Looking for a few mando-centric blues recordings. Chicago, British, Mississippi, Texas... any old blues
Looking for a few mando-centric blues recordings. Chicago, British, Mississippi, Texas... any old blues
Charlie McCoy
" Practice every time you get a chance." - Bill Monroe
Chris: I have 10 or so blues tunes recorded on my YouTube channel and can share chord and lyric charts if you want...
https://www.youtube.com/user/drsamly...sort=dd&view=0
Sam Lyman
Moscow, Idaho
My CD: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/samlyman
My YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdf...A_Ph_qw/videos
I just finished this for an EP I’m working on.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxW_Ndqmec
All tracks are mandolin.
Last edited by Joey Anchors; Feb-11-2018 at 10:24pm.
Waterloo WL-M
Blues Mando Social Group - member
Charlie McCoy is my favorite too. He can be heard in two contexts. He made some rural jug band type recordings with one or another of those many Chatmon brothers. But he also did some more Uptown stuff with the Harlem Hamfats. Any recording with Charlie on it is a treasure.
Other required listening - Yank Rachell, Howard Armstrong (Louie Bluie), Johnny Young, Vol Stevens. I learned about a lot of these people from Rich DelGrosso's book Mandolin Blues. Get that book TODAY! And any recordings by Rich are great. Other contemporary blues mandolinists are Billy Flynn and Gerald Heard. Have you heard Mike Compton play blues? He is known as the master of the Monroe bluegrass style, but he plays great blues.
I am dedicated to blues mandolin. At bluegrass and swing jams alike, I always call blues tunes when it is my turn. People really enjoy playing them.
1987 Flatiron A-5 Artist "Woody"
2003 Weber Gallatin F "Phaedrus"
1921 Gibson A-2 "Lily"
Thanks guys. I'll check all this out.
I love Steve James's playing. https://youtu.be/YrOOtx50zC4
A warning, there are two Charlie McCoy's who play mandolin. You're looking for the earlier one, not the Nashville session musician, born in 1941, who'll come up first on your Google search. See if you can find "Charlie McCoy Complete 1928-1932 Recordings" (Document Records BDCD-6018). I got it cheaply on Amazon, but some of the CD's that I mention here are sometimes overpriced.
Other outstanding old blues mandolinists include James "Yank" Rachell and Howard Armstrong (a.k.a. Louie Bluie), as well as others mentioned in message #5 above. Notable contemporary blues mandolinists include Rich DelGrosso, Lino Muoio, and Andra Faye. Steve James is great too, but his CD's usually have far more guitar. Faye too mostly plays other instruments. A must-have CD is "Rags, Breakdowns, Stomps & Blues: Vintage Mandolin Music 1927-1946" (Document DOCD 32-20-3). Another good one is "Early Mandolin Classics, Volume 1" (Rounder CD 1050). If that's not enough, check this link on "Weenie Campbell", a website for lovers of old blues:
https://weeniecampbell.com/wiki/inde...olin_Listening
If you're learning: since Rich Del Grosso's book came up, when I started playing blues mandolin, I was new to mandolin, had only played a couple of blues tunes on fiddle, and didn't play guitar. I found his book difficult for someone at my level, though I'm working my way up to it. He has great tunes though, and his book is worth having just for the history. I then worked through Joe Carr's "School of Mandolin: Blues" (Mel Bay) with CD, which teaches rhythms and doesn't jump into solos. Then I moved onto Steve James's "Roots and Blues Mandolin" (Hal Leonard), with MP3 download, and his first instructional DVD, "Learn to Play Blues Mandolin" (Homespun), with sheet music download. Each of these instructional aids has its flaws, for instance Steve James shows you how to play a couple of bars on DVD, but then plays them differently when he plays the whole tune, while his sheet music is different again -- though this inconsistency is, in itself, a lesson in the blues. Still, all these teaching aids have strengths as well. Good luck.
Canadian legend, singer-songwriter Ken Whiteley, although more widely known for his stage presence and general vibe, is also a phenomenal multi-instrumentalist with a deep grasp of blues mandolin (and blues in general). As far as I know, he hasn't recorded any "mando-centric" albums but has a sprinkling of blues mandolin playing spread through a number of his albums. This one has probably got the most.
http://www.kenwhiteley.com/index.php...ordings&id=165
https://www.instagram.com/apitiusmandolins/What is good Phaedrus? and what is not good? need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
Yes, Ken's a fine bluesman and a nice guy besides. He also plays mandolin on three songs on Guy Davis's blues CD, "Give in Kind". Davis himself plays a couple of mandolin tunes on his CD "Legacy", but I'd call his style more old-time than blues, on these songs anyway.
Charlie McCoy playing behind Peetie Wheatstraw on this one. He solos too.
Ole Charlie is a favorite and recorded extensively.
Big Jack Johnson used one on a few tunes.
Yank Rachel is one of the great original blues mandolin players. More recent there's Rich Delgrosso, Gerry Hundt, and of course Jim Richter.
Billy Flynn
Check out Jimi Hocking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcPz5CsTc1E
2020 Northfield Big Mon
2016 Skip Kelley A5
2011 Weber Gallatin A20
2021 Northfield Flattop Octave Mandolin
2019 Pono Flattop Octave
Richard Beard Celtic Flattop
And a few electrics
Lino muoio check him out on YoUTube
If you can find a copy of this CD
https://www.discogs.com/release/5819...Mandolin-Blues
Don’t think Johnny Young was mentioned above. Let us also not forget Ry Cooder.
Not sure who this is on Jon's recording. Sound's good to me!
Jontavious is a super nice guy and great player, BTW.
Thanks. I enjoyed that very much, both singing and instrumentation. I've been searching but can't find who the mandolin player is. You'd think they'd list the musicians on the YouTube site, but perhaps that's too much to ask. According to some internet sources, Keb' Mo' plays on the album version, but that's not him in the video. (I suppose this could be the album recording with other folks in the visuals.)
Here's Keb':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZdN...utionCoalition
Last edited by Ranald; Dec-08-2022 at 8:15pm.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Re: Jontavious Willis video (Post #20),
Just to add another layer to the mystery, Keb' Mo' (Kevin Moore) walks in the door at 2:27 then picks up a banjo and begins to play. I believe we're hearing the album recording, and that a video of the fellas playing was edited to fit the music. This leaves me wondering though, if Keb' was playing mandolin on the recording, why would they have him playing banjo in the video?
From website ARISTOPR: "In the clip for “The World Is In A Tangle,” a song filled with questions about the direction our world is going in, Willis portrays the freedom of living the simple life. Despite the fear of “get[ting] the blues when you turn on the T.V.”, the band sits amongst each other in the middle of a worry-free jam session yielding feel-good solos from the mandolin, banjo, and acoustic guitar. Referred to as “Mr. Banjo Man” in the video, iconic Blues and Americana artist, Keb’ Mo’ (and producer of Willis’ Spectacular Class), makes a cameo to support the care-free groove."
This still doesn't tell us anything about who plays mandolin on the recording or in the video. Jontavious's website doesn't provide any clues either.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Well, dang and dadgum! That's who I was thinking, other than Yank Rachel, also mentioned.
Johnny Young played electric mandolin blues around Chicago for a long time. I've heard a few numbers over the years but I haven't done a lot of research about him. I'm sure there are videos up at youtube.
Ry has included mandolin and blues on many of his albums over the years; sometimes those coincide. His work on The Rolling Stone's version of "Love In Vain" on "Let It Bleed" is the first time I heard a mandolin in a context other than traditional Italian music. "Goin' To Brownsville" appeared on his first solo album, but he also played mandolin in The Rising Sons, the band he was in before that with Taj Mahal. And he plays mandolin some on the album those two did just this year, "Get On Board." Though I think just on "Hooray Hooray," which isn't terribly bluesy.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
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