If you could play Mandolin for anyone's band, who would it be?

**Mandolin Yogi** · Apr-24-2012, 12:01am

No Rules. If you could play Mandolin for anyone's band, who would that be?

There are no rules for the question. It can be anyone, at any time, and any place.

I will choose Lester Flatt.

**Beanzy** · Apr-24-2012, 12:04am

Moving Hearts in the 80's . I'd have the whole mando-family and mix it up depending on what we played.

**dang** · Apr-24-2012, 12:12am

The Beatles as long as I still get royalty checks

**mandobassman** · Apr-24-2012, 5:59am

Larry Sparks. Although, based on the many horror stories I've heard, I'm not sure I'd want to travel with him. Just show up at the gigs and play.

**Markus** · Apr-24-2012, 6:20am

John Hartford.
Might as well be with the aeroplane band, and if any place I would want an extended tour of the Hunza, Gojal, and Shimshal regions of the Karakoram. Prettiest place I've ever been by a mile.

**Fiddler3** · Apr-24-2012, 6:42am

Country Gentlemen from the 70's...Waller, Emerson, Yates, and....me.

**Bob Clark** · Apr-24-2012, 7:22am

No rules? OK, why not?

I'd really like to play in the Providence Mandolin Orchestra. Who knows? Maybe someday I will!

**will1** · Apr-24-2012, 7:53am

Spike Jones and His City Slickers circa 1948.

**yankees1** · Apr-24-2012, 8:12am

Avett Brothers !

**dasspunk** · Apr-24-2012, 8:41am

I'd want to play with Mon's band... and I have the great pleasure of doing just that.

**blueron** · Apr-24-2012, 9:23am

Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli's Quintette du Hot Club de France

**journeybear** · Apr-24-2012, 9:35am

Mon Dieu! I was just thinking that! I swear! After thinking about this for a while I flashed on that, then I open the thread and I see this. Clearly proof that great minds think alike - and at the same time.

Now, I'm not saying I can keep up with Django and Stephane, but I think it is safe to assume that, if I were in the band, in this Fantasia land, I would have been magically transformed as well to have the chops I would need.

Another wish would be to be a member of Grateful Dead, going all the way back to the Acid Test days as The Warlocks, and evolve with them throughout their long strange trip. That might indeed mean me playing the nice bits on "Friend Of The Devil" and "Ripple" (sorry, Mr. Grisman), but most importantly, it would mean transforming the role of the mandolin in rock. Heck, think how that would affect the usage and popularity of the mandolin in general.

And I suppose eventually my leanings toward a bluesy sound would get me kicked out of the band after Pigpen died and the band got more pop-oriented, and I would have had a fabulous solo career plying the waters between their style and Led Zeppelin's ... But who knows? Maybe my presence could have changed things to where Pigpen would still be alive and the band would have kept its bluesy edge. And with another string player for Jerry to jam with, he would have kept his interest more on music than drugs and still be with us. Who knows? My my my ... jammin' with Jerry, 250 nights a year ... wow!

**CaskAle** · Apr-24-2012, 9:41am

My mate Daves band. I am still subtly working on it!

**CaskAle** · Apr-24-2012, 9:52am

The Flying Burritos Brothers didn't have a mandolinist - well, not a full time one, they did have the marvellous Chris Hillman who was otherwise tied up on bass duty - so I think I could slot right in there.

**yankees1** · Apr-24-2012, 10:00am

Originally Posted by yankees1

Avett Brothers !

Or even Mumford and Sons!

**pjlama** · Apr-24-2012, 10:12am

The Infamous String Dusters, the chair is open and it's my kind of playing.

**Geordie** · Apr-24-2012, 10:15am

Probably The Memphis Jug Band or Gus Cannon. Jug band music really turns my crank and it sounds like those guys had a lot of fun in the studio.

**Jeff Oxley** · Apr-24-2012, 11:34am

Originally Posted by journeybear

And with another string player for Jerry to jam with, he would have kept his interest more on music than drugs and still be with us.

I've said it before, but I think it bears keeping in mind: drugs certainly had a part to play in Jer's death, but consider his other health issues. He was:
1. the very definition of a chain smoker
2. morbidly obese
3. diabetic (and was only diagnosed as such after he went into that coma at the conclusion of that tour the Dead did with Dylan)
4. purportedly had a *horrible* diet (burgers and milkshakes, anyone?)
and,
5. until after his coma when he got into skin diving, the total sum of his exercise: playing guitar onstage.

Considering the above, it's really a marvel that he lived as long as he did. Either way...17 years later, and I'm still missing him :-(

**journeybear** · Apr-24-2012, 12:08pm

Hey now! This is MY fantasy! Don't bring me down, man ...

The thing is, if I were to be transported back in time and all these changes were made to the time line and all the interconnected time lines, so many things would be so different. I know this is so because I've seen dozens of sci-fi movies and there is always a chain reaction when the time-space continuum is disturbed.

Why, right now, kids would be saving up their paper route and babysitting money to buy electric mandolins and forming jam bands where that high lonesome sound would mean something else altogether.

And Jerry would still be alive, cleaned up and healthy, exploring the cosmos musically with Phil, Bill, Mickey, and me.