Old time mando

[batman]

I really have gotten in to monroe in the last couple of years and would like to get some real old time stuff. any ideal? Don

[John Flynn]

"Little River Stomp" by the Buckhanon Brothers. Curtis B. is one of the best, if not the best, old-time mandolin players alive today. Ditto his brother Dennis on old-time guitar. This is joyous instrumental music that is just fun to listen to. These guys expand the horizon of what old-time is and what a mandolin can accomplish in old-time. There is a cut from the CD on the Cafe MP3 page.
http://members.i4f.net/otmando@i4f.net/

"Old-time Mandolin Music" by Clyde Curley and the Oxymorons. Clyde is one of the cleanest OT players I have every heard. This CD is also a joy to listen to. It can pull me right out of a bad mood. Between Clyde's technique and his great 1916 F-4, this CD exhibits the best oval hole mando tone I have every heard on a CD. His backup musicians are great also, especially Joel Bernstein on harmonica and banjo.
http://www.oldtimemusic.com/otrecdetail.asp?RecordID=20

"Old-Style Mandolin, V1 and V2" by Skip Gorman. This is sort of "old-time meets bluegrass." It is all instrumental and just great stuff. Volume 1 is my fave, but you may like V2 better, since it is kind of a tribute to Monroe.
http://www.skipgorman.com/sg_disc.cfm

[Michael Lewis]

Check out Kenny Hall. He has played in the Long Haul String Band and the Sweet's Mill String Band among others. He is still playing regularly. A very unusual style seldom heard nowadays. His is a "get with it" style, and he suffers no fools or laggards. Those that play with him must "step lively" and be sharp. Great real old time stuff.

[Gary S]

I would also reccomend The Monroe Brothers.This is Bill as a young man playing duets with Charlie his brother. This is old time music before it was called old time music. Bill raises the bar on mandolin playing at the time, and starts on his
"Long Journey Home" to bluegrass.

[RobP]

Also listen to some Norman Blake. I think he is more notorious for his guitar playing, but his mandolin playing is fabulous. He plays lots of OT tunes, and composes his own in an old-time style.

I have his mandolin video from Homespun Tapes -- it is a real treat.

Cheers,

Rob

[keith_rowan]

We have a few Monroe live shows on cd... you can find many more here:
http://db.etree.org/
our list is at
http://db.etree.org/helen We recently moved and i've only found a couple of the Monroe CD's we have listed. I'd be happy to do a bnp (blanks and postage) if anyone would like to know more, please feel free to email me..
another great resource for online music is http://www.archive.org/ which also has a searchable database.

[Tom C]

Also Skip Gorman

[bmac]

This may be slightly out of your area of interest... but I have recently been listening to Mandolin Blues from Testament Records. The album features 5 blues mandolinists. This is a particularly interesting album for the mando learner as normally there is only a guitar and/or blues harp for support and one can analyze the mando easily. The album includes - Johnny Young, Yank Rachell, Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Willy Hatcher. A nice survey of pre-WW2 style blues mando

[luckylarue]

The guy with the Reel-Time Travelers - Tom Sneed - I think, has a "reel" nice sound and style as well.

[mikeomando]

If you want some old time mando, get some old time mando! "Early Mandolin Classics" Vol 1. Rounder CD 1050. A great CD.
Everybody else listed above is good, too.

[David M.]

I second the Norman (and Nancy) Blake recommendation.

[Dagger Gordon]

I've recently come across the name of Carl Jones, who has a duo with Beverley Smith. I haven't heard him, indeed I've never previously heard of him, but he used to play with Norman Blake and from their web site description he's obviously pretty good.
Anyone know his stuff?

[AlanN]

and an old record from Dick Staber "Pickin Round the Cookstove" on Rounder, methinks.

[Leftyman]

Dagger
It has always amazed me why Carl Jones has not been mentioned before on this site.He is a superb mandolin player/fiddle guitar etc, he plays a sweet 1928 Gibson A4.I had the pleasure of seeing him at Towersley village festival in 2003,on his first trip to the UK,with Beverly Smith.His first performance was in the village church in front of ten people.By the end of the weekend Carl and Beverly had taken the festival by storm, on the main stage in front of thousands.
Carl and Beverly have produced two great CD's of oldtime music (lots of mandolin) recorded at Carl's house in North Carolina.Check out their website to purchase.
They are on tour in the UK in May.
Carl also has a wonderful voice and has written some great oldtimey songs which are on the CD's.Carl and Beverly are the best live mando centric duo I have ever seen.If you get the chance go see them.

[CountyFarm]

Rare Rags and Stringband Blues by Adam Tanner and the Dirty Rag Mob.
Adam, Riley Baugus, Jason Krekel, Steve Terrill and Tall Paul Leech.
www.old97records.com/adamtanner for more info. Paul plays bass with my band so I got to hear some of this stuff. Fantastic old timey mando work.
Warning label says " This record contains no clawhammer banjo or cross tuned fiddle!"

[plunktone]

Some old and new suggestions for old-time stringband with mando:

Camp Creek Boys, with Verlin Clifton on mando.
He can also be heard on Tommy Jarrell's Rainbow Sign.

Foghorn Stringband has two cd's. Great young band with tremendous drive. They double as Dirk Powell's back up band.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to a weekend of classes with Carl Jones at Mando Camp North. Can't wait.
-j

[CountyFarm]

Realised that link didnt work, try this one
Adam Tanner

[A.N. Orange]

I recommend Sadie Compton's album. She's got a terrific supporting cast in Bruce Molsky, James Bryan, Mike Compton, and Candace Randolph and has a cool blend of traditionals and originals. It's not so mandolin based but is a cool addition to my collection. Somewhat untraditionally, she plays a hardanger fiddle on the recording.

[doanepoole]

pre-Loar Gibson A (not an F-style)

That said, you can play anything in OT--its folk music.

[adgefan]

I will second the recommendation of Carl Jones. I too have had the pleasure of seeing him and Beverly Smith live a couple of times and they were very good indeed. Their records are very faithful to the real old time sound, and Carl's song about the Carter Family story, "A.P", is wonderful. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in May.

Check out http://www.smithnjones.net for more info.

[Adam Tracksler]

I just finished plowing my way through a bunch of CDs and I can definately say that Carl Jones (any ofhis 3 Cds) are great (so is he). Skip Gorman's Old Time Mandolin is as well. I got the Buchannon Brothers CD and that rocks as well as Curtis Buchannon's Ill-Mo Boys CD.