Mando tasting this Saturday in Shelton, Wa.

**Nolan** · May-11-2009, 7:06pm

I want to get the word out to all mandolin junkies that we will be having a mandolin tasting this Saturday @11:15 at the Bluegrass from the Forest festival. Alan Bibey has graciously offered to be the official "mandolin taster" and he will have his July 9, 1923 Gibson on hand which will give us the high water mark!
The goal of this event is to get mandolin players together, both beginner and experienced, and have a good time. It will be less formal than some tastings but I think it will be fun. We would like to have a wide spectrum of instruments for the audience to hear (from the $99 specials to a new Gilchrist) so if you have a mandolin you would like included in the tasting shoot me an email.
I'd also like to encourage anyone who has a mandolin that they are trying to sell to bring it to the tasting. After the "official" tasting is over there will be time to meet and greet and let folks test drive your mandolin.

Thanks, see you there!

**Keith Newell** · May-11-2009, 10:18pm

Hmmm, I didn't know about this. I may be able to bring three F styles to the tasting, each one different in many ways.
Keith Newell

**Mike Thomas** · May-11-2009, 10:56pm

Did you note the date of the post is 2002? I'm not sure the tasting is still going on.

**Jill McAuley** · May-11-2009, 11:11pm

I don't think the post is dated 2002, rather Nolan's join date is 2002. It says it was posted today at 7:06pm.

Cheers,
Jill

**Nolan** · May-12-2009, 11:03am

Keith, that would be great! I'd like to highlight our local builders as much as possible....
Shoot me a PM if you plan on attending.

**Jim Nollman** · May-12-2009, 11:57am

Wish I could be there. My 3-point BRW oval-hole would make a worthy addition to the tasting. If it happens again, please give us more notice. OR even better...do you keep an email list? If so, how do i get on it?

**Nolan** · May-12-2009, 3:00pm

Hey Jim, if things change come on down with that BRW! We'd all love to hear it!

**mandopete** · May-12-2009, 7:37pm

Hey Nolan - I was inquiring about this over on the Puget Sound Pickers social group - you oughta join us.

Count me in!

**Nolan** · May-13-2009, 8:41am

Ok, thanks for the heads up Pete. I just found out about that group yesterday!

I talked with Gail Hester yesterday and she will be at the tasting with several Hester mandolins and at least one old Gibson! Should be fun....

**Bruce Clausen** · May-16-2009, 10:49pm

This was a great success. I caught Friday night's concert and the workshop and tasting this morning. Grasstowne were terrific on all fronts, and Alan Bibey was just unbelievable. A nice plus was Nolan's fine work with his band Runaway Train. Workshop had 25 or more players, and lots of good pointers and demos from Alan. The tasting presented maybe 20 instruments, including NW builders Bertoncini, Mowry, Gail Hester (who was there with lots of goodies), and the late John Sullivan. Consensus was that they all sounded great with Alan playing. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Nolan! And thanks to the festival for bringing these great players out.

Still a chance to hear Grasstowne at 1 pm tomorrow.

BC

**Mandobart** · May-17-2009, 5:27pm

I'd love to go but I've gotta work. Please keep posting about WA events.

**Nolan** · May-18-2009, 12:43pm

I would like to give a great big "Thank you" to all the people who showed up at the tasting on Saturday! And thanks to Alan, he is a class act. This was my first time hearing Alan Bibey live and I was blown away! It seems like he has an endless supply of musical ideas....
My favorite part of the tasting was after Alan had played several of Gail Hester's mandolins he turned to her and said, "You know my birthway is coming up soon..."
I honestly couldn't pick my favorite mandolin out of the bunch... Alan pulled great tone out of everything! Since the tasting was less formal than most I told Alan just to play anything he wanted for each mandolin... which turned out to be really neat just to hear him noodle on a lot of different tunes.

What do you say, should we make this a yearly event at Bluegrass From The Forest?

**Gail Hester** · May-18-2009, 3:35pm

What do you say, should we make this a yearly event at Bluegrass From The Forest?

Sure, but you have to have some cool T-shirts made up, mando-tasting in the forest or something.

Seriously, great job hosting the events with Alan and to your entire band "Runaway Train" for hosting the festival.

Alan Bibby was so much fun. He just seemed very relaxed and happy to be there and of course we were all thrilled that he was there.

P.S. Nolan...thanks for finding my camera.

**Nolan** · May-19-2009, 8:56am

Originally Posted by Gail Hester

P.S. Nolan...thanks for finding my camera.

I'm just glad we found it! Gail, can you post a few pics of the tasting if you get a chance?

Thank you for the kind words Bruce, I'm glad you had a good time!

**Gail Hester** · May-20-2009, 1:37am

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures but here's one of Alan and an F5 of mine.

Thanks to mandopete here are some videos with Alan some of my mandolins. Alan is just great and his noodling around is the coolest I've ever heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Ha_...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOrX-...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpDys...layer_embedded