Brad Laird's "Grass Talk Radio" podcast

[Sue Rieter]

I've been playing mandolin for about 2 years now, and been listening to Brad's podcast for about a year. He's got 203 of 'em out there now, of which I've listened to about 40 +/- . As he says at the beginning of each one, the show is "for people who play Bluegrass and anyone who might want to."

Though I like listening to it, and wouldn't mind being able to play it, I'm nowhere near as Bluegrass oriented as Brad seems to be. Nevertheless I intend to listen to all of the episodes. Not only does he have good interviews; there's just tons of serious good advice for students, and (IMHO) he's a heck of a storyteller.

What got me into it in the first place was Episode 1 - "Dealing with Discouragement" and Episode 5 - "Can you teach an old dog new tricks", about how we train the subconscious mind. Being an old cat (not old dog - sorry - cats rule and dogs drool ), I found this pretty enlightening.

If you're a newbie like me, or never listened before, go check it out.

Full disclosure, I'm one of Brad's Patreon supporters, and he also gave me an awesome recipe for beer based biscuits. (I've been looking for the secret to good biscuits for years!)

In his last episode, he encouraged listeners to tell their friends about the podcast and his site, so that is what I'm doing.

[bradlaird]

Thank you, Sue. I haven't been lurking here much lately and it is amazing that I saw this. Your praise and support are both appreciated!

[lflngpicker]

Thank you for the heads up, Sue. I recall Brad and respect him as a player and teacher. He has been helpful in this forum for me, as well. Also, his Mandolin Handbook is excellent. What a resource Brad is!

[thi]

Back when I had a job that let me listen to podcasts all day, that was one of my favorites. Not sure what the podcast landscape is like now, but mandolin and mandolin-adjacent podcasts were hard to come by. Brad has a ton of great resources online that are well worth the time and money. I bought his collection of lessons a few years ago (Mandolin Treasure Chest) but my tastes have moved to old time and celtic music.

[Sue Rieter]

Check out the blog post he has here on the cafe, "A Table Needs 3 Legs" and then go listen to the podcast on the same topic. Knowledge, Ability, Experience. Balance. It makes a lot of sense.

Personally, my Experience leg is the shortest. My table has a pretty good lean to it. Hopefully I will find a way to address that.