View Full Version : Jethro Recommendations, Please...
Bob Stolkin
Jul-05-2010, 11:55pm
It's about time for me to start exploring some of Jethro's music. I've been meaning to for awhile, and the FJ article finally kicked me in the butt to take action.
Can someone recommend one or two albums or collections that are readily available on disc as a launching point? Thanks.
sgarrity
Jul-06-2010, 12:46am
This is recently available and definitely a must have. Playing it Straight and Ain't Necessarily Square:
http://sierrarecordsbookshomevideo.goestores.com/storename/sierrarecordsbookshomevideo/dept/182395/ItemDetail-10606096.aspx
There are also two recording on Acoustic Disc from Jethro's later years. It's just him on mando and Don Stiernberg on rhythm guitar. Also on Acoustic Disc is Back to Back with Jethro and Tiny Moore. There's also a recording called S'Wonderful, 4 Giants of Swing with Eldon Shamblin, Joe Venuti, Jethro, and one other that is some great string jazz. Hope that helps!
Jean Fugal
Jul-06-2010, 1:13am
this is as good a place as any.
http://www.robcoleman.com/jethro/index.html
mandolirius
Jul-06-2010, 1:39am
This is recently available and definitely a must have. Playing it Straight and Ain't Necessarily Square:
http://sierrarecordsbookshomevideo.goestores.com/storename/sierrarecordsbookshomevideo/dept/182395/ItemDetail-10606096.aspx
There are also two recording on Acoustic Disc from Jethro's later years. It's just him on mando and Don Stiernberg on rhythm guitar. Also on Acoustic Disc is Back to Back with Jethro and Tiny Moore. There's also a recording called S'Wonderful, 4 Giants of Swing with Eldon Shamblin, Joe Venuti, Jethro, and one other that is some great string jazz. Hope that helps!
Curly Chalker, on pedal steel.
MandoNicity
Jul-06-2010, 2:06am
Back to Back and S'Wonderful are two of the best albums ever! Must haves for any mando enthusiast IMHO.
JR
Jethro stayed true to his muse and released mucho music over his career. The Grismans and the Bushs and the Goodmans and Stiernbergs knew his greatness and made sure he was kept in the fold, much of it during his later years. Another good one is the 70's record on FF with Sauerkraut and Solar Energy, A Train. What is very telling is the fact that there was no one to go on when he was doing his thing early on - no youtube, DVDs, learning materials. He developed his own thing, knew of course of Bill Monroe, but patterned his style more along the lines of Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, etc. The PIS and IANS records are so cool, with a very 60's sound to them. Johnny Carson (who knew good music) had H&J on The Tonight Show many times. I wonder if any of those appearances are available.
I have a 3-ring binder with Jethro's books in there. His stuff is H-A-R-D.
Pete Martin
Jul-06-2010, 1:48pm
Anything Jethro is WAY GOOD. I haven't found anything that wasn't.
djweiss
Jul-06-2010, 3:54pm
Back to Back gives you Tiny Moore, too. An explosion of mandolin coolness. Also, I like the "Jethro Burns" album featuring Mama Was A Truck Driving Man...
Dale Ludewig
Jul-06-2010, 4:14pm
I agree with all said. Anything by Jethro (or Don by the way) is as good as it gets. I have a number of friends that were smart enough to go take lessons from him at his home. I guess I was too ignorant at the time to realize what I was missing. This would have been mid 70's or so. Pursue it, by all means. There are cd's out there of lessons with Jethro.............:)
A visit to Dawg's site will get you
Back to Back
Bye Bye Blues
Swing Low Sweet Mandolin
Tea for One if you can find it.
Can't wait to settle down with my new FJ...in the A/C
resophonic_rebop
Jul-06-2010, 10:45pm
the best part about the Don/Jethro CDs on Acoustic disc is that it's just the two of them, one in each channel, so you can isolate the guitar to play along with, or Jethro to try and steal licks…[hehehehe]
do not fear, it seeps in over time with repeated exposure, and if you're even asking about Jethro it show the mando world your exquisite taste in fine musical perambulations
David Horovitz
Jul-15-2010, 1:53pm
I just received my copy of the digitally remastered CD of the two LPs Playing It Straight and It Ain't Necessarily Square. I ordered from Sierra Records (see link posted earlier in this thread). This is great stuff. I was surprised to hear Jethro playing acoustic guitar solos on a couple of the tracks. There are also several tunes where Jethro is playing electric mandolin (4 or 5-sring? not sure...) ,which really swing and it's cool to hear how he played somewhat differently on electric vs. acoustic, the obvious difference being no tremolo playing on electric. The addition of drums, bongos, bass and electric keyboard on several of the tracks is also a nice surprise, which helps to create more of an ensemble sound with great groove as opposed to Homer and Jethro just swinging as a duo.
I already have Back To Back, The Puritan Sessions, and Swing Low, Sweet Mandolin. Now I just need to get Bye Bye Blues and S'Wonderful to round out the collection. I also have Jethro's instructional books - the three separate volumes, before they were consolidated into one - and as AlanN noted, it's tough to play, but still fun to try and makes you appreciate Jethro's playing even more. Warning: must have LOW ACTION on your mandolin to attempt, which Jethro advised.
And Jethro's Birthday Bash at the Birchmere, 1982. Joined by Doyle Lawson, Jimmy Gaudreau, John Duffey, Akira Otsuka, Pete Kennedy, some others. Has some cool moments - a gorgeous Autumn Leaves, E. Tennessee Blues, Liza Jane, and enough jokes to keep you laughing.
Don Stiernberg
Jul-15-2010, 4:58pm
David,
the electric stuff on Straight and Square is guitar, not mandolin. Jethro was a hell of a guitar player too.still most of the tracks are acoustic mandolin. All of them are golden.
He did use electric mandolins(Fender and Gibson) on the sessions re-released on Bear Family as "Jazz From the Hills"
David Horovitz
Jul-15-2010, 5:13pm
David,
the electric stuff on Straight and Square is guitar, not mandolin. Jethro was a hell of a guitar player too.still most of the tracks are acoustic mandolin. All of them are golden.
He did use electric mandolins(Fender and Gibson) on the sessions re-released on Bear Family as "Jazz From the Hills"
Aha! Thanks for clarifying Don. You, of all people, would know. Hmm, I wonder if any of those lines would work on 5-string electric mandolin too! And I wonder why he chose to use electric guitar instead of mandolin on those tracks? Must have been going for a particular sound in the guitar range. Anyhow, it's all fantastic stuff.
Speaking of electric, it's odd how on the cover of the Best of Homer & Jethro: Hall of Fame 2001 reissue CD it shows both Homer & Jethro with electric guitar and mandolin, but it sounds as though all tracks have only acoustic guitar and mandolin. Was that some kind of an inside joke on their part (a nod to rock 'n rock craze) or some weird marketing decision from the label that put out that release? Talk about false advertising. . .
John Rosett
Jul-15-2010, 11:16pm
Jazz From The Hills, which Don mentioned, is one of my all-time favorite records. Jethro at his singingest, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Byrd. A must have for any Jethro fan.
swampstomper
Jul-16-2010, 12:38am
Jazz From The Hills, which Don mentioned, is one of my all-time favorite records. Jethro at his singingest, Chet Atkins, and Jerry Byrd. A must have for any Jethro fan.
Yes, this is the quintessential "Nashville Cats" record. Their Sweet GA Brown is amazing. Jerry Byrd... Master of Touch and Tone... we don't need no stinkin' pedals...
My favourite Jethro by far are the the Swing Low Sweet Mandolin and Bye Bye Blues (ACD, mentioned above), with Don chunking away on one channel and Jethro just letting it rip on the other. These are poignant because, IIRC, they were recorded when Jethro knew his time was nearly up. These swing like crazy and are so full of Jethro-isms. I compared the version of Mood Indigo with the one written out by Joe Carr (thanks Joe!!) in Mandolin Magazine Vol 11 Summer 2009 (with Jethro on the cover) from Jim Nikora's (thanks Jim!!) Lessons with Jethro. The "lessons" one is sweet, but the ACD one has so many cool figures, ornaments etc... Jethro was really showing us how to do it. I have these two CDs on my iPod and listen to them all the way through every time I have to take an overnight flight... they have indeed "seeped into" my brain but my fingers are catching up...
BTW that issue of Mando Magazine has a tribute to Jethro written by -- who else?? -- the Don, and a full transcription of Swing 39 from "Back to Back". Essential reading and picking.
hmmm, need to reference that MM issue with the Jethro lines to Swing 39. MWN issue had the Back to Back solos of Tiny and Jethro noted out by Mike Marshall, I spent mucho time with that, very fun stuff.
I'm really enjoying digging into JB Mandolin Player book now, have had the durn thing for decades. But tunes like For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen and Camptown Races, well, everybody knows those tunes, but to play them a la Jethro chord-melody with melody on top, is so great. That book had the ever-shrinking typeset :mandosmiley:, so I enlarged the pages and now I have all of that Jethro goodness in readable print.
montana
Jul-18-2010, 12:51pm
I just found a slew of Jethro's tabedit files on Mandozine. I learned his version of Little Rock Getaway but these files should keep us all busy for awhile.
Al Bergstein
Jul-28-2010, 11:13am
And of course, you can always watch a great performance of him on youtube, "I'm missing my wife's cookin". 1953. WGN Barn Dance..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64h_MRQkZpc&feature=related