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Thread: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

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    Default Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    So I run into this old CD I got as a gift and hadn't played yet (Robinella and the CC Stringband) and gave it a listen. Apart from everything else on the CD, I hear a solid session Mando Player, looked in the notes and discovered: Cruz Contreras. So I googled his name and got some references.

    I'm sure there are many of these.

    Know any?

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Some of you folks may be interested in this.

    http://onmuddysavariverbank.blogspot...ns-stomps.html

    You can buy it on Amazon
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    formerly OldDirtyTurtle Jason Kindall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by kmiller1610 View Post
    So I run into this old CD I got as a gift and hadn't played yet (Robinella and the CC Stringband) and gave it a listen. Apart from everything else on the CD, I hear a solid session Mando Player, looked in the notes and discovered: Cruz Contreras. So I googled his name and got some references.

    I'm sure there are many of these.

    Know any?
    Robinella's music is awesome - she's a real sweetheart, too. She used to be friends with most folks in my lab when I was at UT-Knoxville. Cruz is indeed a real solid mando picker.

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Donnie Eldreth, who used to play with Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals. Real solid Monroe-style. I saw a joint concert with Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass and McCoury, and Marty Stuart and Eldreth did some extremely impressive twin mandolin stuff.
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    Registered Mandolin User mandopete's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by kmiller1610 View Post
    I'm sure there are many of these.

    Know any?
    Almost too many to count!

    But there are two that I'll mention here. The first is Michael Smith, who frequents the Cafe as Atlanta Mando Mike. He plays with a band called the Dappled Grays and also appeared on Andy Carlson's Log-A-Rhythm project. If there's is a tastier picker out there I don't know it is.

    The other guy is Mason Tuttle. Many know him as the bass player for Chris Stuart & Backcountry. He's done some really nice mandolin work on the new project by Ivan Rosenberg called Clawhammer & Dobro. This guy is tone for days!
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Troy Castleberry from Memphis - long time leader of the Tennessee Gentlemen.

    Troy and Dempsey Young on youtube

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    Registered Mandolin User mandopete's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by mandopete View Post
    The first is Michael Smith, who frequents the Cafe as Atlanta Mando Mike. He plays with a band called the Dappled Grays and also appeared on Andy Carlson's Log-A-Rhythm project. If there's is a tastier picker out there I don't know it is.
    Here's a fun video (that's Casey Cook on the left and Mike on the right)...

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Lots of them out here, western edge.

    It takes booking on a national tour to be known out side your area, on the festival circuit etc.
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    I really like Nate Bray who played with Red Cravens and the Bray Brothers as the Bluegrass Gentlemen. He had all the right moves.

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    lol -- it would be far easier to list well-known mandolin players.
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Nate Bray was a great mandolin player IMO also. Loved the way he could slide seamlessly in and out of crosspicking - and so clean! He rang that mando like a bell.
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    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Kelly Perdue has been gone awhile but the Mando Mafia out of Charlottsville, Va is still going strong. Great players, every one.
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Unfortunately obscure...beyond solid...way beyond.

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    Purveyor of Sunshine sgarrity's Avatar
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    How about Danny Knicely. He's fairly well known back in VA. An absolutely astounding amazing musician. I watched him take a left handed mandolin, play it right handed and totally nail the jazz tune Take Five. It was astounding.

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Aren't all mandolin players a little obscure? I think you have to change it to "extra" obscure. I'd have to put in Dana Rath and Bob Artis as obscure names even in this crowd.

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by mandopete View Post
    The other guy is Mason Tuttle. Many know him as the bass player for Chris Stuart & Backcountry. He's done some really nice mandolin work on the new project by Ivan Rosenberg called Clawhammer & Dobro. This guy is tone for days!
    Mason is a great musician. He played bass in the western swing band I play in, Cash For Junkers, for a year before he moved to Bozeman last January, and believe me, we were sorry to see him go. He's pretty good on guitar, too!
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    My friend Billy Parker from AZ...can't see him but you sure can hear him!

    http://www.youtube.com/user/azjazzbo.../3/XHTZdMiVGVY

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by sgarrity View Post
    How about Danny Knicely. He's fairly well known back in VA. An absolutely astounding amazing musician. I watched him take a left handed mandolin, play it right handed and totally nail the jazz tune Take Five. It was astounding.
    Yea, I see Danny at festivals, he is amazing. That area of Virginia, ie Harrisonburg- Charlottsville is a breeding ground for some great musicians.
    Charley

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Out here in Oregon two come to mind, John Avril, currently leading Lee Highway, and Steve Waller of the Sawtooth Mountain Boys. Both solid Monroe style pickers. It gives me great pleasure that on occasion I get to hang with these boys.
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Quote Originally Posted by Jean Fugal View Post
    Out here in Oregon two come to mind, John Avril, currently leading Lee Highway, and Steve Waller of the Sawtooth Mountain Boys. Both solid Monroe style pickers. It gives me great pleasure that on occasion I get to hang with these boys.
    Two guys familiar to lots of us on the west coast. Glad to hear they're both still out there doing it. Nate Bray was one of the top bluegrass mandolinists and with the reissues that Rounder put out, I can't really consider him obscure. Not as well known as some of his contemporaries for sure, but a known quantity in bluegrass circles, shows up in the history books etc.

    Donnie Eldrith.....there's a name I haven't heard for a while. I do have those Del McCoury sessions around here somewhere. I'll have to dig them up.

    But if you want obscure, truly and unreasonably obscure, you've got to go with Ed's suggestion. The unbelievable, incredible, astonishing, absolutely-lives-up-to-the-title-of-his-only-album, Nolan Faulkner. A soulful, bluesy player who gets a sound out of that old three-point that simply has to be heard to be believed. I play some of his tunes and, even though I know I'm playing the right note, the sound of his mandolin is so unique and different from mine that I keep thinking I don't have the right note. It's like an audio illusion. Sometimes I keep getting caught on the same note, even though I know better. It annoys me and fills my soul with wonder and awe at the same time.

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    One Mandolin player springs to my mind over all the others. I don't know if you'd consider him obscure or not,but i'm meaning Ralph Rinzler. He was the Mandolin player with the "Greenbriar Boys" back in the late '60's,prior to becoming the manager of Bill Monroe & then a sort of roving ambassador for Old Timey / Bluegrass music. Responsible in a big way for bringing Doc Watson to the world's attention.
    For me he's still the closest in style to Bill Monroe,closer even than Mike Compton (IMHO). It was the Mandolin kick-off to the song "I cried Again" from the Greenbriar Boys LP "Ragged but Right" that got me hooked on the sound of the Mandolin. It's as Monroe-ish as you'll ever get & still awesome even 40 years later,
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    When it comes to traditional bluegrass, Travers Chandler is a real standout. He is influenced by the sounds of players like Buzz Busby, Red Rector, Frank Wakefield, and of coarse Bill Monroe. He is one of the few young mandolin players that has learned to play these traditional styles. I highly recommend his album "State Of Depression" on Patuxent records where he captures the sound and soul of what is becoming known as "Baltimore Barroom Bluegrass". Find out more about Travers by visiting his website at www.averycountyband.com .

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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Yeah, Travers is a throwback to the rough and tumble picker of yore. Has a good, tough style. I saw him with Danny Paisley couple of months ago, he was in the pocket (picking an A mandolin, btw).

  28. #24
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Mike Hunter from the Asheville, NC area. He was a huge influence on Darren Nicholson's picking (Balsam Range). I have one of his records from a long time ago. Marc Pruett is playin banjo, and Buddy Davis (bluegrass boy) is on bass.

    I don't know if he considers himself to be purely a mandolin player but, Curtis Blackwell's son, Shane, is a really solid picker all the way around (guitar, mandolin, banjo). I have heard stories that he and Aubrey Haynie used to pick quite a bit together in parking lots.

    Tom Mendenhall from ATL is solid, as well.
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  29. #25
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    Default Re: Obscure, solid Mandolin Players

    Joey Wienaman and Matt Maydew here in the Ozarks. Both great pickers. Joey on the traditional side, Matt more on the progressive side.
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