We lost a giant in the mandolin world.
Printable View
We lost a giant in the mandolin world.
Very sad news indeed. Back when i was teaching myself to play banjo,Bluegrass LPs were pretty rare over here. I did however manage to find the 2 first ''Dillards'' LPs,so Dean Webb was the second mandolin player i ever heard after Bobby Osbourne.
A great musician - strangely enough,i dug out the 'A Night In The Ozarks' movie yesterday intending to watch it. Realising that now,only Rodney Dillard is still with us,watching it will be a very poignant reminder of a terrific band,
R.I.P Dean Webb
Sad news -- hearing it makes me feel old. Saw him live once in the early 1990's with the Dillards at a Missouri theme park near Branson. An important member of an iconic bluegrass band. They probably brought bluegrass to more people outside the south than any other group?
From a Facebook friend. My post will follow.
Tom Isenhour:
Sad to hear of the passing of another Bluegrass mandolin legend. Dean
Webb, formerly of the Dillards (aka The Darling Family) from Salem, MO
died yesterday at age 81. Born 3/28/1937 he will forever be known as the
innovative mandolin player for the Dillards. He had a style that nobody
could copy. I tried my best and couldn't come close. A well known
mandolin picker in the 50's around MO, he teamed up with Rodney and Doug
Dillard to start a little bluegrass band in 1959. In 1962, Mitch Jayne
joined up on bass and the Dillards were on the road (or the truck as
they say) to fame and fortune by moving to California. Andy Griffith saw
them perform live in a small LA club and wanted them to be on his show
for one episode about a family of NC mountain hillbillies that played
music. The popular one off in 1963 led to 5 more episodes by 1966. In
1967 the Dillards would be known as the forerunners of a country/folk
rock style of bluegrass as the boys plugged in their bluegrass
instruments and adding drums. Dean stayed with the band (Doug Dillard
left first, then Mitch) until the mid 80's. A few reunion tours in the
90's helped keep their name alive in the bluegrass circles. Rodney
Dillard still tours today performing the Dillard's songs. Mitch died in
2010 and Doug a few years later. Dean and I became friends during the
reunion tours and we loved talking mandolins. He is survived by his wife
Sandy.
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...40&oe=5BA4BB13
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...80&oe=5BDC4B8D
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...d6&oe=5BE5F828
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...e1&oe=5BE40576
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4c&oe=5BAA7D68
Rest in peace, great human being to boot. Bill Graham did this lovely feature on Dean back in 2012, one of the images from that article is by Bill Graham and getting shared around the internet.
Thanks, Admin!
Here are my 1971 and 1973 memories...
Warrenton 1971
Attachment 169086
Attachment 169087
Dean, Mitch, Billy Ray, Rodney
Attachment 169088
Rodney, Mitch, Donna, Dean
Attachment 169089
The Dillards (1973) "St. Peter's Gonna Put Me Up" (My story on WAMU 2007)
http://frobbi.org/audio/boh.html
The full 1973 set: http://frobbi.org/audio/Warrenton1973-Dillards.mp3
These guys were legends on Andy Griffith..
The Dillard's was the first Bluegrass band that I collected every album they ever cut. Love Doug on the Banjo and still play some of his classic pieces. Dean was the man on the mandolin, and I love to listen to his work. RIP Dean....
This may be heresy, but here goes. In the '60's I didn't much care for Bill Monroe's music. But the first time I heard Dean Webb on the Dillards Live! lp, awoke me to the mandolin. All it took was the first few seconds of this cut:
He was amazing.... much underrated by some, but incredibly fluid and inventive. Also hugely influential on the bluegrass scene in those early days. I still remember buying the LP's and being blown away by the musicianship of Doug and Dean...I also think Mitch was possibly the funniest front man ever. Clever and articulate. A great outfit all-round!
Hank - That LP ''Live - Almost '',is an absolute classic - ''Slicker'n deer guts on a doorknob'' entered my vocabulary instantly !! :grin:
I wasn't playing mandolin back then,but i learned most of Doug Dillard's intrumentals & styled my own picking very much on his. All in all,i learned a lot from their 2 recordings, & i still have the original LP releases + the CD's now.
Ivan;)
Very influential band, and musician. I'd compare them to Flatt & Scruggs and Eric Weissberg as influences in getting bluegrass before the "general public," with their recurrent appearances on The Andy Griffith Show. Like F&S on Beverly Hillbillies and Bonnie & Clyde, and Weissberg's Deliverance soundtrack appearance, the Dillards gave non-country and non-folky audiences a taste of the music.
Sorry to see so many members of the "second generation" (not referring to that band specifically) leaving us. Almost all of the 1950's bluegrassers gone now, and more and more of the '60's. Inevitable, but sad.
Allen, I share your feeling on the continuing loss of so many from the era.
In the same week we lost s friend of mine, Tootie Williams, bass player for the Stone Mountain Boys, and occasionally with Bill Monroe.
My story and tribute: http://frobbi.org/slides/tootie/
“Broke the mould”!
I’ve had some of Dean’s “swats” running through my head for near to a month now, was worried if a scratched it, it’d never heal!
One more of the greats gone. Dang he had as much hair way yonder longer than me!
And a smile, “like a possum eatin’ bumblebees!”
Talking of The Dillards in general,i also bought their first 2 LPs of ''new stuff'' as well - 'Wheatstraw Suite' & 'Copperfields'. I found them very enjoyable to listen to - not trad. Bluegrass for sure,but nice songs / tunes very nicely played. I heard the Hymn - ''I'll Fly Away'' for the first time a the opening track on 'Wheatstraw Suite'. I tried my hardest to pick banjo a fast as Herb Pederen on ''Don't You Cry'',but never quite made it !. - https://youtu.be/li1P9XE5abo
Ivan ;)
PS - I tried to attach the clip,but it came up with the error message - ''Video not available''.
The Dillards were so different that first generation bands like Monroe/F&S/Stanleys, etc. Plus that had that way to work a stage and make watching them entertaining. I always thought the LIVE ALMOST album was the best. I learned it was not live completely as they did the live show and then came back to recut the songs without an audience to get a better recording. Dean was the one who told me that on the Andy shows they had to prerecord the songs in a studio to get the right sound on the set. While Dean seemed to changed mandolin about ever episode , in the studio he only used his '56 Gibson F5. It was his favorite all thought the Dilllards years.
As usual F-5 Loar is correct, Dean was using an oval hole F-4 on most of the Andy Griffith shows but the sound was from an FF hole model, I had asked that question from Rodney quite a few years ago...
Willie
On one of the shows he actually was playing a,3 pointer...Quote:
Originally Posted by Willie Poole
Saw the Dillards open for John Hartford, many moons ago, at the long-lamented Performance Center in Cambridge, Mass. They were just getting into their "experimental" phase, including the fuzz-tone banjo. What a hoot!
Fuzz? "Redbone Hound" intro comes to mind right away.
Is my memory correct?
By Jove, I think it is!Quote:
Originally Posted by robbif
I guess he’ll never see his home again.
I really love that tune! Deans mandolin work is just so smooth!
This seems to be the sofar limited obituary...
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/na...filiateid=2883
Before the Market St. area in Denver went through an social economic surge, I saw the Dillards at the Oxford Hotel 35 years ago. Dean’s playing was effortless. He had the F4 that night and did not hesitate to hand it over to me to play during intermission. The Dillards and Dean Webb were one of my first influences in wanting to play ‘bluegrass’ mandolin.Quote:
Originally Posted by robbif
Andy Taylor: "The boys sure are talkative today"
Briscoe Darling: "Oh yeah, they's real worked up about this"
RIP Dean, and thank you for showing us 60's kids what a mandolin sounds like.