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One thing I love about Don's playing is his startling choice of notes, which can knock you right out of your chair. He's a very unconventional mandolinist who can play with a Statman-like vitality...

When I started singing that tune, I used a version I got from John Miller's playing. On guitar he filled in your empty spots with a fat G minor6 at the third fret( which might also be called an Emin7...

No, that E chord in the turnaround doesn't make sense to me either, but a Bflat minor 6 does. As Peter H. has said, anything that walks neatly back to the D will do.
I think that Homer Haynes, who...

The younger Jim Cox, star of this auspicious thread, has strayed from jazz sometimes and has recorded bluegrass music with Don Stiernberg and Greg Cahill. "Blue Skies" and "Night Skies" show that he...

Try taking a course of strings off the mandolin so your kids only have to press down on four strings, and see if that lights them up. Ukes are also a great way for kids to get used to a fretted...

Great tune!In 1947 Bill did it in G, and the verses Lester sang had no IV chord. If it wasn't for Howard Watts' "A" note toward end of the verse, you wouldn't have much of a V chord to negotiate...

Someone once described Andy's playing as a "force of nature", and I have to say his mandolin work has woken me up, kicked me around, soothed me, thrilled me, ticked me off, and opened up my world in...

I like it when someone sings one song and then plays a different tune for a break.Sometimes Jethro had fun sandwiching LRGA as an instrumental during "The Billboard Song"...one chorus of which is......

On the descending part ("No one else it seems...), howzabout G...GM7...Bm7flat5...E7?
-archie

Second finger at that point does it for me, too. I know I'm having a great mandolin day if I can get through the head with some bounce in my playing. Jethro made it look and sound easy,of course. I'm...

I think the film that Mandorose is referring to (where the fern gets tossed into the drawer) is called "Second Chorus".It Seems to me it was made in the mid-late 30s. I can't tell you much more about...

I know how you feel about finding those chords unfamiliar...if you're used to the bluegrass or old-time versions of those tunes, you must wonder how on earth they fit. What really helped me was...

Does anyone think that it's possible these days for a jazz mandolinist to make a decent living by playing jazz all the time, the way Joe Pass did?
-archie

So Mike, if different good mandolinists have different ways of playing a certain mandolin so that their chops and the tones, timbre, sustain of their single notes etc.are all different and...

Then there's a word guitar dealers have started using..."growl".Is "growl" akin to the mandolin terms "woof" and "bark"? Dealers hope that the right poetic term will assist the potential buyer in...

...Oops, I almost forgot.Don't get obsessed with the equipment. Jethro didn't.
-archie

Dear Leshii,
Obsession with Bill Monroe is mandatory in bluegrass mandolin, but Jethro has his own small legion of volunteers,most of whom don't sound anything like Mr. Burns. They sure enjoy...

"Embrace the Corn"...those are words to live by, Mandorose. Silliness is hard to come by in music these days, and H and J were stuffed with it. An excess of seriousness may be the true current...

I heard her on "World Cafe" last week doing a live show, and there was a neat mandolin solo by Kevin Bright, who is a new addition to the band. I think he's mainly a guitarist. It was good,...

A fine version from the early 60s can be found on Dave Van Ronk's "Ragtime Jug Stompers". Artie Rose plays the mandolin on that Mercury record, and Danny Kalb's on guitar...
archie

Some people also credit Bill Monroe as the the writer of "Back Up and Push",(aka "Back It Up and Push"). To me, it doesn't sound much like a Monroe tune, and I've often seen it listed as ...

My experience is the sound of archtop instruments changes daily, hourly, and sometimes by the minute.I've got one guitar that I need to thrash for 20 minutes before it wakes up and my take on "good...

Right, Moose; Homer was one amazing rhythm player no matter what bolt of cloth his suits came from. That guitar in the pic above is an Epiphone Emperor from before WWII. He could play that thing like...