Chris Eldridge and Dominick Leslie - Watson's Blues

[BradKlein]

As promised on the Church Street Blues thread, here's another video I produced with Scott Tsai for Retrofret Vintage Guitars. It will be 'released' on the Retrofret Facebook page over the weekend, but I'm happy to give the first look to the Cafe regulars.

The occasion was a 30th anniversary party for Retrofret, and the release of a new Martin book and the exhibition of Martin guitars that has opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I swear, I've listened to this one 40 times, and probably will keep at it till I know every note. A great, fun tune by Bill Monroe with help from Doc Watson.


Click on the youtube icon and choose HD if you've got the bandwidth.

[sgarrity]

Those boys can pick a little!

[BradKlein]

Maybe I've watched this one too many times on the workstation, but I think there is a ton to learn here. The slides - both these guys really know how to make the slides up and down the fretboard count. They stick the landing, and there's always some subtle change in speed to add variety. And on the second break, you can see Dominick breath like a sax player along with his phrasing.

And seriously, mando-geeks -- anyone notice anything a little tricky... one particular thing, on Dom's first B part?

[Glassweb]

Excellent playing, great rapport... those guys got it dialed in...

[AlanN]

-- anyone notice anything a little tricky... one particular thing, on Dom's first B part?

Hmmm... I'm 'split' with the answer...lol.

Nice lines from these boys.

[Skip Kelley]

I heard it! Sweet!

[mandopete]

Absolutely wonderful rendition of this song. I could listen to these two play all day!

[mandolino maximus]

Those boys can pick a little!

[BradKlein]

Hmmm... I'm 'split' with the answer...lol.

Yeah… Alan and others caught it. The funny thing about playing 'split string' when it's done well - at least for me - is that I don't notice it the first time through. It's like the third time through before I think to myself, 'hey! how'd he get that sound?'

[AlanN]

I heard it straight away. The sour sound just stands out. The few pickers who intentionally get that usually do it on the E string. When in a tune's flow, you just don't have a lot of time to mess with it to get it right.

[sunburst]

I've related this story before, but I was working on a mandolin for Lorraine Duisit. and while she was waiting, she was playing my mandolin. I was crowning frets and listening, and realized I was hearing jazz chords with more than 4 notes. I asked "are you splitting strings?" and she smiled and showed me several chord positions with split D and A strings! First time I'd heard anyone split strings other than the E (where you have plenty of room).

[Amanda Gregg]

I'm totally stealing that split string lick for that tune, no question.

[sgarrity]

I recognized it right away. I've just never been able to get good enough at it to incorporate it into my playing. The guitar work here was stellar as well.

[Jonathan James]

Dom's sure got the Thile stage presence thing going...

[BradKlein]

I'll add a note to this thread, 8 months later, to congratulate Dom on winning the Momentum award from IBMA today. I think that the video at the top remains one of the nicest examples of his playing online. And Critter Eldridge did a fantastic job inducting his father and the rest of the Seldom Scene into the IBMA Hall of Fame too.

[Fretbear]

There's a good chunk of "You'll Find Her Name Written There" in that tune. That Gil has the same incredible eye-popping top carving that Ronny McCoury's Gil does that made someone say "If anything, they exceed's Loars in craftsmanship...."

[Philippe Bony]

Spilt String Technique by Tom Bekeny.

[Jake Howard]

Finally, after a couple years, I got around to transcribing Dom's intro and solo in this video. FINALLY! I should've done it sooner because there are some badass phrasing in this song by both of them.

Hope y'all enjoy!

[MediumMando5722]

What a great performance. Then again, if Critter walked into the room, waved and smiled, I'd probably point out how well he did it.

[BradKlein]

Nice to see this performance and video still getting some love several years later. As I predicted, I've gone back to it many times myself.