Ashley broder

[Dagger Gordon]

I was looking forward to seeing Ashley Broder together with Jamie Laval in the Scottish Highlands, but when I checked their Myspace it seemed their Scottish dates stopped after Edinburgh a couple of days ago.

I then checked Jamie's own site, and was surprised to see that he is still playing a Scottish tour.
Confused, I then tried Ashley's site, where it said she has no performances planned. #Not only that, she is selling a 2004 Collings MT2.

Her journal talks in some detail about composing and recording methods, and says she has got 'a real job for the first time'. #Something involving food, apparently, and this seemed to have been written at home recently when I would have thought she was in Scotland.

So, a disappointment as far as I'm concerned. #Any more info, anyone? #Is Jamie doing his gigs solo?

[BBarr]

Well I hope she doesn't give up entertaining all us aspiring mandolinists # #She's really talented. One thing she mentioned was that she gets a little freaked by the thought of internet stalkers knowing too much about her. (Not that I'm implying you Mr. Gordon - just an observation on her actions)

Her scribblings about composing and recording indicate she still has her hand in music so Im not too worried about the 'food' job. I wonder if she is selling her Collings to trade up or perhaps she already has. Let's hope we hear good things from her in the coming months.

[Chris Biorkman]

She posted a few months ago that she had bought an Apitius, so that at least explains the Collings being for sale.

[Dagger Gordon]

I since read today that Jamie seems to be doing his Inverness, Scotland gig with Michael Bryan on guitar. #I know Mike - he is from Ullapool up here in the Highlands but I think now lives in Glasgow. #I'm not sure if he has been doing other gigs with Jamie while he is over in Scotland in Ashley's absence, but I suspect that is the case.

[Dagger Gordon]

No, I hadn't seen that video. Pretty nice. #She seems to have an interesting pull-off technique she uses quite a bit.

You certainly get the feeling that they're trying to make a potentially limited combination as varied as they can, and it's quite effective.

Thanks for your kind comments about my stuff, by the way.

Edit: Oh, I'd just replied to a post about a live video of Jamie and Ashley, but it seems to have disappeared.

[Michael Wolf]

Here it is:
Ashley broder and jamie laval video

[Alex Fields]

As mentioned, Ashley bought an Apitius a while ago and has been trying to sell that Collings since...I had a class with her in Asheville (where she lives, and less than an hour from my home town) a month or two ago and she was trying to sell it then. #I didn't know about her getting a food job but she mentioned wanting to go back to school either for a culinary degree or a master's in composition so it isn't surprising.

She uses that pull off trick A LOT. #It's actually not hard to do once you get used to it but so far I have found only limited use for it outside of celtic music...my favorite thing about Ashley's playing, by the way, is her accompaniment, specifically her chord voicings, which almost never have the 3rd of the chord and almost always have the 2nd or 4th (or 9th/11th depending on how you think about it) or both. #She changed the way I think about mandolin chord voicings.