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Now I know what Neil Young meant when he used the phrase to title a live album. Well, maybe that's presumptuous... Let's say I've discovered one of the possible meanings of the phrase.

On Wednesday night, I attended the first practice we, Zero Visibility String Band, have had in a few weeks. I've cut down the playing time this month for a number of reasons, some of them were not in my control. But the result is the same: Rust

Wednesday night we played a lot of fiddle ...

Jerry Hinton

HINTON, JERRY, of Leeds, Alabama was born May 13, 1936 in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in Irondale, where he was a member of Irondale United Methodist Church and attended Shades Valley High School. He served in the U.S. Army from 1959-1961. He retired from Boggan Carpet Installation. He had lived in Leeds since 1962 and was a past member of Leeds Lions Club and served as club secretary for 3 years, he was a charter member of Alabama Bluegrass Music Association, ...

I would like to ask why Gibson company can,t come out with a reissue of a snakehead A4 black or red sunburst top???? why does everything have to have " F " holes???? Would it cost a hundred thousand dollars for them to build one???? Can they no longer obtain or manufacture the pickguard clips used on the teens and early twenties models?. A 1923 reissue Gibson A4 snakehead blackface complete with pickguard and side clip and original style hard shell case is long overdue! ja

This will be the week the Classifieds hit over 400 total ads. Normally it runs something in the low to mid 300s. It's just a number, but what does this all mean?

Not much in our opinion.

It's not due to the economy, as lousy as we all know it to be and as loudly as some sing the tune. It's not due to the collapse of the entire mandolin market as is boldly predicted...oh, about once a month by some message board user. Sorry, it's not even the first time we've hit 400. ...

Having purchased a Trinity college Deluxe octave mandolin last Christmas thru a trade I thought I would take a moment and say that in my opinion its a very nice sounding and looking instrument. I have found that the sound and playability has and is opening up nicely and is very responsive. The neck is comfortable and string spacing close and neck and scale length just right...especially if you,re also a tenor banjo player!. The purfings and headstock inlay is all in good taste and the instrument ...

So, this year's goal of adding in some serious tunage, and the related technique required to play them, is well underway. I'm working Billy in the Low Ground and Salt Creek up to speed (topping out around 180 bpm before it all falls apart). Next up will be two more standards: Cherokee Shuffle and Blackberry Blossom. All from the Steve Kaufman book I bought from him after his Calgary workshop. Thanks again Steve!

Meanwhile, the discussion I raised about having too many things to work on at once ...

Please delete.

I spent three days at NAMM paying attention to as much as possible, trying not to succumb to input overload. Discovered many things I liked and noted a lot that just seemed odd. But getting mandolin info was pretty easy. There were very few mandolins on hand. I have to admit that I skipped a few makers who have mandolin lines. So, what follows is --in alphabetical order-- an incomplete account of mandolins at NAMM.

Tone was universally difficult to evaluate. The main floor was ...

After a very long week of sad news about the passing of Butch Baldassari, an email popped into my inbox that made me smile, and I thought the only thing better than what the subject matter was, was a whole lot more of it.

Thanks to Don Stiernberg for forwarding this newly discovered gem directly below on YouTube. The video is about 10 minutes long, and near the end is a terrific performance from Homer & Jethro. Great stuff:

[YOUTUBE="gh8emmt6JFc"][/YOUTUBE]
...

I met Butch in 1996 when he had his last Workshop in Nashville. Pictures appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited with Bill Monroe, Ronnie McCoury, Roland White. We had a geat time nothing but mandolins. What a great guy and instructor. I still have all the originals from my Camcorder. Butch asked me to make a composite of the 4 days. I did and sent it to him. We hit it off great. He would ask me about musicians up in Virginia such as Earl Taylor who I knew well. What an empty feeling I have now. Losing ...