Andy Statman & Michael Daves - Live in Brooklyn

Michael has started a 4 week residency, Sundays in August at Brooklyn's Jalopy theater, each show with a different musical partner. First show was with Andy Statman. It was a fine chance to hear Andy in a different setting than his regular Statman Trio shows. There was more bluegrass and fiddle tunes, but the boys also included a big helping of Statman originals. I'll venture to say that it's easier for Andy to sit in on BG standard than it is to learn most Statman originals for a single show -- but Daves did just fine on those.

Anyway, I shot video for the boys with help from one of the top live audio engineers in town, Ed Haber who produces Statman's CDs and has produced recordings for Richard Thompson and many others. So if they give the OK, we should have some fun videos to go with the still below.

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I was at this show too! It was great, Michael did a really nice job playing on the Statman originals. Hopefully you can post some video footage.

I was hoping you were doing video/recording, Brad. I saw a couple cell phone clips on FB. Wow!

Finally published three songs from this duo show. Let's start with a Monroe instrumental. The camera work is pretty casual, but a fair bit of effort went into the audio. And I had a great perspective on Andy's unique playing. So enjoy... and feel free to transcribe the mandolin parts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75JWmJulc4o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75JWmJulc4o

Thats just insane. ;)

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Originally Posted by Charles E.

Thats just insane. ;)

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I'll second that emoticon!

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Originally Posted by Glassweb

I'll second that emoticon!

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Ha! Andy will be Andy, in any context. Doing photo work for him, I've been lucky to eavesdrop in the studio. On the one hand he has this unshakeable conviction in his own fertile imagination, with ideas coming as fast as he can get them out. (seriously, this is the guy who released a cut that included the studio's whistling tea kettle as it boiled!) On the other, he remains open and earnestly interested in everything that his collaborators might be thinking and feeling. Not just the musicians. Engineers, friends, fans, even the camera jockey! ;-)

Brad, I hope you don't mind me posting another one.....

Congratulations on the videos. I don't think I've heard Andy's playing sound better.

And I must say Michael is really good. It can't be easy doing that.

Brad: Is that your Gibson that MD is playing? Sounds good.

Hey David, Thanks. I was surprised how many of Andy's originals they did. For a 'one off' duo show, it's one thing to do bluegrass standards, another entirely to learn a bunch of of Andy's originals!

Olaf, Not my Gibson, although I do have a much loved J-35. Michael's is a really interesting guitar. An original 'Jumbo' from 1934. (The model Charlie Monroe had in some Monroe Brothers photos) Someone removed most of the finish and the unique early Jumbo sunburst. Tom Crandall has been fine tuning it for him. It's a beast and he likes to use it for some shows. In others, with Thile for example, he seems to prefer his D-18.

It's a while since I heard his mandolin with only guitar accompaniment. Sounds so nice.

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Originally Posted by BradKlein

Olaf, Not my Gibson, although I do have a much loved J-35. Michael's is a really interesting guitar. An original 'Jumbo' from 1934. (The model Charlie Monroe had in some Monroe Brothers photos) Someone removed most of the finish and the unique early Jumbo sunburst. Tom Crandall has been fine tuning it for him. It's a beast and he likes to use it for some shows. In others, with Thile for example, he seems to prefer his D-18.

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I remember your J-35 from a thread where you posted a video of you playing it. It surely is a nice guitar.

I wasn´t sure what kind of Gibson MD is playing as the sunburst wasn´t there (indicating that the guitar is either a J-35 or a later J-50). I surely sounds very nice. I´d love to play an original Jumbo. It´s interesting to see preferences. A mahogany drednaught would work in any kind of setting I think. So I am quite interested what makes MD chose his (60ies) D-18 for other settings... (as I think that the D-18 takes a back seat to the sound of a 30ies Gibson Jumbo anytime).

These are wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for good words, Cafe folks. Here's one more from that concert. (we produced three in total)

I only know Six More Miles as a Hank Williams number. (I suppose that I should say Hank Williams Sr.!) But Michael informs me that others have taken the song to bluegrass territory, including a terrific performance by Danny Paisley & James King's 'Basement Band' which you can easily search out on youtube. I presume that Hank wrote the song - let me know if I have that wrong.

https://youtu.be/7kR4XO77nG4
https://youtu.be/7kR4XO77nG4

As for Olaf's comment about the guitar, I'm always interested in the choices that players make, particularly the BIG decisions: mahogany or rosewood, ff-hole or round-hole or european style mandolin, Gibson or Martin Dreadnoughts. I can think of a couple of others in the bluegrass (and related) genre who like to switch around among acoustic guitars in live performance. Bryan Sutton and Chris Eldridge come to mind. I know they both have a love of the old Gibson slope-shouldered dreads. Bryan owns a killer blonde J-35, I'm told - and Critter was shopping and saving his pennies when we talked about it a few years back.

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I wish we could talk to Charlie and Bill and get their takes on it, too. They both seemed to move to the Martin rosewood dreads once they left the duo and started working in the classic BG group style. And to my ear, I suspect that the D-28 provided an ideal combo of deep bass and bright high-end to cut through a 5-piece band around one mic. But of course, intricate guitar LEADS were still to come in the future of the music. And, recording tech and front of house sound changed a lot since the 40s as well.

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Originally Posted by Charles E.

Brad, I hope you don't mind me posting another one.....

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On at least SOME browsers, or at least on the version of Safari I'm running, Charles's post doesn't show. So I'll add the third song from that evening here. I was impressed that Michael took on so many of Andy's originals at the show, and really like this one. Warning! Not a bluegrass tune. ;-) But I think Monroe would have admired Andy for his own 'ancient tones' and for his passion for searching out new instrumentals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQDXSQpMW8