Jack Tottle Rules.

[Cornelius Morris]

A thread that I now can't find, on the UMGF forum, made a link to the Friends of Old Time Music site (http://maskedcucumber.blogspot.com/) which was completely new to me. Many of you may know this, but if not: there are hundreds (thousands?) of out-of-print vinyl records available here as free mp3 downloads. With some trepidation I searched--and found--my personal Holy Grail, Don Stover's Rounder recording "Don Stover & The White Oak Mountain Boys". Every now and then I send a note to Rounder begging them to release this on CD, not because of Don Stover (although I like him a lot) but because of Jack Tottle's mandolin. A long time ago I had someone convert Tottle's "Backroad Mandolin" and his Tasty Licks' "Anchored to the Shore" vinyl to CD for me. I also keep begging Rounder to release these albums on CD also; how about a "Jack Tottle On Rounder" compilation? (Hmm. Note to Self: collect the best tracks from these 3 albums, announce it on the Mandolin Cafe, and then send them out to anyone who will pay for the postage. That'll show those Rounder Fatcats!)

But I never got around to getting the above-mentioned White Oak Mtn. record converted, and was excited to find it here, along with lots of other albums. I downloaded more than 20 records, after I got everything that they had by Ted Lundy and Joe Val. If you want the most slippery, slidey, bluesy mandolin playing around, get these 3 Tottle recordings. If I knew how to add a file, I would link it here, but instead point everyone to "Making it Up" on the White Oak Mtn. Boys album (track #09: http://maskedcucumber.blogspot.com/s...l/Don%20Stover). I have wanted a non-lp recording of that for years. I have played it about 30 times in the last 24 hours. (I need help.)

I first learned mandolin from Tottle's mandolin book (and then from Frank Wakefield in person), and I pray every day that if Grisman & McCoury ever do a "Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza II" they call Jack Tottle first--and then Roland White, and Bobby Clark and Ray Legere (nod here to AlanN, who sent me recordings by Clark and Legere) and Red Henry, and Skip Gorman, and Dean Webb, and Mike Compton, and Chris Thile...

[Geordie]

Thanx for this link! There's some great music there!

[greg_tsam]

I tried that link and got a 404 - File Not Found page.

[Dan Cole]

Backroad Mandolin is an outstanding LP. I have the LP and the tab that came with it. I also got a CD from someone of it once upon a time. It's a great comparision of crosspicking and straight mandolin playing. Should be out on CD for sure. My personal opinion is his mandolin book is the "bible" for someone wanting to learn bluegrass, especially when accompanied with the recording that came with it. I have been hoping he would have a cover and article in Mandolin Mag, but so far no luck.

[montana]

Got to the site but can't figure out how to download any thing. Please help!

[AlanN]

Yes, Jack is a natch for Mandolin Magazine. His work on Back Road Mandolin and in Tasty Licks alone is worth a profile on him, not to mention his decades of mandolin instruction involvement at the highest level (ETSU).

[Jean Fugal]

Got to the site but can't figure out how to download any thing. Please help!

There are 5 little "stars" under the play lists. click on them .... it will send you to mediafire or another .... download there then open the .rar file with stuffitt or winrar

[swampstomper]

Wow, what a resource!! Plenty of other mandolin gems there ... like Buzz Busby with Frank Necessary/Al Jones; Herschel with the Dixie Gentlemen, Everet Lilly live in Japan, Grisman with Bill Keith....

[greg_tsam]

There are 5 little "stars" under the play lists. click on them .... it will send you to mediafire or another .... download there then open the .rar file with stuffitt or winrar

Thanks!

[MandoSquirrel]

Neat; I found a favorite by Jerry Stuart; Rocky Run. Great, little known player, best I recall.

[Dan Cole]

There are some gems there.

Jim and Jesse - Mandolin Workshop is a must if you have Tottle's Book and Andy Statman's Crosspicking book.

Bill Monroe - Master of Bluegrass is priceless.

[Spruce]

Jack Tottle Rules....

I remember shortly after I bought my first mandolin in '75 or so, I found myself in Boston...
I had just bought Jack's book, and was running through it pretty fast...
I think it was just about the only book out there for learning mandolin (other than the Mel Bay stuff), and I devoured all the tunes and--especially--the pictures...

Anyway, the first day I was in Boston, Jack comes walking through a park right at me like it was pre-ordained or something...
Got a chance to thank him for his book, and he was just so gracious and encouraging...
Saw his band that night (I think it was Tasty Licks with Bela?), and he rocked it...
Was back in Berkeley the next week, dumped into the whole mando scene that was developing there in a big hurry...
Those were the days...

Anyway, learned "Crazy Creek" from him, and recently butchered it on "Overhead at Darrington"...
(Sorry Jack and Tommy!)...

Anyway, Jack Tottle has to be one of the most underrated figures in all of mando-dom...
He launched a lot of pickers.....

Thanks Jack...

[AlanN]

Nice stories about Jack, and you're so right about those pictures! Towards the back is a 4-panel montage of pickers, one heavy set guy on an F-4, Richie Brown on his fern, a husband and wife? and a young lad on an F-5. That (then boy) is Arnie Solomon from around these parts, who I have the good fortune to twin Dixie Hoedown with every so often. (btw, Arnie has a bodacious Altman now).

I think this may have been answered, but the mandolin on the cover of that book, hanging by its strap in a tree - Loar??

[Dan Cole]

Concur with you Spruce. He's way underrated and has influenced countless young mandolin players with his instruction book. Crazy Creek is one good tune! The TAB for it was in the Backroads Mandolin LP. I learned Tennessee Blues from that LP. Never could figure out the start to Fisher's Hornpipe.

[Spruce]

Has to be, no??

[mandolirius]

Concur with you Spruce. He's way underrated and has influenced countless young mandolin players with his instruction book. Crazy Creek is one good tune! The TAB for it was in the Backroads Mandolin LP. I learned Tennessee Blues from that LP. Never could figure out the start to Fisher's Hornpipe.

True. In fact, I know so many mandolin players who got their start with that book that a case could be made for Jack as one of the most influential mandolinists ever. It was the only worthwhile book at the time for anyone interested in bluegrass. The Mel Bay stuff at the time was very formulaic and unenticing. Oak Publications put out the book in a nice package and those photos certainly got my attention. Love the one of Frank!

Old fart mode on: You young folks have no idea how good you have it. The difference between what was available when that book came out and today, with books, dvd's and even online instruction is completely amazing to me. Old fart mode off :-)

[barney 59]

It's true about that book, it was like an oasis in the desert. When I was in Cambridge I got to take a few lessons from him.
He's raised brood of little Tottles and mostly seems to play bass with the group "The Tottles" His daughter Molly is unbelievably talented.

[Cornelius Morris]

Very gratifying to see all the praise for Jack Tottle. Barney's "oasis in the desert" is an understatement. That's exactly what that book was like for some of us old persons way back then.

I did not mention, when I started this thread, that I first knew Tottle from his Oak Publications mandolin book (and its square floppy vinyl insert), which I bought in May of 1975 right after I bought my first mandolin in a store in Madison, Wisconsin. The section in the back of the book that AlanN refers to is called "Four Bluegrass Greats" (Osborne, McReynolds, Wakefield, and Duffy; that was the deal we had back in 1975! And if you could find ANY of their small-label lp records, you really had it made). Right after that I moved from Madison, WI to Berkeley, CA, and in my first week there saw a poster on a telephone pole advertising mandolin lessons, for $10 an hour, from Frank Wakefield--whose pieces I had learned that summer from Tottle's book! Yow. I called immediately, and was down there in Oakland the next day. Because of Tottle, I had worked out, in a rudimentary manner, "New Camptown Races" and "Catnip" (the songs in the book) but I had also (sort of) worked out "Grandfather's Clock" and "Black Diamond" as cross-picking pieces that Tottle included in the McReynolds section, and when I had my first lesson with Frank and I asked him about cross-picking those songs, he became very animated (Frank gets excited) and not only wanted to work them out with me, but wanted to show me his own cross-picking style (down-up-down, rather than down-up-up) which, he insisted, was easier, quicker, and never wore out your hand. So from the very first time I played with Frank, we did cross-picking. For a couple of years, our last song was always "Blackberry Blossom", with all kinds of amazing changes--and it was all because of Tottle's book. And because I had more or less memorized his book, I recognized his "Back Road Mandolin" record in the store in Madison, grabbed it, and had all but worn it out when I arrived in Berkeley. I had a few months' worth of Tottle under my belt before I met Frank, but man, what a 1-2 punch that was.

So I not only praise Jack Tottle for his fine book and his fine Rounder records from that era, but also for pointing me towards Frank Wakefield. I was stupidly lucky to stumble on this book and these recordings. And if I may paraphrase Cato the Younger, who used to end every speech in the ancient Roman Senate with the phrase "And I again maintain that Carthage must be destroyed!" I will say yet again: Rounder must release on CD these Jack Tottle recordings!

Here's a nugget: I asked Frank if he knew this song "Black Diamond" by Don Stover, which Tottle had transcribed as a wicked crosspicker in his book. Of course, I didn't have the slightest idea that these guys would have met or played with each other in the previous 20 years since I was just a college kid from Ohio. "Did Don Stover say that HE wrote that one?" Frank asked. When I said that Tottle's book said so, he just laughed and said that Don Stover was a great guy and an old friend of his. Very, very Frank. But had it not been for Tottle's book, I would not have known Frank Wakefield from Frank Sinatra, and would never have noticed his name and phone number on a poster stapled to a telephone pole...

[Rob Fowler]

My gosh this an amazing resource. THANK YOU! Downloading Master of Bluegrass NOW.

[Rob Fowler]

Can anybody here recommend some free software for opening these .rar file extensions? Everthing that windows directed me to is a pay-to-play. Thanks in advance if you can help out.

[swampstomper]

on windows, http://7-zip among many others. On Mac OS/X I use UnRarX but you can also use a command-line in terminal.

Can anybody here recommend some free software for opening these .rar file extensions? Everthing that windows directed me to is a pay-to-play. Thanks in advance if you can help out.

[Fretbear]

I add my salutations to Big Jack. Right up to today (which alone is an amazing feat) if you diligently learn every last piece (cross-picking too!) in the still-in-print "Bluegrass Mandolin", you will be well on your way to becoming proficient on the instrument and in the style.
The tabs are all exact, which is more than can be said about many other publications on the subject.

[swampstomper]

The tabs are all exact, which is more than can be said about many other publications on the subject.

So true! The two Monroe pieces (Bluegrass Part 1 and Lonesome Road Blues) are spectacular examples and tabbed/noted exactly. In my review of the recent Joe Carr book I mentioned that these two Tottle pieces show Monroe's mid-60's style better than any other source I know.

Then there's the super-funky "Girl Behind the Bar" from Duffy and a typical Bobby Osborne excursion of M.A. Special. Great stuff! And the gentle way he brings the beginner in, with a simple Woody's Rag, lowers the barrier for many aspiring pickers.

[Jordan Ramsey]

It's true about that book, it was like an oasis in the desert. When I was in Cambridge I got to take a few lessons from him.
He's raised brood of little Tottles and mostly seems to play bass with the group "The Tottles" His daughter Molly is unbelievably talented.

Hey Barney, you've got him confused with Jack Tuttle, west coast guy with the family band. The guy you took lessons from (I think, unless Tuttle was also in Cambridge) is Jack TOTTLE, east coast guy who wrote "Bluegrass Mandolin" and started the ETSU Blugrass Program. Sorry to correct you, but that's one of my pet peeves, so many people confuse the two. It's like Audey Ratliff getting po'd that people mix up him and Ken Ratcliff, easy enough to confuse I guess (especially when the names are so close and they are in the same business).

Thank you, Cornelius, for sharing this link, what an awesome resourse. Great to hear Jack in this context. Lorene has just become one of my new favorite tunes. I bet that was a real thrill for him to play on that album, although I wish there was some crosspicking. I feel very fortunate to have had some time with Jack while I was at ETSU, what a cool guy and first-rate teacher. I used to fight tooth and nail with him about proper pick direction (one of my terrible self-taught bad habits that I developed during my early stages). At our first lesson (I was terrified), he let me know how bad my pick direction was. It was devastating, but just what I needed to hear. Over the following year, I re-learned every song I'd learned in my first two years (20-30 tunes) with proper pick direction. He would never let me slide, always making sure I was doing it the right way. I hated it until I could do it, and he suffered right along with me until it was ingrained and I couldn't get it wrong. That's a good teacher.

We email each other about once a year. He's fully retired now, living in Hawaii. He has a new album coming out called "The Eagle", should be out sometime next year. All original stuff by him, with a crackerjack band (Raymond McLain and Hunter Berry to name a couple) and some really nice crosspicking on the mandolin. I don't think he's much of a computer guy, but I'll try to let him know about this thread. I'm sure he would be humbled by all of you folks singing his praises.

Rob, I had the same problem trying to play this stuff and had to enlist the help of one of my computer buddies. You can get a trial version of WinRAR that is free for 40 days. Here's a link to the download:http://download.cnet.com/WinRAR-32-b...-10007677.html (click the green "download now" button and then wait for the download to start automatically).

[Fretbear]

So true! The two Monroe pieces (Bluegrass Part 1 and Lonesome Road Blues) are spectacular examples and tabbed/noted exactly. In my review of the recent Joe Carr book I mentioned that these two Tottle pieces show Monroe's mid-60's style better than any other source I know.
Then there's the super-funky "Girl Behind the Bar" from Duffy and a typical Bobby Osborne excursion of M.A. Special. Great stuff! And the gentle way he brings the beginner in, with a simple Woody's Rag, lowers the barrier for many aspiring pickers.

I always found it interesting how while Jack gives the credit where it is due in the introduction and included these two important Monroe pieces, exactly transcribed, that in general the book wants to show just how rich and much more there is to the subject (even back then) than "Just Monroe-Style".