How did you find the mandolin world?

[allenhopkins]

allen I didn't know you hung around the denver folklore center
I did/do and started in about 1969. small world.

Yeah, my first solo gig was at the Folklore Center's open mic night in 1966; I played Victory Rag on an Appalachian Autoharp I'd bought from Harry Tuft with my Sp4 pay. Ended up getting an Ome/Muse banjo and a Gibson J-50 there as well before I ETS'ed in Nov. '67. Still have the Muse, my sister has the J-50.

People I knew there, and you may have too: Mary "Sunshine" Stribling, "Toad" Hannah, Jan Alexander. "Peaches" Naylor, and the late Dave Ferretta. And, of course, Harry himself.

[journeybear]

... I continue to butcher the poor thing having fun the whole time.

Pretty much how it's done.

My mom gave me a mandolin when I was 15. I was fortunate to live across the street from a field. I would go there, where I couldn't bother anyone, and bash away until I could make some sense of it. The double strings and fifth interval made it sound pretty even before I knew what I was doing, and this helped me stay interested long enough to figure it out. I got Mel Bay'sbook of mandolin chords and some songbooks from bands whose songs I knew (The Band, Jethro Tull, Grateful Dead, Traffic, Lovin' Spoonful - did I mention this was the late 1960s?) and by coordinating these two information sources I sorted out a lot of what I needed to know. Nearly everything else followed from that.

So, I can't help wondering - What's Pipe Night?

[Fr. White]

So, I can't help wondering - What's Pipe Night?

Where a bunch of us get together, smoke pipes (the tobacco kind) and swap tall tales...err I mean stories from our younger days

[journeybear]

OK, that's what I figured - boy's night out.

[Fr. White]

OK, that's what I figured - boy's night out.

Yep we just slap a name on it to make it sound more official when telling our wives where we are going

[stevedenver]

People I knew there, and you may have too: Mary "Sunshine" Stribling, "Toad" Hannah, Jan Alexander. "Peaches" Naylor, and the late Dave Ferretta. And, of course, Harry himself.

Took bass from Mary, knew of Toad and Jan, bought my D28 and '35 A 50 from David-(always gruff but always very helpful to me a 16 year old, and, I still see Harry at the new Folklore center from time to time. My mentor on guitar was Don Debacker...a fine if cranky fellow....educated me well in the country blues .

[journeybear]

Wait - there's a real Mary Sunshine? In Colorado? Wow!

[Polecat]

I stumbled across the mandolin in 1977 at the tender age of 14 - somebody I met at a party had one but couldn't play it. Neither could anybody else so I immediately decided it was the instrument for me as no one in my peer group could be better than me (this was at the height of the punk rock boom in a suburb of London - given the Zeitgeist and my age, an entirely understandable decision, I feel). I had no teacher, no book, no nothing so worked it out the best way I could. A couple of years later I discovered a folk club that at least introduced me to music in a genre where the mandolin would be considered normal (before that I was playing the Stones, the Who, all manner of thankfully now forgotten punk groups and Hendrix on my instrument). Later, as a student, jazz came into the mix, but I never really knew of a "Mandolin World" until the Interweb reared its head and I discovered this forum.

You Denverites out there: any of you know John William Davis? he is one of my favourite songwriters.

[John Soper]

Like a few of you, I was in a folk trio in the late 60's/early 70's that was acoustic guitar-heavy. I ended up finger-picking, doing fills, capping up the neck, playing slide... anything to avoid having 3 rhythm guitars slamming away. Found a Harmony mandolin in a pawn shop for about $25 and added it into the mix, even after we morphed into a country rock band. Later found an A-3 (regret letting that one go). Put the mandolin down after the Harmony self-destructed during a move to the arid state of Utah. Moved to North Carolina in the early 80's and borrowed a 40's Gibson A to play in a Bluegrass band (I didn't change broken strings fast enough to be the guitarist)... Later found a Kentucky A-style in a pawn shop for under $65, which I bought for my 40th B-day...

Got MAS real bad 15 years ago and am currently not in remission. Glad I discovered the Cafe and all those who have stoked my obsession...

[allenhopkins]

Wait - there's a real Mary Sunshine?...In Colorado?...

Don't know if she's still in Colorado, but --

Mary "Sunshine" Stribling, former bass player for City Limits Bluegrass Band and the Motherfolkers:

[Russ Donahue]

A bluegrass festival in Cato, New York back in 1974.

[Suho]

I kind of came at it a little through the back door.

I started playing guitar and bass at age 14/15 in 1989 or so. I also "discovered" the mandolin from Jethro Tull songs (particularly the more celtic ones) and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck who was using it heavily at that time.

My love of the celtic Tull songs led me to delve into more Irish traditional music (my neighbor was a great resource here, being a non-musician with a great love of music). I soon realized, too, that although we had grown up listening to country music I hadn't been paying attention to the different instruments much and consequently some great playing had gone right over my head. Ricky Skaggs was one of my dad's favorites (the "Don't Cheat In Our Hometown" album was one of about three that were in constant rotation during any family trips), and I began to realize he was quite the mando-picker.

I picked up my first mandolin sometime in 1990 or so. Not sure how, but in those pre-internet days I heard that the Modern Mandolin Quartet was coming to perform and I made sure I had tickets. That performance was wonderful and exposed me to the versatility of the mandolin.

[WrapAround]

I always knew that it (as in the 'Mandolin World') was always there. I took the plunge because I worked on a project that heavily featured American Roots Music. Yes, it was work but that's one of the incentives of what I do. :D

[Bertram Henze]

It looked me in the face one day,
When a music shop I passed by:
In the window there was dangelin'
A cheapo pretty mandolin.

[farmerjones]

June, 2003. My fiddle instructor's first lesson, he showed me where the notes were (first position). And for a better example he also showed me on a mandolin. Then he said, "You just as well get/play a mandolin too." I didn't know any better. So for the first two or three years I drug both fiddle and mandolin to jams and festivals. I guess Kenny Baker spoke more to me than Big Mon. Lately, Earl's been speaking to me more than others. Played banjer since '79. There's just no reasoning with these voices.

[Onesound]

I knocked around with the mandolin for a while then kind of got interested in banjo. Picked up a compilation CD of Scruggs style Bluegrass Banjo tunes, and discovered I liked the sound of the mandolins in the backup tracks a whole lot better than the banjo! To this day, I do enjoy playing Clawhammer, but consider mandolin my main instrument.

[JeffD]

A friend of mine in high school showed me a bowlback mandolin and I was hooked.

[journeybear]

... discovered I liked the sound of the mandolins in the backup tracks a whole lot better than the banjo!

Rescued from the dark side, you were. Good, this is.

[CSIMelissa]

How did I discover this world? It's all Peter Buck's fault.

[Russ Donahue]

Bought an Aria 'A" in the mid-1970's after spending the day at an inspiring Bluegrass Ramble. Highly enthusiastic, but it was hard to play and quickly gave it up until the late 1990's when I decided to take another run at it. Much more successful this time around!

[Ed Goist]

You would think Led Zeppelin would open some doors? God bless John Paul Jones...

God bless him indeed! ...and the song plays on. I found the mandolin world thanks to Led Zeppelin III and Led Zeppelin IV. Come to think of it, these two albums are pretty much where I found ALL my musical worlds.

If there was one person I would want to jam with famous it is JPJ, no contest.

...snip...I love the way he talks so modestly about learning the mandolin and meeting all these other giants in the scene...snip...

John Paul Jones gets it! "The Godfather" indeed.

Ramble On.

[chuck3]

That JPJ interview is great! In my case ... my family had an old bowlback in the house when I was growing up, and I fooled around with it but by age 11 was playing guitar pretty well and then by 13 the bass guitar. Bass guitar and guitar I played about equally until my early 30s, when we had our second child and I pretty much put music down except for occasionally playing for the kids. When our youngest graduated high school some 20-something years later, I jumped back into music, but I decided the world already had enough guitar players, so along with re-upping on bass guitar I took up upright bass and mandolin, including lessons on both (because apart from note choice playing upright is not much like playing bass guitar). The mando thing started off slowly but as I gradually improved I started getting gig offers and now I have pretty steady stuff going on on mando as well as bass. I love mando. It's funny that JPJ says he originally took it up because the mando is so small and as a bass player he always had to have so much big gear he wanted something small ... that has gone through my mind as well.

[chuck3]

BTW, this is a great thread and I love reading everyone's stories and comments. Things happened in a different way for each, yet a lot of similar aspects for all. I'm definitely looking at JPJ in a new light as well. Wiki'd him and hadn't realized he produced a lot of music that I really like besides his career performing. Plus, keyboards were his first instrument and he was choirmaster and organist at a church before moving full time to rock n roll. Quite a guy.

[fatt-dad]

yes, the video is great!

It's really fun to read you all's stories! I'm trying to think where it all started. . . I have three older sisters and we all graduated in late 60s or early 70s. They got into the Peter, Paul & Mary music and it seems we all were into the folk scene in the 60s. I likely learned to play Puff the Magic Dragon in 6th grade or so, but mostly played the trumpet.

With my ear on the rail of the popular folk scene and being in high school, I got into the Incredible String Band, Pentangle, the Dillards, the Seldom Scene and the Grateful Dead (American Beauty). I'd have to say, though Grisman on American Beauty really caught my ear. All during high school though I had a guitar or two. I can't recall what year, but one girl in our school gave me my first mandolin. Some 50s Kay, which I still have. I'd strum chords on that, but it was Grisman that caught my ear.

I saw all the bands by the time I had graduated from high school (1973). We'd go to local bluegrass festivals (Culpeper 1972 and 1973), saw the Dillards, Country Gentlemen, Bill Monroe, the Bluegrass 45, Old and In the Way, Seldom Scene, etc.). I didn't really aspire to play like any of the greats. More like in awe. I did get an ear for the instrument though.

College was all about the (French) horn and I played a bit of guitar. During my career as a field geologist (until I turned 30), I rarely played any instrument. Moving to Virginia (grad school) sort of re-kindled my interest in acoustic music. That's when I found my A3 and began to play what I had heard earlier in my life. I'd got to jams and such, bought the Tottle Book and began to learn.

There was another lull when the kids were in diapers.

About 12 years ago or such, I began to jam again and began to climb the MAS ladder. I do enjoy the "hardware" side of our hobby. That said, I've been a faithful participant at local jams for well over 10 years. Playing the mandolin is my good therapy, and for that I'm thankful.

Fun thread!

f-d

[PaulBills]

First time I ever got my hands on a mandolin was back in the midst of time (the early 90's) when a friend of mine picked up a battered old bowlback from a charity shop for i think 50p. It had a full complement of strings...just about... and none of us knew how to tune it so just went with DGBE, like the top 4 on a guitar. We had great fun busking with it, stripping the skin of our fingers. Didn't know any mandolin specific songs, so we played things like 'will the circle be unbroken', 'creep (radiohead)', 'hippies hate water (our own composition, very simple, could go on for hours, just had to come up with what hippies would hate or love) and 'the wheels on the bus' (again, with our own added verses, such as: "Cheryl Baker on the Bus says '####, where's Mike, ####, where's mike, ####, where's mike (repeat) - He's gone through the windscreen" (one for you's in the UK who remember Bucks Fizz))

Fast Forward 15 years, and my other half bought me a mandolin after we fell in love with Nickel Creek...10 years later I have a second one, and can hold my own in a room full of musicians!