Tom Mindte and Patuxet Partners

[swampstomper]

The European World of Bluegrass (EWOB) festival in Voorthuizen (NL) finished last night with a dynamite performance by Tom Mindte and his Patuxent Partners. Wow, what a set! I only knew him as the person behind Patuxet Records (well worth checking out for a.o. projects by Akira Otsuka and Frank Wakefield.

He carried two fiddlers, both of which played like Richard Greene (and one who had an uncanny resemblences to the Muleskinner-era Greene). Bryan Deere plays guitar and sounds like Red Allen without the snarl; John Brunschwyler gets great tone out of his banjo and drives it along. But the big man in the middle is Mindte... all that time standing next to Buzz Busby and Frank Wakefield is obvious in his playing.

For me the high point was a gut-wrenching version of "Where Will it End" -- Buzz Busby no longer walks this Earth but these guys are doing their best to keep his spirit alive.

This is not a time-machine band, except for Mindte they are all younger, but the feeling, the spirit of 50's DC bluegrass is their thing. Close your eyes and remember Buzz, Red, Frank, Charlie, Bill etc. from those days.

The whole band was very gracious to jam with any and all Europeans (and expatriate Americans) who wanted to get the real thing. I was in a jam when Tom walked in with his mando, someone had just called for Rawhide... I was getting ready to go when Tom said, "yeah, I think I know that" and proceeded to rip it down. After that... what could I add? Just tell him to please do the high break!!

[Willie Poole]

Swamp, I know Tom pretty well and have jammed with him and my band played some gigs along side of his great group...I`m not sure when that recording you speak of was made but Tom most surely does play a lot of Busby style tunes...I recall afew times when someone would call out a tune and Tom would tell me to play the lead melody and he would twin with the tenor/harmony part...he is a lot of fun to pick with...I haven`t seen him now for about three years and that is my fault because I don`t live all that far from his place....

I for one am glad to see and hear that Tom`s band is still doing the Buzz Busby songs, I learned a lot from Buzz myself and have a few of his cassette tapes and I used to pattern my mandolin playing after his but I have changed over the years....