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Thread: Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

  1. #1

    Default Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

    About 10 years ago or so I was attending an industry retreat in Massachusetts at which we were lucky enough to have Mike Marshall, along with a couple of young guys on violin and bass, play for us during breaks. (Yeah, it was a pretty cool event.) I had just started playing mandolin a few months earlier, and had recently bought a Kentucky KM-150. I knew some chords, but was absolutely a rank novice.

    One day at the event I talked with Mike for a couple of minutes, and mentioned how I was just getting started in mandolin, etc. Later that evening, there was a jam session / singalong of sorts, and Mike was playing his mandocello as he'd been mostly doing throughout the weekend. He waves me over and says "hey why don't you play this," and mutters something about an old Gibson, as unassuming and gracious as could be.
    So he pulls out a somewhat rough-looking old mandolin, and of course I have no clue what I'm looking at or what I'm doing generally, but I went ahead and played it (sort of) all evening.
    It played a lot nicer than my Kentucky.
    Anyway, Mike's a hell of a nice guy, and I truly appreciate his reckless encouragement.

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  3. #2
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    Default Re: Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

    I love stories like Mike. I have a nice sounding mandolin and enjoy hearing others play it in jams.

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  5. #3

    Default Re: Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

    Great story. Some famous folk I’ve met have heads too big to get through the door. Others I’ve met were the nicest people, realizing they put their pants on the same way I do. I have tried to emulate that attitude.
    Loar LM-370

    “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  6. #4

    Default Re: Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

    I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Mike and Darol Anger yesterday, and they were both extremely helpful and kind folks. Mike was not playing a Loar, but had a couple nice Northfields and a beautiful Monteleone mandocello.

  7. #5
    Fatally Flawed Bill Kammerzell's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nice story about Mike Marshall's Loar

    Yes. Mike instructed a mandolin class I took for a week at Swannanoa last year. Just a very regular guy. Most of the musicians I've encountered that were Bluegrass based at one time or the other in their careers are pretty much like that.
    Ray Dearstone #009 D1A (1999)
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    Arches #9 A Style (2005)
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    "Heck, Jimmy Martin don't even believe in Santy Claus!"

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