Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Petrus! It's been a while. Glad to see to see you are still at it.
I have been enjoying this thread. From the start it has tickled me, as I mostly play 150+ year-old fiddle tunes on an acoustic instrument descended from the renaissance lute. Makes most music seem pretty new in comparison. On a note related to another thread, I also smiled when I read the Dylan quotation about Bluegrass music. Dylan was born in 1941, making him only slightly younger than BG! Not saying there isn't something 'mysterious and deep rooted', as Dylan says, but it is not exactly Gregorian Chant.
At 73 (wife a few years older but looks 50-ish!), there are SO many comments I could make about my luck thus far, but I'll hold it to just two:
1) As a long-time whitewater kayaker and still-active skier, I never really felt old until a shattered humerus in '07 kept me out of work for 6 months, and off of guitar for well over a year. Fortunately, other than limited upward reach & minor loss of strength, day-to-day life eventually returned to relative normal. On the "good" side, limited guitar-flexibility DID get me into mandolin...
And just the mandolin connections led me to:
2) Of the four groups I currently play with, I'm of about average age! Heck, the regular Thursday-afternoon library gig (currently suspended by C-virus) consists of ages 93, 93, 88, 73, 64, and a mere child of 47 or so. Plus a third recently-retired 93-year-old! And they're SO active, they make it hard to feel old even if I wanted to.
(Totally aside comment: As might be expected, the older folks can be a bit set in their ways, with no qualms about, uhm, "animated discussion". Yes, it can feel like a Seinfeld episode!)
Last edited by EdHanrahan; Jun-19-2020 at 1:41pm.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
At age five, I felt old during the first day of kindergarten. At age eleven, I felt old as I threw folded newspapers on to porches as a new paperboy. At age seventeen, I felt old as I crept up the aisle to retrieve my high school diploma. This business of feeling old has visited me regularly: first roll in the hay, first professional position, first hernia. I'm now 68, retired, still learning to tremolo, but, with the weight lifting, feel younger everyday.
I intended to post my thoughts about getting older but forgot what I was going to say.
"Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay." ~ Alexander Dumas
I was 65 in January. To me, “retiring” simply means getting a new set of tires.
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
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"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
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HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
Thanks. I just checked and realized it's been almost three years since my last post and I still have a lot of posts judging by the count under my avatar and I can't believe it's been 7 years since I joined. Honestly, I stopped doing a lot of things I used to enjoy over the past few years (won't bore you with the details) and my MAS thankfully went away when I realized it was turning into an expensive hobby with too much noodling around with strings and this and that and not enough playing.
I taught myself music theory and playing the mando, from books, in about a year, grew from zero prior knowledge to a fairly adequate level but plateau'ed at a low-level amateur and got stuck there, then lost interest because I felt that I had somehow proved the point that I could do it, fwiw.
I still have my Breedlove Crossover, fantastic instrument for the money. I recently heard about the new-ish Northfield Calhoun, which might be something I could be interested in since I never thought I could ever afford a Northfield and this one is under a grand. So who knows.
I live mainly in Arizona and was really disappointed when the Mandolin Store recently moved to Nashville, I have to say. But there will be some lucky folks in Nashville who'll now get the chance to enjoy engaging with them in person as they are a really great team.
I only started getting into Dylan in the early '00s believe it or not. I find Dylan more interesting as he ages. His latest piece, the 17-minute epic "Murder Most Foul," is a minor masterpiece imo ... but I can't listen to it often because it's so emotionally draining.I have been enjoying this thread. From the start it has tickled me, as I mostly play 150+ year-old fiddle tunes on an acoustic instrument descended from the renaissance lute. Makes most music seem pretty new in comparison. On a note related to another thread, I also smiled when I read the Dylan quotation about Bluegrass music. Dylan was born in 1941, making him only slightly younger than BG! Not saying there isn't something 'mysterious and deep rooted', as Dylan says, but it is not exactly Gregorian Chant.
I recall reading something about an old mammoth bone flute that someone had found in a cave dating back to the Paleolithic period, like 20,000 years old or something, and it was claimed that the finger-holes in it are very close to what we know of as the pentatonic scale. Supposedly the oldest functioning musical instrument yet discovered.
hendrix was 50 years ago, If I was going back 50 years to get good music, in the 60's I would be listening to the roaring 20's music, which is really good music , but it never hit the radio, or a revival, so have we reached the end of new music with the instrumentation and mindset we have?
The trouble with getting old is you don’t get time to prepare for it!
After reading these I started thinking. I have been performing for 50 years, not counting high school concerts or sitting in with a band overseas in the service. In a couple months I move up a decade from my 60's to 70. The last few years I played a lot with a wonderful young musician in her 20's, and regularly play with much younger folks in the many jams and dances we have around here. Last year the cruise I play on weekly changed and I started soloing on guitar again after 35+ years. Forgot how much I enjoy finger picking the guitar. Am usually playing in a few different groups and don't see changing anything, if fact I would like to play more. They say "you're not getting older, you are getting better", well I am getting older and with this break I am not getting better, but my woodpile is much bigger than it has ever been. Enjoy the journey, love the music and stay safe.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
As far as I'm concerned, Jimi will never be Old School - some things are timeless.
I'm in a weird spot - I'm *cough*47*cough*. At my age, I missed being around when so much of the music I grew up on and still listen to was created. I missed the 60s, darn it! That being said, I can safely say I was never anywhere close to being at the forefront of cool - I was (and still am) a "Deadhead", plus I was a classical music student. Two things that ensured that my younger years in the 80s and 90s were far removed from what was then defined as "cool". Well, I did like a lot of 90s bands too...
"Flow, river flow. Let your waters wash down, take me from this road, to some other town." - Roger McGuinn
Think this parody comes from Garrison Keillor:
Come gather 'round people wherever you roam,
It's time we were looking for a good nursing home,
And accept it that soon you'll be living alone,
And you'll need help with bathing and shaving;
They say "golden years," but it's our Twilight Zone,
And the times, they are a-changing.
Come all you friends who are seventy [you can supply your own decade] like me,
Once we just wanted to live and be free,
But now we're marching with the AARP,
To get senior discounts for drug payments;
And we're hoping to hang on 'til we reach eighty-three.
And the times, they are a-changing.
Come you doctors and specialists, answer my call,
Does my PSA say that my prostate's still small?
These blood pressure pills aren't helping at all,
Or the antidepressants I'm taking;
When I walk 'cross the room I'm afraid I might fall,
And the times, they are a-changing.
Come you sons and you daughters, throughout the land,
Some day you'll get old, and then you'll understand;
I've got gray in my hear and brown spots on my hands;
Your daddy is rapidly aging;
And the guy who wrote this song, now he's an old man,
And the times, they are a-changing.
I never expected to get old so fast --
When I look in the mirror, I'm really aghast;
It seems all my good times are now in the past,
And my memory's rapidly fading...
I said, "my memory's rapidly fading..."
My memory, friends, is blowin' in the wind,
Like a rolling stone, in a nursing home --
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe -- no, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me that's getting old, babe -- it ain't me that's getting old;
Forever young, forever young, I will stay forever young.
I've tweaked it a bit, and it is a performance favorite for certain audiences.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Musicians from the 60's - 70's are old school - there's no real question there IMO. I think these were old when I was in High School (late 90's) haha....Now when I heard Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots Classic Rock stations - I had to double take, then remember they were effectively the same from an age standpoint as Zeppelin, Hendrix, and the rest.
We're old. Get used to it. haha
That said, the bass player and lead singer / songwriting in my band is over 70 and rocks out https://www.facebook.com/ShakedownStringBand/ - Age ain't no part of nothin'
Information on lessons, gigs, and misc musical stuff: www.mattcbruno.com
Weekly free Mandolin Lessons: www.mattcbruno.com/weekly-posts/
My gear and recommendations: www.mattcbruno.com/gear-recommendations/
Cooking fun: www.mattcbruno.com/quarantine-cookbook/
Mando's in use
Primary: Newson 2018
Secondary: Gibson F9 2014
Primary Electric: Jonathan Mann OSEMdc 5
Actually, everything leading up to getting old is preparation. In some cases, it's Preparation H, but we won't go there ...
I'm at an age (66) where I allegedly lived during the cool years but i apparently missed them. I didn't wear go-go boots and my body certainly didn't show off mini skirts well, i didn't listen to pop music, i didn't care enough about cars to worry about owning or driving a cool one ... i didn't do campus protests, didn't really engage in the sexual revolution, didn't understand the drug scene, spent my time wrapped up in science fiction, the SCA where I learned how to dance a branle and play baroque and medieval music and pretty much turned up my nose at pop culture and don't actually understand why anybody would think the 1960s or 1970s were such classic times. Things are way more fun these days -- and that IS a condition of my old age!
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1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
1952 Strad-o-lin
1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
2011 Eastman MD305
I wake up each morning and shake out my wits.
Bring in the paper, and read the obits.
If my name isn't there, I know I'm not dead.
So I walk up the stairs, and go back to bed.
Told me by my grandfather; maybe stolen from Ben Franklin. Truer now at 77, than it was when he told me!
Rush Burkhardt
Towson, MD
Free opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them!
Things like "early rock 'n' roll" mean different things to different folks. When I talk with my grandkids about music "early" is maybe the Allman Brothers, Buffalo Springfield, Pearl Jam, etc. At 76, my recollections of early rock 'n' roll are names like Bill Black, Chuck Berry, The Cadillacs Dinah Washington, Bill Haley, "Fats" Domino, etc. plus all the Doo-Wop artists. I am given to referring of the "real early rock 'n' roll" era as the Doo-Wop era to separate the two very distinctive types of music.
David Hopkins
2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.
I'm not sure I how "sudden" it was..........I think it has been happening over time. I rarely hang out with young people, but when I do I usually need a translator.....way too many missed references and "new" terminology. The beautiful thing is -- I don't really care!
What bugs me is that in my youth I took a lot of pride in being on the cutting edge of things, especially musical things. But, even with that attitude, time marches on....but, again, no worries....
The good news is that I gave up on Dylan about 35 years ago figuring how could he ever top Tangled Up In Blue? Well, it turns out he has been recording and releasing records all these years and some of them are actually good! So, I have a lot of catching up to do. And, drum roll, this time around my car actually has a great sound system.........
When I was about eight I was in class and our mathematics teacher told us that the headmaster of the school was going to retire. She said everyone works in their life and then retires, it’s like a long holiday, all of you will do that... well almost...
Then she quickly started talking about fractions and my friend next to me said, ‘what do you mean, almost everyone?’
He didn’t know what she meant but he did know that the teacher was uncomfortable with the subject...
And the teacher carried on talking, and he said, ‘what do you mean, almost everyone?’
And after a minute or two he said, ‘what do you mean, almost everyone?’
By this time the two of us were laughing in our seats, and we didn’t know why. All we knew was that we were meant to ask questions and that this was a good one.
So she stopped and said it’s called statistics, what it basically means is that some of us wont make it to 65 years old. Accidents...
And a boy at the back of the class started crying. So the teacher said well that’s enough, now it’s only mathematics questions.
And someone said how many of us?
-about 2, she said.
And my friend and I turned to each other and we both pointed and said, ‘You!’
And the whole class breathed a sigh of relief.
Now if she’d asked, ‘how many of you will play the mandolin?’
One thing for sure I am grateful for (music relevant) is the rise of new technologies like MP3 that have opened up a whole new world of music, genres, and artists to me that I never could have imagined or even had reasonable and easy access to back in the '90s. I've got over 12,000 pieces in my MP3 library and I can fit them all in my pocket. Everything from ancient chants to minstrel stuff to 21st century.
Heck, I only really got into Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan in the early '00s, now I have maybe a dozen albums from each of them, just to take a couple of examples. I also listen to newer stuff. I'm enjoying the new "acoustic revival" or whatever they're calling it now (Sarah Jarosz, Thile, et al.) So there are some advantages to living in the current era. I think younger people who don't know anything but MP3s don't realize what a huge advance this technology has been despite the disruptions it has caused to the industry.
I am in the same boat. I play in a bluegrass band where all of the other members are talented, good looking 20-ish year olds. Totally deflating when we get done with a gig and a bunch of good looking girls come over to invite them to party after the gig, and tell my bandmates, "You can bring your dad too." Another time we were on our way to a gig, and they were talking about starlets who they think are hot. They asked me who I thought was hot, and I said Jennifer Aniston. They replied, "She's kinda old."
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