Old Time String Band Music for Mandolin

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The Mandolin Cafe has posted the following news release:
Old Time String Band Music for Mandolin (http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_001634.shtml)

Old Time String Band Music for Mandolin by Joseph Weidlich is a new collection of over 70 old-time music period songs recorded mostly by Ernest Stoneman or the duo Grayson and Whitter during the 1920s and early 1930s.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/uploads/oldtime-formandolin.jpg (http://www.mandolincafe.com/news/publish/mandolins_001634.shtml)

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[JeffD]

Ordered.

[Tobin]

Me too. Amazon was apparently sold out, but I went through Elderly.

[Tobin]

Got my book today. At first blush, I'm a tad disappointed. I was thinking it would be more in-depth. Instead, it seems to be very simplistic versions of common tunes, written much like the Parking Lot Picker's book (but without any lyrics). It's like a beginner's book.

[Jim Garber]

I didn't order it. It sounded like a collection of tunes I would rather pick up off the record. I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "in-depth." Do you mean with some discussion of stylistic differences in playing, for instance? Sounds like he mostly concentrated on two groups and transcribed. However it sounds like the CD would have some access to a style comparison.

Mandolin in old time music of the old days is relatively rare. After all, they had to compete with the fiddle and the banjo and with no sound systems.


Old Time String Band Music for Mandolin by Joseph Weidlich is a new collection of over 70 old-time-music period songs recorded mostly by Ernest Stoneman or the duo Grayson & Whitter during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Many of these songs were covered by other string bands regardless of whether they had the opportunity or not to be commercially recorded. CD tracks of some of the songs in this collection as recorded by a number of different string band artists are provided so that performances can be compared.

[Tobin]

I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "in-depth." Do you mean with some discussion of stylistic differences in playing, for instance?
I think maybe I made the mistake of judging a book by its cover. The photo of a mandolin orchestra led me to believe that this might be a book which contained multi-part mandolin arrangements for old tunes, or something a little more sophisticated than the usual fare of oversimplified melody lines. These are so simplified that they cover two tunes to a page, and there's still plenty of room on the page.

I haven't listened to the CD tracks yet, so maybe the written music is true to what they actually played. My disappointment was just, as I said, "first blush" when looking at the book.