# Music by Genre > Jazz/Blues Variants, Bossa, Choro, Klezmer >  who is this wicked good mandolin player?

## earnest

The band is Roy Lanham and the Whips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOkuMUxRABg

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Bob Visentin, 

Frankdolin

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## AlanN

Terrific, thanks for posting that.

Ain't youtube grand.

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## John McGann

Sounds like he might have octave strings in there somewhere...cool! No idea who it is, though...great clip, they are so relaxed and having fun!

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## groveland

Roy Lanham... Don't know him, but clearly way ahead of his time.  Thanks for posting this one.

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## earnest

there's at least one other youtube clip I saw, where he sings. I don't know how someone this good could slip under the jazz mando radar. eck

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## earnest

OK, I google Roy Lanham and can now answer my own question...it's doug Dalton. Next question...who's doug Dalton? eck

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## grassrootphilosopher

For our all viewing pleasure. And that band surely is great. Hadn´t heard of them before.

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Frankdolin

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## Jim Garber

More info here: The Whippoorwills - Sizzling Strings.

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## Don Stiernberg

Jethro used to talk about Doug Dalton and The Whipporwills. I asked him about his favorite mandolin players and Doug was high on that list along with Paul Buskirk. He was also crazy about Roy Lanham's guitar style. Roy went on to play with The Sons of the Pioneers I believe. As evidenced here, he was a terrific jazz chord-melody player.

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Bill Kammerzell

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## Barry Platnick

Wow! 
That was great , thanks.

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## earnest

here's another great clip of the doug and the whipoorwills with...who woulda guessed...Eaty Gourmet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQ7Rt9uxhs

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## Paul Kotapish

Very nice. There's more than a hint of Django in Lanham's style. Pretty great trio singing, too.

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## TerryBurnsKing

Wow.

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## johnparrott

Some of you mandolin folks enjoy archtop rhythm guitar , I know you do; that's Gene Monbeck  on the Stromberg. I love the way the way he doesn't beat on the thing, and the sound that he gets. Some of it's the guitar, but most of it's his touch. 

When I asked Jethro about those big stretch chord solos he'd play on the guitar ("Around the World in 80 Days, Nanner Puddin' etc) he said Roy Lanham taught him all of those forms. 

The vocals remind me of the Merry Macs.

What a band...thanks for sharing those clips. 

All the best,

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## pglasse

I'll confess that Doug Dalton is a new one on me. However, I've been a Roy Lanham fan for years now and have asked some of the elder western swing guys about him. Many regard him as more of a chord guy than a single-line lead player but he's clearly remarkable in the latter arena -- great chord melody stuff on his recordings.

Years ago I played on a double bill with a latter version of The Son's of the Pioneers and asked the leader about Roy who remarked "...the best chord man that ever lived...." I've got a vintage Sims-label Lanham LP with great playing, and cool photos of him playing a prime-era Strat and Jazzmaster -- clearly stylin' with a Robert Goulet mustache and hip clothing. 

I'm sorry that I never saw him play.

Paul Glasse
Austin, Texas
http://paulglasse.com/

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## Jim Rowland

When Merle Travis was writing a few articles (good ones) back in the eighties,he spent quite a few lines on Roy. He really had a ton of respect for the guy,who was also a good friend and all round interesting person. Merle told one funny story about Roy, who liked to drink and carouse a bit, coming in late one night with a snoot full. When he pulled up in front of the house,his waiting wife noticed that his Cadillac was on fire with flames shooting out the window. As he was coming up the walk,she screamed at him to quick get his guitar out of the trunk. He said "Aw,honey,I don't feel like playin' any more tonight."
Jim

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## Don Stiernberg

Just nosin' around Youtube, came upon some audio-only tracks from a Roy Lanham record called Fabulous Guitar: Sizzling strings. Check out AirMail Special, Eager Beaver, etc. Sounds like electric mandolin on there too.

 This is great to uncover all this cool mando-history. Next someone will turn up the sides where Chuck Wayne played mandolin, or maybe even Wil Bill Davison or Freddie Keppard. Someone said Johnny Frigo even used the mandolin on a session, but he always denied it. You never know what's out there...

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Bill Kammerzell

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## mandolooter

Dang...Im at work and youtube is a blocked site...oh well at least the Cafe isn't!

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## pglasse

> This is great to uncover all this cool mando-history. Next someone will turn up the sides where Chuck Wayne played mandolin, or maybe even Wild Bill Davison or Freddie Keppard....


I know that Barry Mitterhoff has an LP with Chuck Wayne playing mandola -- haven't heard it in years but cool stuff as I recall.

Paul Glasse
Austin, Texas
http://paulglasse.com/

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## John Rosett

> Someone said Johnny Frigo even used the mandolin on a session, but he always denied it.


Well, can you blame him?

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## John Morton

I can recommend a fine collection called The Hard Life Blues:  Standard Transcriptions.  31 tunes (!) from Roy Lanham and the Whippoorwills.

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Life-Blue...5251564&sr=1-4

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## Pete Martin

I just heard Doug Dalton on some Smiley Burnett radio shows and was totally blown away.  Very Jethro like stuff with ocassional Dave Apollon for good measure.  Anyone interested in good country swing - jazz mando will want to check this out.

Here is a link to those shows:

http://otrarchive.blogspot.com/2009/...certified.html

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## mandolinlee

Hi All: Just found this post today, about 6 weeks late. Hope some of you will find my entry interesting. I knew Doug Dalton as an electric guitar player who camped at Hillbrook Recreation, Ottawa Ohio. For years he made the Bluegrass Reunions that were held the first weekend of May and the first weekend of October. He and several friends from the Dayton area, plus a man that played upright bass from Illinois played a great variety of swing, jazz , western swing and fiddle tunes all weekend. On several occasions I was honored to set in with them. Although they played over my head, with Doug's help of calling the changes I feel I played some of my BEST music!
The second thing that I found interesting in one of Don Stiernberg's post is his reference to Wild Bill Davison. Wild Bill grew up in the basement of the Library in Defiance Ohio. Defiance is my County Seat. Thanks for the memories.
Lee

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## mandolirius

I just watched it again and the thing I didn't pay much attention to first time around was how good the harmony vocals are. Had a kind of Mills Bros. flavour.

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## John Morton

> I just heard Doug Dalton on some Smiley Burnett radio shows and was totally blown away.  Very Jethro like stuff with ocassional Dave Apollon for good measure.  Anyone interested in good country swing - jazz mando will want to check this out.
> 
> Here is a link to those shows:
> 
> http://otrarchive.blogspot.com/2009/...certified.html


I've had these Smiley shows running in my shop, and I've only made it through about 80 of 290+ episodes!  The theme and vocal numbers are fun, but most interesting are the interludes that run during commercial breaks (though I'm sure those commercials would be fun too).  The band does hot instrumentals on western favorites, jazz standards of the day, Basie and Charlie Christian numbers, and virtuoso test pieces like Cherokee.  Everything sparkles brilliantly, and even on ballads the tempos are simply preposterous.  After hearing the first couple of bars I wonder if they'll ever make it through the piece.

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## farmer&adele

> Hi All: Just found this post today, about 6 weeks late. Hope some of you will find my entry interesting. I knew Doug Dalton as an electric guitar player who camped at Hillbrook Recreation, Ottawa Ohio. For years he made the Bluegrass Reunions that were held the first weekend of May and the first weekend of October. He and several friends from the Dayton area, plus a man that played upright bass from Illinois played a great variety of swing, jazz , western swing and fiddle tunes all weekend. On several occasions I was honored to set in with them. Although they played over my head, with Doug's help of calling the changes I feel I played some of my BEST music!
> The second thing that I found interesting in one of Don Stiernberg's post is his reference to Wild Bill Davison. Wild Bill grew up in the basement of the Library in Defiance Ohio. Defiance is my County Seat. Thanks for the memories.
> Lee


Hey Lee!  Thank you for sharing this history.  I'm originally from Ohio and a huge Whippoorwills fan!  Any chance you might know anyone in Doug Dalton's family?  I'd love to interview them about Doug Dalton and the Whippoorwills!  Please send me an email to gmhbooking@gmail.com ...Thanks and hope to hear from you soon!

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## Jim Garber

> Hey Lee!  Thank you for sharing this history.  I'm originally from Ohio and a huge Whippoorwills fan!  Any chance you might know anyone in Doug Dalton's family?  I'd love to interview them about Doug Dalton and the Whippoorwills!  Please send me an email to gmhbooking@gmail.com ...Thanks and hope to hear from you soon!


Hopefully Lee will answer you but this was posted over 9 years ago.

If you go to the *youtube link*, there is a comment below by Joe Dalton, Doug's nephew. Perhaps you can contact him through youtube.

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