butch Baldassari. I am always inspired by the variety of music and different styles he could play so well on the mandolin. Sure wish he could have played longer than he did, but very thankful for what he left behind.

**darylcrisp** · Mar-09-2017, 5:33pm

John Reischman without hesitation for me.

So many others that I really enjoy that are right on the line though, Emory Lester, Andrew Marlin of MandolinOrange, Sierra Hull,Aaron Ramsey

**CES** · Mar-09-2017, 6:18pm

Thile for me, but give me a couple hours to think and I'll talk myself into someone else

**dwc** · Mar-09-2017, 6:45pm

Chris Thile. You get the Nickel Creek catalog, the Punch Brothers catalog, the Mutual Admiration Society live shows, the Thile/Davies duo album, all of the solo stuff, plus the Prairie Home Companion shows, a lot of variety.

**9lbShellhamer** · Mar-09-2017, 6:56pm

Originally Posted by dwc

Chris Thile. You get the Nickel Creek catalog, the Punch Brothers catalog, the Mutual Admiration Society live shows, the Thile/Davies duo album, all of the solo stuff, plus the Prairie Home Companion shows, a lot of variety.

You make a great point... Hmmmnnnn.... You'd get all the work with Edgar Meyer too.... It's amazing all he's amassed in 3.5 decades. It's a lifetimes work.

**9lbShellhamer** · Mar-09-2017, 7:01pm

Here is a Chris Thile playlist I created on Spotify that's pretty complete...
https://open.spotify.com/user/124435...WDdNEjuJkYte3w

And here is a
Grisman List...
https://open.spotify.com/user/124435...KFi49prrwZa8rH

**MediumMando5722** · Mar-09-2017, 7:21pm

Tim O'Brien

**Ryk Loske** · Mar-09-2017, 7:41pm

Being a Jethrovian it would have to be Mr. Burns for those in the celestial band ...... for those among us here on earth it would have to be his acolyte Sir Don of Stiernberg.

Ryk

**Al Trujillo** · Mar-09-2017, 7:46pm

Originally Posted by George R. Lane

For me it would be John Reischman. I would love to be able to play like him. Like Dawg, he can play many different styles of music. And he is a very nice person on top of it.

Yup...what he says.

**Mark Miller** · Mar-09-2017, 8:19pm

I'm in the Dawg pound. I love lots of players, but D is why I picked up the mandolin. He can play something very simple and make me drop everything to listen. He can play straight-up Bluegrass with the best of them. Ditto for swing jazz. Then there's that Dawg music. I'm very glad to be able to listen to many people, but the idea of the OP is you're somehow only given access to one...

**Strad** · Mar-09-2017, 8:23pm

There's so many great players out there like Frank Solivan, Dave Harvey, Ronnie Mccoury, Doyle Lawson, I've learned something from all of them. And the greats that have passed. Monroe, Duffey, Dempsey young and so on. I could list great mandolin players all day but I can't pick just one, I love music so much that I look so forward to listening and learning from everyone, that's what makes music so great for me. I'm sorry I can't pick just one. I just can't and won't !!

**Nathan Kellstadt** · Mar-09-2017, 8:34pm

Originally Posted by bobby bill

I've got to go with Jethro. Because he puts a big old smile on my face every time.

I'm leaning this way for the same reason.

**homermando** · Mar-09-2017, 9:16pm

There is a man named Andy Statman who burns so bright it hurts! I heard "Andy's Ramble" in the early 90s and wanted to play mandolin and incorporate my entire history of musical interests as he does still! Rock and roll, jazz, Bill Monroe, modal and Klezmer music, all played with the force of a hurricane and the depth of an ocean; and never the same way twice! And he often encompasses all of this in a single improvised solo! I don't often listen to him because his sheer intensity is all but over whelming, and like Coltrane, I have to make a major commitment to the experience. There is not even a close second.

**homermando** · Mar-09-2017, 9:18pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysOhCalZueI

**JeffD** · Mar-10-2017, 12:26am

Originally Posted by homermando

There is a man named Andy Statman

Yes there is.

He was my first mandolin hero. I must have worn a new groove in my Flatbush Waltz album. And I have his album Brooklyn, which is flat out borderless.

**Jim** · Mar-10-2017, 4:21am

Dawg for me to with a lot of close seconds. Glad I don't have to make that choice😀

**Ivan Kelsall** · Mar-10-2017, 4:22am

Praise the good Lord that this is a purely a hypothetical question !!!. John Reischman / Herschel Sizemore / Emory Lester / Adam Steffey / Jimmy Gaudreau / Jeff Midkiff / Bill Monroe / Butch Baldassari / Randy Jones / Jeff Parker / Don Rigsby / Jesse Smathers / Ron Pennington ................!

I listen to nearly all these guys & the bands that they play with daily - so if i had to pick just one,i'd go for Adam Steffey / John Reischman / Bill Monroe .......... Sorry,i can't count either !!. A truly impossible question for me,

Ivan

**banjoboy** · Mar-10-2017, 9:40am

Sam Bush

**red7flag** · Mar-10-2017, 9:49am

I have never really patterned my playing after one player. As my playing has gravitated from Grass to roots, my focus has moved to Adam Steffey. His solo CDs really capture a soul that I like to emulate. I love the tone he brings out of his instruments. I really like the melodic nature of his playing. There are players with more notes and more technique, but not that I would prefer to listen to.

**FLATROCK HILL** · Mar-10-2017, 9:58am

Floyd Cramer

**Charlieshafer** · Mar-10-2017, 10:21am

As much as I'd like to say myself, I much prefer listening to really good players, so it's a tie between Mike Marshall and Andy Statman. I guess it just depends o the mood I'm in.

**JEStanek** · Mar-10-2017, 10:52am

I can't play this. Really. I can't. It would be like breathing the same air, eating the same food, or drinking only one thing for me.

It's the variety of players, strengths, weaknesses, styles that brings me joy when listening. I can't even name a single favorite at the top of my list player unless we caveat it with a Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. You can either know what kind of music I'm listening to at the moment or the player but not both at once!

DawgThileStatmanZanesMcCourySkaggsOBrien.......... .Me

Jamie

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