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.
Bookmarks