Kenny hall on youtube

[John Flynn]

I was excited to run across this on YouTube. Kenny Hall performs "Rainbow," a signature tune of his. My understanding is that Kenny wrote this tune. I had never actually seen him play before, only heard him. His unorthodox technique is amazing! There are a couple more videos of him on YouTube also.

For those who have not heard of him, he has been a huge influence on many old-time mandolin players. One might say he is to old-time mandolin what Yank Rachell is to blues mandolin.

Rainbow

[Jim Garber]

One of my treasured memories was when Kenny and his band was visiting my bandmates in the late 1970s in Brooklyn. He was supposed to play out in Long Island the next day but we had a massive snow storm, so we ended up playing tunes for en enitre afternoon. He is a true character, plays his Vega bowlback with a long index fingernail and gets super loud sound out of it. He is also en encyclopedia of tunes including quite a few from South America.

Thanks for those links, Johnny!

[Hans]

Kenny's been one of my favorites for 25 years. Ran into him giving a workshop several years ago at Grass Valley. Maureen and I sat transfixed for a couple of hours listening to him tell stories and play a myriad of tunes.

[KanMando]

Mando Johnny: Thanks for the link. I've never seen any video of Kenny before. It's gratifying to learn that there are some fellow Kenny Hall aficionados out there. I'm a totally self-taught mandolin player, and when I was just starting, I was lucky enough to stumble upon Kenny's self titled LP (Philo Records, 1974 - not available on CD). I had already been playing guitar for 12 years, so I was able to figure out all the tunes by ear on the mando. I still play them - Rainbow included. I recently picked up the CD of "Kenny Hall and the Sweet's Mill String Band" and it is excellent as well.

Here's a scan of the album cover. I'll add a couple more photos on a subsequent post.

Bob

[KanMando]

Here's a couple photos from the back of the Philo LP.

[bluesmandolinman]

that´s a really fascinating playing style ! Thanks for the link !

[allenhopkins]

Saw Kenny Hall at the Fox Hollow Festival in the early '70's -- wonderful player, and a real interesting performer. He has a fair amount of stuff still available in recorded form.

[Steve Williams]

Thanks for posting that link, Johnny...I've also enjoyed listening to Kenny's playing for a number of years but never had a chance to actually see him play before.

Steve Williams

[a12]

"My understanding is that Kenny wrote this tune."

No. Percy Weinrich wrote this in 1908 along with many other
hits as "Moonlight Bay"

Many tunes of this era were adapted and became "folkie",
such as Persian Lamb Rag by Weinrich, Whistling Rufus by Kerry Mills and Dill Pickles written by Charles Johnson.
Silver Bells is another ragtime era hit,written by either
Weinrich or Mills(I don't remember which)

[a12]

I just looked it up.
"Silver Bell" was written by Percy Weinrich, although it has become known as Silver Bells, made famous by Bob Wills and others.

[Soupy1957]

Interesting how he lays his thumb on the upper string when he plays......guess that just goes to show that you can develop whatever style you want....

-Soupy1957

[Paul Kotapish]

Kenny has had an inestimable influence on the old-time music and old-time mandolin scene on the west coast. Through his recordings, personal appearances, and residencies at music camps, Kenny shared his vast repertoire, powerhouse energy, and strong opinions about music with countless young (and not-so-young) musicians over the years. Few of his acolytes adopted his peculiar style--although mando ace Terry Barrett can do a pretty perfect emulation of his sound, anyway--but his tunes and rhythms can be traced through loads of players even today. I'm guessing that the clip is from the late '70s or early '80s--although Kenny sported that look in a timeless way for a couple decades.

The invisible (except for the last frame or two) guitarist in that clip was Gene Bluestein, patriarch of the Bluestein family of Fresno, California, and father to a bunch of wonderful tradional musicians--Joel, Evo, Jemmy, and Frayda.

[Bernie Daniel]

Soupy1957: Interesting how he lays his thumb on the upper string when he plays......guess that just goes to show that you can develop whatever style you want....

Yes that is the part that really struck me too. #I wonder what he does when he wants to pick a note on the G-string? #

Also did you notice how his thumb on his left hand comes all the way around the neck. #I thought I was the only one with that bad habit!

I guess he is using his nails and not finger picks?

I had never seem a video of the man but I have a couple of #old LP's of him I think -- I know for sure that I have the Philo LP with the pic that KanMando posted.

Of course I have not played it in years but we have set up system with a turn table and pre-amp for copying LP's to CD and maybe I'll do that one in a few weeks --too busy now. #I will let folks know when I do.

Very cool video -- thanks so much.

[John Flynn]

My understanding is that he is using his nails, not finger picks. I think the way he holds the mando gives him no option but to let his thumb come over the top.

Most of you already know the story of how he came to play that way, but in case you don't, I think it is a pretty cool story. I read this in a interview with him. He has been blind since childhood and he learned to play the fiddle in a school for the blind. After he learned the fiddle, someone donated a bowlback mandolin to the school and a staff person asked if anyone wanted to try to learn to play it. Kenny volunteered. He had obviously never seen anybody play one. He only knew that it was tuned the same as his fiddle. So he first tried to play it under his chin like a fiddle, but it just didn't seem to work well that way! His current position is the compromise he came up with that felt comfortable to him. I think that story is a great study in what can happen if you consider a problem with no preconceptions.

I am sure that at some time in his career he discovered how most other people play the mandolin and he at least tried it. He was probably as incredulous at the way we play as we are with the way he plays!

[Paul Kotapish]

Kenny uses his fingernail to pick.

Kenny's classic Kenny Hall and the Sweet's Mill String Band recording is available as a CD at CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/khatsmsb

There are some newer recordings available here: http://kennyhallband.com/

And another one here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/kennyhall

[Soupy1957]

It's refreshing to see someone do something just a tad different than everybody else. (There are so many folks out there that tend to imitate styles of others), Yes, I remember the old saying that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery" but we also know that the very unique player, singer, etc., gets a lot more attention.

"Boston," or "The Tractors" or _ (you fill in a name, are examples of groups (in this case) that came out with unique styles or sounds to begin with, and got a ton of attention, only to fizzle after album number two, because their uniqueness was predictable.

So there are two levels here. On the one hand, uniqueness is a great thing to have; and on the other hand, if we are truly "unique" in our style or sound, we shouldn't be constantly playing or sounding the same way, each time. Thus the obvious need for being eclectic in our approach. It attracts more long term attention, and we are not lost in the valley of "typical."

-Soupy1957

[allenhopkins]

I knew a blind woman (Kathy Leigh Johnson, now living in Kentucky or Tennessee, singing gospel) who is a pretty decent guitarist, but who places her hand on top of the guitar's neck, so that her fingers are "backwards" from the way everyone else plays. #Instead of having her fingers reaching "up" from the treble side of the fingerboard, they reach "down" from the bass side.

Without being able to see the accepted way of holding and playing an instrument, some visually impaired musicians, like Kathy Leigh and Kenny Hall, just improvise a style that works for them. #I doubt anyone else has emulated Kenny Hall in holding the instrument vertically and picking with the index fingernail. #And yet he gets a lot of great music out of his mandolin! #I did know a fiddler who had started as a cellist and held the violin vertically on his knee while bowing cello-style. #Pretty adept at it, too. #But of course there is a reason for "standard" techniques, and most instruments work best when played in the "standard" manner.

[Soupy1957]

Check out the half-dozen or so folks who have learned to play guitar with their FEET:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSnUwA6c67k

Wonder if there are any mandolin players who play with their teeth??

-Soupy1957

[Jim Garber]

Check out the guitar player in this old time band, the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers for another unique way of playing a fretted instrument.

[Bernie Daniel]

Amazing -- I guess he started out taking lessons from a lap dulcimer player? I wonder what tuning he uses?

[KanMando]

Do any of you lefties play mandolin like that? Oh yeah, I forgot, "They ain't nobody else plays like that."

Bob

[John Flynn]

I work with a guy who plays guitar and owns a nice Larivee. When he was growing up, he learned to play a right-handed guitar left-handed. Obviously he is left-handed, but all he had available to him back when he was a kid were other people's right-handed guitars. Why he didn't just learn to play right-handed, I am not sure. So when he plays, the lower-pitched strings are the bottom. There some logic to that, now that I think of it. Why do the rest of us play with the LOWER strings on the TOP?

[allenhopkins]

Check out Bill Staines. Excellent guitarist, has played "upside down" all his career. Or how about Elizabeth Cotten?

[Paul Kotapish]

Check out Bill Staines. #Excellent guitarist, has played "upside down" all his career. #Or how about Elizabeth Cotten?

I had the honor of touring with Elizabeth Cotten in the late '70s. My partner and I were her opening act, tour managers, and roadies. One of my jobs was to tune her instruments and hand them to her once she was settled and comfortable on stage. Night after night I'd tune and hand it to her as if she were playing right-handed, which was "backwards" for the way she played. I tuned her conventional guitar and banjo right-handed, but of course, she it needed handed to her the other way round--what she called "upside down"--with the neck pointing to the right. I caught on eventually, after she gently corrected me a few times. What a treasure.

[Soupy1957]

Paul: So, if I understand correctly, she was/is a "lefty" who played instruments that were strung for a "righty."

Have I got that correct? (I'm a little confused by your description; but then again, it's not too difficult to confuse the "soupster").

-Soupy1957