# Technique, Theory, Playing Tips and Tricks > Theory, Technique, Tips and Tricks >  What song, Album, Musician changed your perspective on music?

## Cosmic Graffiti

What song, album, musician or other thing changed/inspired/enlightened your musical perception/awareness style the most? What was that moment you heard something or realized something and said "thats it, thats what I have been searching for" 

Mine:
Musician: David Grisman:  Rhythm, clarity, slick and greasy slides and style, Can play any style well. 
Album: Miles Davis Kind of Blue

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## Tobin

I think it might be pretty rare for someone who is already into music to be able to say that a single song or album or musician completely changed their perspective.  It's likely more of a longer process, where a particular artist may be somewhere near the tipping point.

For me, I have to credit Foghorn Stringband.  I was strictly a bluegrass guy for a long time, with occasional forays into some Irish tunes and fiddle tunes just for the sake of learning to be more "complete" on the mandolin.  But Caleb Klauder's mandolin style really appealed to me, in the sense that he was playing really great stuff but it wasn't bluegrass.  It sort of turned me on to Old-Time music and led me down the path of taking up fiddle and banjo.  I'm more entrenched now in traditional Old-Time music.  But it was FSB that kind of pointed me that direction and made me start looking for non-bluegrass music.  I still enjoy playing bluegrass, but it's OT music that has really captured my passion.

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## Trey Young

For me, John Hartford's Aereo-Plain completely changed my perspective at the time.  I was new to playing music and really had not delved deep into non-mainstream acoustic music other than classic country.  I wanted to like bluegrass more than I did, but it just never seemed to hit home for me.  Then I found an album in the bluegrass section, the cover had a bushy haired feller with a big beard and aviator goggles on...and he had Norman Blake and Vassar Clements playing on the album.  I still very vividly remember thinking this was something I needed to check out and remember my first listen...completely changed everything for me.  Since then there have been a a couple of albums that caused me to delve into a certain artist's style and catalogue, which certainly opened my eyes to different ways to approach music.  Two that come to mind are the Mike Compton & David Long Stomp album, which started me on a big Mike Compton kick and then Joe Walsh's Sweet Loam, which launched my current obsession with Joe's style.  Seems like both of those albums not only were fantastic albums, but just so happened upon my ears at the exact right time...

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stevedenver

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## CES

I played sax in middle school, a little in high school (took a hiatus for sports), and got back into it in college. I remember driving to work one morning and hearing "Ode to a Butterfly" by Nickel Creek playing in the background of a country station's morning show introduction. I was completely blown away by it, and still love that song. At that point, I said, "I'm gonna learn to play the banjo!" Couldn't afford a banjo at the time, so borrowed a guitar while saving, eventually bought the banjo, and delved much deeper into acoustic music and bluegrass. Eventually bought a mandolin, and it's been my favorite instrument since.

As for a favorite or most influential album, that's a bit tougher, because my musical "taste" is all over the map. Don't think I can pick just one. That said, I can see how Kind of Blue could be yours...great album!

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Cosmic Graffiti, 

danostrowski

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## Denny Gies

As a die hard Zeppelin and Stones fan I was completely turned around with Will The Circle Be Unbroken.  My wife made me buy it back in the '70's and now I'm a die hard bluegrasser.

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## Steve Ostrander

For me, it was the Allman Brothers Fillmore album that introduced me to the blues. I was so knocked out by the album when it came out that I looked at the song credits and began investigating. I had never heard of Blind Willie McTell or T-Bone Walker or any of the other bluesmen who wrote the songs. So I started looking in record stores and libraries for the original recordings and listening to them and comparing them to what artists like Eric Clapton, Savoy Brown, John Mayall, and yes, even the Rolling Stones were doing. It was the beginning of my life long love of the blues.

So many other artists have influenced my style that it would be hard to point to one single individual or group. Probably the Beatles if I had to pick one.

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lflngpicker, 

lowtone2

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## AlanN

Answers to this will surely be age/era-specific. Bluegrass-wise, it was OAITW to show that a Deadhead could get into the grass. Mandolinistically, it was The David Grisman Rounder Record when it was released in 1976. This turned me on to so many of the hep cats, like Tony Rice, Skaggs, Vassar, Buck White, et al. Then, The DGQ record in 1977 (Kaleidoscope F-5) which, as Mike Marshall said 'blew the top of our heads off. Here were 9th chords!', to show that the mandolin could do 'other things'. Then, Back To Back with Tiny and Jethro to show how jazz could be played on the 8-string.

For rock: whoa, too many. Maybe Sgt. Pepper's, or The Dead Skull and Roses or Allman Brothers Eat A Peach, Live at Fillmore East or the Mothers Just Another Band From L.A., or...

For jazz: same...maybe Miles' K.O.B. or Eddie Harris Swiss Movement Live or George Benson Body Talk or...

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## JeffD

This is a great thread. 

My answer is different. The event that changed my whole perspective on music was not a song or an album or a musician - it was when I first picked up a musical instrument and re-conceived of music as something people do, not just something people listen to.

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FatBear

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## fentonjames

The Grateful Dead's live acoustic album, Rekoning.  That's what got me into acoustic music.  Led me to Old and in the Way, which led me to David Grisman, and Peter Rowan, then Tony Rice, etc.

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## Cosmic Graffiti

Chuck, yeah man Kind of Blue is like a moment for me. Just started listening to it two weeks ago as I am starting to study Jazz. I listened once and heard some pretty cool beats and swings, I listened to it again and went deeper and heard some interesting re a curing themes, Listened to it a third time and fell in love. Now I am on probably my 50th listen and I am still finding new details and moments and realize I have not even scratched the surface.  

Trey! Lol....haha yeah man. Aero-Plane is great! Such a great listen. 

Jeff. You got it! That falls into the category of something else. Interesting how the mind works.

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## catmandu2

Shakti, Sabicas, Sun Ra, Coltrane, Cage, Xenakis, Eno, music from other cultures way too many to list ..

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## CES

Yeah, last weekend I got a ton of older jazz albums I haven't listened to in a while back into my phone, and am immensely enjoying hearing them again! It's been a while since I've actively listened to them, so it's like I'm starting fresh again. Great stuff!

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## Paahto

It can be difficult to pinpoint a specific album, song/tune or musician and, in the Irish traditional music sphere, there have been countless moments that have changed my perspective over the years. But, more lately and more generally, there was one video shared with me by a guitarist friend and it is this one of Barney Kessell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnoXbqadcjU

It deals with jazz improvisation and is quite comprehensive, though easy to follow. The opening part of this lesson, 'Play what you think', totally opened up my mind. I know it sounds obvious but when you strive to learn scales and theoretical exercises to help your improvisation skills this turns that ideology on its head. Check it out. Just the first five minutes or so is music gold.

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lowtone2

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## WoodyCTA102

Byrds, Gene Clark and Bob Dylan.  Newer stuff like Mandolin Orange and Steve Earle.

The Byrds took me through so many musical styles and instruments.

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## Bill McCall

Don Stover.
Doc Watson.
Jimi Hendrix.
Seldom Scene.
Jethro.

But it's really a longer list of folks who changed my point of view and opened new doors along  the way.

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## JH Murray

The Ramones first album.

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jasona, 

Jill McAuley

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## Barry Wilson

I was just learning to sing and my brother played paperback writer on the record player. the full sound of those voices just got me. I asked him to play it over and over. then he started teaching me about harmonies

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## J.Albert

Some that come to mind:
================
Flatt & Scruggs: "Hard Travelin'"
Judy Collins: "Who Knows Where The Time Goes"
The Band: "The Band"
Tom Rush: "Tom Rush" (1st Columbia release)
John Prine: "Diamonds in the Rough"
John Hartford: "Aereo-plane"
Ralph Stanley: "A Man And His Music"
Seldom Scene: "Old Train" & "The New Album"
J.D. Crowe: "Rounder 0044"
Si Kahn: "Doin' My Job"
Johnson Mountain Boys: "The Walls of Time"
Wildwood Valley Boys: "Songs From Wildwood Valley"
Gibson Brothers: "Bona Fide"
Red Clay Ramblers: "Rambler"

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## Mattslouch

I knew I wanted to be a musician around three minutes into Cat Steven's 'Peace Train' when that big choral "Traaaaain" hits! The Beatles finished the job. David Immerglück's work on John Hiatt's 'Crossing Muddy Waters' got me interested in the Mandolin. But it was Nickel Creek's Tiny Desk performance that made me put down the electric guitar, sack the drummer and pick up the mandolin for real!

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## jaycat



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## Bertram Henze

The connection is not easily seen, but this eventually led to mandolin family instruments.

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## Ivan Kelsall

Back in 1963,at age 18,i was still up to the eyeballs in '50's Rock 'n Roll & the emerging ''Merseybeat'' music. Then i heard my very first Bluegrass music at a friend's home,& the whole world changed. I still loved my 'pop' music,but the drive was to _play_ Bluegrass music,something that i never thought of with regards to 'pop' music. I suppose that i was fortunate in the fact that there had been an era in the UK when Banjos were popular,so it didn't take me too long to find a good English made one,Gibson banjos were unknown territory back then. So for me, it was the LP ''Golden Bluegrass Hits'' by The Barrier Brothers from Indiana that lit my fire & it gets stoked every single day,
                                                                 Ivan
PS - Zip along to 30 mins into the clip to hear what blew my socks off back in 1963 - ''Earl's Breakdown'' played by Ernest Barrier on banjo - that's the way i first heard it & that's the way i still play it !! :- https://youtu.be/9IrDqA6Oj_s

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## Jen88

The first Album I heard that sounded like I thought music should in my head, was Flood Land by the Sisters of Mercy!
I was very goth back then :D

I first got in to folk music via Steeleye Span.

When I took a Music GCSE at school, one of the things I wrote was a Celtic rock piece.

Years later, when looking for that sound, I came across Steeleye!

When at Uni they were my dark secret for some reason. I would lock myself in my room with my huge headphones on to listen :O

From there I got more in to the less rocky aspect of Folk Music.

The next band that really changed my direction was the Dubliners.

I knew the name for years, but had never really listened to them. I remember their new years evening performance being on TV in 2012, and my partner's friend making some rude comment about them, so I didn't really watch!

During an interesting period in my life this year, I had Dirty Old Town running in my head, so decided to look up their version.

That's what got me playing strings and thinking I could actually do it, wanting to play their songs.

It also got me in to playing Irish trad.

Before that I was pretty scared of it. As a box player I didn't like the fact that it didn't seem like I couldn't use the left hand much. Also there is/was a lot of talk about which box in which key you need to play Irish trad on, which I found most confusing!

I also used to hate the sound of the Banjo, I mean it would make me cringe, but many late nights listening to Dubliners tracks got me hooked on the Tenor!

 Now I'm interested to find out what the next thing will be that really gets me hooked!

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## Dagger Gordon

The Cream - First album.
Ten Years After - Undead.

Sean O'Riada - O'Riada Sa Gaiety
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_%C3%93_Riada

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## Mike Snyder

Miles Davis
Bill Evans
Allman Brothers
Chieftans
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Coltrane
Monk
Armstrong
Beiderbecke
Stones
Bush, Sam not Kate

There's really nowhere to stop.

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## chrisoff

The band that finally made me take that leap into trad was and still is Lau. They really opened my eyes to the fact that trad music could be energetic, exciting and progressive. Which to a guy who spent his formative years listening to and playing heavy metal, was pretty enlightening.

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JH Murray, 

Paul Kotapish

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## jshane

When I heard Coltrane play "My Favorite Things" I learned that music can be on a continuum from written melody thru complete mind, and anywhere in between.

How that led through multiple instruments to what I try to play now (Ameri-blue-gospel-mountain-CapeBreton-mando-fiddle-footstomp-ballads, with a hint of jazzclub) was a long strange trip.

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Cosmic Graffiti

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## Dagger Gordon

> When I heard Coltrane play "My Favorite Things" I learned that music can be on a continuum from written melody thru complete mind, and anywhere in between.
> 
> How that led through multiple instruments to what I try to play now (Ameri-blue-gospel-mountain-CapeBreton-mando-fiddle-footstomp-ballads, with a hint of jazzclub) was a long strange trip.


Actually, I have got the feeling from MC over the years that a few of us have made similar 'long strange trips'.
Coltrane, and modern jazz in general, has surely left a mark on a lot of people, me included.

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lowtone2

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## AlanN

> (Ameri-blue-gospel-mountain-CapeBreton-mando-fiddle-footstomp-ballads, with a hint of jazzclub)


Didn't a jamgrass guy dub his thing 'poly-ethnic Cajun Norwegian slamgrass'?

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## farmerjones

John Hartford's Hamilton Ironworks
and The Pizza Tapes

Can you tell I don't think much of slick production? If you have solid playing and/or a solid song, I don't care if it's on a cylinder.

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Jess L.

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## JEStanek

Well, Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas likely laid the foundation but Coltrane's A Love Supreme I just fell deep into.  For Trad Music I would say Hot Rize Untold Stories and the Chieftains Celtic Wedding were the leap off points.

Jamie

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## mandolin breeze

Great thread Cosmic Graffiti - 

Early: The Beatles. Was 9 in '63. Remember putting together a "band" with my buddies on the block. I was on guitar (mom's broom).

Mid: The Allman Brothers. Duane's slide was sent down from Heaven. He took it back way too early for me.

Current: The Dawg, aka David Grisman. What can you say, where do you start? When I heard Mondo Mando for the first time I was blown away. The tightness that the group played together was astonishing. Aside from David's incredible playing abilities, his range of styles, his unbelievable tone, his unparalleled tremolo, maybe the most remarkable is his vast and varied beautiful compositions. This world has been given a true gift - that Mr. Grisman followed the path that the Good Lord put him here for. Long Live The Dawg!

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## Steve Ostrander

> Tom Rush: "Tom Rush" (1st Columbia release)
> John Prine: "Diamonds in the Rough"


Yes! But it was John's first album for me--the hay bale album.




> Ten Years After - Undead.


It was "A Space in Time" that hooked me, then I went back and listened to "Cricklewood Green" and "Shhhh..."

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## UsuallyPickin

Well .... I grew up in SoCal listening to the Beach Boys. I was playing finger picked guitar ala my musical favorite Paul Simon when he was still working with Art Garfunkel when Crosby Stills and Nash came out. Vocal harmonies really do it for me musically. But electric instruments , though I have a few, just don't call me the way acoustic instruments do. Then the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, who I had seen in concert, came out with their first Will the Circle be Unbroken dual LP and I was hooked into old country and 'grass. Soon after I was listening to OAITW and the Rounder recordings of that period and have been picking and grinning ever since. R/

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## George R. Lane

> This is a great thread. 
> 
> My answer is different. The event that changed my whole perspective on music was not a song or an album or a musician - it was when I first picked up a musical instrument and re-conceived of music as something people do, not just something people listen to.


I am like JeffD, I have listened to all kinds of music from a young child to now an old man. It was when I first met Bruce Weber, I was doing a story for the newspaper I worked for (they made me do it, I was a photographer). I tried to play guitar in high school, but it didn't work. After meeting with Bruce I saved up and bought a MK, sold it and a bought a Gallatin F and now I am the proud owner of a Yellowstone F (Isabella). I still enjoy listening to different types of music, but I am most happy making my own. 

Merry Christmas to all of you,

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## Jess L.

> What song, album, *musician* or other thing changed/inspired/*enlightened* your musical perception/*awareness* style the most? What was that moment you heard something or realized something and said "thats it, thats what I have been searching for" 
> ...


I heard a 9-year-old kid playing in a music store, he was trying out different keyboards & making the most beautiful wonderful ethereal sounds. 

I had no idea those instruments could do that! I thought they were just for rock or something.

Totally changed my outlook. 

For decades before that, I was strictly acoustic, that was the way I was brought up (oldtime fiddle & banjo dance music). 

But, after hearing that little kid in the store... before that day was over, I had actually *bought* one of those keyboards (although it wasn't cheap). 

Kept me happily occupied discovering new sounds for quite a while. 

That was a turning point for me because I'd never envisioned myself playing anything but acoustic stuff. Didn't realize what I was missing out on. 

That opened up so many more ways of expressiveness, that I'd only dreamed of or rarely attained on acoustic instruments. 

Not talking about the stereotypical angry electric music, quite the opposite. More like peaceful "happy music" stuff. 

That anonymous kid had more effect on my musical awareness than any of my musical mentors, heroes, teachers, famous people, etc.

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chrisoff, 

farmerjones

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## Bob Visentin

Swiss Movement- Les McCann and Eddie Harris
The FM rock station would play "Compared to What" on a regular rotation and I always turned it up.  
Many more but that was one of the earliest.

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David L

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## farmerjones

Yes, it's too bad I can't remember what song I was playing when it "clicked." 
But it wasn't a melody. It was a chord change. I was singing and I changed the chord at the right time and viola!
Along those line, I don't think I really ever sang on pitch until I figured out how to play for myself. 
All this was shortly after I gave riffs, licks and melody a break, and just let go. Compared to picking out melody, chords, to me, were letting go. This was on guitar and banjer, way before mandolin. But a mandolin & fiddle scale is so straight forward, playing melody was an easy matter of training fingers. Then I had to stop the melody side of the brain and work on the chord side. But eventually the partition dissolved. Looking back, it did take time, but it's been fun. Merry Christmas

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Jess L.

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## Jeroen



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## jhowell

I grew up in the inland pacific northwest and in the 1960's we had one, count them one AM station available on the daylight dial.  Mostly played Buck Owens and it took me years to understand that the Buckaroos were  not a bad band.   :Smile:   The answer is when I first heard Taj Mahal and the double album Giant Step. I finally understood why I had been trying to 'swing' j.p. souza in high school marching band.... :Laughing:

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## Ky Slim

"The Natural Bridge Suite"  off of the album Bela Fleck - Natural Bridge

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lowtone2

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## guidoStow

This little number opened my eyes and ears in a big way...

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## cbrophy3

Discovering the sheer breadth of Thile's work just amazed me - I first found him through the Nickel Creek reunion, then Thile/Daves, then I heard his Bach album and was floored that one musician could cover such a wide swath of musical situations. I know he can get a lot of flack around these parts, but listening to the aggregate of these albums made me completely shift my perspective on what it really means to be a true musician, as well as how to look at music and not be boxed in by genre or circumstance, but rather to understand it well enough to move fluidly between many situations.

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## John Flynn

Two albums by the Buckhannon Brothers that were only ever released on cassette tape and I don't even remember the names of them. I think I have them converted to Sony Mini-Disc somewhere, but I'd have to find them. They were lent to me by a mandolin instructor I had at the time. I took one listen and my whole mando-world opened up. I thought: I want to play like THAT! I went on to find out that Curtis Buckhannon lived within driving distance of me and convinced him to take me on as his first student. I studied with him for about five years. I never did learn to play quite like him, but I got about 2/3 of the way there at one point and that was still pretty satisfying.

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## s1m0n

> I know he can get a lot of flack around these parts...


Really? I've never heard anything but respect, albeit heavily tinged with envy.

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## Cosmic Graffiti

> John Hartford's Hamilton Ironworks
> and The Pizza Tapes
> 
> Can you tell I don't think much of slick production? If you have solid playing and/or a solid song, I don't care if it's on a cylinder.


Pizza Tapes got me started on Mandolin.

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## Cosmic Graffiti

> Two albums by the Buckhannon Brothers that were only ever released on cassette tape and I don't even remember the names of them. I think I have them converted to Sony Mini-Disc somewhere, but I'd have to find them. They were lent to me by a mandolin instructor I had at the time. I took one listen and my whole mando-world opened up. I thought: I want to play like THAT! I went on to find out that Curtis Buckhannon lived within driving distance of me and convinced him to take me on as his first student. I studied with him for about five years. I never did learn to play quite like him, but I got about 2/3 of the way there at one point and that was still pretty satisfying.


Amazing musical journey story. Thanks for sharing.

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## Cosmic Graffiti

> The band that finally made me take that leap into trad was and still is Lau. They really opened my eyes to the fact that trad music could be energetic, exciting and progressive. Which to a guy who spent his formative years listening to and playing heavy metal, was pretty enlightening.


 Wow.....I checked out the links. Great! I am going add them into my listening mix for a bit.

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chrisoff

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## AlanN

> "The Natural Bridge Suite"  off of the album Bela Fleck - Natural Bridge


A fave LP, for sure. I pick Dawg's Due, to this day. The one odd thing is David Parmley (who I dig, just found his inclusion a bit strange).

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## Jess L.

> ... Can you tell I don't think much of slick production? If you have solid playing and/or a solid song, I don't care if it's on a cylinder.


Agree totally.  :Smile: 

I've spent enough time listening to early scratchy Library of Congress recordings that I just automatically 'hear beyond' the limitations and technical deficiencies in the recording itself. 

At least you know it's real,  :Mandosmiley:  they haven't went in and selectively edited individual notes  :Mad:  to phony-up the music like modern studio music is. I hate the idea that while listening to a slick modern (my definition of "modern" being like since the 1960s lol) studio recording, we never know for sure if that's the way the player *really* played it, or if they 'fixed' all their mistakes later in the studio. 

Seems much more honorable to just sit down and keep on playing until they get it right in real time.  :Mandosmiley:  But I guess modern economics/time don't allow for that, or something.

_Edited to add: 
Maybe someday I will get used to the idea of altering individual notes in recordings, but so far, for my own music (or what passes for music),  no way, I don't care *how* common it is.  ::stubborn::

Although... around 1970 when I first learned that many recordings were multi-tracked (and had been for years) instead of having all the musicians in the studio at the same time, I was horrified  by that too,  it just seemed so 'wrong' and surreal, and yet a few years later I was busy trying out my *own* little attempts at multi-tracking such as this dubious drunken mandolin + mandola example.   Nevertheless, for the foreseeable future, I have no intention of altering individual notes or passages. If I can't get a contiguous chunk of music that's even marginally acceptable, then I have to keep practicing until I can. 

(Guess that's one advantage to being an amatuer/hobbyist, is the luxury of time and low expectations lol, no $$$ pressure to get a recording done super-quick.)_

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farmerjones

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## fentonjames

as for LIVE music, i was at telluride (saw 87-91) and i think it was in 88, maybe 87 that the all star jam did it for me.  Sam, Tony, Bela, Jerry, Mark and John, i think were the band.  certainly most of them.  rocked my socks off to this day!

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## Bill Kammerzell

Around 1964. I was about 13. Rolling Stones. They led me to the Blues. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, changed my mind about how the Blues could be played. Pretty much all I listened to until one day in 1977. That day, over my wife's (girlfriend then) house, I put on Fly Through the Country by Newgrass Revival. That changed everything. I wanted a mandolin. Bought a US made Harmony H410, used, at Baltimore Bluegrass. Probably the only US made mandolin I would own until this year. I still play the Blues. Newgrass Revival, however, opened up another world of music for me. Then David Grisman and Tony Rice took it a little further. Wasn't for a few more years until I went back to the roots of Bluegrass and discovered the founding bands of the music. My musical tastes are still mainly about the roots music of North America, and how those roots expanded.

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## Spruce

I'm of "that" age, so the whole British Invasion was a _huge_ influence, and still is...
The Jefferson Airplane was my favorite band, and I'd go see them whenever they hit SoCal...
Like everyone else, started a band:



When I went away to college, for some goofy reason I sold my candy-apple red Stratocaster and Bandmaster amp (and surfboard too!), thinking they were "youthful distractions"...
But later that year I went to see The Allman Brothers who asked if anyone wanted to come up and jam, and I did--playing Duane's Les Paul while he took a little break.
I've been playing (and surfing) ever since...    :Smile: 

As far as mandolin goes, I was attending UC Berkeley in the early 70's, and watched the whole incredible mandolin universe open up and flourish during that decade, with players like Tim Ware, Tom Bekeny, John Reischman, Bob Alekno, Dix Bruce, John Gonder, Todd Phillips, Eric Thompson, Tony Marcus, and of course the Dawg.

That first DGQ LP was _really_ the eye-opener for me, but the bootleg tapes of the live shows were _really_ my touchstones for learning to play...
"Mandolin World News" sure helped, too...

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AlanN

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## AlanN

> The Allman Brothers who asked if anyone wanted to come up and jam, and I did--playing Duane's Les Paul while he took a little break.


Dang, boy..just...dang

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Sheila Lagrand

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## Spruce

> Dang, boy..just...dang


It was no big deal--25 people in the audience...
...and I sucked.    :Smile: 
Full story here...

...but it _totally_ got me into playing music again...

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## Joel Glassman

Found this one--Texas Fiddle Favorites in the early 1970s:
https://www.discogs.com/Major-Frankl...elease/3137665

I liked Western Swing and this represents the fiddle style its based on. Really enjoyed the swing feel of it and the variations. Not much of this is played here in New England. Texas style fiddlers have their own versions of standard fiddle tunes, and I like playing them with Bluegrass groups. Byron Berline, Sam Bush and Mark O'Connor are influenced by Texas fiddling and this LP steered me to their music. Volume two features the great Benny Thomasson.

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## Andy B

In college I started on the mandolin and later a friend lent me Bill Keith's 1976 LP "Something Auld Something Newgrass Something Borrowed Something Bluegrass" and that recording opened a lot of musical doors for me.  It featured a wide variety of songs and tunes from rock and jazz as well as traditional grass and old time, and the players all brought an intense musical creativity to the project.  It wasn't just Bill and Jim Rooney, both of whom I loved, but also Tony Rice, David Grisman, and Tom Gray, all of whom who were new to me then.  My friend didn't get his album back for a long time. (Off the point somewhat, but I saw DG with Del in Troy NY a few weeks ago--it was powerful bluegrass by two masters still in their prime.)

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## zedmando

I don't know--it was probably a bunch of them all together.

but some notable ones for guitar:
Albert King-Crosscut saw--when I was trying to figure out how to solo on a guitar I knew the scales and all that but nothing clicked until I was given an old book with the solo to this song in standard tuning (Albert King tuned to Em--maybe other tunings and had his strings upside down compared to regular guitar tuning.)--so having it in standard tuning helped.
I played the first 4 notes & it clicked--and I was off & running.
Cowgirl int he Sand by Neil Young was another big one.
Then the phrasing of Jon Lord's keyboard playign with Deep Purple.
There are other influences.
But I don't know that I can name as obvious of choices/influences for mandolin or bass.

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## wreded

> As a die hard Zeppelin and Stones fan I was completely turned around with Will The Circle Be Unbroken.


I was a military kid in Italy.  My older brother sent it to my mom & dad from college in OK.  I was completely blown away.  Here were these folks that were old when my mom & dad were kids, no electronic gizmos; nothin' but air between them and the mike.  I've been listening to almost nothing but acoustic & bluegrass ever since.

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## Joel Glassman

> I was a military kid in Italy.  My older brother sent it to my mom & dad from college in OK.  I was completely blown away.  Here were these folks that were old when my mom & dad were kids, no electronic gizmos; nothin' but air between them and the mike.  I've been listening to almost nothing but acoustic & bluegrass ever since.


I found this very influential too, and was into blues rock at the time. Its bluegrass and old time country [with a little Nitty Gritty flavor]. I play and listen to those styles a lot. Funny--it rarely sounds like that recording. Probably due to the mix of musicians.

----------


## davidtoc

I heard Steve Martin play Foggy Mountain Breakdown on one of his standup albums, in the late 1970s, I think, in his bit about how the banjo could have saved Nixon.  I think my jaw probably hit the floor, and I wanted to play the banjo from then on.  Wasn't til over 30 years later during what I jokingly refer to as a mid-life crisis that I finally picked one up and started playing.  That led me to the mandolin, which in turn led me to writing this post.   :Smile: 

In high school, I was obsessed with the Beatles, and one day while I was listening to their album, "Beatles for Sale," I told my mom I wanted to take guitar lessons, and she called someone she knew, and next thing I knew I was playing guitar.  I didn't play much past college (except occasionally), but without that foundation, I never would have been able to pick up the banjo or mandolin so quickly years later.

----------


## Lowlands Blue

One of the musicians that inspired me is Dutch artist called Daniel Lohues, and his love for American folk, blues and country got me hooked on playing both mandolin and exploring the history of music in America (rock and pop music aside). Another reason I love his music is that all his lyrics are in a very old Dutch dialect called lower Saxon which is only spoken in the area where I was born and raised (the Dutch country side). His music is the perfect cure for my homesick blues. 

Here's two vids, both with mandolins.







Special mention for OAITW as they really made bluegrass accessible for me and made me serious about learning traditional mandolin music

----------

cbrophy3

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

Gram Parsons

----------

Mandobart

----------


## atbuckner21

In 2005-2006 during my senior year of high school, one of my best friends bought a new laptop. It was a PC and it came with a few songs already stocked in windows media player. One of the stock tunes was "This Side" by Nickel Creek, and the first time I heard it I felt as if the song inside me was finally audible. It changed my life, and made music something greater for me  :Smile:

----------


## The Past and The Curious

In general, Thelonious Monk did the most damage to me.  But also Bela Fleck's "Drive" album, Ry Cooder's "Boomer's Story" and most of the work by Danny Barnes all made me want to spend too much time on music and not enough on things that are financially rewarding.  :Smile: 
But the beauty they create is better than any real estate or whatever.  That stuff has real power.

----------


## JeffD

Two gigantic moments in my musical development, and actually, like all sudden realizations, a bit of discomfort was involved.  pleasant.

Steve Earl  - Galway Girl
Eddie Vedder - Rise

What  I discovered is that there is this whole 'nuther dimension to playing mandolin. Musicality. Without musicality it just doesn't matter how good you are, how mandolinny you can play, how pyrotechnical you can make your breaks... and... musicality need not involve mandolin virtuosity at all. Musicality cannot be reached by practicing more arpeggios or working on a smooth tremolo, or playing a tune in every key, or learning double stops.

One can pursue being a better mandolin player, and totally miss becoming a better musician.

It is a whole 'nother dimension.

Its obvious saying it, but realizing it is something else. To wake up one morning and find out you are taking the wrong bus.

----------

Bill McCall, 

Jess L.

----------


## allenhopkins

Pete Seeger first, then his half brother Mike.

----------


## lukmanohnz

Probably Stevie Wonder's Innervisions knocked me out more than just about anything else. I was astounded that he wrote and performed almost every sound on that album. The lyrics were also extremely mind-bending to my young mind.

----------


## WW52

In 1964 I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and it all started. Then, also in '64, I saw the Beach Boys on Ed Sullivan and was stunned. I thought their harmonies were the most incredible thing I'd ever heard.  After that and during the process of coming of age in the latter half of the 60s there were endless musical discoveries (and music enhancement discoveries) jerking me around in many directions, good and bad. I'm guessing that's probably about how it was with a lot of middle class baby boomers. 

I still have moments of musical revelation, but not so often.  My most recent revelatory incident happened when I was thumbing through some CDs for some background music to listen to while working on a project at home. I pulled out the Coleman Hawkins' "Body and Soul" album that I'd inherited from my dad, stuck it in the player and turned it on.  At some point I realized I'd started moving and grooving to that music and digging it in a really big way like I'd never done before with jazz. Coleman Hawkins snuck into my subconscious and flipped a switch.  I've got a moderate collection of jazz recordings, but for some reason this one made me hear it in a new way.

----------


## T.D.Nydn

From birth, listening  to Ruggiero Ricci playing Paganini,,where do you go from there? Later on, it was Earl Scruggs playing the theme to Bonnie and Clyde,, (foggy mountain breakdown) which did a number on my young teenage mind...after that,,Billy Cobham,,,

----------


## WW52

An addend here:  I think most importantly for me the discovery of the music of David Grisman, Tony Rice, Norman Blake and their range of associates in the latter '70s and early 80's determined the general direction of my playing and from then to present.  That was the direction that made me want to play mandolin, but the genres I attempt to play within have been widening considerably in the past couple years.

----------


## jshane

> Musicality cannot be reached by practicing more arpeggios or working on a smooth tremolo, or playing a tune in every key, or learning double stops.
> 
> One can pursue being a better mandolin player, and totally miss becoming a better musician.
> 
> It is a whole 'nother dimension.
> 
> Its obvious saying it, but realizing it is something else. To wake up one morning and find out you are taking the wrong bus.



Agree completely.  I don't exactly know what "it" is, but I know it when I hear it, and I know when I am channeling it... I wish I could do it all the time....

----------


## Mandobart

My older brother is my biggest musical influence.  He doesn't play any instrument but he got me into Neil Young and later John Prine early in life.  A high school friend got me into the Dead and I was pretty much picking what we would later call Americana tunes about 20 years later.  I started learning bluegrass fiddle around the same time (had already been a classical violinist for about 5 years).  None of this was a big change or awakening to me at that time.  So many of my favorite musicians have been mentioned already - Allmans, Zep, etc.  I was washing dishes in a restaurant when I first heard Sultans of Swing on the radio.  I had never heard rock sound so _cool_ before.  Many years later I accidentally started  playing mandolin and picked up a bunch more fiddle tunes and old time.

About 5 years ago Pandora pulled up a tune from The Green Room by Hot Club Sandwich.  That's when I knew what I really wanted to do with mandolin.  So I'm slowly trying to absorb and learn Gypsy Jazz.

----------

mandolin breeze

----------


## fatt-dad

in response. . .

To, "Change" a perspective requires that you'd obtained one already.  My perspective was framed by church hymns; Burl Ives; Peter, Paul and Mary; CSN; Greatful Dead; Vanilla Fudge; Chicago (first album); Quicksilver; Moody Blues; Cream; etc. All the stuff on the radio. I can almost recall the nigh when I first got into jazz though - headset jazz first. Les McCann's, "Invitation to Openness" being of note.  From there it was on to the whole spectrum of jazz.  Don't get me wrong, I was all on board for NGR, Seldom Scene, OAITW, etc.  But Les McCann (and subsequent years, Lonnie Liston Smith, Eddie Jefferson; Leon Thomas (the Cosmic Yodeler - well and Pharoah Sanders too) set me on different path - something not typically played on WHFS.

f-d

----------


## rockies

I bought a mandolin, learning for about 4 months when a friend tells me I should go with him to a music camp for a week to learn. He booked me in to the advanced class !! On the way there he informed me of that fact and says "You can handle it". Well the class was with John Reischman, not only did it open my mind to the mandolin, it also opened my mind to all the other aspects of music. Also how to approach music without an ego and play to make those around me sound better. A class act to be sure and my experiences then and after with John were some of the best in my musical life.
Dave

----------


## lflngpicker

My father: who started me on the guitar in 1962 at 7 years because I begged him to let me start.  When at 13 years old I heard the Bee Gees do Massachusetts on my little transistor radio I was hooked.  Years later, I was influenced by Elvis, Jackson Browne and particularly, SRV and Albert King.  Bill Monroe is the latest artist to inspire me to work on blue grass mandolin skills.  He also reminds me how far I have to go yet!  The Cafe is a great catalyst and I have learn so much from so many of you.  Thank you for the thread!

----------


## Pasha Alden

This is tricky, there are so many inspiring compositions. For me it was a theme from some classical pieces on guitar. I must confess that I need more work with playing good solos. So I have promised myself just for warming up again to practice Bourree again to warm up. I must also confess that I have not played as much as I ought to since the passing of my husband. Usually music gets me through things, though last year was just filled with firsts. 

Though this year I am going to use my cassettes to improve bluegrass music and jazz! Though a song that inspired me was Green Sleeves and I love playing it as I did at a street concert in 2014. One of the last concerts my late husband was with me when performing live.

----------


## Bill Slovin

For me it was seeing the David Grisman Quintet in the summer of 1995.  I was going into my sophomore year of college in Albany, NY.  I had played guitar since 10th grade and was totally immersed in traveling around to see the band Phish at different venues all over the east coast.  I heard about this David Grisman guy though some dead deads that I was friends with.  When I saw his band play, I was completely changed.  I bought a mandolin within a week after that show and started learning to play.  Now 20 yrs later I'm still playing, enjoying all types of acoustic music, and still in awe about how cool this 8 stringed instrument is.

----------


## dwc

Mine wasn't actually a mandolin album, but Eric Clapton Unplugged and then Nirvana Unplugged were the beginning of my exploration of acoustic music.  Lead acoustic guitar wasn't something I thought about before the Unplugged series, but that sound just captivated me.  From there I began to search out acoustic music, first looking to the acoustic offering of mostly electric bands (The Grateful Dead Reckoning, An Evening With the Allman Brothers, etc), and then  through the Dead I was introduced to David Grisman, Bluegrass and Django Reinhardt.

----------

danostrowski

----------


## Joel Glassman

> Pete Seeger first, then his half brother Mike.


My parents played his music a lot and also Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. 
My favorite music as a child. I don't remember fiddle, mandolin or many 
instrumental solos except for Seeger's oldtime banjo.

----------


## Al Trujillo

Two of my greatest influences:  Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and my two sons.  

Nitty.. the mandolin playing in Mr. Bojangles has always struck a chord with me.  

My two kids who played various instruments throughout their lives and made me wish that I had tried harder as a kid to learn to play an instrument - any instrument.  

This last year Nitty celebrated its 50th anniversary and my kids are grown and gone - I figured it was time that I got started on burying regrets.

----------

Sheila Lagrand

----------


## jasona

I always loved the sound of the mandolin, but didn't grow up with acoustic music (other than pianos in church). Until a teen music wasn't a huge thing, but when it hit it was on the punk side of things. So much great music...

For me that one album was The Pogues _If I Should Fall From Grace with God_ that made me realize the instrument I loved the sound of could work with the musical styling I preferred. A few years later I worked with someone who introduced me to the New Grass Revival. Now I basically listen to everything.

----------


## stevedenver

without a doubt, in terms of _perspective_, 
Aereoplain John Hartford

up until that release, I thought of bluegrass, which I liked a lot, as southern redneck hillbilly rigidly traditional,  etc.
I was fifteen, a rocker, and former folkie, and it was the Vietnam era, to add context.

Similarly, Jimmy Buffet's first two albums made me hear "country" in a new perspective as well.

in terms of musical "aha" moment , which is how I read the OP, more likely Strange Days and Dark Side of the Moon, and Kind of Blue, but really there have been many, and on going. Grisman absolutely made me see mandolin in an entirely new way, (andy the statman too) as Bela did banjo.

----------


## MichelD

Chris Ethridge playing bass on "Close up the honky tonks" with the Flying Burrito Brothers (including Gram parsons) at the Seattle Pop festival in July 1969. I continue to aspire to play walking bass that well today.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc7YIP8qR5s

----------


## MediumMando5722

There have been many... 

Most recently, it was The Lonesome Trio, Ed Helms's band. I'm a fan of Ed, and decided to check out his band. I liked it, and started down the Bluegrass rabbit hole. The next day, down said rabbit hole, I saw a video from The Bluegrass Situation (also Ed Helms related) with Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer playing "Why Only One?" I borrowed a mandolin from my dad shortly thereafter and it's been all downhill since  :Smile:

----------


## Harmon Gladding

"Samy Faly" (Everybody Happy) by Rakotozafy of Madagaskar, among others.

----------

Nbayrfr

----------


## wreded

I'm with you Denny.  I was a wanna be rocker until I heard the Circle album.  I decided then and there that, for me, acoustic players are better than any rocker.  If you blow it on acoustic you own it; if you blow it on electric you can use a wah-wah or some other electrical majic to make it come out ok, or at least better.
Been listening to acoustic ever since and trying, in my own way, to get where others have been.

----------


## mandocrucian

I'm surprised I never commented on this on.  Must have been similar threads a bit earlier.

The first/earliest *BIG* ones?  
No contest - *Richard Thompson* (guitar), 
*Dave Swarbrick* (fiddle, mandolin), 
*Sandy Denny* (vocals)

*Fairport Convention* (_Full House, Liege & Leif, Unhalfbricking_),* Fotheringay* 
then onto RT and Sandy solo, Steeleye Span, Nick Drake, John Martyn, Martin Carthy.....

There was also John Renbourn & Bert Jansch (Pentangle), early Jethro Tull (_Stand Up, Benefit_), (pre-Dino) Quicksilver Messenger Service, _Workingman's Dead_   But, it was the UK folk-rock stuff that shifted the axis. (Favorite country rock outfit was Commander Cody!)

Niles H

----------

Eric Platt

----------


## ajh

This....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JEE_OPBVBc

----------


## catmandu2

Coltrane, Sun Ship

----------


## Mark Gunter

Can't really do this because I was deeply affected by so many at so many points in life ...

At three or four it was Homer & Jethro albums, think _Don't Jump Off Of The Roof, Dad_

At 5 & 6 it was Burl Ives, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins

Preteen years, Elvis, The Beatles

But after I began accompanying myself on guitar and had learned to play songs and all, for some reason two things spoke to me and motivated me rhythmically. The first was Richie Havens' Woodstock performance, the second was George Harrison's playing _For You Blue_ in the _Let It Be_ movie.

In later life it was my backward journey from Stevie Ray and Clapton to the Chicago Blues players and on back to the Robert Johnson recordings.

----------


## GMorgan

Although the Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the awakening when it first came out, it was their album "Abbey Road" that changed my perspective forever.  I listened to that album over and over again during the New Year's celebration between 1969 and 1970.  Perfect album at a perfect time.  Shortly after, I really enjoyed Cat Stevens, especially his albums "Tea for the Tillerman," "Teaser and the Firecat," "Mona Bone Jakon," and "Catch Bull at Four."  Nowadays, I listen to mostly 60s and 70s music, along with a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker.  And, of course, anything where the mandolin  sings...

----------


## Mark Gunter

_The Redheaded Stranger_ and _Viva Terlingua_ were seminal for me in the country vein, made country music cool for me again.  :Smile:

----------


## Tom Wright

"Beatles '65" made me want to play pop music, complicating my classical-music progress.

It was a couple of years before I figured out how to play Lennon's opening guitar part in "I Feel Fine".

----------


## Frankdolin

Stevie Ray Vaughan " Texas Flood". :Mandosmiley:

----------


## Rick Jones

Peter Frampton, "Frampton Comes Alive" (and in concert) - made me understand what "melodic" means
George Benson, "Bad Benson" - wait ... he really DID that??????
Django Reinhardt - wait ... he really DID THAT???
Mr. Stiernberg - wait, you can do that on MANDOLIN??

Thanks to all of them for guiding me along the path.

----------

DougC

----------


## Ed McGarrigle

Eugene ODonnell and Mick Maloney, Slow Airs and Set Dances . I found it in a thrift store a couple years ago and its set me off on a Irish Trad quest ever since , and what with the pandemic led me to taking up the mandolin

----------


## DougC

I remember Eric Clapton's band called the Cream as a big influence. James Taylor and the Beatles used acoustic guitar, and that was the instrument for me. At a very early age I listened to my grandfather play tunes from the Mills Brothers. Then in 1978, Kevin Burke and Irish fiddle became 'everything'.  It was not until I brought my fiddle to learn basic classical music at a community music school that Haydn and Bach became a 'big deal'. There, we needed a mandolin for a piece from Vivaldi and guess who got a mandolin?

----------


## Bren

A series of vinyl records I borrowed from my local UK branch library (and taped) in the 1980s changed my perspective on jazz, a music that had baffled and bored me in turn in previous decades.

These were :
“Maple Leaf Rag” (NW 235)
“Jive at Five, The Stylemakers of Jazz, 1920's1940's” (NW 274), 
“Little Club Jazz, Small Groups in the ‘30's” (NW 250) and 
“Bebop” (NW 271). 

They were on New World Records, the project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, according to this 1977 article in the NYT although I seem to remember they were on Library of Congress labels when I borrowed them.

The album sequence, and the track sequence, artfully stepped the listener through the progress of jazz and it all just opened like  a flower for me.
They stepped you through early days, through the great popular period and into bebop,which finally made sense to me when I realised how they got there.

The tracks were representative of certain step changes, all enjoyable in themselves for the casual listener, but few of them were well-known classics.

Just the best album sequence I've ever heard and I would recommend it to anyone if they were still available in the same sequence with the same terrific sleeve notes.

----------


## Bren

I found these sleeve notes from the Jive at Five volume.

Jive at Five notes

Great reading.
the link is 15 pages of pdf with track listings on pp 13 & 14, and detailed info and commentary on each track in pp 5-12

----------

Bill Findley, 

DougC

----------


## maxr

'Kick Out The Jams' by MC5 - just what you need at 17, if you don't drive off the road. Music might indeed change things to some extent.

'Directly from my Heart to You' - Sugar Cane Harris, amazing violin solo on Zappa's 'Weasels Ripped my Flesh'. Fiddles aren't just for folk.

Frank Zappa - said something like 'Rock journalism is people who can write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read'. And his music.

'Memories from a Scotch Sitting Room' by Ivor Cutler, and The Fugs - there really is an audience for all kinds of weird shit out there, and if you want to do it, someone somewhere probably wants to hear it.

Audiences anywhere I've played - never estimate an audience, either over- or under- .

----------

gtani7

----------


## mandocrucian

> 'Kick Out The Jams' by MC5 - 
> 'Directly from my Heart to You' - Sugar Cane Harris, 
> 
> Frank Zappa - said something like 'Rock journalism is people who can write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read'. And his music.
> 
> 'Memories from a Scotch Sitting Room' by Ivor Cutler, and The Fugs - 
> .


Good picks, I must say. Saw Sugarcane _once_ when he was playing in John Mayall's *USA Union* lineup (the prime reason for driving down to Tampa for the concert). Like John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist) he did tend to repeat himself, but both had such a great sound, and when they were nailing it, _they were really nailing it._  *Sid Page* from Dan Hicks' Hot Licks was a true monster violinist.

For some reason, the Detroit rock stuff got a *lot* on radio airplay in central FL during 68-73. I'd personally go with early Seger over the MC5. Saw the *Bob Seger System* numerous times at the Orlando Sports Stadium.  He was a favorite in Orlando years before any of that Silver Bullet Band stuff.  The _Mongrel_ album sold out in the local stores within 2 weeks when if was released. That early stuff was Bob at his best, imo. While not the greatest lead guitarist, I think he lost some of his overall edge when he gave up on it. Like Fogerty, his playing would have gotten better over time, and kept him rocking harder.

Add the *Bonzos* and the *Holy Modal Rounders* to the Cutler/Fugs division!

----------

DougC, 

lowtone2, 

maxr

----------


## Bill McCall

“The Ballad of Davy Crockett”.  I was six, and allowed to play that little yellow record all by myself.  Music became accessible.  It’s been downhill ever since.

----------


## catmandu2

> ...Detroit rock stuff...


I grew up in Detroit - there was a constant din of rock everywhere in my youth.  I'm a little younger than you guys as I was just a wee lad in 1970, and the Grande Ballroom - where the MC5, The Stooges, Alice Cooper et al were house bands - was soon to close.  I was nearly crushed, twice, at the same Rush concert at the Michigan Palace - all soon to close.  By the time I was a teen it was all 'stadium rock' down at Cobo hall.  There was soul, motown, and jazz on the radio, but little compared to all the rock that permeated everything.  I got my first electric guitar at age 10.  In 8th grade I was allowed to skip classes and rehearse my 'band' in the auditorium (a habit I'd never change; in college I spent more time studying music than my proper degree).

So when I was first exposed to avant jazz - which was _not_ played on the radio - this was what _changed_ my perspective on music: happened to be late Coltrane I picked up at a record store without knowing anything about.

*I also had an early epiphany when I started learning all the acoustic stuff on Led Zep III - started learning banjo, pedal steel, mndln...  That, and Exile on Main St, were this city kid's _country_ music influences  :Smile:

----------


## JeffD

> Frank Zappa - said something like 'Rock journalism is people who can write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read'.


Can't write.

----------

catmandu2, 

DougC, 

lowtone2, 

maxr

----------


## DougC

> I grew up in Detroit - there was a constant din of rock everywhere in my youth.
> 
> So when I was first exposed to avant jazz - which was _not_ played on the radio - this was what _changed_ my perspective on music: happened to be late Coltrane I picked up at a record store without knowing anything about.


Ah! This explains a lot of why we agree on so much music. I grew up in Detroit and went to class with Marshall Crenshaw - Rock purist if there ever was one.

----------


## catmandu2

Hey Doug, ya we talked about that Strings 'n Things shop out on Woodward - where I bought my first good acoustic guitar (Guild D-50, and Flatiron mndln in 82) back in the 70s.  My family did the white-flight to the suburbs and I studied (classical guitar) out at Joe Fava's studio in Birmingham.

But alas, I was too young for the big scene - went to school with Glenn Frey's youngest brother, who is much younger than Glenn, but I didn't know who the Eagles were until later.  But Bernie influenced me as I started studying Scruggs banjo then.  (Glenn was mentored by Seger prior to moving out west.)  I think Bernie was a big influence actually because I recall wanting to be 'the guy who played all the instruments.'





> “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”.  I was six, and allowed to play that little yellow record all by myself.  Music became accessible.  It’s been downhill ever since.


I had that record too  :Smile:  and yes I recall the influence it had as well.  I always thought it was Jagger/Richards who led me astray - maybe I've been wrong about that!

*Aw man, i forgot an important epiphany: seeing Shakti in the late 70s (and Shivkumar Sharma, again with Zakir, in the early 80s).  _That_ stuff opened my ears for sure.  I imagine it was similar for folks a decade earlier when George brought Ravi over.

----------


## DougC

Strings n' Things on Woodward Avenue. I wonder how many others have been thru that place. Madonna was there. I also wonder how diverse a world is that can place a guy like me, or any person to really dig stuff from Marvin Gaye to Mike Seeger to Beethoven on the same day. (I got a classical record at the A&P grocery store on 11 Mile Road at Coolidge with 'green stamps'. It was the Pastoral Symphony.) And then George invites Ravi over. Yikes, that's a long way off from "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" or the Three Chimpmunks.

----------


## catmandu2

My band played a show in the parking lot of some penguin-themed ice cream joint right on 11 Mile and Woodward, summer ~1975.  Stones, Bowie, Cream covers..  There's still that nice church there at that intersection.

----------


## DougC

That would be St. John's Episcopal at 11 Mile Road. In 1975 I had moved to the Bay Area in California, grooving to the Eagles, America and the Doobie Brothers. And then Pink Floyd concerts and Bonnie Raitt gave me and others in the audience wine in paper cups. I'll never forget that one.

----------


## mswilks

Kate Rusby.

Hard stop.

I was in a shop in Tucson in 1998, heard a voice that I really liked, asked the shop owner who it was, and he absent-mindedly pointed to a CD on the "now playing" stand. i bought the CD and headed out the door. When my wife and I started listening to it as we were driving away, I immediately realized that the voice on the CD (Kate Rusby) was not remotely the voice I'd heard in the shop (who knows, but it was a jazz voice). 

Since that time, I've listened to Kate far more frequently than any other artist. I've always had a very broad musical palette, but she led me into a world of English / Scottish / Irish folk music that was fairly new to me at the time and that has informed my listening and playing more than any other musical style. We made a trip to England to see her at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick in the early 2000s ... definitely one of the highlights of my concert-going career.

And all because of an inattentive shop owner who pointed me to the "wrong" artist. Here's to serendipity!

----------


## catmandu2

> That would be St. John's .. In 1975 ...


Ah I guess it was 74 or maybe even 73...I remember now we were playing jean genie - it was well before  when station to station came out.

----------


## DougC

> Ah I guess it was 74 or maybe even 73...I remember now we were playing jean genie - it was well before  when station to station came out.


I would have loved to see your band then, as earlier, I played drums thinking I would be the next Ginger Baker. Ha, ha. Thankfully I turned to acoustic guitar and by 1973 I was doing coffee house gigs. Joni Mitchell and James Taylor were much more 'tame'.  I did however, zoom up and down Woodward Avenue in my friend's Road Runner. (yikes, were we nuts.)

We needed someone like Kate

----------

mswilks, 

Simon DS

----------


## Bill McCall

That’s a gorgeous tune, also done on Adam Steffey’s ‘New Primitive’ album, fortunately not sung by him :Smile:

----------


## Simon DS

> 


See? At 0:57, a capo on a CBOM... like _really_ high. Seventh fret at least!
No hecklers in the audience.

----------


## twilson

Hey DougC and catmandu2, fellow ex-Detroiter here. Left in ‘77 to come to Austin. I remember Strings ‘n Things. A bandmate managed the store. Do you remember Pick ‘n Strum. Also in Birmingham, the proprietor was named Earl. I bought my first three mandolins there, a Kay, followed by a poorly refinished Gibson A, followed by a nicer A4. There used to be a vibrant bluegrass scene in Detroit. I lived on the west side, then my family moved to Ferndale when I was 10, just down Woodward from you all.

----------


## M19

Yes "Fragile."

----------


## rnjl

Bill Monroe, Master of Bluegrass. 

Blew my mind at 17. Still doing so many decades later.

----------


## John Rosett

In 1968. I was an 11 year old fan of bands like the Monkees, Herman and the Hermits, etc. I bought a copy of the Mothers' Freak Out! because it looked so strange, and it changed my life.

----------

lowtone2

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## DougC

> Hey DougC and catmandu2, fellow ex-Detroiter here. Left in ‘77 to come to Austin. I remember Strings ‘n Things. A bandmate managed the store. Do you remember Pick ‘n Strum. Also in Birmingham, the proprietor was named Earl. I bought my first three mandolins there, a Kay, followed by a poorly refinished Gibson A, followed by a nicer A4. There used to be a vibrant bluegrass scene in Detroit. I lived on the west side, then my family moved to Ferndale when I was 10, just down Woodward from you all.


Oh yes. Pick 'n Strum was another hang out. I think we went to these places to have the opportunity to play expensive instruments that we could not afford. Also we got tips on interesting tunes to play as well as other recordings to study. 

At the time 1977, I knew of Flatt & Scruggs and saw folks playing bluegrass at the shops. However, I was involved in Stephen Grossmans's finger style music.

"A little piece of plastic with a hole' - my favorite quote from 'the Mothers of Invention'

BTW My mother worked at an engineering firm on 9 mile in Ferndale. My dad grew up in Birmingham.

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twilson

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## dhodgeh

Bryan Sutton and Russ Barenburg  playing 'Big Sciota' on Bryan's 'Not Too Far From The Tree' album.

That one song opened my eyes to playing fiddle tunes on acoustic guitar.  It changed my entire focus from blues/rock to acoustic flatpicking and by extension, bluegrass.

And now, I have branched out, and have added mandolin to my playing.

D

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## twilson

I feel fortunate to have grown up in the Detroit area. Lots of music of all kinds, lots of great ethnic food, great art museum, etc.

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## Mike Buesseler

Leo Kottke. 6 & 12 String, the armadillo album on Takoma Records.

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## catmandu2

> I feel fortunate to have grown up in the Detroit area. Lots of music of all kinds, lots of great ethnic food, great art museum, etc.


Detroit has a deep history of jazz, rhythm and blues - Paradise Valley and Black Bottom, for instance - which was long gone before my time.  My grandparents lived just up the road in St Clair Shores and I'd like to think they appreciated the incredible scene going on there in the 30s & 40s.  But in my day, about the only jazz joint we went to was Baker's on John R.  I would have loved to have been there a hundred years ago.

The only thing I remember about Birmingham in 1970 - aside from my bus rides out to Fava's - was a joint on Woodward that had pillows on the floor and we (10 year old) kids were allowed to go in and hear live music - I think it was some kind of hippy/folk music joint.  At that time, if it didn't involve electric guitars and drums I wasn't interested.  I was playing (always first chair) sax in 6th grade, but when an older kid wanted me to be in a band with him; he played me ziggy stardust and that was that  :Smile:

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## catmandu2

I'm just now listening to Fiona Ritchie here talking about Alan Stivell again and playing chieftains dowrosy maggie 73.  She said he too learned it from the Chieftains (I think it was might have been my first tune I wanted to fiddle at).  And Baker's lounge on Livernois not John R!

*oops wrong thread!

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## Old Dog Dave

This is really a fun question to ponder.  Let me start with bluegrass, my first love; it would be Old and In the Way's version of the Stones' "Wild Horses".  Totally awesome, and a good reminder that there are a number of "non-bluegrass" songs that sound great as BG.  Years ago I had an album by a group called The Travelers; they were BG, from Missouri I think.  They did the Bee Gee's "To Love Somebody" and the Turtles' "Happy Together"; if that was the first time you'd ever heard those songs, you have sworn they were written for BG.

The song that made me want to learn to play guitar was Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou".  The guitar break in the middle, which I believe was James Burton (not certain of that), hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was probably 13 or 14 when that song first came out and I bought a guitar not long after.  Staying in the rock genre, in my opinion there is no better album than Gerry Rafferty's "City to City".  It has the oft-played "Baker Street", but some other real gems:  "Whatever's Written in Your Heart", "The Ark", "Mattie's Rag".  Danged great album!!  As for jazz, what more needs to be said than Miles' KOB.

I have to mention two other albums.  At age 74, I have settled in on Mandolin Orange's "This Side of Jordan" as my all-time favorite.  Andrew is a fantastic writer and they are such a joy to listen to.  I'll be interested to see how they fare as "Watchhouse"; quite well, I am sure.  And now for the album that stunned and shocked me when I first heard it, which was around 1966.  Robert Johnson, "King of the Delta Blues".  Nothing like it, ever!!  

Okay, I will have to add my favorite classical album.  Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmonic's 1965 recording of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" on Deutsche Gramophone.  Now you've got Old Dog Dave's faves!!

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## Sheila Lagrand

Here's a laundry list. If I delved into hows and whys, this post would be ridiculously long. 

Otis Redding
Roy Clark
Itzak Perlman
Joni Mitchell
The Kinks
John Prine
David Bowie
Van Morrison
Bonnie Raitt
Hank Williams
Tina Turner
The Clash
Chrissie Hynde
The Proclaimers' first album, _This is the Story_
Johnny Cash
Don Julin
Matt Flinner

I got my first speeding ticket to Led Zeppelin's _Trampled Underfoot_.

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## jaycat

> What was that moment you heard something . . . and said "thats it, thats what I have been searching for"


Ring Dang Doo. But I still haven't found it.

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## Steve Finlay

The "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth. In the first 20 years or so of my life, I heard it many times, but I didn't notice -- either because I was listening lazily, or because the versions I heard had been rearranged and did it wrong -- the critical point when the A melody returns in the fourth "line", after the B melody in the third line. I had the misconception that the first note is played on the first beat of the first bar of the "line". Which would be "normal" for a song.

At some point in my early 20s, I was listening to a proper orchestral performance, but not really concentrating. And of course, they played it as written, playing the first note of the fourth "line" on the fourth beat of the last bar of the THIRD "line". This time, I heard it.

I practically fell out of my chair. I felt as if Beethoven had leaped out of his grave, grabbed by the throat, slapped me across the face, and yelled "LISTEN to what I'm trying to tell you, IDIOT!!!"

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