# Music by Genre > Rock, Folk Rock, Roots Rock, Rockabilly >  Rockabilly on the mandolin.

## Macabre

So like many I came to the mandolin from guitar. Are there any examples of playing convincing rockabilly on mandolin acoustically or is that something people usually do on the emando? Where is a good place to start? Thank you so much for your help!

----------


## CarlM

Marty Stuart played on the Docabilly album with Doc Watson, playing mandolin on some tracks like this one:
He also toured with Doc up to 1980 and there are a lot of concert tapes where they do a rockabilly medley.



Here is one of the concert sessions with Peter Rowan doing mandola stuff during Tutti Frutti

----------

Ranald

----------


## mandopops

Listen to Chicago Blues Mandolin man, Johnny Young, Jesse McReynolds on the Jim & Jesse Chuck Berry album, Berry Pickin', & of course, lots of Bill Monroe. 
Shake it up & stir=Rock-a-Billy.
Joe B

----------

Macabre

----------


## Mark Gunter

Man, after seeing this thread a few days, I decided I had to try a mandolin rhythm on Brian Setzer's _Stray Cat Strut_ and I have to say I'm liking it; it's more fun than playing on guitar -- for now, anyway. I throw in a couple simple note runs between a few of the chords, and am trying it like this:

Cm
5-5-6-8
Bb
3-3-5-6
Ab
1-1-3-5
G
0-0-2-3

section two
Fm
1-3-3-4
Eb
0-1-1-3
Db
6-3-4-x
C
5-2-3-0

chorus
Fm
1-3-3-4
Fm7
1-1-3-4
D7
5-4-5-x
G7#5
4-3-6-x

Full chord progression/lyrics here: http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/chords/stray-cat-strut/

Rockabilly on.

----------

bob_mc, 

Macabre, 

Mandobart, 

Rick Jones

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

i find that old country (Hank Williams - many tunes to work with) crosses over well to a rockabilly sound.

----------


## Ranald

Try Levon Helm, he's was a 50's rockabilly, among other things:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...ps-amp-Rags-24

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

> Try Levon Helm, he's was a 50's rockabilly, among other things:


Everly Brothers also comes to mind.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Early on in his career,Buddy Holly used a banjo on some of the Rockabilly tracks that he recorded with Bob Montgomery ( Buddy & Bob),so,IMHO,there's no reason that the mandolin couldn't / shouldn't be used in that style of music. My personal thoughts are that maybe the mandolin is a tad too trebely for such music,& that a mandola would add more texture - but there's no reason *not* to use a mandolin,& Rockabilly is one of my favourite music genres.

  If any of you have seen the film 'Kill Bill' - you'll have heard this tune by the Japanese girl band ''The 5,6,7,8s'' - here's the original by The Rock-A-Teens " Woo Hoo " from 1959 :- 


                               Ivan :Grin:

----------


## David Lewis

I should google this, but I think Major Matchbox had a solidbody mandolin....

----------


## mandocrucian

> So like many I came to the mandolin from guitar. Are there any examples of playing convincing rockabilly on mandolin acoustically or is that something people usually do on the emando? Where is a good place to start? Thank you so much for your help!


*Just PLAY GUITAR ON the mandolin!*  If you've worked on the essential rockabilly players (Cliff Gallup w/Gene Vincent, Paul Burlison w/Johnny Burnette Rock N'Roll Trio, Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore, James Burton, Link Wray, Roland Janes w/Billy Lee Riley and other Sun artists, Billy King w/Sid King & The Five Strings) on guitar.... just put those licks and solos onto the mandolin neck.

Those or the 1st generation rockabilly players - you can get a lot of that same vocab from Brian Setzer (Stray Cats), Dave Edmunds, Danny Gatton (there's one track on _88 Elmira Blvd_ on which Gatton plays the gamut of classic/essential rockabilly licks), Albert Lee. And there was plenty of overlap with Chuck Berry, old country-boogie, and Bakersfield (Don Rich, Roy Nichols etc).

There were chapters on Chuck Berry's style and rockabilly in the now long out-of-print _"The Electric Mandolin"_ (written with _the_ Richard Thompson) and there was a long mando 12-bar blues similar to that aforementioned Gatton track with the classic licks.

So, if you don't play guitar, get a cheapo, just to learn guitar stuff from tab and get in in your head so you can transfer it to mandos.  Or, skip the guitar step entirely, and go from the records directly to mando or learn to read standard notation so you can use any of the instruction books and transcriptions for the genre.

Niles H

----------


## millarman

I'd love to here some Johnny Burnette but most definitely with his trademark howl!

----------


## Charlie Bernstein

And lots of Elvis rockers are naturals. "Hound Dog," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Heartbreak Hotel," "That's Alright, Mama," "I'm All Shook Up" . . . .

----------


## Charlie Bernstein

> *Just PLAY GUITAR ON the mandolin!*


Absolutely! But be careful who you're talking to! A lot of Mandolin Cafe regulars get highly offended by any suggestion that a mando is just a little guitar. 

Man, have I gotten dished on over that forepaw!

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

> And lots of Elvis rockers are naturals. "Hound Dog," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Heartbreak Hotel," "That's Alright, Mama," "I'm All Shook Up" . . . .


.......and don't forget Eddie Cochran tunes! I have found it difficult to replicate anything even close to Jerry Lee Lewis on a mandolin (but I keep trying).

----------


## ralph johansson

[QUOTE=CarlM;1657132]Marty Stuart played on the Docabilly album with Doc Watson, playing mandolin on some tracks like this one:
He also toured with Doc up to 1980 and there are a lot of concert tapes where they do a rockabilly medley.
...

Here is one of the concert sessions with Peter Rowan doing mandola stuff during Tutti Frutti
...

/QUOTE]

In my opinion Marty Stuart is a genius for finding the stuff that extracts the best *sound* from his instruments.

----------

Bill Findley

----------


## ralph johansson

> Listen to Chicago Blues Mandolin man, Johnny Young, Jesse McReynolds on the Jim & Jesse Chuck Berry album, Berry Pickin', & of course, lots of Bill Monroe. 
> Shake it up & stir=Rock-a-Billy.
> Joe B



To me that J&J album is not rockabilly at all. It's just a BG treatment of some unusual songs for the genre, with snare drum, like so much of their stuff on Epic. As for Monroe the only recording of his that has some kind of rockabilly flavor is Sally Jo on which he takes no solo. But the banjo and fiddle, and Rusty Kershaw's guitar, faintly indicate the possiblities of acoustic rockabilly, in spite of the insistent 2/2 of Bessie Lee Mauldin's bass.

By that time Monroe had abandoned the 4/4 of Cedric Rainwater and Joel Price. The only 4/4 I recall on his later recordings is BG Pt 1 on the Mr Bluegrass album, a 12 bar blues in G. Frankly, I find Monroe's playing somewhat square, and not really relevant to this topic.

Rockabilly, or just about any variety of 50's type R&R, is all about groove. The other day I tried playing along with a Carl Perkins allstar show on Youtube and found myself playing rhythmical stuff I usually don't play on the mandolin, just trying to fit the groove. But after a while I got tired of playing in A. 

I sometimes enjoy listening to, and playing along with,  the stuff that Bill Haley recorded on Holiday/Essex in the early 50's, much of it with a country boogie flavor; things like Crazy Man, Crazy (in Bb), real Rock Drive (in C), Sundown Boogie (in G), and Rocket 88 (in Eb). The playing of guitarists Danny Cedrone and Art Ryerson and (to a lesser degree) steel guitarist Billy Williamson  may give the TS some ideas to work from, but not exactly copy. 

Louis Jordan, of course, never played rockabilly (or even Rh&B) but I think he's worth listening to, mainly because of his solos (although the alto sax is a tritone lower than the mandolin, a halfstep higher than the mandola). He achieves great rhythmic interest with fairly modest means.

----------


## Charles E.

Mandolinist Kym Warner kills it at 2:40....... :Disbelief:

----------


## Richard J

I've just seen a face by the Beatles.

----------


## ralph johansson

> To me that J&J album is not rockabilly at all. It's just a BG treatment of some unusual songs for the genre, with snare drum, like so much of their stuff on Epic. As for Monroe the only recording of his that has some kind of rockabilly flavor is Sally Jo on which he takes no solo. But the banjo and fiddle, and Rusty Kershaw's guitar, faintly indicate the possiblities of acoustic rockabilly, in spite of the insistent 2/2 of Bessie Lee Mauldin's bass.
> 
> By that time Monroe had abandoned the 4/4 of Cedric Rainwater and Joel Price. The only 4/4 I recall on his later recordings is BG Pt 1 on the Mr Bluegrass album, a 12 bar blues in G. Frankly, I find Monroe's playing somewhat square, and not really relevant to this topic.
> 
> Rockabilly, or just about any variety of 50's type R&R, is all about groove. The other day I tried playing along with a Carl Perkins allstar show on Youtube and found myself playing rhythmical stuff I usually don't play on the mandolin, just trying to fit the groove. But after a while I got tired of playing in A. 
> 
> I sometimes enjoy listening to, and playing along with,  the stuff that Bill Haley recorded on Holiday/Essex in the early 50's, much of it with a country boogie flavor; things like Crazy Man, Crazy (in Bb), real Rock Drive (in C), Sundown Boogie (in G), and Rocket 88 (in Eb). The playing of guitarists Danny Cedrone and Art Ryerson and (to a lesser degree) steel guitarist Billy Williamson  may give the TS some ideas to work from, but not exactly copy. 
> 
> Louis Jordan, of course, never played rockabilly (or even Rh&B) but I think he's worth listening to, mainly because of his solos (although the alto sax is a tritone lower than the mandolin, a halfstep higher than the mandola). He achieves great rhythmic interest with fairly modest means.


Correction:  Doug Kershaw, not Rusty.

----------


## ralph johansson

> Mandolinist Kym Warner kills it at 2:40.......


Well, he ain't no Bill Monroe ...

----------

Pittsburgh Bill

----------


## Charlie Bernstein

> .......and don't forget Eddie Cochran tunes! I have found it difficult to replicate anything even close to Jerry Lee Lewis on a mandolin (but I keep trying).


Eddie Cochran: the only artist who made Elvis nervous.

----------


## mandocrucian

That Docabilly _"Bird Dog",_ though played nice, is really just bluegrass

*This* is rockabilly!

The 1957 original by *Billy Lee Riley* is pretty good



but *Robert Gordon with Link Wray* did a screamer version in 1978



Check out Billy Lee's "Red Hot" and also the Gordon/Wray version

how äbout Paul Burlisson on guitar?



too tame? Then maybe some WV one-man-band lunatic "The Haze" is for you! Vintage _psychobilly_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nz9jR_AuLM

NH

----------


## Charles E.

> Well, he ain't no Bill Monroe ...


Well Monroe never played Rockabilly.  :Wink:

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

> Well Monroe never played Rockabilly.


Too Bad! I would be willing to bet the farm he would have been good at it.

----------

Charles E.

----------


## ralph johansson

> Well Monroe never played Rockabilly.


Read #16 and you will get my point.

----------


## Jeff Mando

> Eddie Cochran: the only artist who made Elvis nervous.


I always heard that Elvis admired Roy Orbison's talent.

----------


## Pittsburgh Bill

[QUOTE=Charles E.;1695023]Well Monroe never played Rockabilly. ;

----------

