Frankenstein mandolin player

[Darren Bailey]

I'm down in my laboratory, creating the perfect player. My creature has:

Adam Steffey's precision
John Reischman's tone
Ronnie McCoury's chop
Chris Thile's inventiveness
Sam Bush's rhythm
Bill Monroe's thrust
Sierra Hull's smile.

[Demetrius]

Im sure Sierra Hull will love that one...

[G7MOF]

Will it be for sale when finished?

[mandolin tony]

who's fingers are you going to use ?. hey I got it Edger Winters, then he can play Frankenstein on the mandolin with a little help from his friends.

[AlanN]

and this guy's eyes...

[Jared Heddinger]

Out of all of Sierra Hull's amazing abilities and technique...you boiled it down to her smile? Seems a bit of a lowball to me.

[Jess L.]

... Sierra Hull's smile.

Well... there's mandolin luthier Dan Voight's arms:



But can he play? I don't know, I wasn't listening, I was too distracted by the arms.

[JeffD]

All kidding aside, play like YOU play.

Lets say you succeed. You will be known as "almost" Chris Thile, "almost" Adam Steffey, etc. You can, however, be 100% yourself, and, let others work on being "almost" you.

[LadysSolo]

I don't think anyone else would WANT to play like I play......

[Charles E.]

How about Jethro's humor?

[mrmando]

I don't know what "Bill Monroe's thrust" means and perhaps I don't want to, but it occurs to me that Sierra Hull herself already has enough of all the other qualities mentioned, along with the smile. Why complicate things?

[MediumMando5722]

... Sierra Hull herself already has enough of all the other qualities mentioned, along with the smile. Why complicate things?

I'm sure the original post wasn't meant as a slight, but the above statement is so true it's not funny.

[DavidKOS]

Well, perfect for certain genres at best.

Obviously this creature is not meant for Italian music!

[DavidKOS]

How about Jethro's humor?

And his overall chops!

[Perry]

Mike Marshall he can play anything and everything. That said Sam is the Man; Dawg is top Dog and Tim O' is the most underrated mandolin player ever. But if I could make a deal with the devil (or Dr. Frank) I'd like to be able to play like Compton.

[Nathan Kellstadt]

I'm sorry, no offense to Sierra, but I gotta go with Frank Wakefield's smile every time.







It's infectious, ya can't deny it.

[mandocrucian]

Though some of the following also plunk on mandolins, I'd go for what they do on their main axes.

Richard Thompson (elec guitar - 1968 - 1983 period especially)
Martin Carthy - acoustic guitar
Hendrix, James Burton, Clarence White, Ry Cooder (elec guitars)
Dave Swarbrick (fiddle),
Sid Page (violin w/ Dan Hicks)
Curley Ray Cline & Chubby Wise (backup playing on fiddle)
Art Pepper (sax) & Johnny Almond (saxes and flutes)
Liam O'Flynn (Irish Pipes); Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian pipes)
Seamus Egan (Irish flute)
Don Helms (steel guitar), Tom Brumley (pedal steel)
Dr John (piano)
Maria Kalaniemi (5-row accordion), Flaco Jimenez (3-row conjunto accordion), John Kirkpatrick (button accordion)
and , oh yes.... Django Reinhardt

and for vocal phrasing/dynamics/ornamentation/intonation transferred onto an instrument:
Sandy Denny, Etta James, Chris Isaak, George Jones, Ralph Stanley

(btw....you can all me "Frank")

[CarlM]

If there is a single mandolin player I would emulate it would be Jimmy Gaudreau for tone and melodic playing but also the ability to tear it up on command. Emory Lester, Sierra and Jethro not too far behind.

[T.D.Nydn]

I'd cross John Duffy with Andy Statman and see what you end up with...

[DavidKOS]

I'd cross John Duffy with Andy Statman and see what you end up with...

Nice to hear someone mention Andy Statman.



Great use of that pinky, too.

[Cornfield]

I prefer to make people the old fashioned way. Don’t know if they’ll turn out to be musicians though

[Charles E.]

Some body had to do it..........

[Jess L.]

Some body had to do it..........

Ha! That's awesome!