General Mandolin Comments

Sierra Hull just graduated from high school. Sarah Jarosz too. Both will be touring this summer as part of a fresh crop of new musical blood in what I term the first internet/post-Chris Thile influenced generation of mandolin players who are moving from the bedroom in mom and dad's house out into the real world.

There's no denying it. Thile had a huge influence on young players at the height of Nickel Creek, and you can hear his influence in their playing. His influence hasn't diminished. ...

The new Butch Baldassari tribute CD is now out and available from SoundArt Recordings. I was honored to be asked to contribute a cut and there's an interesting story behind the the piece I recorded.

I played a composition you may have heard on Butch's 1998 recording, New Classics for Bluegrass Mandolin. Has it been that long since he recorded it? Doesn't seem possible.

The story behind the music: first, this is a ...

Here we go again.

Seeing last year's announcements of the pending launch of Jerusalem Ridge Magazine, a magazine devoted to traditional bluegrass music I could only shake my head. Unsuspecting innocent lovers of traditional bluegrass were going to lose their money, this much was guaranteed.

Meet Ron Malec.

The Mandolin Cafe has a very long and very well documented history with Ron. I've personally devoted more hours and effort than I could begin to estimate ...

The Butch Baldassari Tribute CD has been released and is now available for purchase directly from SoundArt Recordings, the music label Butch founded. All proceeds from the sale of the CD go to Butch's immediately family, wife Sinclair and son Blake.

The brainchild of Dr. Brian Hull of Wichita Falls, Texas, the project was started last year with hopes it would be available for Butch to see launched. He got to hear an unmastered version ...

I insure my mandolins with a policy from Heritage Insurance, a company that actually *knows* what a mandolin is, and is engaged in the business of insuring instruments like Loars and high-priced violins, guitars and other acoustic instruments along with lesser valued instruments (such as my own).

I once had the unfortunate experience of having to go toe-to-toe with FedEx on a $10K instrument that arrived at it's destination with a crushed in face that required about $700 of work and ...

When you're dining here on bits and bites of mandolin info, we'd like you to know we help make a lot of mandolin activity happen outside of this web site as well.

Last year we announced the Cafe's financial sponsorship of a special evening concert and workshops featuring John Reischman and Butch Waller and John's band The Jaybirds connecting the California Bluegrass Association Music Camp and Father's Day Festival.

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Yea, I'm hip. It's true. I'm on Facebook, baby. I knew it'd eventually happen. Confronted with the fact that my daughter is on there along with every friend she has (and those she will never meet), plus her sixth-grade teachers, her old piano teacher that lives 10 hours away, and about anyone else in her life. Time for a guy that is in love with a Unix command line with a black background and white text (don't start with me vim users. I'm not color coding and I mean it) to start receiving life-changing ...

There are musical events that are meaningful, gigs that are prestigious and build a musical resume, or those that are just plain fun that you'll remember the rest of your life. Then there's that moment that is an entirely different level and one that many musicians might not ever have the opportunity to experience. I recently experienced the latter.

A Song for Annika started out when ...

Here's our leading candidate for the silliest below-the-belt comment we've seen on the web in some time.

"Due to recent issues involving filming schedules, and a high risk assessment of civil disorder at the venue caused by some fans of Sam Bush who are upset that he removed himself from the line-up, The Bluegrass Hotel concert & festival is being re-scheduled for a fall 2009 concert to coincide with the broadcast of the film on PBS Television and the release of a DVD and Coffee Table

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Amidst a couple hundred orders of Mandolin Cafe ball caps, for which I am grateful--after all, I don't want these living in my house the rest of my life--having an angry minor take out a Facebook presence for the Cafe (unauthorized, against my wish), and people asking whether posting an image on the Cafe is identical to emailing it to someone (answer: No), its been a very long week. I'm reminded there is solace in a good book, and that's where I'm headed.

And this morning I found ...