Charlie Derrington's 1970s Danny Ferrington F5 Mandolin
I brought this mandolin home on Sunday!
This is (reportedly) the only traditionally-styled F5 mandolin ever made by famous guitar & mandolin maker Danny Ferrington, which would make it a quite valuable instrument in its own right...but the COOL thing, the thing that had me seeking this mandolin for over 20 years, is that it is THE instrument that set my feet on the path of the mandolin.
When I was 15-16 years old and a mere beginner musician, Charlie Derrington, Mike Snider, Ronnie Owen, and Rick Taylor had a band called Cross Country out of Paris, TN. They would play pretty often at a little Blue Grass music club in Clarksville, TN, and I would be there at a front table every time. Cross Country was my introduction to "Newgrass" music, and remains my all-time favorite band. Their complex musical harmonies and innovative arrangements were a huge influence on my musical development, and remain so to this day.
Charlie Derrington was a fine mandolin player and tenor singer; he became a great friend to me, and was my mandolin mentor, patiently showing me licks and exposing me to some of the greatest music ever created. A great student of mandolin construction techniques, with a reverence for the work of Lloyd Loar (who, as Gibson's "acoustic engineer" in the early 1920s, created many innovations that placed Gibson at the forefront of modern instrument design), Charlie ran his own music store for years, where he sold, restored, and repaired many of the finest examples of such historic instruments, and where his fame as a luthier grew worldwide. During this time, as I worked in Nashville, Charlie would often call me over to play these wonderful instruments, and I spent many after-work hours hanging out with Charlie at Bellevue Guitars & Gear; as a result of this, I got many opportunities to play Loar mandolins and mandolas, and was exposed to such excellent instruments on a regular basis. Charlie went on to achieve a measure of fame as "the guy" who brought Gibson back to life as a mandolin maker, drawing on the finest example of Gibson craftsmanship from their "Golden Age", and replicating the work of Lloyd Loar with an almost-religious fervor. Charlie was also the man who painstakingly (nearly-impossibly) rebuilt Bill Monroe's famous 1923 Gibson mandolin after it was smashed to bits with a fireplace poker in a prime example of "Hell Hath No Fury". Charlie became quite famous in Blue Grass music and mandolin circles (he was also a formative member of the classical/jazz "Nashville Mandolin Ensemble", which he invited me to join but I could not muster the time), but he always had time for his friends...me in particular, and his influence will go with me throughout my life.
Charlie was tragically killed by a drunk driver (who was in the country illegally) in 2006, and I stopped actively searching for his Ferrington mandolin thereafter, thinking that Charle's wife had it, and not wanting to intrude upon her grief. But I never forgot about the mandolin, and thought of it from time to time.
This Ferrington F5 was Charlie's mandolin during that period in the late 1970s when he first helped me become aware of the further horizons of possibilities with the mandolin and Blue Grass & jazz music, and I had never forgotten his old Ferrington. I looked for this mandolin for SO many years, and finally mustered up the courage to find and contact Charlie's widow to see if she knew the mandolin's whereabouts; but she never knew of this mandolin, as it pre-dated her 24-year marriage to Charlie, so Charlie must have gotten rid of the mandolin decades before. I was near giving up when my friend Ronnie Owen, who played guitar for Cross Country, told me he thought he knew where it was: turns out Mike Snider, who played banjo with Cross Country before going on to fame as a star of the Grand Ole Opry, got the mandolin from Charlie in about 1980, and had it all along. I hadn't been seen Mike for 20 years at least, so Ronnie put us in touch, and Mike agreed to sell it to me. I picked it up Sunday evening.
It badly needs some stup work, and will go to Sim Daley ASAP for his mojo - as a good friend of Charlie, who helped Sim become one of the world's greatest mandolin makers, I imagine Sim will enjoy getting his hands on Charlie's main axe from back in the days when Sim was just a young Cornish fisherman and banjo player.
Having this mandolin means the world to me. I am so thankful that Ronnie helped me find it, and that Mike was willing to trade it to me for a mere bibfull of greasy green paper. I would not trade it for an original Lloyd Loar Gibson, which are worth well into six figures; I will never own a more meaningful instrument, and I will cherish it and play it as a tribute to my great friend Charlie Derrington.
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Originally Posted by Nick Gellie
Congrats Mr. Boge!!! Just like everybody else, I'd love to hear that mando.
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