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I just wanted to pass along a "good news" story. A month ago I was looking for some instruments to donate to a local veterans organization in the hope of getting some of them started playing. A...

Gary Payne from San diego asked me to build an 8 strings Tuscan style mandolin, with an old style rosette...
enjoy the photos and the sound clip... thanks Gary for a great challenge

191312 191313...

Guitar: Joy Dawson
Mandolin: ohnoitsalobo


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

Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson. While Wooten's novel is about a bass player, it is really about his philosophy of music and life.

I sure do get a lot of mileage out of this pic. John Hartford's Mammoth book of fiddle tunes. Should keep you busy for a while.

191241

Boy oh boy! I unexpectedly got an Eastwood Mandostang for Christmas and I'm having a blast! For some reason, I jumped right into playing jazz standards (I used to study jazz guitar back in the day)...

It is certainly more fun (and easier) to play tunes that are familiar, but I recommend you learn the tunes that other players know. Mandolin playing is a very social thing -- and playing with others...

You could try "The Mandolin Lesson" by Frances Taylor http://themandolinlesson.com/the_book.htm

an autobiographical story of self discovery centred around a passion for the mandolin.

I got Dick Spottswood's The Blue Sky Boys for Christmas, and frankly, was disappointed. It turned out to be largely transcribed quotes from interviews with Bill Bolick (Bill and brother Earl were...

The Bill Monroe bios by Ewing and Smith are good. The book “Come hither go Yonder” by Bob Black was good. The Ralph Stanley and Louvin Bros books are good too. “Will you miss me when I’m gone” is...

Mandolin in America is good, but I found the pictures to be the best part.

I really loved The Mandolin: A History. I read it cover to cover just a month ago.

Not about a mandolin, but "Clapton's Guitar" is a great book about Wayne Henderson and building a guitar for Eric Clapton. Lot's of very interesting guitar history, especially Martins, and...

If I did have a copy, I couldn't tell you. ;)

Another novel worth reading with a lot of music woven into the fabric is The Little Country by Charles de Lint.

If you can find it, get the collected Silver John short stories. They are much better, IMO.

Yes, Mandolin in America is a good book. Lots of pictures but good text. I just picked up a copy of...

Never Too Late by John Holt. Not sure when it was published, but I'm guessing seventies. No mandolin content, but it's a great book about an adult beginner taking up cello (after a brief dalliance...

I highly recommend "If It Sounds Good, It Is Good" By Richard Manning. No mandolin content, but a great read for any musician.

I recently picked up "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" from the local library's paperback trading post. I haven't gotten to it yet. I understand the title instrument is somewhat of a bit player in the...

Bill:

Do you like Ricky Skaggs? I am currently reading his autobiography "Kentucky Traveler". It's a bit of a history book too because he talks about the time he got to perform with Bill...

This might fall into the " When life gives you lemons .... " category but here we go. With the onslaught of Covid last spring and an impending hip replacement I realized I would have a lot of time...

Bill, keep active no matter what age you are is the best thing.
Ronald, just love that one too, sad but nice in it's own right.

Thanks guys


Allan

I always recommend Blues Mandolin Man: The Life and Times of Yank Rachell by Richard Congress.



Allan, you could try this classic Newfoundland folksong, "Now, I'm 64", though it's rather sad. I...

Satan is Real is a great book, story of the Louvin brothers.

I feel like your interest may be more toward biographies and what I might call "fact books", but if you like novels, I recently read "The Mandolin Case" by Tom Bibey, which I liked quite a bit, and...

I wrote this song using my Mandolas that I built this summer. I'm not really a mandola player per say:redface:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn8vqchlPw0191195

Just ran across this on YouTube -- I'm not sure if it's been posted here before. The Del McCoury band is jamming with friends. Sierra Hull is doing a sensitive interpretation on mandolin. Someone at...