General Mandolin Comments

Random thoughts on a Saturday. Now, I really don't mean to cause any trouble here, but...

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Curious why The Loar company didn't subscribe to a numbering system that identically matched the original Loars from the 20s. Seems that would have been in the spirit of some of their efforts to get under the skin of Gibson's owner. We think they missed a golden opportunity. #1 The Loar could have been #73987 (Monroe's box).

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Ever ...

As we did in 2009, it's a good time to pause and recap some of the memorable highlights in the mandolin world as we saw them (see our 2009 comments here). If you don't see what you thought was important here, it's certainly on this page.

January, 2010 - Collings stole the show at the Anaheim NAMM show with the new MT2 mandola. ln true Collings form, they did not disappoint!

2010 should be known as the year mandolin ...

O Brother.

No, no, it's not me moaning about something I read on the forum.

Surely we all know it's the tenth anniversary of the release of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Cause for celebration! All hail! Time to remember this moment in music history, the bluegrass and traditional organizations and acoustic web sites rise up to...

Knock, knock. Anyone home? Hey, does anyone ...

Awhile back we asked Colorado Case Company to digitize a Mandolin Cafe case sticker for embroidery onto one of their case covers we were purchasing, and it arrived today. Alas, as things go, when we asked them about this we had a nifty old case to put it on, but sold it recently.

... and of course you know what that means.

We'll just have to find an old 23 snakehead plus period case to put this thing on. What's a fella to do, otherwise?

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We tried. In spite of having five different interviews in the works (with clear communication and requested deadlines), it appears there won't be one in July. You can't do an interview without answers, and you can't expect working musicians and business owners to drop everything to work on your project.

Not the end of the world, and quite frankly, July is just about the slowest time of year for the Mandolin Cafe visitors. For working musicians, it's the busiest time of the year and ...

Had quite a few requests for a red version of the ball cap in a post I made about new ball cap colors coming next week, and here it is. One note: red can be fussy on monitors and I'm not sure this is exactly the red tone captured in this image, and each monitor will see it differently. This is a bit bright I think. All I can add is I do like the way it turned out although the idea of it didn't grab me initially, but if the feedback is good on this may order some next time I restock.

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A friend recently visited Italy for a day as part of a 12 countries in 14 days tour and said he saw all that was worth seeing. No need to return.

A common bistro meal in France consists of onglet (hanger steak). It's fabulous, affordable, and an absolutely wonderful meal in the hands of a competent cook. In the U.S., it's mixed in with stew meats or ground up for hamburger.

Feijoada is a remarkable dish made of throw-away cuts of smoked meats (think hoof and face meat, ...

Every year we like to pause around this time and reflect on some of events that stick out in our mind. Not surprisingly, 2010 was a busy year packed with a lot of excitement. Got your own favorite memories from the year past? Post them here as a follow-up reply.

January, 2009 - The passing of Butch Baldassari started the year out on a sad note. The night before he left us, he told his wife Sinclair he'd decided it was time for him ...

Kansas Public Radio has launched their fall membership drive and I'll be lending a hand for KPR's longtime support of acoustic music including bluegrass, folk, celtic, old-time and more. And yes, much of that music is mandolin rich in content.

If you listen to public radio and appreciate what it offers, please consider making a pledge when I'm on the air encouraging your fellow KPR listeners to become KPR members.

Tune into KPR's Trail Mix on Sunday, October 18 from ...

A software program may have picked the next hit song coming from your radio, and you may have no choice in the matter.

Before we discuss further, let's get one thing straight: I neither listen to, have much interest in, nor play music that will ever qualify as "hit" material. If you happen to, power to you.

Then why does this broadcast about software that predicts "hits" that appeared on NPR a few days ago boil my blood? Maybe it's because it takes something that I ...