Pioneers?

[Ken Berner]

Who were the mandolin-picker "pioneers" of old time music and when was the instrument introduced to this genre?

[John Flynn]

I can't give a full answer to that question, but I can relate a couple of pieces of the puzzle. My teacher, Curtis Buckhannon, is one of the people who often gets mentioned when talking about who is playing mandolin in old-time music at a high level today. He has told me that his #1 mandolin influence is Kenny Hall. Also, even though they didn't play "old-time" per se (let's not get into the "what is old-time" argument again!) he was also influenced by Bill Monroe and Yank Rachel. So depending on how far back you want to go, I guess those three could be considered "recent pioneers."

As to when it was introduced, I attended a workshop with Lil' Rev, who in addition to being a great teacher, is also a self-styled historian on this topic. He believes that mandolins probably were used to some extent in old-time going back into the early 1800's. The challenge for the bowlback mandolins of the time would have been that they lacked the volume to be heard playing with fiddles and later, banjos. He believes that the banjo-mandolin may have been the first design widely used in old-time, because they were loud, because they were relatively inexpensive to make and because they would have been very portable, some important characteristics for the people who would have played old-time in the 1800's. Those eventually got supplanted by the Gibson designs late in the 1800's.

[JGWoods]

Gee whiz john, I'm going to have to get used to your new name. All this time you've been JaflynnStull to me...


re mandolins in OT music- either they weren't common, or couldn't be heard in recordings
AP Carter often traveled on his song hunting trips with a fellow who played mandolin. I don't know who influenced Bill Monroe- he came from OT music- from the music of the day.

[Fred Keller]

A key wellspring has to be the playing of early black string- and jugband music, though most often played on the banjo-mandolin: bands like Cannon's Jug Stompers, Memphis Jug Band, the Sheiks (Mississippi and others ) Noah Lewis was one of those fellas but I can't recall the others.

[allenhopkins]

Ted Hawkins (Skillet Lickers)
Coley Jones (Dallas String Band)
R W Durden (Three Stripped Gears)
Richard Mitchell (Roanoke Jug Band)
Charlie Burse (Memphis Jug Band)
Here's a link to a good article on blues mandolin players.

I'm skeptical about "mandolin being used in old-time going back to the early 1800's" since there weren't many mandolins in the Southern mountains back then. I did a little bit of research on references to mandolin and mandolinists in colonial America, and found that almost all references were to Spanish or Italian immigrant musicians or music teachers. The mandolin, at least in the conventional wisdom, didn't really hit the US big-time until two developments occurred in the late 19th century: the Spanish Students bandurria concerts, and the increase in immigration from Mediterranean countries.

The banjo-mandolin may have been used frequently in jug band music, but in Appalachian old-time, most mandolins you hear are of the wooden variety.

[Ken Berner]

Allen, thanks for that terrific link; there is a wealth of information to be found there. It answers a lot of questions for me!