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Thread: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

  1. #1

    Default Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    I'm a big fan of music biographies and autobiographies. I'm wondering if any of you can recommend some books about mandolin players? My main interest is Bluegrass and Jazz, but I also enjoy classical musicians as well. I do have a couple of biographies about Bill Monroe, but are there any others that some of you might suggest? Thanks for any help.

  2. #2
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Well....I can't recommend enough our friend Sheri Mignano's book "Mandolins Like Salami" about the mandolin culture and players in early 1900s San Francisco.
    Sheri is a great storyteller and there are great stories to be told.

    I'm not much into bluegrass (though I do enjoy listening to it, particularly live) but I thought "Satan is Real" about the Louvin Brothers was simply a great book.

    Happy reading!

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    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    No mandolin but one of the best autobiographies I have ever read...

    https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Strange.../dp/0915608154

    Also look for "Boss Men" a biography comparing the rise of Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters. Long out of print.

    https://www.abebooks.com/97803068042...0306804271/plp
    Charley

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    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    I really like Blues Mandolin Man: The Life and Music of Yank Rachell, by Richard Congress. It's a good book about a very likeable man, and a fine musician.
    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.

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  8. #5
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    This thread includes pages of the text of the autobiographical book Mandolin Memories by Samuel Adelstein, which may be of interest.

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...-Memories-1901

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  10. #6
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Besides the printed page, check out the Sam Bush rockdoc movie
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  12. #7
    Resident Hack
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    I'm currently reading "Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers".
    Ira was more well known as a singer than a mandolin player but this is a fun read. Classic.
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  14. #8
    Registered User Lucas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Ricky Skaggs has an autobiography. I haven't read it yet but I am itching to get it.

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    Pataphysician Joe Bartl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    And while rounding up the usual suspects, let's not forget John Duffey's Bluegrass Life by Stephen Moore and G.T. Keplinger.

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    Registered User Drew Egerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    I am currently reading Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man, Book by Tom Ewing. Have read up to the chapter on the 1950s and getting a lot more interesting now.

    Ricky Skaggs Kentucky Traveler was pretty good, lots of good stories in there until it got a bit preachy at the end, but still a good read.

    Tony Rice Still Inside, obviously not focused on the mandolin but plenty of stories including folks such as Bush, Grisman, Skaggs, etc.
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  20. #11
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Foggy Mountain Troubadour, about "Curly" Seckler, mandolinist for Flatt & Scruggs, and later leader of the Nashville Grass; not a whole lot about his mandolin playing, but a really insightful description of the life of a journeyman country musician through the 1940's to the 1990's.

    Journalist Bill Conger was supposedly working with Bobby Osborne on an autobiography five years ago, but a Google search doesn't come up with a book title.

    There's a relatively new (2018) book about the Blue Sky Boys, by the excellent author Dick Spotswood, which of course would include mandolinist/singer Bill Bolick. Haven't read it, but hope to soon.

    There are many books on bluegrass as a musical genre, most of which include some bio material on the different musicians. I'm kinda surprised that I can't find biographies of Dave Appollon or "Jethro" Burns, super-influential mandolinists, but there may be biographical sections in other books.
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  22. #12

    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    I just came across this thread by chance, but I love reading about music of all sorts. Definitely going to check out some of these books!

  23. #13

    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Not necessarily about a mandolin player, but Bluegrass Generation by Neal Rosenberg is a wonderful account of Bean Blossom (and Monroe) in the 60s.

  24. #14
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for Biographies about Mandolin players

    Louvin Brothers' book!

    Satan is Real.

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