A great jam at the Sorensen booth

[Steve Sorensen]

We had a great time at the 2016 CBA Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival last weekend!

Here is a bit of video from our little booth in the Luthiers Pavilion featuring Scott Gates, Matthew Songmaker on a pair of Sorensen Sprite Two-Point mandolins. They are joined by Ben Wilborn and Juliette Camile on fiddles, and Olivier on bass.



Lots of background noise, but luckily no one was testing those powerful Hendricks banjos during the jam!

Steve

[mtucker]

Nice, thanks for sharing.

[Richard J]

As fun was it was to listen & watch, it must have been great fun to join in & play... what song they were playing?

[gtani7]

Wow, beautiful instruments and playing (and i hadn't heard about Grass Valley festival. I love those Sierra foothill towns)

Could i ask you how you got such good sound quality? Is this on a zoom recorder or something like that?

[Steve Sorensen]

Gtani,

Thanks. To my ear, the sound was pretty rough and ready . . . but about as good as it gets in that location.

We used an iPhone for left shot, Nikon CoolPix for right shot. I just mixed the two evenly through-out.

Edited in Sony Vegas with a little bit of gating and rolling off of edges of highs and lows. Because of the cement floors and flat walls, there's bad background echo in that room from other players AND the stage just outside which, unfortunately, falls right in the same frequency as the instruments.

But Scott and Matthew are tremendous players, so it was a delight to watch and hear where they went with the jam. Matthew is a complete sponge and plays every instrument with equal skill. The next day, I noticed that several of the licks Scott had used during this jam were showing up in Matthew's playing . . . but by then he was more into playing banjo and fiddle.

You should definitely check out the Grass Valley Father's Day (many people were there for the whole week before) Festival. Great location, amazing jammers, and tremendous band line-up every year!

Steve

[sgarrity]

As fun was it was to listen & watch, it must have been great fun to join in & play... what song they were playing?

They're jamming on Minor Swing. Inspiring playing and beautiful tone coming out of those mandolins!!

[Rob Beck]

That was so cool! You've got to love that Minor Swing!

[Skip Kelley]

Those mandolins sound great! Steve, thanks for sharing!

[Steve Sorensen]

Here's a bit more from earlier in the afternoon with Scott Gates and Matthew Songmaker --



Note -- they are playing the opposite mandolins from the first video.

Steve

[Ron McMillan]

The Minor Swing is simply sublime. Great players, lovely instruments. Thanks for sharing this.

Luckily for you the Bluegrass Police must have been eating donuts out of earshot

[Steve Sorensen]

Ron,

I'm glad you mentioned the Bluegrass Police!

Before posting these videos, I should have warned viewers and potential players,

CAUTION -- Sorensen mandolins are built to exceed the limits of Bluegrass.

Steve

[DataNick]

Ron,

I'm glad you mentioned the Bluegrass Police!

Before posting these videos, I should have warned viewers and potential players,

CAUTION -- Sorensen mandolins are built to exceed the limits of Bluegrass.

Steve

Steve,

Since when did you start building an F5 Loar clone?

....Lighten up buddy, just funnin', just funnin'...Carry On!

[DataNick]

Because of our over-sensitive culture today, perhaps I should give a little clarification to my comment above; lest my friendly "banter" be mis-construed: I know Steve personally, have been to his house, know his wife and kids, and consider him a friend. I was trying to be "funny" as in a counter-point banter to his enthusiastic remark about his mandolins "exceeding the limits of Bluegrass"...which I thought was a crack-up! So I responded with a tongue-in cheek "crack-up" line of mine own.

I have played several Sorensen mandolins: not one would I ever say was "lacking", they were all fine instruments with top class fit, finish, and workmanship.

I consider his current generation of Sprites to be outstanding and would own one if I could financially.

Nuff said...Carry On!

[Steve Sorensen]

No worries Nick.

When the Bluegrass Police drop by, I'm sure they'll be looking askance at some of those 1980s hair-band licks you've been throwing into your Wheel Hoss breaks too.

Steve

[Ron McMillan]

Note -- they are playing the opposite mandolins from the first video.

Steve

I think I've spotted what might have inspired the change-over. Matthew is a pinky planter, and in the second video he has a fingerplate to rest his little finger on.

[Steve Sorensen]

Ron,

It was a little more casual than that.

As is typical at these booth-jams, one guy would say, "Hey you wanna try this one now?"
And the response would be, "Yea, sure." Or in the case of the video below, "How about something with that guitar?"

This has less mando content, but shows how that jam sort of evolved over the afternoon --



I love the way Ben Wilborn, who was returning to his booth of excellent guitars, made a U-turn and hustled back to join this jam!

Steve

[Teak]

Thanks for the videos, Steven. I bought my latest mandolin based upon one video and you posted THREE. MAS is settling in again. Those sprites sound great and I love to see good jam sessions.