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It could be that it varies from week to week or that the original bluegrass focus just got diluted over time. That said, "bluegrass" as a specific idiom isn't well understood by the general public,...

Here's Wake the Dead doing an acoustic version at the Colorado Irish Festival in 2009. As I recall, it was about 98º at that festival and we were feeling a tad droopy during that set. We've done...

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For anyone interested in hearing more in Mr. Dave's own words, Acoustic Guitar magazine just reissued my 2000 interview with him as Remembering David Lindley.

I also did a companion...

At the time Orville Gibson was developing his innovative mandolin designs, Art Nouveau (aka Jugendstil, Stile Liberty, Modernisme, Modern Style) was still prominent and considered very modern....

It's not a kora, but it is a harp.

Four- or five-string (or more) bow harps are common in numerous central African cultures. This could be a adungu, domu, kundi, or something similar. My go-to guy...

YAY on the strap button -- if that's the right way for you. I can't get comfortable with the strap tied around the peghead or attached to the scroll, so that's not an option for me. I get the...

I find the extra features with the Amazing Slowdowner worth the modest investment. The various EQ options and fine-tuned speed and pitch controls make it easier to isolate parts for learning than...

Here's a dandy cover of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" by AJ Lee and the Brothers Comatose. AJ is a great player and singer, and the BC provide superb backup and harmonies.

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It's an interesting and endless conversation. While I do do a tiny bit of tempering on the guitar depending on the key I'm playing in, I've found that, in general, I spend a whole lot less time...

I rarely play anywhere with any risk factors these days -- no rowdy bars for me -- so I want my favorite mandolin with me, especially if that's the main thing I'm playing on a particular gig. I have...

Thanks for the comments, all. Good choices, too.
Both Hot Dawg and Muleskinner were semifinalists, as were records with Earth Opera (Great American Eagle Tragedy), Red Allen (County 710) and Don...

Here's a piece I did for the San Francisco Classic Voice for our "Essentials" series of great recordings. It was nearly impossible to choose just a dozen Dawg selections, but it was fun to try. What...

Nice! I had one of the those Miller rosewood F-5s -- made just before the one John Reischman played before he got his Loar. Mine a very light stain on both the front and the back and the rosewood...

Yes, very sad loss. He was a kind, talented, and generous guy. Saw him just before the pandemic when he dropped by the house. I helped him set up a nice old Strad-O-Lin with a new bridge and fresh...

Murray is actually pretty understated and apt in this one, basically doing an interpretation of the dour Harold Ross (co-founder of The New Yorker and its longtime editor-in-chief).

Ventured out the movie theater for the first time in a couple of years and saw Wes Anderson's latest, The French Dispatch. The soundtrack has snippets of mandolin and some sort of picked banjos...

Pretty hard to see -- it's a nighttime campfire scene -- but here's Brando with a mandolin in Missouri Breaks.

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The online music journal where I work, San Francisco Classical Voice, mostly covers classical music, opera, and jazz, with occasional forays into folk and traditional music from around the globe.
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Very nice!

Are you familiar with the Melonious Quartet's album of Erik Satie pieces arranged for mandolin quartet? Lovely record.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9shoqvJcnQ

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The chart above is about a year old, but you'll note the very highest paying services only offer about a penny a play. The $.35/play figure suggested in a post above was off by two decimal...

Actually, there are a number of key breakthroughs in latency issues, and folks using JackTrip technology have been able to get audio latency down to virtually imperceptible levels — under one...

I've used a bunch and settled on the TC Electronic Polytune a few years ago. Works great.

The tuning fork approach is fine if you have trained your ear properly and you play in places quiet...

I have an Epiphone El Capitan acoustic bass guitar that was cheap and does the job. With an amp, it sounds reasonably fat, and it can stand on its own acoustically in a quiet session with a couple...

For me, it all depends on the circumstances/setting of where I'm playing the instrument. If it's mostly around home or in a small ensemble, I like the way light-gauge strings feel and sound, plus I...

The late Al Berard, a Cajun multi-instrumentalist and all-around good guy, played a lot of traditional Louisiana music on mandolin. Never heard him do any Creole or Zydeco music per se, but it...