amazing article and wonderful to read.
thanks so much for posting all this.
d
amazing article and wonderful to read.
thanks so much for posting all this.
d
I recently purchased some wood from Steve Weill. He really does not do internet much. If you give him a phone call he responds and is really good to talk to. His phone number is on his website and he makes the statement on there that eh does landline and snail mail for the most part.As part of this, some of you may wonder, I did contact Steve Weill who worked with him but did not hear back so possibly that email ended up in his spam folder or was just missed. Can't say. Email is not a 100% proposition and if he wishes to weigh in here he'd certainly be welcome.
Interesting for sure and a trip back to the 70s and 80s -- a time warp. But there is another long narrative story about R.L. Givens that exists too. It used to be on line in the early days of the internet and you would find it by jusat searching "RL Givens" -- I read it at least twice. But maybe 15 years ago it disappeared -- probably the site died or was abandoned. That story covered some of the stuff discussed in this article -- but it was not nearly as long. However the other piece I'm thinking about did cover some other aspects of his life. For example his packing up part of the shop one night and leaving Nashville for Idaho. It also contained a lot of details about how he dealt (or refused to deal with) the cancer that eventually took his life. Sometime this week I will try to dig up an old hard drive from a computer I built back in the early 90s to see if that article was saved. I know that it is not a SATA drive so I'll have to do a little finagling to read it. I seem to recall that I did save a copy.
Fair amount of that information covered in the article that's linked to on Charles Johnson's web site near the end of the piece. Maybe not the same article, but reference to how and why he left Nashville and then how he dealt unsuccessfully with his own cancer.
The article on Charles Johnson's website:
http://www.vintagemandolin.com/givens_history.html
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
In my most humble admission, the photo you refer to is not Tut. That is the author of the article, my much younger self, and I cannot explain what this is doing in the article. I have uploaded to the Cafe a more readable copy of the original B.U. article, minus the bearded unidentified.
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User elephantrock sent this MP3 of Givens talking about mandolins and guitars.
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....Back in roughly 1983, I was visited by a friend, a woman that had lived near me in the Northwest Nowhere previously. At that time she was married to Bob and they just showed up in my front yard one afternoon. We didn't have long to talk, and even though I was already a mando picker, although really knew nothing at the time of who I was actually talking to, except that he built mandolins....If I only knew then what I do know now....I would have probably plagued him with way too many questions....
Thanks Scott for the interesting articles. The Guitars Friend read was particularly a blast from my past, since I took guitar lessons at Music, Strings, and Things in Birmingham, MI. I later moved near Sandpoint ID, so my path paralleled Larry Ostrow’s (apostrophe intended) a bit (sans alchemy ;>). I didn’t pick up the mandolin until 2005, but it’s allure grew from my youthful experiences at MS&T.
Fantastic read and many thanks for the work making it available.
Published one year ago today!
One of the best articles on A-5 mandolins on the cafe. Very instructive!
Nic Gellie
John Hamlett
www.hamlettinstruments.com
thanks for all this great Givens info!
Scott, that was my F you played at Folk Alliance some years ago, a great memory for me, as well. Maybe all mandolins sound better in a stairwell at whatever in the morning it was! That one is #393 from '87.
I've since gotten a Givens A6 five serial numbers from that one. It's very different and a great instrument, too.
thanks again!
I apprenticed with Nick Kukich. Nick and Bob were lifelong friends and close collaborators. Nick cared for Bob during his illness right up to Bob's passing. Mike Dulak and Bob were also friends and at one time room mates.
Noting the anniversary of this one. Had a lot of fun getting this into digital for future readers.
Nothing the anniversary of this feature interview.
Noting the anniversary of this feature.
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