Players who inspired you take up the mandolin

[MK in NC]

Please feel free to shift this to a pre-existing thread if it fits somewhere else.

I'm curious about the mandolin player(s) who made you say, "I wanna do THAT!" Big stars? Lesser-known players? Your dad? Your neighbor?

For me, Bill Monroe music put me in awe of the mandolin, and I enjoyed hearing mandolin grace various rock tracks over the years. But two particular players from my neck of the woods in North Carolina probably did the most to make me say, "I'll never be that good, but it would be fun to try!"

One was Tony Williamson. A former co-worker gave me a copy of "Across the Grain," which bowled me over in the mid-1990s.

Years later, John Teer of Chatham County Line looked like he was having so much fun playing his mandolin that I really felt inspired to pick up the instrument. For those who don't know of John, here's a video of him playing his song "Paige" at Stonehenge.

[dfalkiewicz]

It started with Nickel Creek w/Chris Thile, when I didn't even have a mandolin. But once I picked up a mandolin I now love Mike Marshall because of his Artistworks lessons, Don Julin - Mandolin for Dummies an excellent book, Chad Fadely and Emory Lester.............and the other 100+ mando players that have mp3's here on Mandolin Café.

Think I have played the new cd's from Chad and Emory at least 50 times each........not even kidding.....

[Mike Bunting]

1960 or so I discovered Flatt and Scruggs and very shortly after Bill Monroe, and that was that! Mid sixties, while at McGill university, I worked at a coffee hour where The Greenbriar Boys appeared with Frank Wakefield and that was another nail in the coffin. Shortly after that Earth Opera was at the club with some guy named Grisman playing mandolin and mandola. Then in 1967 Bill Monroe played at Expo 67 and then at the country bar next door to our club. That settled it for me and the mando has been my weapon of choice.
Here's Bill at Expo 67

[NickAlberty]

Monroe !

[JGWoods]

Mike Holmes. He has huge hands and sausage fingers yet he can play the mandolin very well. Once I saw that big hands could do it to it I jumped in and have been loving it for about 10 years now.

[f5loar]

Donna Stoneman

[Charley wild]

John Duffey.

[TonyP]

Late 70's and my roomate's girlfriend brought over this album and she said it was Dawg music. By the middle of the first cut I was hooked. But years later when the Dawg put out the Jacob do Bandolim album I realized I'd listened to that as a kid when my Portuguese grandmother would have the radio on when she was baking bread. I guess it was Jacob do Bittencourt and David Grisman.

[fatt-dad]

It would be either Sam Bush, John Duffy or David Grisman. Not that I play bluegrass. . .

f-d

[Phil Goodson]

Thunky sound of Steffey playing the Gil. with Alison K.

[Greg H.]

Sam Bush, in 1974. I was flatpicking guitar at that point, and didn't really start playing mandolin seriously until 35 years later, but the influence was made then.

Of course there's also Bill Monroe, Jesse McReynolds, David Grisman, Frank Wakefield, Mark Marshall, Adam Steffey, et al as well.

And then Thile came along and gave it a whole new level.

[the_polish_mandolinist]

Levon Helm! As a drummer myself, I loved watching the guy play on the Last Waltz and I became a huge fan of The Band. After seeing him do a few songs on mandolin as a secondary instrument, that was it for me, and I fell in love with the instrument.

[almeriastrings]

Bill (obviously!), but also one guy who does not get a lot of mention these days, Buzz Busby. He had really lonesome sound. Very little video of him seems to exist, and most of it is poor quality, but here he is doing "Listen to the Mockingbird" - a version that sounds incredibly close to Scotty Stoneman's (who he played with quite a bit):



It was hearing Buzz on some of those original Starday bluegrass compilations that fired me up to want to learn some mandolin.

[Mike Bunting]

I've only ever seen one other video of Buzz although it looks like it might be from the same club.

[Al Bergstein]

While i always loved the sound of the mandolin, and Monroe, Duffey and others were wonderful, it was hearing John Moore ofByron Berline's band that made me say, "ok" I have to try to play that instrument. Thank you John for, without ever knowing it, having changed my life for the better. I'm a long way from your style these days, but I don't forget your superb playing. Via con Dios, pardner.

And why? One example.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Voq3JtIR3-A

[TheArimathean]

I can't say that any player inspired me to take up mandolin... As an IAS sufferer I just sort of saw the mandolin and said, "Hey, that would be cool to learn how to play!" (like I do with just about every other instrument in existence) And then found the Mandolin Cafe. Now I get inspiration from any mando player I hear, each individual performance, performer, and style brings something new to the table for me.

[eadg145]

While I have a number of mandolin "heroes" now, the one person who actually inspired me to play mandolin was my friend Andy. We'd been friends since our Chapman Stick® days, and he played guitar in a rock & roll jam band we had for awhile. One day he came to my house with a Big Muddy (now Mid MO) mandolin, and when he just handed it to me, I was instantly amazed. I had no idea what to do with the fifths tuning, but all kinds of melodies just fell out of it. I exclaimed, "This instrument has no wrong notes!", and thus was born my interest in this fine instrument. It was probably a year or more before I had my own, but now we teach each other songs on mandolin on the occasions we get together. We live farther apart now, but mandolin is one thing that keeps us together.

[Grommet]

I was first entranced by the sparkly tone of the mandolin watching live performances of a group known as Super Bluegrass while attending college at UNLV in 1972. The mandolin picker was Doug Bounsall, who later went on to play (mostly banjo I think) for the Dillards. Later that same year I was lucky enough to play lap steel in a fledgling country rock band that shared a small one night venue with Doug, Ernie Cockrell and the others members of Super Bluegrass group. The only album I know of from the group is called Super Blue Grass and was headlined by their Banjo player Robin Trout. I didn't take up mandolin until 37 years later.

Scott

[Mike Snyder]

Bush and Grisman.

[Richard.g.hampton]

My mandolin education was completely about face! I was first inspired by a Brit mandolin player called Andy Townend (sadly no longer with us). He played Bluegrass and was also a very fine Django-style guitar player and he showed me what the mandolin was capable of.....he also played with Ralph Stanley, so he had serious pedigree. I then moved on to Sam Bush, Doyle Lawson etc. When I was at university a guy called Nick Barraclough (a fine Bluegrass/acoustic guitarist, banjo-player etc) gave me a copy of David Grisman's first album, which blew my mind. THEN I started seeking out Bill Monroe stuff and appreciating what he was really doing.

[Shelagh Moore]

My late Dad. He was a fine player and I just naturally developed an interest from hearing and watching him.

[Larry S Sherman]

Thile and Grisman

[bootsy]

Has to be my brother http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJ2SksXsco big inspiration

[Wilbur James]

Bill Monroe,s solo playing, something about that sound. Then Mike Compton he has been a mentor and an inspiration, many years from now I may be able to play as well as them, in the mean time I will keep practicing!

[Traveling Tracks]

In the summer of 2001 I was an audio engineering student at The Aspen Music Festival and School. I was on hand to assist recording a performance which turned out to be one of my favorites ever....Edgar Meyer and Mike Marshall (on mando & guitar). They made such an amazing duo. I actually have the recording too, which is just so special.

Fast forward a few years...I'm back in NJ and see Edgar scheduled to play The Kimmel Center in Philly so I buy tickets and show up not knowing who his duo partner was this time other than he was "the guy from Nickel Creek"....needless to say there was no turning back from that point. I still love, love, love their duo album as well.