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Two pieces of news ... one good. The other, not so.

First the good news. I'm delighted that Bill Black - a fine musician and a maven who will be well-known to many with a keen interest in Irish...

It's always nice to come across some lovely mando playing in the Irish music world where the it tends not to feature that much, compared to more "mainstream" instruments.

Anyhow, this clip of...

Here's another one to add to the list, and a cafe member as well!

https://seankeegan.bandcamp.com/releases

Yes, Norway spruce is common english name for picea abies which grows in all mountains or colder clomates of central and east europe. It's pretty much the only commercially available spruce local in...

The session in the Waverley Bar, Edinburgh, hosted by top Scots singer George Duff, is usually quite busy. However, last weekend there was just myself, the wonderful fiddler John Martin and top...

Yes, I've seen some videos of their Bluegrass and American Cowboy Songs. It seems pretty strange coming from such talented Irish musicians. It is a bit like the Japanese love of karoke. Their...

For thoes of you who don't know Dale Russ, a great West Coast American Irish fiddler and teacher, played with a guitarist named Junji Shirota. Jungi had moved back to Japan and I'd lost touch with...

It's coming up for a year since my dear pal Ali Beag MacLeod left us, and such a duller place without his wonderful wit, presence, knowledge and Gaelic musicality. A few waltzes for his memory, with...

I edited it to display correctly by our coding but there seems to be some kind of issue with the video display on a PC desktop, though the music comes through fine. It plays correctly on an iPhone...

I can't believe that bridge! Looks like he's made no effort whatsoever to "fit" it properly. He's not a luthier, maybe a guitar tech who has no experience with archtops. Stay well away.

I'm surprised he didn't break strings while tuning it to mandolin pitch! I too think I'd cut my losses and move on. Find someone competent to refit the bridge.

If he installed the tailpiece and tuners and they are acceptable, I would suggest you pay him for that. However I would not pay for the bridge installation nor would I have him fix it. You can't fit...

I don't think you are.
1. He does not know the difference between a mandolin and a mandola.
2. That is the worst "fit" of a bridge to a top I have ever seen.

This guy has no training whatsoever...

Hello, for a long time I mistook this tune for another, due to the mixup by Allen Feruson on youtube. He named it John McColl's Farewell to the Scottish Horse. A long and wide search on the internet...

Not sure if there was supposed to be more to the post above, but here's the tune, a pipe march, on cittern. The second one piece, Fr. J.A. Rankin, is a Cape Breton fiddle tune. If the links don't...

Check out the video of Caitríona Lagan playing The Duke Of Leinster/Travers' on octave mandola. Stunning playing. She's one of the finest young players of Irish trad on GDAE instruments that I've...

When he didnt have a care in the world

Jill McAuley has very graciously allowed me to use one of the tunes she's played on her excellent YouTube channel (from which I get much inspiration!) to enable she and I to play a "virtual duet". ...

Yesterday I was browsing through YouTube - as one does - and I stumbled across an incredibly beautiful song "Suantraí na hOíche" by Macdara Ó Faoláin. Everything about the recording had me...

This is my arrangement of a Finnish folksong “Pii pii, pikkuinen lintu”.
https://youtu.be/bOp-D1QBWE0

It's a song about the cold winter and a little translation of the lyrics of the song would be...

Jens-Uwe Popp (guitar) and Jochen Roß (mandolin) had the chance to present their new album "Durch Raum und Zeit" (Through space and time) in a concert organized by the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk,...

This is my little set of tunes “Sir Charles Coote” and “Miss Murphy” by O’Carolan.

https://youtu.be/P83xoV8M-g8

Toomas Rannu
Flat-backed mandolin, crafted by Viljar Kuusk in 2008 (Tallinn,...

for GDAD Bouzouki
Zotali brezu 00:00​ Tynom, tanom 00:38​ Tri dni ma nahanali 01:16​ Spievanky, spievanky 01:49​ Preletel sokol 02:20​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr04AnNzF6A

Slovak songs for CGDA Mandola
songs: Ked som travu kosil 00:00​ Mat moja, mat moja 00:31​ Moje mile, premilene jahody 01:30​ Nebanovala by 02:22​ Okolo mlyna husta vrbina 03:20​
...

Lovely! it made me channel my early 20s and my dip into medieval music and dancing.... so you need someone in the band to do some fancy footwork, as well as matching hat bands.