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Thread: Thao Nguyen

  1. #1
    Registered User Miltown's Avatar
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    Default Thao Nguyen

    I imagine this won't be to everyone's taste, but I dig it quite a bit. Eastman 315, it looks like:

    http://www.avclub.com/video/watch-th...rforman-256175

  2. #2
    poor excuse for anything Charlieshafer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    I do like her stuff, but well, not this particular piece! Pretty creative woman, though, some cool projects in a relatively short time.

  3. #3
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Perhaps we are not born for departure, but I departed that video rather quickly.
    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
    --Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

    Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos

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  5. #4

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    I also have an MD315, but it sure sounds a lot better than that.
    Soliver arm rested and Tone-Garded Northfield Model M with D’Addario NB 11.5-41, picked with a Wegen Bluegrass 1.4

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  7. #5
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Well I guess she is being creative but I dispute her "mastery" of the mandolin.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

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  9. #6

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    This is pretty funny


    And here is the video from the first post embedded

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  11. #7
    Registered User jdchapman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    I'm not going to fuss about someone trying to add mando to her arsenal, but it might have been a little early in her journey to preserve it on youtube.

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  13. #8
    Registered User G7MOF's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    !!!!
    I never fail at anything, I just succeed at doing things that never work....


    Fylde Touchstone Walnut Mandolin.
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  14. #9
    Gummy Bears and Scotch BrianWilliam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Wooooo....

    I like the one that ends in profanity better.

  15. #10

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Franc Homier Lieu View Post
    This is pretty funny
    Lol!


    Quote Originally Posted by BrianWilliam View Post
    I like the one that ends in profanity better.
    Yeah that was pretty good.

  16. #11
    Registered User Miltown's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Well, I didn't realize someone else had posted this to the recent band discovery thread. Sorry about the double post.

    Like I said, probably not to everyone's taste, but then, there's no accounting for people's predictably unadventurous tastes (I kid).

  17. #12

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    When I watch the video of Thao playing mandolin I am reminded of the scene in Scorsese's The Departed, in which Nicholson's character is telling DiCaprio's character what John Lennon said about being an artist. "Lennon said, 'I'm an artist. You give me a [expletive] tuba, I'll get you something out of it." (I can't post the YT clip because of the language as well as the, uh, hand gestures.

    I don't think Thao posted that video herself, I don't think she titled it 'Thao's mastery', and I don't think she is on a mandolin journey to any place that most people who play mandolin journey to. But I'd rather watch that than watch her pick a version of Whiskey Before Breakfast.
    Last edited by Franc Homier Lieu; Aug-20-2017 at 8:48am.

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  19. #13
    acoustically inert F-2 Dave's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Sometimes I'll watch something new and think it's awful. Other times I'll think something new is brilliant. But I've realized that sometimes I just don't get it .......yet. I'll admit that the first time I saw Ry Cooder banging out Going to Brownsville on that F-4, I wondered "what's that guy doin?". After a few views though, I gained a great appreciation for the piece. Will that happen with Miss Nguyen's video? Time will tell, but I'm gonna have to watch it again, maybe a few times.
    "Mongo only pawn in game of life." --- Mongo

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  21. #14

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Thats not how Bill would've done it.

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  23. #15
    Administrator Mandolin Cafe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Like her, like her music, personally see no reason for people that don't have a clue who she is to weigh in with mostly anonymous public criticism, but it's the rule of the internet. Every type of art or music must be criticized and diminished. She's a pretty big deal in the folk music world. NPR thought enough of her that she has her own Tiny Desk Concert. As stated above by someone else, the greatest sin is that someone chose to title a video in a way that the few feel must be taken offense to. Doesn't bother us a bit. Quite frankly, one less person in the world that doesn't play Pike County Breakdown is just fine. We'll all be OK, no really, we will. Well, except Willie.

    Power to her.

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  25. #16

    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    I can see her music having some appeal to rock'n'roll/underground fans. Not particularly mandolin fans. Vocals remind me of Bjork, although Thao was born in the United States, she sings as if English is her second language, to my ears.

  26. #17
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    As usual you are correct Scott...I just don`t care for it...I am sure she is a very talented picker but it is just not my kind of music...If that makes me a bad person and people want to sling mud at me that's fine, I know what I like and don`t really need to be put down because I do post my preferences on here...I am sure that I am not the only person that prefers "Pike County Breakdown" to the song that she was "TRYING" to sing and play...

    Willie

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  28. #18
    Administrator Mandolin Cafe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    I can see her music having some appeal to rock'n'roll/underground fans. Not particularly mandolin fans. Vocals remind me of Bjork, although Thao was born in the United States, she sings as if English is her second language, to my ears.
    Define "mandolin fans." Is it a problem she doesn't sound like us??? Who is us? And my gawd, what a missed marketing opportunity appealing to a different segment than what is perceived is here.

    Just trying to define the dog whistles in my own mind, or lack thereof.

    Thanks, Willie, for your input. We can always count on your voice being strong, clear, consistent, and always openly critical of anything that doesn't meet your definition of music.

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  30. #19
    poor excuse for anything Charlieshafer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Before each show, I have a playlist of tunes just to fill the dead air for 45 mins from doors to showtime, and then after the show during the reception for the artists. I'll mix some of the usual suspects, old-time, bluegrass, etc, in with some off-genre stuff. Most of the audience regulars of about 200 are used to seeing the likes of Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, Molly Tuttle, etc., but always seem to have fun with and comment on the ambient tunes. Two stand out as getting the most positive response. One was Baby Gramps doing a Tuvan throat singing version of Cape Cod Girls, the other was this:


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  32. #20
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Mando View Post
    I can see her music having some appeal to rock'n'roll/underground fans. Not particularly mandolin fans. Vocals remind me of Bjork, although Thao was born in the United States, she sings as if English is her second language, to my ears.
    Jeff, I'm really disappointed in your statement at the end of your post. It's uncalled for.
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  34. #21
    Registered User Miltown's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    As I stated above, I certainly understand the variance of taste -- and I long ago stopped trying to convince others of my own subjective, aesthetic opinions. Some of us dig it, some of us don't. And that's as it should be.

    I do think that's a great song and performance, though, and I find nothing about it to be amateurish or lacking polish. It's just a very different style than what a lot of us here likely listen to on a regular basis.

    I also think it's cool to hear an instrument (the Eastman MD 315) that a lot of us probably have personal experience with being played by such an accomplished and creative musician as Thao Nguyen. Is she doing what most of us imagine should be done with that instrument? Not at all, and thank goodness for that.

    By the way, here's a non-controversial question (I hope): what does she have over the f holes on her mandolin? Are they meant to dampen the sound from the f holes, in favor of the pickup, or something like that?

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  36. #22
    poor excuse for anything Charlieshafer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Miltown View Post

    By the way, here's a non-controversial question (I hope): what does she have over the f holes on her mandolin? Are they meant to dampen the sound from the f holes, in favor of the pickup, or something like that?
    I've seen them used for one of several different reasons; one being to hold a small microphone in place (not real effective, but it's been done in a pinch, another to quiet the sound that can re-enter the f hole from a monitor, thereby reducing feedback, and one to simply wedge a cable for either a mic or pickup so it doesn't flop around.

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  38. #23
    ************** Caleb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Something I try to think of when I see an artist here I don't particularly care for (which happens a lot because I don't care for bluegrass) is how would that person feel if he/she stopped by and saw my negative comment. I would hate to wreck someone's day and possibly his or her view of the mandolin community. I'm a terrible player by the standards set here by MANY but I've posted myself playing a time or two. If someone said, "Man, you suck..." I have to admit it would dampen my enthusiasm for this place. I guess I'm probably sounding didactic and grandmotherly, but what we say and do does make the world either a better or worse place. I preach this to myself everyday (and often fail to meet the standard). YMMV.
    ...

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  40. #24
    Certified! Bernie Daniel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Caleb View Post
    Something I try to think of when I see an artist here I don't particularly care for (which happens a lot because I don't care for bluegrass) is how would that person feel if he/she stopped by and saw my negative comment. I would hate to wreck someone's day and possibly his or her view of the mandolin community. I'm a terrible player by the standards set here by MANY but I've posted myself playing a time or two. If someone said, "Man, you suck..." I have to admit it would dampen my enthusiasm for this place. I guess I'm probably sounding didactic and grandmotherly, but what we say and do does make the world either a better or worse place. I preach this to myself everyday (and often fail to meet the standard). YMMV.
    I agree that it is not necessary, usually useful, or very charitable either to make a negative or "put down" public comments about someone's musical abilities. Everyone can make that determination on their own score and do.

    OTOH it is should be perfectly acceptable for someone to comment on their preferences and state that they don't care for some particular kind of music or a particular presentation. Especially if it is presented by someone else as something that is good and/or worth a listen.

    Admittedly, there is an old "golden rule" that goes "if you can't say something good then say nothing". Personally I think that is generally a good rule, but if such advice were mandatory it would make for a very dull forum I would think. Besides why is that old rule still in force when most other "old ideas and values' are daily trashed with abandon in this "modern" society?

    Personally I could get along just fine without ever hearing another of Ms. Nguyen's musical works and to think that there are people who would spend 3 minutes and 2 seconds listening to "Bag of Hammers II" (say nothing of enjoying it) is truly amazing to me -- seriously.

    But others can do as they wish of course.
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  42. #25
    Administrator Mandolin Cafe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Thao Nguyen

    Quote Originally Posted by Bernie Daniel View Post
    Besides why is that old rule still in force when most other "old ideas and values' are daily trashed with abandon in this "modern" society?
    Exactly the kind of comment that closes this discussion, but it's just one of several here. My reference to "dog whistle," and you all know damn good and well what I'm referring to, will end this. We'll have none of the wink-wink, nods with a grin, heading into political land. We're all getting plenty of that these days.

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